The Presbyters Project

Canon 13

Cum presbyteri adque diaconi sublimi dignitatis apice prorogantur, actebus omnino renuntient saeculi et ad sacrum electi mysterium repudient carnale consortium ac permixtionis pristinae contubernium permutent germanitatis affectu; et, quisquis ille est, presbyter adque diaconus, diuino munere benedictione percepta uxoris prius suae frater ilico efficiatur ex coniugae. Quosdam repperemus ardore liuidinis inflammatus abiecto militiae cingulo uomitum pristinum et inhebeta rursus coniugia repetisse adque incesti quodammodo crimine clarum decus sacerdotii uiolasse, quod nati etiam filii prodederunt. Quod quisque fecisse dignuscetur, omni in perpetuum, quam admisso iam crimine perdedit, dignitate priuabitur.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 108)

Canon 13

Because the presbyters and deacons are promoted to the highest peak of dignity, they should renounce all the worldly exploits and, as chosen to the sacred mystery, carnal relations, and substitute the previous joint cohabitation with a brotherly affection. Thus, any presbyter or deacon after receiving the office by divine blessing should immediately become a brother to his former wife. We have learned that some, inflamed by the fire of desire, have abandoned the belt of service and returned to old vomits and married life. They have dishonoured the illustrious dignity of priesthood with the crime of an incest of a sort, to which born children also bear witness. All found guilty to have done so will be forever stripped of their dignity, which they lost already when they committed this crime.

(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Clermont

About the source:

Title: The Council of Clermont, Concilium Claremontanum seu Arvernense anno 535
Origin: Clermont (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

This council convened on the 8th of November of 535 in Clermont under the auspices of Theudebert I, the Merovingian king of Austrasia. The council was presided over by Honoratus, the metropolitan bishop of Bourges, and gathered fourteen other bishops – those who did not attend the Second Council of Orléans two years earlier. They represented the cities of the North and the East of the Frankish realm (like Reims and Metz) and the cities recently conquered from the Burgundians in the South (such as Rodez and Javols).

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:

Family life - Permanent relationship before ordination

Family life - Separation/Divorce

Family life - Offspring

Sexual life - Sexual activity

Sexual life - Sexual abstinence

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Wife

Relation with - Woman

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Demotion

Equal prerogatives of presbyters and deacons

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1282, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1282