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the next century Origen declared that second marriage excludes him that is guilty of it from being bishop, priest, or deacon. The Council of Neo-Cesaraea (A.D. 314) forbids, by its seventh Canon, priests from even being present at a second marriage.
THE SUCCESSIVE STEPS OF FIRST FORBIDDING SECOND MARRIAGE ALTOGETHER,—THEN MARRIAGES WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER,—AND FINALLY FORBIDDING THE CLERGY TO MARRY AT ALL.
We might multiply authorities, and give the original authorities on which those summary statements are founded, did our limits permit. It is not surprising that when second marriages (whose only authority from Scripture is inference) had been long forbidden, that marriage with a deceased wife's sister, for which Scripture authority was more explicit, should begin to be forbidden; and the prohibition of the clergy to marry at all soon followed. The Provincial Spanish Council of nineteen Bishops, which was held at Eliberis A.D. 305, the first Council to forbid marriage with a deceased wife's sister, was also the first to forbid the marriage of the clergy. The Council of Neo-Cesaraea, held A.D. 314, the second Council to forbid the marriage with a brother's widow, was tho first to command the degradation of priests who marry after ordination.
Look, then, at these facts: The prohibition against marriage with a deceased wife's sister did not begin until 305; but the condemnation of second marriages began as early as 170, and soon obtained in every part of the Church—in Africa, in Greece, in Italy, in Asia Minor, in Spain, in France; and the first two Councils that forbade marriage with a deceased wife's sister, were the two first Councils that forbade the marriage of the clergy at all, though none of the six General Councils, held between A.D. 325 and A.D. 680, condemned marriage with a deceased wife's sister. If the magazine writer, then, be consistent and sincere in his appeal to early Church authority, he must forthwith oppose all second marriages, and the marriage of the clergy altogether.
