§ 203. The Second and the Third Marriage

The first marriage (πρῶτος γάμος), that is, the marital bond which a young man and a maiden have entered, is regarded as ordinary, regular, and pious (εὐτάκτος καὶ ὅσιος). This is the teaching of holy Scripture and of the Fathers and teachers of the Church, who hold in high esteem and praise those who, upon being widowed, preserve bodily continence and do not enter a new marriage.[1] Accordingly, the second marriage (δευτερογαμία), when a widowed person enters the marital bond a second time, is regarded as an indulgence (συγχώρησις) toward human weakness and as something already outside the [normal] order. From this standpoint of indulgence, a second marriage is permitted to Christians.[2] But this permission is bound up with certain restrictions, which show the Church’s view that it does not approve of the bodily incontinence of widowers and widows; and the canons accordingly provide: 1, that everyone who wishes to marry a second time must undergo the appropriate penance;[3] 2, that those entering a second marriage cannot be married with the same rite as those entering a first marriage, but according to a special church rite;[4] 3, that a priest may not participate in the weddings of those in a second marriage[5]; and 4, that no one in a second marriage may be received into holy orders.[6]

If the Church is thus strict with regard to a second marriage, she is stricter still with regard to a third marriage (τριτογαμία). Basil the Great, in his 4th canon, says that those who overstep the bounds of a second marriage and wish to marry a third time are not worthy to be called by the name of husband and wife, for a third marriage, according to this canon, is equivalent to polygamy (πολυγαμία) or to condemned fornication (κεκολασμένη πορνεία); and according to the 50th canon of the same holy father, a third marriage is a defilement of the Church (ῥυπάσματα τῆς ἐκκλησίας). But since this third marriage had been permitted by Greco-Roman legislation from the most ancient times, and Christians wished to avail themselves of this permission, the Church, in order to forestall a greater evil, permitted the third marriage, subjecting those who wished to enter a third marriage to a five-year penance.[7] At the Council of Constantinople of the year 920, the following ordinance was issued on this matter: a) whoever is forty years old and has no children, and wishes to marry a third time, shall for five years be barred from Holy Communion; b) whoever is forty years old and has children is forbidden to enter a third marriage; c) whoever is thirty years old and has children from earlier marriages, and nonetheless wishes to enter a third marriage, shall for four years be deprived of Holy Communion; d) whoever is thirty years old and childless may be permitted a third marriage, but must likewise undergo the corresponding penance; and e) a priest who transgresses this ordinance is subjected to a seven-year penance.[8]

The fourth marriage (τετραγαμία) is forbidden in the Orthodox Church (§ 188, I, 8).