The Presbyters Project

II.6. De corepiscopis

(1) Corepiscopi, id est uicarii episcoporum, iuxta quod canones ipsi testantur, instituti sunt ad exemlplum septuaginta seniorum tamquam consacerdotes propter sollicitudinem pauperum. Hii in uicis et uillis constituti gubernant sibi commissas ecclesias, habentes licentiam constituere lectores, subdiaconos, exorcistas. Presbiteros autem aut diaconos ordinare non audent praeter conscientiam episcopi in cuius regione praeesse noscuntur. Hii autem a solo episcopo ciuitatis cuius adiacent ordinantur.

(ed. Lawson 1989: 64)

II.6. Chorbishops

(1) Chorbishops, that is, vicars of the bishops, according to what the canons themselves testify, were instituted according to the example of the seventy elders as co-priests for the solicitude of the poor. These, constituted in towns and villages, govern churches committed to them, having permission to constitute lectors, subdeacons, and exorcists. However, they dare not ordain presbyters or deacons against the conscience of the bishops in whose region they are known to preside. For these are ordained by the bishop alone of the city that they adjoin.

(trans. Knoebel 2008: 77, slightly changed)

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Seville

About the source:

Author: Isidore of Seville
Title: De ecclesiasticis officiis, On the Ecclesiastical Offices, De origine officiorum
Origin: Seville (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Isidore was born probably ca 560, he became the bishop of Seville in 600, and he held that office to his death in AD 636. He wrote several works, among them the De ecclesiasticis officiis composed certainly after AD 598 (the composition of the Moralia in Job by Gregory the Great which are used by Isidore in the books 5 and 6). We cannot establish another terminus ante quem than the year of death of Isidore, although some scholars proposed that the De ecclesiasticis officiis were written before the composition of Chronicon in AD 615 (Lawson 1989: 13*-14*). The argument is based on the assumption that the list of Isidore`s writings composed by Braulio, bishop of Saragossa is ordered chronologically, but, as was demonstrated by its most recent editor (Martin 2006: 64-73), most certainly it is not the case.

Isidore composed the treatise at the request of Bishop Fulgentius of Écija (see the dedicatory letter at the beginning of the book). The De ecclesiasticis officiis is also one of the most important sources for the early Spanish liturgy.

Edition:

C.M. Lawson ed., Sancti Isidori episcopi Hispalensis de ecclesiasticis officiis, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 113, Turnhout 1989

Translation:

Isidore of Seville, De ecclesiasticis officiis, translation and introduction by T.L. Knoebel, Ancient Christian Writers 61, New York 2008

Categories:

Act of ordination

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Theoretical considerations - On church hierarchy

Functions within the Church - Chorbishop

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1291, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1291