The Presbyters Project

Canon 7

Vt nullus clericus de qualibet causa extra discussionem episcopi sui a seculare iudice iniuriam patiatur aut custudiae deputetur. Quod si quicumque iudex cuiuscumque clericum absque causa criminale, id est homicidio, furto et maleficio, hoc facere fortasse praesumpserit, quamdiu episcopo loci ipsius uisum fuerit, ab ecclesiae liminebus arceatur.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 224)

Canon 7

That no cleric should be subjected for whatever reason to injustice by a secular judge or be thrown into prison [by him] without the prior examination by his bishop. If some judge dares to do that to any cleric (with the exception of criminal charges; that is murder, theft, or fraud), he should be separated from the threshold of the church for as long as the bishop of this place sees fit.

(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Mâcon

About the source:

Title: First Council of Mâcon, Concilium Matisconense I anno 581/583
Origin: Mâcon (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The First Council of Mâcon was called by King Guntram and gathered bishops from his entire realm: the metropolitans of Lyon, Vienne, Sens, Bourges, and Besançon, and sixteen other bishops. The exact dating of this synod is unsure as the acts give us both the date of 1st November of the twenty-second year of King Guntram`s rule (i.e. 583) and that of the fifteen indiction (i.e. 581).

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 - Clericus

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Secular authority

Administration of justice - Secular

Administration of justice - Imprisonment

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1533, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1533