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ER 1987
Pope Gelasius I on how the income of the Church should be distributed. Gelasius I, Letter 14, Rome, AD 494.
Chapter 27
 
Quod in unaquaque ecclesia, cui episcopus praeest, tam de reditibus quam de fidelium oblationibus quatuor debeant fieri portiones: ut una sit episcopi, alia clericorum, tertia pauperum, quarta ecclesiae fabricis applicetur.
 
(ed. Thiel 1868: 361; the full text of the chapter on the page 378)
Chapter 27
 
That in any church at all over which a bishop presides, four shares should be made both from income and from the offerings of the faithful, so that one share is to be used for the bishop, a second for the clerics, a third for the poor, a fourth for church fabric.
 
(trans. Neil - Allen 2014: 146)

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 mainly contains various norms regulating the rights and obligations of clergy.
The same information about the distribution of Church income is given in paragraph 2 of Letter 15 of Gelasius (ed. Thiel 1868: 380), which is the general formulary for his letters, and applied in his Letter 16 (ed. Thiel 1868: 381).
 

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:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Ecclesiastical administration - Construction/Renovation
      Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
        Livelihood/income
          Pastoral activity - Helping the poor and needy
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1987, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1987
            Record by: Stanisław Adamiak
            last edited: 2019-03-26 15:42:51
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