The Presbyters Project

II.27. (26.) De manus inpositione uel confirmatione.

(1) Sed quoniam post baptismum per episcopos datur spiritus sanctus cum manuum inpositione, in Actibus Apostolorum apostolos fecisse meminimus. [...] Hoc autem a quo potissimum fiat, quemadmodum sanctus papa Innocentius scripserit, subiciam. Dicit enim non ab alio quam ab episcopo fieri licere. Nam presbiteri, licet sint sacerdotes, pontificatus tamen apicem non habent. (4) Hoc autem solis pontificibus deberi ut uel consignent uel paraclitum spi ritum tradant; quod non solum consuetudo ecclesiastica demonstrat, uerum et superior illa lectio Actuum Apostolorum, quae asserit Petrum et Iohannem esse directos qui iam baptizatis traderent spiritum sanctum. Nam presbiteris seu extra episcopum siue praesente episcopo, cum baptizant, crismate baptizatos unguere licet sed quod ab episcopo fuerit consecratum; non tamen frontem ex eodem oleo signare, quod solis debetur episcopis cum tradunt spiritum paraclitum.

(ed. Lawson 1989: 107-108)

II.27. (26.) The imposition of hands or confirmation.

(1) Because after baptism the Holy Spirit is given through the bishops with the imposition of hands, we remember that the apostles had done this in the Acts of the Apostles. [...] Let me add, however, by whom this is done most especially, as holy Pope Innocent wrote. He stated that it is permitted to be done by a bishop and not by any other. For presbyters, although they are priests, nevertheless do not have the summit of the episcopacy. (4) It is obligatory that only bishops do the sealing and hand on the Holy Spirit. Not only does ecclesiastical custom demonstrate this, but so also the above-cited reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which asserts that Peter and John were those who were directed to hand on the Holy Spirit to the already baptized. Although it is permitted to priests either without a bishop, or with a bishop present, to anoint the baptized with chrism when they baptize, they may do so only with chrism that has been consecrated by the bishop. Nevertheless, they are not to sign the forehead with that oil, because that ought to be done only by bishops when they hand on the Holy Spirit.

(trans. Knoebel 2008: 112-113)

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:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς

Usurping episcopal power

Ritual activity - Baptism and instructing catechumens

Ritual activity - Anointment with chrism

Ritual activity - Blessing of oil

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1338, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1338