Council of Carthage III, 397

ever touch the sacred mysteries, of which they themselves have deprived themselves, so long as they give heed to impure desires. And because existing examples warn us to be on our guard for the future should any bishop, priest, or deacon be found such, which henceforth we do not want, let him now understand that every approach to indulgence is barred through us, because it is necessary that the wounds which are not susceptible to the healing of warm lotions be cut out with a knife.

The Ordinations of Monks¹

[From the same epistle to Himerius]

90. (13) We both desire and will that monks also, whom however the austerity of their manners and the holy disposition of their lives and faith commend, be added to the offices of the clergy . . . [cf. n. 1580].

The Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary²

[From epistle (9) "Accepi litteras vestras" to Anysius, Bishop of Thessalonica, 392]

91. (3) Surely, we cannot deny that regarding the sons of Mary the statement is justly censured, and your holiness has rightly abhorred it, that from the same virginal womb, from which according to the flesh Christ was born, another offspring was brought forth. For neither would the Lord Jesus have chosen to be born of a virgin, if he had judged she would be so incontinent, that with the seed of human copulation she would pollute that generative chamber of the Lord's body, that palace of the eternal King. For he who imputes this, imputes nothing other than the falsehood of the Jews, who say that he could not have been born of a virgin. For, if they accept this authority from the priests, that Mary seems to have brought forth many children, they strive to sweep away the truth of faith with greater zeal.

COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE (III) 397

The Canon of the Sacred Scripture³

92. Can. 36 (or otherwise 47). [It has been decided] that nothing except the Canonical Scriptures should be read in the church under the name of the Divine Scriptures. But the Canonical Scriptures are: Genesis, Exo-