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To: piusv

So far as I know, yes, but truthfully, I don’t know what the Copts think. I have attended the second marriage of an Ethiopian woman, her first marriage having ended in divorce, but that was in a Russian parish. The rules about divorce and remarriage go back to around the 8th century. Both in Constantinople and Rome, the patriarchates had to deal with marriage being a civil/state matter and the emperors and lower nobilyty having multiple marriages. Rome, interestingly enough, was the patriarchate most willing to cut the nobilty some slack back in those days, though as we know, that changed.


20 posted on 08/17/2015 7:37:00 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
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To: Kolokotronis; piusv

Divorce and remarriage in the early church was pretty much a local issue and often the church deferred to civil authorities in matters of divorce. A broader and more church wide effort to address the doctrinal and disciplinary came later on. And when it did we saw quite a divergence of approaches. In the West, with some notable exceptions the trend was towards “just say No.” In those parts of the Christian East under the Empire and Constantinople the tendency was towards accepting the approach of St. Basil the Great (canons 50 & 77 in particular) which if my memory has not failed was formally adopted at the Quinisext Council and also formally in Canon II of the Sixth Ecumenical Council/Synod. Today there is some variation between the local churches in how these canons are applied, but each church recognizes the legitimate authority of the others.

Obviously the Copts were not present at these councils and their discipline as far as I am aware is a much more restrictive approach based on a literal interpretation of the Matthewite exception. Which is to say that they permit divorce and remarriage only in cases of adultery and then only for the innocent party, if there is one.


21 posted on 08/17/2015 11:08:49 AM PDT by NRx (An unrepentant champion of the old order and determined foe of damnable Whiggery in all its forms.)
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