The Presbyters Project

Canon 18

Clerici quod etiam sine praecatoriis qualibet diuturnitate temporis de ecclesiae remuneratione possederint, cum auctoritate domni gloriosissimi princepis nostri in ius proprietarium praescriptione temporis non uocetur, dummodo pateat ecclesiae rem fuisse.

The same applies to the bishops.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 28)

Canon 18

With the authority of our most glorious ruler, clerics who possessed for however long a time some Church property as a remuneration, even if there were no documents of precarium, should not demand [for this property] to come into their ownership under the law [ius proprietarium] on the pretext of a [long] time span, provided that it is clear that this property belongs to the Church.

The same applies to the bishops.

(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Discussion:

Precarium is a kind of possession in which a holder of precarium receives the right to use a property for a specific period of time; the actual ownership of the said property does not change. The term itself was later often replaced by beneficium.

This canon is later repeated as the canon 2 of the Council of Clichy (Gaul, AD 626/627) [1601].

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Épaone

About the source:

Title: Council of Épaone 517, Concilium Epaonense anno 517
Origin: Épaone (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Just as the Council of Agde was held in 506 in the Visigothic kingdom and the First Council of Orléans in 511 in the Frankish realm, the Council of Épaone gathered bishops from the lands ruled by the Burgundians. The direct impulse for the council was the ascension to the throne of Sigismund in 516. The new king, unlike his Arian predecessors, followed the Catholic creed. Avitus, metropolitan of Vienne, and Viventiolus, metropolitan of Lyons, asked the bishops to convene on the day of 6th September 517 in Épaone, the exact location of which is unknown. It was most probably situated in the province of Vienne, possibly near present-day Anneyron or Saint-Maurice-l`Exil. The council gathered 24 bishops and one presbyter. It seems that also some other clerics and laymen attended the sessions.

Edition:

C. de Clercq ed., Concilia Galliae a. 511-a. 695, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 148 A, Turnhout 1963.

Translation:

J. Gaudemet, B. Basdevant, Les canons des conciles mérovingiens VIe-VIIe siècles, Sources chrétiennes 353, Paris 1989.

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus

Economic status and activity - Ownership or possession of land

Livelihood/income

Private law - Ecclesiastical

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1155, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1155