The Presbyters Project

Canon 7

Clerici uero qui, cum uxores non habent, benedictione suscepta coniugia crededirint elegenda, qui uolentes absque ulla reclamatione in aetate fuerint legitima ordinati, cum ipsis mulieribus, quas acciperint, excommunicatione pellantur. Quod si inuitus uel reclamans fuerit ordinatus, ab officio quidem deponatur, sed non a communione pellatur. Episcopus autem, qui inuitum aut reclamantem praesumpserit ordinare, annuali paenitentiae subditus missas facire non praesumat.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 117)

Canon 7

Clerics who had no wives when they received a blessing [during ordination] and are now believed to enter into matrimony should be excommunicated along with the wives they took, as long as they were ordained lawfully, [that is] wilfully and without any protests, and in proper age. If someone was ordained protesting and against his will, he should be demoted from his office, but not deprived of communion. A bishop on the other hand, who dared to ordain someone protesting and unwilling, should be subjected to a year of penance, during which he should not dare to say Mass.

(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Orléans

About the source:

Title: The Third Council of Orléans, Concilium Aurelianense III 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 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 after ordination

Described by a title - Clericus

Reasons for ordination - Involuntary ordination

Impediments or requisits for the office - Unwillingness

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Conflict

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Wife

Relation with - Woman

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema

Administration of justice - Demotion

Private law - Ecclesiastical

Impediments or requisits for the office - Improper ordination

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1309, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1309