The Presbyters Project

Canon 12

De seditioso episcopo

Si qui episcopus ordinatus fuerit et non vult ipsam parochiam suscipere in qua nominatus est, sed alibi vult ordinari et vim facit et seditiones concitat contra eos qui illum ordinaverunt, hunc ab honore oportet removeri. Si autem in pristino honore presbyterii vult stare, non vetetur ut gradum quem habuit retineat. Quod si reluctatus fuerit, etiam de honore presbyterii ab ordinatione proprio deponatur.

(ed. Barlowe 1950: 127)

Canon 12

On seditious bishops

If someone was ordained a bishop and does not want to take over a diocese for which he was appointed, but wants to be ordained somewhere else and acts violently and seditiously against those who have ordained him, he shall be removed from his office. If, however, he wants to remain in his previous office of presbyterate, he shall not be forbidden to retain what he have had. But if he resists, he shall be deposed also from the presbyterial office by a proper decision.

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

Cf. canon 18 of the council of Ancyra (AD 314). The original canon is easier to understand because it tells about bishops who were not received in their own dioceses and therefore try to take over the diocese of someone else.

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Braga

About the source:

Author: Martin of Braga
Title: Collectio orientalium canonum, seu Capitula Martini, Capitula Martini, Collection of the Eastern canons
Origin: Braga (Iberian Peninsula), Ancara (East)

In the manuscript tradition the canons of the Second Council of Braga (Iberian Peninsula) in AD 572 are followed by the Eastern canons collected and translated into Latin by Martin of Braga (Iberian Peninsula). He was using a Greek collection, impossible to identify with any of the collections known today, which gathered the canons of the several Eastern councils. Martin quotes also the canons of the First Council of Toledo AD 400. Martin dedicated his work to Bishop Nitigisius of Lugo (Iberian Peninsula). Those two bishops met on the Second Council of Braga, and possibly the collection was composed for this occasion (Barlowe 1950: 84-87).

Edition:

C. Barlowe ed., Martini episcopi Bracarensis opera omnia, New Haven 1950.

Categories:

Further ecclesiastical career - Bishop

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Demotion

Conflict - Violence

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1058, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1058