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Chapter Five. WOMEN DEACONS IN THE EAST: Later Texts Bearing on Earlier Evidence
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The following discussions in the Eastern Church from the seventh century and later all shed light on further interpretation of some of the texts presented in the previous chapter. Several, for example, witness to the belief in their day that, though deaconesses no longer functioned liturgically, they were once fully ordained members of the clergy and even entrusted with some kind of altar ministry. John of Damascus, On Heresies 491 John of Damascus (c. 676–c. 749) is often regarded as the last of the Church fathers. A “doctor of the church,” he is perhaps most celebrated for his defense of images in the iconoclastic controversy. His most famous work is The Fount of Wisdom, the middle part of which is a treatise On Heresies, which is preserved. Making no claims to originality , John’s book was encyclopedic in character. His treatment of known heresies is heavily dependent on Epiphanius’ Panarion. Indeed, of the hundred or so heresies he discusses, eighty are copied verbatim from Epiphanius; the remaining material consists of discussion of new heresies (and Islam). While the work survives in its entirety in Syriac , only fragments remain in Greek, and the translation here comes from a Latin version . In the forty-ninth chapter of the treatise, he discusses the role of women in the Pepuzian heresy. The Pepuzians, who are also called Quintillians—who resemble the Artotyritae —are two different heresies. Although counted among the Cataphrygians , the Pepuzians believe several diverse things they do not. They hold in divine honor Pepuza, an uninhabited town between Galatia and Cappadocia, and Phrygia they say to be Jerusalem . . . they allow women to be teachers and priests (magistrates et sacerdotia deferent). They celebrate sacred rites by piercing a child with brass needles—as the Cataphrygians customarily do. Once the flour is mixed with blood (sanguini farina admista), they confect the bread and share in the sacrifice. Chapter Five WOMEN DEACONS IN THE EAST Later Texts Bearing on Earlier Evidence Although John asserts that the Pepuzians constitute a distinct heresy, they seem almost entirely similar. All of the groups named have theological and disciplinary connections to Montanism. Like the Montanists, the Pepuzians allowed women significant functional roles, authority, and status, here explicitly sacerdotal. A work spuriously ascribed to Augustine named Praedestinatus2 also refers in chapter 27 to the Cataphyrgians (whom he identifies with the Montanists) and distinguishes them from the Pepuzians, who, he says, think themselves better than the Cataphrygians . (Perhaps this is the only distinction of significance.) The latter, he also states, give leadership to women and honor some as priests. The confection of the eucharist from the blood of a child is, we recall, also attributed to the Cataphyrgians in Augustine, On Heresies, 27. The legends of similar practices were told earlier of Jews and Christians. Trullan Synod Canons 14, 15, and 483 The Trullan Council or Synod was held in 692 in the domed hall (trullus) of the imperial palace of Justinian II in Constantinople to complete the disciplinary work of two previous councils numbered fifth and sixth in 553 and 680–81, hence its secondary name of “Quinisext” or “fifth–sixth.” Its canons largely concerned questions of clerical life and were not accepted in the West. Canon 14 Let the canon of our holy God-bearing fathers be retained, namely, that a presbyter not be ordained before the age of thirty even though he be fully qualified, but let him be held back. For Our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the thirtieth year and began to preach. Likewise a deacon before the age of twenty-five, nor should a deaconess (diakonissa) be ordained (cheirotonein) before the age of forty. The age limit for women’s diaconal ordination that was set at Chalcedon is reaffirmed. Canon 15 A subdeacon is not to be ordained before twenty years. If anyone in any priestly (hieratikē) rank is ordained before the established age, let that one be deposed. The first part of this canon simply continues the age limitations for clergy. The summary that comprises the second part considers deaconesses to be part of the clergy, since they are included in the list above. Canon 48 The wife of one who is raised to episcopal status, with common consent of the husband with whom she has been living, should be separated ahead of 134 Ordained Women in the Early Church [54.243.2.41] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 14:08 GMT) time, and after his...