History of Christian thought on abortion: Difference between revisions

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Early Christian thought on abortion is interpreted in different ways. There is no mention of abortion in the Christian Bible, and at different times, early Christians held different beliefs about abortion,^[1]^[2]^[3] while yet considering it a grievous sin.^[4]^[5]^[6]

1st Century AD and the Classical World

Influences

Both ancient Greek thought and ancient Jewish thought are considered to have had an impact on early Christian thought about abortion.

According to Bakke and Clarke&Linzey, early Christians adhered to Aristotle's belief in delayed ensoulment,^[7]^{[failed verification]}^[8]^{[failed verification]}^[1]^{[need quotation to verify]}^[9]^{[need quotation to verify]}^[10]^{[failed verification]} and consequently did not see abortion before ensoulment as homicide.^[1]^: 150^[9] Lars Østnor says this view was only "presaged" by Augustine,^[10] who belongs to a period later than that of early Christianity. According to David Albert Jones, this distinction appeared among Christian writers only in the late fourth and early fifth century, while the earlier writers made no distinction between formed and unformed, a distinction explicitly rejected by 4th-century Saint Basil of Caesarea,^[11] who also, though earlier than Saint Augustine, does not belong to the early-Christianity period. While the Hebrew text of the Bible only required a fine for the loss of a fetus, whatever its stage of development, the Jewish Septuagint translation, which the early Christians used, introduced a distinction between a formed and an unformed fetus and treated destruction of the former as murder.^[12] It has been commented that "the LXX could easily have been used to distinguish human from non-human fetuses and homicidal from non-homicidal abortions, yet the early Christians, until the time of Augustine in the fifth century, did not do so."^[13]

The view of early Christians on the moment of ensoulment is also said to have been not the Aristotelian, but the Pythagorean:

As early as the time of Tertullian in the third century, Christianity had absorbed the Pythagorean Greek view that the soul was infused at the moment of conception. Though this view was confirmed by St. Gregory of Nyssa a century later, it would not be long before it would be rejected in favour of the Septuagintal notion that only a formed fetus possessed a human soul. While Augustine speculated whether "animation" might be present prior to formation, he determined that abortion could only be defined as homicide once formation had occurred. Nevertheless, in common with all early Christian thought, Augustine condemned abortion from conception onward.^[14]

2nd century AD to 4th century AD

The society in which Christianity expanded was one in which abortion, infanticide and exposition were commonly used to limit the number of children (especially girls) that a family had to support.^[15]^[16] But the earliest Christian texts on abortion condemn it with "no mention of any distinction in seriousness between the abortion of a formed foetus and that of an unformed embryo".^[17]

Abortion, infanticide and exposition were often used when a pregnancy or birth resulted from sexual licentiousness, including marital infidelity, prostitution and incest, and Bakke holds that these contexts cannot be separated from abortion in early Christianity.^[1] Johannes M. Röskamp agrees that one reason for Christian disapproval of abortion was that it was linked with attempts to conceal adultery, but stresses that the main reason was the "all new concept" of concern for the fetus,^[18]^: 4 which, Michael J. Gorman declares, "distinguishes the Christian position from all pagan disapproval of abortion".^[19]

According to sociologist Kristin Luker:

After the beginning of the Christian era... legal regulation of abortion as existed in the Roman Empire was designed primarily to protect the rights of fathers rather than rights of embryos.
...induced abortion is ignored in the most central Judeo-Christian writings: it was not mentioned in the Christian or the Jewish Bible, or in the Jewish Mishnah or Talmud. Abortion, it is true, was denounced in early Christian writings such as the Didache and by early Christian authors such as Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and St. Basil. But church councils, such as those of Elvira and Ancyra, which were called to specify the legal groundwork for Christian communities, outlined penalties only for those women who committed abortion after a sexual crime such as adultery or prostitution. Most importantly, perhaps, from the third century A.D. onward, Christian thought was divided as to whether early abortion - the abortion of an "unformed" embryo - was in fact murder. Different sources of church teachings and laws simply did not agree on the penalties for abortion or on whether early abortion is wrong.^[3]

However, that the early Christians agreed in rejecting abortion is more generally accepted.^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24] They condemned it as a serious sin,^[25]^[26] even before ensoulment.^[27] While agreeing that abortion was seen as a sin, some writers consider that those Christians viewed early abortion as on the same level as general sexual immorality,^[28] or that they saw it as a grave contra-life sin like contraception and sterilization,^[29]^[10] while others hold that it was for them "an evil no less severe and social than oppression of the poor and needy".^[30] Even in cases where abortion was seen as more than a sexual crime, the practice was still associated with sexual immorality.^[1]

In the late 1st century or early 2nd century, the Didache explicitly condemned abortion, as did the Apocalypse of Peter in the 2nd century.^[31] However, early synods imposed penalties only on abortions that were combined with some form of sexual crime^[3] and on the making of abortifacient drugs:^[32] the early 4th-century Synod of Elvira imposed denial of communion even at the point of death on those who committed the "double crime" of adultery and subsequent abortion,^[33] and the Synod of Ancyra imposed ten years of exclusion from communion on manufacturers of abortion drugs and on women aborting what they conceived by fornication (previously, such women and the makers of drugs for abortion were excluded until on the point of death).^[32]^[34] Basil the Great (330-379) imposed the same ten-year exclusion on any woman who purposely destroyed her unborn child, even if unformed.^[35]^[36] Abortion was commonly regarded as worse than murder, but Basil thus imposed for it a lesser penance than the twenty-year exclusion that he imposed for intentional homicide, apparently because abortion was likely to be due to fear and shame rather than malice.^[37] Even for killing by a legitimate soldier he imposed exclusion, though only for three years, not twenty.^[38]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e When Children Became People: the birth of childhood in early Christianity by Odd Magne Bakke
^ "Abortion and Catholic Thought: The Little-Told History"
^ ^a ^b ^c Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood by Kristin Luker, University of California Press
^ D'Antonio, Laity, American and Catholic (Rowman & Littlefield 1996), p. 58
^ Callahan, Abortion: Law, Choice, and Morality (Collier-Macmillan 1970), p. 410
^ Kelly, Stem Cells (Greenwood Press 2007 ISBN 0-313-33763-2), p. 86
^ A companion to bioethics By Helga Kuhse, Peter Singer
^ ReligiousTolerance.org
^ ^a ^b Dictionary of ethics, theology and society By Paul A. B. Clarke, Andrew Linzey
^ ^a ^b ^c Stem cells, human embryos and ethics: interdisciplinary perspectives: Lars Østnor, Springer 2008
^ David Albert Jones, Soul of the Embryo: Christianity and the Human Embryo (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), pp. 72-73
^ Daniel Schiff, Abortion in Judaism (Cambridge University Press 2002 ISBN 9780521521666), pp. 9, 24
^ Paul T. Stallsworth, Ruth S. Brown (editors), The Church & Abortion (Abingdon Press 1993 ISBN 9780687078523), p. 42
^ Daniel Schiff, Abortion in Judaism (Cambridge University Press 2002 ISBN 9780521521666), p. 40).
^ Jane F. Gardner and Thomas Wiedemann, The Roman Household: A Sourcebook (Routledge 1991 ISBN 0-415-04421-9), p. 98
^ Paul Carrick, Medical Ethics in the Ancient World (Georgetown University Press 2001 ISBN 0-87840-848-7), p. 123
^ David Albert Jones, The Soul of the Embryo (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), p. 57
^ Johannes M. Röskamp, Christian Perspectives On Abortion-Legislation In Past And Present (GRIN Verlag 2005 ISBN 978-3-640-56931-1)
^ Michael J. Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World (WIPF & Stock Publishers 1998 ISBN 9781579101824), p. 77
^ Frank K. Flinn, J. Gordon Melton (editors), Encyclopedia of Catholicism (Facts on File Incorporated 2007 ISBN 9780816054558), p. 4
^ Michael J. Gorman, Abortion & the Early Church: Christian, Jewish & Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World (InterVarsity Press 1982 ISBN 9780877843979), p. 77
^ New Oxford Review, vol. 50 (1983), p. 32
^ International Journal of the Unity of the Sciences, 1988, p. 165
^ Dennis M. Campbell, Doctors, Lawyers, Ministers: Christian Ethics in Professional Practice (Abingdon Press 1982 ISBN 9780687110162), p. 120
^ William V. D'Antonio, Laity, American and Catholic: Transforming the Church (Rowman & Littlefield 1996 ISBN 9781556128233), p. 58
^ Daniel Callahan, Abortion: Law, Choice, and Morality (Collier-Macmillan 1970), p. 410
^ Evelyn B. Kelly, Stem Cells (Greenwood Press 2007 ISBN 0-313-33763-2), p. 86
^ Robert Nisbet, Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary (Harvard University Press 1982 ISBN 0-674-70066-X), p. 2
^ Ana S. Iltis, Mark J. Cherry, At the Roots of Christian Bioethics (M & M Scrivener Press 2010 ISBN 978-09764041-8-7), p. 166
^ Michael J. Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Attitudes (InterVarsity Press 1982 ISBN 087784397X), p. 50
^ Brian Clowes. "Chapter 9: Catholic Church Teachings on Abortion: Early Teachings of the Church". Facts of Life. Human Life International.
^ ^a ^b Canon 21. 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.
^ Canon 63. If a woman conceives by adultery while her husband is away and after that transgression has an abortion, she should not be given communion even at the last, because she has doubled her crime.
^ An exclusion from communion for ten years was considerably greater than the two or three years that was normal in the 4th to 6th century for grave sins, but it was less than the twenty or thirty years that in that period was the maximum (see Rinaldo Ronzani, Conversion and Reconciliation: The Rite of Penance (Pauline Publications 2007 ISBN 9966-08-234-4), p. 66). ^{[improper synthesis?]}
^ Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace (editors), Basil: Letters and Select Works, p. 225 - Letter 188, to Amphilochius
^ Matthew Schwartz, Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View (Wayne State University Press 1991 ISBN 0-8143-2023-6), p. 151
^ David Albert Jones, The Soul of the Embryo (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), p. 64
^ "In a much-cited passage, Basil the Great declared that Christians who killed, even as legitimate soldiers, had to abstain from communion for three years. … Any killing of human beings was a mortal sin, just like adultery and fraud" (James Q. Whitman, The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial (Yale University Press 2007 ISBN 9780300116007), p. 34).

External links

Early Christian Views on Abortion (Chapter 2 of M.J. Elsakkers, Reading between the lines: Old Germanic and early Christian views on abortion)

[bakke-1] When Children Became People: the birth of childhood in early Christianity by Odd Magne Bakke

[2] "Abortion and Catholic Thought: The Little-Told History"

[Luker-3] Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood by Kristin Luker, University of California Press

[4] D'Antonio, Laity, American and Catholic (Rowman & Littlefield 1996), p. 58

[5] Callahan, Abortion: Law, Choice, and Morality (Collier-Macmillan 1970), p. 410

[6] Kelly, Stem Cells (Greenwood Press 2007 ISBN 0-313-33763-2), p. 86

[bioethics-7] A companion to bioethics By Helga Kuhse, Peter Singer

[religioustolerance-8] ReligiousTolerance.org

[dictionaryethics-9] Dictionary of ethics, theology and society By Paul A. B. Clarke, Andrew Linzey

[Stemcells-10] Stem cells, human embryos and ethics: interdisciplinary perspectives: Lars Østnor, Springer 2008

[11] David Albert Jones, Soul of the Embryo: Christianity and the Human Embryo (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), pp. 72-73

[12] Daniel Schiff, Abortion in Judaism (Cambridge University Press 2002 ISBN 9780521521666), pp. 9, 24

[13] Paul T. Stallsworth, Ruth S. Brown (editors), The Church & Abortion (Abingdon Press 1993 ISBN 9780687078523), p. 42

[14] Daniel Schiff, Abortion in Judaism (Cambridge University Press 2002 ISBN 9780521521666), p. 40).

[15] Jane F. Gardner and Thomas Wiedemann, The Roman Household: A Sourcebook (Routledge 1991 ISBN 0-415-04421-9), p. 98

[16] Paul Carrick, Medical Ethics in the Ancient World (Georgetown University Press 2001 ISBN 0-87840-848-7), p. 123

[17] David Albert Jones, The Soul of the Embryo (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), p. 57

[christianperspectives-18] Johannes M. Röskamp, Christian Perspectives On Abortion-Legislation In Past And Present (GRIN Verlag 2005 ISBN 978-3-640-56931-1)

[19] Michael J. Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World (WIPF & Stock Publishers 1998 ISBN 9781579101824), p. 77

[20] Frank K. Flinn, J. Gordon Melton (editors), Encyclopedia of Catholicism (Facts on File Incorporated 2007 ISBN 9780816054558), p. 4

[21] Michael J. Gorman, Abortion & the Early Church: Christian, Jewish & Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World (InterVarsity Press 1982 ISBN 9780877843979), p. 77

[22] New Oxford Review, vol. 50 (1983), p. 32

[23] International Journal of the Unity of the Sciences, 1988, p. 165

[24] Dennis M. Campbell, Doctors, Lawyers, Ministers: Christian Ethics in Professional Practice (Abingdon Press 1982 ISBN 9780687110162), p. 120

[25] William V. D'Antonio, Laity, American and Catholic: Transforming the Church (Rowman & Littlefield 1996 ISBN 9781556128233), p. 58

[26] Daniel Callahan, Abortion: Law, Choice, and Morality (Collier-Macmillan 1970), p. 410

[27] Evelyn B. Kelly, Stem Cells (Greenwood Press 2007 ISBN 0-313-33763-2), p. 86

[28] Robert Nisbet, Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary (Harvard University Press 1982 ISBN 0-674-70066-X), p. 2

[29] Ana S. Iltis, Mark J. Cherry, At the Roots of Christian Bioethics (M & M Scrivener Press 2010 ISBN 978-09764041-8-7), p. 166

[30] Michael J. Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Attitudes (InterVarsity Press 1982 ISBN 087784397X), p. 50

[Facts_of_Life-31] Brian Clowes. "Chapter 9: Catholic Church Teachings on Abortion: Early Teachings of the Church". Facts of Life. Human Life International.

[Ancyra-32] Canon 21. 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.

[33] Canon 63. If a woman conceives by adultery while her husband is away and after that transgression has an abortion, she should not be given communion even at the last, because she has doubled her crime.

[34] An exclusion from communion for ten years was considerably greater than the two or three years that was normal in the 4th to 6th century for grave sins, but it was less than the twenty or thirty years that in that period was the maximum (see Rinaldo Ronzani, Conversion and Reconciliation: The Rite of Penance (Pauline Publications 2007 ISBN 9966-08-234-4), p. 66). ^{[improper synthesis?]}

[35] Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace (editors), Basil: Letters and Select Works, p. 225 - Letter 188, to Amphilochius

[36] Matthew Schwartz, Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View (Wayne State University Press 1991 ISBN 0-8143-2023-6), p. 151

[37] David Albert Jones, The Soul of the Embryo (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), p. 64

[38] "In a much-cited passage, Basil the Great declared that Christians who killed, even as legitimate soldiers, had to abstain from communion for three years. … Any killing of human beings was a mortal sin, just like adultery and fraud" (James Q. Whitman, The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial (Yale University Press 2007 ISBN 9780300116007), p. 34).

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@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 However, that the early Christians agreed in rejecting abortion is more generally accepted.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=gxEONS0FFlsC&pg=PA4&dq=%22early+christian%22+%22rejected+abortion%22&hl=en&ei=Z25ATb6iOcOFhQeW-82mBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22early%20christian%22%20%22rejected%20abortion%22&f=false Frank K. Flinn, J. Gordon Melton (editors), ''Encyclopedia of Catholicism'' (Facts on File Incorporated 2007 ISBN 9780816054558), p. 4]</ref><ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks%3A1&tbo=1&q=%22early+christian%22+%22rejected+abortion%22&btnG=Search+Books#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbo=1&tbs=bks:1&q=%22early+christian+rejection+of+abortion%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=ae7ff3dec986e07e Michael J. Gorman, ''Abortion & the Early Church: Christian, Jewish & Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World'' (InterVarsity Press 1982 ISBN 9780877843979), p. 77]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?ei=Z25ATb6iOcOFhQeW-82mBQ&ct=result&id=dpLjAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22early+christian%22+%22rejected+abortion%22&q=%22quite+evident+that+the+church+was+against+abortion%22#search_anchor ''New Oxford Review'', vol. 50 (1983), p. 32]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=3PfWAAAAMAAJ&q=%22early+christian%22+%22rejected+abortion%22&dq=%22early+christian%22+%22rejected+abortion%22&hl=en&ei=Z25ATb6iOcOFhQeW-82mBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBA ''International Journal of the Unity of the Sciences'', 1988, p. 165]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?ei=Z25ATb6iOcOFhQeW-82mBQ&ct=result&id=WBAtAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22early+christian%22+%22rejected+abortion%22&q=%22Virtually+all+the+early+Christian+fathers+specifically+prohibited+abortion%22#search_anchor Dennis M. Campbell, ''Doctors, Lawyers, Ministers: Christian Ethics in Professional Practice'' (Abingdon Press 1982 ISBN 9780687110162), p. 120]</ref> They condemned it as a serious sin,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=F_fcKr9iZM0C&pg=PA58&dq=%22abortion+has+been+condemned+as+a+serious+sin%22&hl=en&ei=B3RATZ3WO9CChQfttOnvCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22abortion%20has%20been%20condemned%20as%20a%20serious%20sin%22&f=false William V. D'Antonio, ''Laity, American and Catholic: Transforming the Church'' (Rowman & Littlefield 1996 ISBN 9781556128233), p. 58]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?ei=CnpATdqMNIqKhQfIhsXNCA&ct=result&id=NsgnAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22early+christian%22+abortion+sin&q=%22abortion+was+treated+as+a+grievous+sin%22#search_anchor Daniel Callahan, ''Abortion: Law, Choice, and Morality'' (Collier-Macmillan 1970), p. 410]</ref> even before [[ensoulment]].<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks%3A1&tbo=1&q=%22condemned+abortion+before+ensoulment%22&btnG=Search+Books Evelyn B. Kelly, ''Stem Cells'' (Greenwood Press 2007 ISBN 0-313-33763-2), p. 86]</ref> While agreeing that abortion was seen as a sin, some writers consider that those Christians viewed early abortion as on the same level as general sexual immorality,<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks%3A1&tbo=1&q=%22abortion+was+declared+a+sin%22&btnG=Search+Books Robert Nisbet, ''Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary'' (Harvard University Press 1982 ISBN 0-674-70066-X), p. 2]</ref> or that they saw it as a grave contra-life sin like contraception and sterilization,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=VXGkAhyNGAEC&pg=PA166&dq=Iltis+Cherry+%22contraception+and+early+abortion%22&hl=en&ei=R3dATaTtFtS0hAe0h9TACA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Ana S. Iltis, Mark J. Cherry, ''At the Roots of Christian Bioethics'' (M & M Scrivener Press 2010 ISBN 978-09764041-8-7), p. 166]</ref><ref name="Stemcells">[http://books.google.com/books?id=NXnzUgkh6VEC&pg=PA106 Stem cells, human embryos and ethics: interdisciplinary perspectives: Lars Østnor, Springer 2008]</ref> while others hold that it was for them "an evil no less severe and social than oppression of the poor and needy".<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=OdsnAAAAYAAJ&q=%22not+only+as+a+sin+like+sexual+immorality%22&dq=%22not+only+as+a+sin+like+sexual+immorality%22&hl=en&ei=4tc7TdrKAYaWhQeqjrGMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA Michael J. Gorman, ''Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Attitudes'' (InterVarsity Press 1982 ISBN 087784397X), p. 50]</ref> Even in cases where abortion was seen as more than a sexual crime, the practice was still associated with sexual immorality.<ref name=bakke/>
-In the late 1st century or early 2nd century, the ''[[Didache]]'' explicitly condemned abortion, as did the ''[[Apocalypse of Peter]]'' in the 2nd century.<ref name="Facts of Life">{{cite book|title=Facts of Life|author=Brian Clowes|url=http://www.hli.org/index.php/the-facts-of-life/396?task=view|chapter=Chapter 9: Catholic Church Teachings on Abortion: Early Teachings of the Church|publisher=[[Human Life International]]}}</ref> However, early synods imposed penalties only on abortions that were combined with some form of sexual crime<ref name=Luker/> and on the making of abortifacient drugs:<ref name=Ancyra/> the early 4th-century [[Synod of Elvira]] imposed denial of communion even at the point of death on those who committed the "double crime" of adultery and subsequent abortion,<ref>[http://www.earlychurchtexts.com/main/elvira/canons_of_elvira_04.shtml Canon 63.] If a woman conceives by adultery while her husband is away and after that transgression has an abortion, she should not be given communion even at the last, because she has doubled her crime.</ref> and the [[Synod of Ancyra]] imposed ten years of exclusion from communion on manufacturers of abortion drugs and on women aborting what they conceived by fornication (previously, such women and the makers of drugs for abortion were excluded until on the point of death).<ref name=Ancyra>[http://www.synaxis.org/canon/ECF37THE_COUNCIL_OF_ANCYRA_HISTORICAL.htm Canon 21.] 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.</ref><ref>An exclusion from communion for ten years was considerably greater than the two or three years that was normal in the 4th to 6th century for grave sins, but it was less than the twenty or thirty years that in that period was the maximum (see [http://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks%3A1&tbo=1&q=early+christians+abortion+sin&btnG=Search+Books#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbo=1&tbs=bks:1&q=%22for+particularly+horrible+sins%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=ae7ff3dec986e07e Rinaldo Ronzani, ''Conversion and Reconciliation: The Rite of Penance'' (Pauline Publications 2007 ISBN 9966-08-234-4), p. 66]). {{syn|date=January 2011}}</ref> [[Basil of Caesarea|Basil the Great]] (330-379) imposed the same ten-year exclusion on any woman who purposely destroyed her unborn child, even if unformed.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=it9VqktLREEC&pg=PA225&dq=%22purposely+destroys+her+unborn+child%22&hl=en&ei=uQk8TeG7IoK6hAfylrjICg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22purposely%20destroys%20her%20unborn%20child%22&f=false Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace (editors), ''Basil: Letters and Select Works'', p. 225 - Letter 188, to Amphilochius]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=HNI_ryAzdfgC&pg=PA151&dq=%22purposely+destroys+her+unborn+child%22&hl=en&ei=uQk8TeG7IoK6hAfylrjICg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22purposely%20destroys%20her%20unborn%20child%22&f=false Matthew Schwartz, ''Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View'' (Wayne State University Press 1991 ISBN 0-8143-2023-6), p. 151]</ref> Abortion was commonly regarded as worse than murder, but Basil thus imposed for it a lesser penance than the twenty-year exclusion that he imposed for intentional homicide, apparently because abortion was likely to be due to fear and shame rather than malice.<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&tbo=1&q=david+albert+jones+basil+penance+malice&btnG=Search+Books David Albert Jones, ''The Soul of the Embryo'' (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), p. 64]</ref> The penance he imposed for killing by a legitimate soldier was exclusion for only three years.<ref>"In a much-cited passage, Basil the Great declared that Christians who killed, even as legitimate soldiers, had to abstain from communion for three years. … Any killing of human beings was a mortal sin, just like adultery and fraud" ([http://books.google.com/books?id=3gwVwl04y7MC&pg=PA34 James Q. Whitman, ''The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial'' (Yale University Press 2007 ISBN 9780300116007), p. 34).]</ref>
+In the late 1st century or early 2nd century, the ''[[Didache]]'' explicitly condemned abortion, as did the ''[[Apocalypse of Peter]]'' in the 2nd century.<ref name="Facts of Life">{{cite book|title=Facts of Life|author=Brian Clowes|url=http://www.hli.org/index.php/the-facts-of-life/396?task=view|chapter=Chapter 9: Catholic Church Teachings on Abortion: Early Teachings of the Church|publisher=[[Human Life International]]}}</ref> However, early synods imposed penalties only on abortions that were combined with some form of sexual crime<ref name=Luker/> and on the making of abortifacient drugs:<ref name=Ancyra/> the early 4th-century [[Synod of Elvira]] imposed denial of communion even at the point of death on those who committed the "double crime" of adultery and subsequent abortion,<ref>[http://www.earlychurchtexts.com/main/elvira/canons_of_elvira_04.shtml Canon 63.] If a woman conceives by adultery while her husband is away and after that transgression has an abortion, she should not be given communion even at the last, because she has doubled her crime.</ref> and the [[Synod of Ancyra]] imposed ten years of exclusion from communion on manufacturers of abortion drugs and on women aborting what they conceived by fornication (previously, such women and the makers of drugs for abortion were excluded until on the point of death).<ref name=Ancyra>[http://www.synaxis.org/canon/ECF37THE_COUNCIL_OF_ANCYRA_HISTORICAL.htm Canon 21.] 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.</ref><ref>An exclusion from communion for ten years was considerably greater than the two or three years that was normal in the 4th to 6th century for grave sins, but it was less than the twenty or thirty years that in that period was the maximum (see [http://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks%3A1&tbo=1&q=early+christians+abortion+sin&btnG=Search+Books#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbo=1&tbs=bks:1&q=%22for+particularly+horrible+sins%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=ae7ff3dec986e07e Rinaldo Ronzani, ''Conversion and Reconciliation: The Rite of Penance'' (Pauline Publications 2007 ISBN 9966-08-234-4), p. 66]). {{syn|date=January 2011}}</ref> [[Basil of Caesarea|Basil the Great]] (330-379) imposed the same ten-year exclusion on any woman who purposely destroyed her unborn child, even if unformed.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=it9VqktLREEC&pg=PA225&dq=%22purposely+destroys+her+unborn+child%22&hl=en&ei=uQk8TeG7IoK6hAfylrjICg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22purposely%20destroys%20her%20unborn%20child%22&f=false Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace (editors), ''Basil: Letters and Select Works'', p. 225 - Letter 188, to Amphilochius]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=HNI_ryAzdfgC&pg=PA151&dq=%22purposely+destroys+her+unborn+child%22&hl=en&ei=uQk8TeG7IoK6hAfylrjICg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22purposely%20destroys%20her%20unborn%20child%22&f=false Matthew Schwartz, ''Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View'' (Wayne State University Press 1991 ISBN 0-8143-2023-6), p. 151]</ref> Abortion was commonly regarded as worse than murder, but Basil thus imposed for it a lesser penance than the twenty-year exclusion that he imposed for intentional homicide, apparently because abortion was likely to be due to fear and shame rather than malice.<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&tbo=1&q=david+albert+jones+basil+penance+malice&btnG=Search+Books David Albert Jones, ''The Soul of the Embryo'' (Continuum International 2004 ISBN 9780826462961), p. 64]</ref> Even for killing by a legitimate soldier he imposed exclusion, though only for three years, not twenty.<ref>"In a much-cited passage, Basil the Great declared that Christians who killed, even as legitimate soldiers, had to abstain from communion for three years. … Any killing of human beings was a mortal sin, just like adultery and fraud" ([http://books.google.com/books?id=3gwVwl04y7MC&pg=PA34 James Q. Whitman, ''The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial'' (Yale University Press 2007 ISBN 9780300116007), p. 34).]</ref>
 ==References==