Folia Canonica 11. (2008)
STUDIES - George Gallardo-Dimitri Salachas: The "ritus sacer" of the Sacrament of Marriage in the Byzantine Churches
142 GEORGE D. GALLARO-DIMITRI SALACHAS “Let not the presbyters or deacons do anything without the consent of the bishop, he whom is entrusted with the Lord’s people and of whom will be required the account of the souls.”32 Canon 57 of the Synod of Laodicea provided that, “the presbyters must do nothing without the consent of the bishop.”33 These norms refer to the celebration of all the sacraments, thereby also including the sacrament of matrimony. In fact, the expression “do nothing” refers to any priestly act. These norms confirm the directive of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who, besides the passage from above, said: “Apart from the bishop, let no one perform any of the functions that pertain to the Church [...]. It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop. On the other hand, whatever you do will be licit and valid.”34 As a result, Christian marriage, being one of those “functions that pertain to the Church”, could not be celebrated unless with reference to the Church and to the bishop. After the Constantinian edict, when the Church opened up to the possibility of exercising a greater influence over the laws of the empire, many Church Fathers strongly promoted the sacramentality of matrimony with its sacred rite. The historical result was that “the celebration of matrimony with a religious rite was already in use by the fourth century. A civilly contracted marriage could be dissolved, but a matrimony entered with the religious rite was considered indissoluble.”35 However, “already by the eighth century matrimony could be celebrated simply with the mutual consent of the spouses, whether within the liturgy or in the presence of two witnesses.”36 Only in the ninth century, under Emperor Leo VI the Wise did the Byzantine Church reach the goal that its doctrine had been tending towards. In the year 893 with the Novel Eighty-nine, he prescribed the nuptial rite with the priest’s blessing for both the religious and civil validity of marriages, thus declaring null any union celebrated without the religious rite. With this norm Leo the Wise clearly recognized that matrimony is a relationship between God and man and that Christian marriage cannot be celebrated without the Church’s liturgical action. Emperor Leo VI observed that previous imperial law had neglected the religious rite in nuptial contracts/unions. He judged it to be a mistake, even though his predeces32 H. Percival, The Seven Ecumenical Councils, Grand Rapids (Mi) 1997, 14: 596. 33 P. Joannou, Discipline Generale Antique: Les canons des synodes particuliers, Grottaferrata 1962, 153. 34 PG 5: 713. 35J. Prader, La legislazione matrimoniale latina e orientale, Roma 1993, 36. 36 Ibid.
