The Presbyters Project

Canon 2

Vt nullus clericorum a subdiacono et supra, qui uxores in proposito suo adcipere inhibentur, propriae, si forte iam habeat, misciatur uxori. Quod si fecerit, laica communione contentus iuxta priorum canonum statuta ab officio deponatur. Quem si sciens episcopus suus in hac uilitate permixtionis uiuentem ad officium postea admiserit, et ipse episcopus ad agendam paenitentiam tribus mensibus sit a suo officio sequestratus.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 114-115)

Canon 2

That no cleric of a rank of subdeacon or higher, who by the rule is forbidden to take a wife, unless he by chance had one already, should lie with his own wife. If he does it, he will be deposited from the office in accordance with the earlier canonal decrees and limited to the lay communion. If his bishop, knowing that he lives in such worthless union [with his wife], permits him afterwards to [keep] his office, also that bishop should be suspended from his office for three months to do penance.

(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Orléans

About the source:

Title: The Third Council of Orléans, Concilium Aurelianense anno 538
Origin: Orléans (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

This council convened on 7 May 538 in Orléans gathered five metropolitans, fourteen other bishops, and seven presbyters representing their bishops. They all came from the kingdoms of Childebert I or Theuderic I. No bishop from the kingdom of Clothar I participated. Apart from the council of Agde (AD 506), this is the only one from this period that gathered a metropolitan bishop from every region represented in the synod by a bishop or a presbyter. The council was presided by metropolitan bishop of Lyon, all of whose suffragans were present. Similarly, all the bishops from the metropolitan province of Rouen attended the synod.

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 - Marriage

Family life - Permanent relationship before ordination

Family life - Permanent relationship continued after ordination

Family life - Separation/Divorce

Sexual life - Sexual activity

Sexual life - Sexual abstinence

Described by a title - Clericus

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Wife

Relation with - Woman

Sexual life - Marital

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Demotion

Equal prerogatives of presbyters and deacons

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, ER1305, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1305