Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 201
Law 306 in the Code of Euric (ca 466-484 AD, Gaul) forbids bishops and presbyters to dispose the property of the church without the consent of the whole clergy, and regulates issues concerning the possession of church lands by the sons of clerics.
[CCCVI. Si quis episcopus vel presb[yter aliquid]
praeter consensu om[nium clericorum de re]-
bus aecclesiae facere cr[ediderit, hoc fir]-
mum non esse precipim[us; nisi praebeat]
omnis clericus consen[sum suum, seu de fun]-
do seu de hereditatibus. [Filii autem cle]-
ricorum, qui terras vel [aliquid ex muni]-
ficentia aeclesiae posside[nt, si in laicos]
conversi fuerint vel d[e servitio aecclesiae]
discesserint, vel ami[ttant, quod possidebant],
iuste re ... lat ...................................................
(Desunt versus 6.)
 
(ed. K. Zeumer 1902: 17)
306.
If a bishop or presbyter does something with the things belonging to the church without the consent of all the clergy, we declare this decision invalid unless the whole clergy gives an agreement concerning the funds or inheritances. But if the sons of clerics who possess lands from the generosity of the church laicize or abandon the service of the church, they should give back what they possessed ... The end of the text is damaged.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

According to K. Schäferdiek (1967: 16) and U. Heil (2014: 280-281) the law most probably concerns the Arian church.
 
The mention of inheritances (seu de fundo seu de hereditatibus) seems to refer to the practice of giving some part of church property to the children of clerics who remain in the service of the Church.

Place of event:

Region
  • Gaul

About the source:

Title: Code of Euric, Codex Euricianus, Legum codicis Euriciani fragmenta
Origin: Gaul
Denomination: Arian
The so-called Code of Euric is a codification of laws composed and used in the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse. It is widely attributed to King Euric (466-484 AD). The Code is reconstructed from the fragments preserved in the palimpsest Paris. Lat. 12161 and the quotations in the later codifications, namely the Lex Baiuvariorum and the Lex Visigothorum.
Edition:
K. Zeumer ed., Legum codicis Euriciani fragmenta, Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Leges nationum Germanicarum 1, Hannover, Leipzig 1902, 1-32
Bibliography:
U. Heil, ''The Homoians in Gaul'', [in :] Arianism: Roman Heresy and Barbarian Creed, ed. G.M. Berndt, R. Steinacher, Farnham 2014, 271-296.
Leges Visigothorum in: Bibliotheca legum regni Francorum manuscripta,  Karl Ubl (Ed.) assisted by Dominik Trump and Daniela Schulz, Cologne 2012. URL: http://www.leges.uni-koeln.de/en
K. Schäferdiek, Die Kirche in den Reichen der Westgoten und Suewen bis zur Errichtung der westgotischen katholischen Staatskirche, Berlin 1967.

Categories:

Social origin or status - Clerical family
    Family life - Offspring
      Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Arian
        Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
          Described by a title - Clericus
            Ecclesiastical administration - Administering Church property
              Economic status and activity - Ownership or possession of land
                Economic status and activity - Inheritance
                  Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
                    Relation with - Lower cleric
                      Relation with - Father/Mother
                        Relation with - Children
                          Further ecclesiastical career - Lay status
                            Equal prerogatives of presbyters and bishops
                              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER201, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=201