Annotation CCCXVIII

”A bishop must be the husband of one wife.” — 1 Timothy 3:2

Whether it is lawful to constitute a bigamist a bishop.

Jerome, in the epistle to Oceanus, expounding the present passage, affirms that those can be created bishops who had two wives — one before baptism, and, she being dead, another after baptism; and the opinion of those who deny this he calls the Cainan heresy [Cainam haeresim]. This same [thing] he has in the exposition of the first chapter to Titus. This opinion is rejected in the decrees of the pontiffs, cause 28, question 3, where the decree of Pope Innocent the First is had in these words: “WHOEVER before baptism had one [wife], and after baptism another, is judged a bigamist [digamus]; and although he be strong in the merit of [his] life, and in the knowledge of industry, nevertheless he cannot be ordained a bishop.” Sedulius Scotus, in the explanation of the third chapter of the former epistle to Timothy, embraces the opinion of Jerome. See below, Annotation 225.