Wednesday, November 25, 2020

The Council of Ancyra (AD 314) vs. Abortion

 

In Canon XXI of the Council of Ancyra (AD 314), we read the following against abortion:

 

Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which, they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfil ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees. (NPNF2 14:73)

 

Hefele offered the following commentary on this canon:

 

The sixty-third canon of Elvira had forbidden the communion to be administered to such women even on their death-beds; and this was the canon which the Synod of Ancyra had probably here in view. The expression καὶ τούτῳ συντίθενται is vague: τινὲς may be understood, and it might be translated, “and some approve of this severity;” or we might understand αἱ, and translate with Routh, “The same punishment will be inflicted on those who assist in causing miscarriages:” the words then mean, “and those who assist them.” We think, however, the first explanation is the easier and the more natural. Gentianus Hervetus and Van Espen have adopted it, translating thus: et ei quidam assentientur. (Charles Joseph Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, Volume 1 [trans. William R. Clark; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1871], 220)

 

For an excellent study of early Christian attitudes towards abortion, see:

 

Michael J. Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World