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Bigamist or Digamist (2)

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BIGAMY.

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(Bigamus or Digamus). A man who had married two wives in succession was so styled at one period of the Church. It was forbidden by the canons to admit such a one to holy orders (can. lxix, Carthage, 398). The origin of this law was the interpretation of the words of Paul to Titus, i, 6. Chrysostom and Theodoret explain the passage as meaning those who had only one wife at a time, and therefore as directed against the polygamy of the Jews and heathen. It appears, moreover, from the epistles of Siricius (ep. i, cap. 8) and Innocentins (ep. 22:ad epi.. Afaced. c. 1) that the bishops of Spain and Greece did not scruple to ordain men who had been twice married. See Theodoret, ep. 110, ad Domnum; Bingham, 0 ig. Eccles. lib. 4, cap 5, sec. 1, 2, 3; Landon, ii, 262.