The Presbyters Project

Chapter 16

Ut nemo litteras nesciens vel aliqua parte corporis minutus promoveatur ad clerum.

16. Illiteratos quoque et nulla parte corporis imminutos sine ullo respectu ad ecclesiasticum didicimus venire servitium. Quod simul antiqua traditio et apostolicae sedis vetus forma non recipit; quia nec litteris carens sacris esse potest aptus officiis, et vitiosum nihil prorsus Deo offerri legalia praecepta sanxerunt. Itaque de cetero modis omnibus haec vitentur, nec quisquam talis suscipiatur in clerum. Si qui vero vel temeritate propria vel incuria praesidentium tales ante suscepti sunt, in his, quibus constituti sunt, locis eatenus perseverent, ut nihil unquam promotionis arripiant, satisque habeant, hoc ipsum sibi pro nimia miseratione permissum.

(ed. Thiel 1868: 361.371-2)

Chapter 16

That nobody who is illiterate or missing any part of his body should be advanced to the clergy.

16. We have taught that illiterate people too and those who have suffered the amputation of some body part are in no respect to approach the service of the church. Together the ancient tradition and the olden formulation of the apostolic see do not admit this, for the one who lacks education cannot be fit for sacred offices, and legal injunctions have decreed absolutely that nothing blemished should be offered to God [cf. Lev 21:18; Deut 17:1]. And so for the rest, such cases should be avoided by all means, and nobody like that be accepted into the clergy. But if some like that were previously accepted through the personal thoughtlessness or carelessness of those presiding, they should continue in the ranks to which they have been appointed, but so as never to secure advancement, and they should regard it sufficient that this much is permitted them through an excess of compassion.

(trans. Neil - Allen 2014: 144.152)

Discussion:

Letter 14 of Pope Gelasius, written on 11 March 494, was addressed to the bishops of Lucania and Bruttium (i.e. nowadays Calabria) and Sicily. They were under Gelasius' direct metropolitan jurisdiction. The long letter is a "decretal" and contains mainly various norms regulating the rights and obligation of clergy.

Place of event:

Region

Rome
Italy south of Rome and Sicily

City

Rome

About the source:

Author: Gelasius I
Title: Epistulae, Letters
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Gelasius I was the bishop of Rome between AD 492 and 496.

Edition:

Thiel A. ed., Epistulae Romanorum pontificum genuinae et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a S. Hilario usque ad Pelagium II, 1, Braunsberg 1868, 287-510.

Translation:

B. Neil, P. Allen edd., The Letters of Gelasius I (492-496): Pastor and Micro-Manager of the Church of Rome, Turnhout 2014.

Bibliography:

B. Neil, P. Allen edd., The Letters of Gelasius I (492-496): Pastor and Micro-Manager of the Church of Rome, Turnhout 2014.

Categories:

Education - Insufficient education

Impediments or requisits for the office - Physical incapacity

Further ecclesiastical career - None

Theoretical considerations - On priesthood

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1891, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1891