The Presbyters Project

Canon 13

Si quis iudicum clericus de quolibit corpore uenientes adque altario mancipatus uel, quorum nomina in matricula ecclesiastica tenentur scripta, publicis actionibus adplicare praesumpserit, si a sacerdote commonitus emendare noluerit, cognoscat se pacem ecclesiae non habere. Similiter a tutillae administratione pontifices, presbyteros adque diaconos adeo excusatos esse decreuimus, quia, quod lex saeculi etiam paganis sacerdotibus et ministris ante praestiterat, iustum est, ut erga Christianus specialiter conseruetur.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 135)

Canon 13

If any of the civic officials (iudices) dares to set to public works (actiones publices) clerics coming from any rank and assigned to the altar or those, whose name are listed in the ecclesiastic registers (matricula), and if having been warned by the priest, he refuses to amend, let him understand that he does not have the peace of the Church. Likewise, we have decreed that pontiffs, presbyters, and deacons are excluded from administrative duties (tutella administrationis). For what secular law applied also to pagan priests and ministers, it is all the more so just for Christians to conserve.

(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Orléans

About the source:

Title: The Fourth Council of Orléans, Concilium Aurelianense anno 541
Origin: Orléans (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

This council, convened on 14 May 541 in Orléans, was quite numerous: it gathered five metropolitans (of Bourges, Bordeaux, Eauze, Rouen, and Tours), thirty-seven other bishops, and, representing their bishops, eleven presbyters and one abbot. It is impossible to establish which king or kings were responsible for this synod. This is the first council of the Frankish Church which was attended by the bishops from the metropolitan province of Arles. Ceasarius of Arles himself was unable to come (he was 71 at the time), but thirteen bishops of his province were present.

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:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Described by a title - Clericus

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Public functions and offices after ordination

Economic status and activity - Taxes and services

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1349, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1349