The Presbyters Project

Canon 8

Vt nullus clericus ad iudicem saecularem quemcumque alium fratrem de clerecis accusare aut ad causam dicendam trahere quocumque modo praesumat, sed omne negutio clericorum aut in episcopi sui aut in presbyterorum uel archediaconi praesentia finiatur. Quod si quicumque clericus hoc implere distulerit, si iunior fuerit, uno menus de quadraginta ictos accipiat, sin certe honoratior, triginta dierum conclutione mulctetur.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 224)

Canon 8

That no cleric should dare to accuse one of his brothers from the clergy before the secular judge or bring him to present the case in whatever way, but all conflicts between clerics should meet their end in the presence of either their bishop, presbyters, or archdeacon. If some cleric refuses to do so, if he was of junior rank, he should be chastised with forty strokes minus one [i.e. thirty-nine]. If he was of higher honour, he should be sentenced to thirty days of confinement.

(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 - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Described by a title - Clericus

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Deacon

Relation with - Lower cleric

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Equal prerogatives of presbyters and bishops

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, ER1534, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1534