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ER 2146
The Emperors Arcadius and Honorius issue the law according to which clerics are not exempted from taxes if they gain profits by trade. The law issued on 8 May 399, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XIII.1.16
 
IMPP. ARCAD(IVS) ET HONOR(IVS) AA. CLEARCHO P(PRAEFECTO) V(RBI). Omnes corporatos de quibus orta querimonia est, quam maturissime praecipimus conveniri, ut aut commoda negotiatorum sequentes a clericorum excusatione discedant aut sacratissimo numini servientes versutis quaestibus intuitu tuae sinceritatis abstineant. Distincta enim stipendia sunt religionis et calliditatis. DAT. VIII. ID. MAI. CONSTAN(TINO)P(OLI) THEODORO V.C. CONS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 739)
XIII.1.16
 
Emperors Arcadius and Honorius Augusti to Clearchus, Prefect of the City.
We command that all members of guilds about whom complaints have arisen shall be sued as quickly as possible, in order that, since they are pursuing the profits of tradesmen, they shall surrender the exemption of clerics, or else, if they serve the Most Holy Divinity, they shall abstain from shrewd pursuits of gain in consideration of Your Sincerity. For the services of religion and those of shrewdness are distinct.
Given on the eighth day before the ides of May at Constantinople in the year of the consulship of the Most Noble Theodorus. May 8, 399.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 386-87)

Place of event:

Region
  • East
City
  • Constantinople

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Theodosian Code is a compilation of the Roman legislation from the times of the Emperor Constantine to the times of Theodosius II. The work was begun in 427 and finished in autumn 437 when it was accepted for publication. It was promulgated in February 438 and came into effect from the beginning of the year 439.
 
The compilation consist of sixteen books in which all imperial constitutions are gathered beginning with the year 312. Books 1-5 did not survive and are reconstructed from the manuscripts of the Lex Romana Visigothorum, i.e. the Breviary of Alaric, the legal corpus published in 506 by the Visigothic king, Alaric, containing excerpts from the Theodosian Code equipped with explanatory notes (interpretationes), post-Theodosian novels and several other juristic texts.
 
A new compilation was undertaken during the reign of the emperor Justinian. A committee of ten persons prepared and promulgated the Codex in 529. It was quickly outdated because of the legislative activities of the emperor and therefore its revised version had to be published in 534. The Codex together with the novels, the Pandecta, a digest of juristic writings, and the Institutes, an introductory handbook are known under the medieval name "Corpus Iuris Civilis".
Edition:
Theodor Mommsen and Paul Martin Meyer (eds.), Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, 2 vols., Berlin 1905
Paul Krüger (ed.), Codex Iustinianus, Berlin 1877
Gustav Hänel (ed.), Lex Romana Visigothorum, Leipzig 1849
 
Translation:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)
 
 

Categories:

Social origin or status - Merchants and artisans
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Public law - Secular
        Economic status and activity - Buying & selling
          Economic status and activity - Taxes and services
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2146, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2146
            Record by: Marta Szada
            last edited: 2019-08-12 10:22:48
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