67. The third and final point suggested by the text of the fourth admonition is that Greek priests are not forbidden to use any of the prayers or blessings which are in their Euchologion by reason of references to matters which were subject to the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law. They should, however, do everything with the intention not of obeying the precepts of the old Law, which has now been abrogated, but of respecting the new Law of the Church or canonical custom made strong by long and unbroken observance.

In dealing with the Greek custom of abstaining from blood and strangled flesh, Lorinus notes that "if the Greeks today abstain from blood on the grounds that they are bound by this law, they are superstitious. This law now binds nobody and its observance savors of the ceremonies of the old Law. But they should not be blamed if they reject this food from a natural revulsion or other good reason" (in cit. Actuum Apos. 15.20). Goarius, in writing in variantibus lectionibus in the Greek Euchologion, considers the prayer "for those who have eaten forbidden and unclean things." He notes that "the Orientals avoid partaking of unclean foods through zeal for the Church, rather than for the Mosaic Law, etc. Consequently, despite the babbling calumny of Catumsyritus, they are far from observing Jewish ritual since they are observing the traditions of the Church." Catumsyritus would have some basis for his daring statement if the Greeks acted as they do not for these reasons, but from wrongly thinking that they are bound by the Apostolic precept on abstinence from blood and strangled meat. William Beveregius unfortunately attempts to defend this opinion in his Codex Canonum Ecclesiae primitivae, vol. 2, chap. 7, no. 5.

Certain schismatics have tried to calumniate the Latin church by saying that it judaizes by consecrating unleavened bread, observing the Sabbath, and retaining the anointing of kings among the sacred rites. But Leo Allatius counters their rash claim in his splendid work de perpetua consensione Ecclesiae Occidentalis et Orientalis, bk. 3, chap. 4. He refutes them particularly by arguing as follows: "Since Jews observe Sabbaths, a man who observes Sabbaths acts in Jewish fashion: therefore the man who does not eat the flesh of strangled animals acts in Jewish fashion since the Jews are forbidden by the Law to eat such food: but the Greeks do not eat such food: therefore, the Greek judaize" (loc. cit. n. 4). Then to Our purpose he concludes (n. 9) that it cannot be absolutely asserted that that man judaizes who does something in the Church which corresponds to the ceremonies of the old Law. "If a man should perform acts for a different end and purpose (even with the intention of worship and as religious ceremonies), not in the spirit of that Law nor on the basis of it, but either from personal decision, from human custom, or on the instruction of the Church, he would not sin, nor could he be said to judaize. So when a man does something in the Church which resembles the ceremonies of the old Law, he must not always be said to judaize."