The Presbyters Project

XXXIV. De clericis desertoribus.

Si quis presbyter aut diaconus aut aliqui de clero propriam ecclesiam derelinquens ad alteram ecclesiam vadit, et ibi multo tempore demoratur, omnino numquam ministret in clero. Et si admonuerit eum episcopus suus ut ad suam redeat parochiam, et redire noluerit, ubi est ibi de suo officio deponatur, ita ut numquam in suo revertatur gradu propter dissolutionis peccatum. Si autem episcopus alter illum susceperit qui de reatu eius est conscius, oportet ipsum episcopum sine increpatione in communi concilio non admitti, ut ecclesiasticum canonem ultra non solvat.

(ed. Barlowe 1950: 133-134)

XXXIV. On the clerics-deserters.

If a presbyter or deacon, or someone else from the clergy having abandoned his own Church went to another, and stayed there for a long time, he shall never serve in the clergy. And if his bishop admonishes him to return to his own diocese, and he declines, he shall be deposed from the office in this place where he is so that he shall never return to [his] grade because of the sin of desertion. If, however, another bishop receives a person of whose guilt he is aware, it is necessary to separate without objection this bishop from the common council so that he no longer break the ecclesiastical canon.

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

Cf. canon 3 of the Council of Antioch (AD 341).

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), Antioch (East)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

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:

Ecclesiastical transfer

Functions within the Church - Wandering presbyter/Without office

Described by a title - Clericus

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Demotion

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1114, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1114