Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2155
The Emperor Constantine issues the law confirming privileges of the Catholic clerics exempting them from public services. The law issued on 15 January 408, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.1
 
IMP. CONSTANTINVS A. Haereticorum factione conperimus ecclesiae catholicae clericos ita vexari, ut nominationibus seu susceptionibus aliquibus, quas publicus mos exposcit, contra indulta sibi privilegia praegraventur. Ideoque placet, si quem tua gravitas invenerit ita vexatum, eidem alium subrogari et deinceps a supra dictae religionis hominibus huiusmodi iniurias prohiberi. DAT. PRID. KAL. NOV. CONSTANTINO A. III ET LICINIO III C. CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 835)
XVI.2.1
 
Emperor Constantine Augustus. We have learned that clerics of the Catholic Church are being so harassed by a faction of heretics that they are being burdened by nominations and by service as tax receivers, as public custom demands, contrary to the privileges granted them. It is Our pleasure, therefore, that if Your Gravity should find any person thus harassed, another person shall be chosen as a substitute for him and that henceforward men of the aforesaid religion shall be protected from such outrages.
Given on the day before the kalends of November in the year of the third consulship of Constantine Augustus and of Licinius Caesar. October 31, 313.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 441)

Discussion:

The date of the law is corrupted because in the third consulship of Constantine and Licinius in 313, Licinius was Augustus and not Caesar (another option is 319, the fifth consulship of Constantine and Valerius Licinianus Licinius Caesar in 319, the emperor Licinius's son).
 
The addressee titled here "gravitas vestra" is unknown. It has been noticed that in the letter cited by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Historia ecclesiastica X.7.1-2. Constantine addresses Anullinus, proconsul of Africa in 313 regarding the restoration of property to the Christian church. The heretics mentioned in the law are the Donatists. See Delmaire, Richard 2005: 122.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Latin North Africa
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
 
Translations:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Les lois religieuses des empereurs romains de Constantin à Théodose (312-438), v. 1, Code Théodosien livre XVI, text latin Th. Mommsen, trad. J. Rougé, introduction et notes R. Delmaire avec collab. F. Richard, Paris 2005

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Public law - Secular
      Relation with - Heretic/Schismatic
        Public functions and offices after ordination
          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, ER2155, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2155