The Presbyters Project

Canon 7

Vt episcopus nec abbatem nec archipresbyterum sine omnium suorum cumpresbiterorum et abbatum concilio de loco suo praesumat eiecere neque per premium alium ordinare nisi facto concilio tam abbatum quam presbyterorum suorum. Quem culpa aut negligentia eicit, cum omnium presbiterorum suorum concilio refutetur.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 178)

Canon 7

No bishop should dare to remove from his place an abbot or archpresbyter without the council of all his fellow presbyters and abbots, nor ordain someone in an act of gratitude (per premium), unless he consulted both his abbots and presbyters. [If one of those presbyters and abbots] is cast out [from this council] by his [i.e. bishop's] fault or negligence, this bishop should be refuted by the gathering of all the presbyters.

(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Discussion:

Premium (praemium) might also refer to the act of simony. However, it would be strange for this canon to accept simony as long as it was accepted by the local clergy, since the same council forbids simony altogether (see [1474]).

Since abbots and presbyters from the first two sentences of this canon seem to be described by a joint term "presbyters" in the last sentence, it appears that those abbots were presbyters as well. Some of them were likely in charge of the specific basilicas and the clerical communities ascribed to them.

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Tours

About the source:

Title: The Second Council of Tours, Concilium Turonense II anno 567
Origin: Tours (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

This council, the second one held in the city of Tours, gathered under the auspices of Charibert I on 18 November 567, in the last year of his reign. The list of subscribers for that synod is quite short as it holds only eight signatures. Suprisingly, it lacks even the bishop of Tours himself, Eufronius, or any bishop from his metropolitan province. Most probably, the original list was substantially longer.

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:

Functions within the Church - Archpresbyter

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Described by a title - Abba

Monastic or common life - Monastic superior (abbot/prior)

Simony/Buying office

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Conflict

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Ecclesiastical administration

Described by a title - Conpresbyter

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1463, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1463