Colloquia Theologica Ottoniana

In the first centuries after Christ, the institution of marriage and family experienced a visible crisis in the Roman Empire. Christianity, when developing within the structures of the pagan state, could not avoid confrontation with the realities of life. The scriptures from the works of the Fathers of the Church and the decisions of the Synods of Bishops argue that the community of faith also had to respond to a whole range of offences within it, and even aberrations of the marital life, being described collectively as πορνεία or fornicatio. The documents argue that a strict but clearly defined set of sanctions was used to correct the behaviour of Christians, among which the most important one was deprivation of the participation in the life of the Church and denial of the Eucharist. Converted sinners could return to the community after doing penance determined by the Bishop being fulfilled in the form of exomologesis. Over time, there were homilies, catecheses and treatises by the greatest Fathers of the Church where the orthodox doctrine concerning the union of a man and a women was expounded. They recognised not only its value but also showed it as one of the paths for sanctification and achieving moral perfection, an alternative to the life of celibacy.