Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2159
The Emperor Constantine issues the law exempting clerics from public services. The law issued on 21 October of 313 or 319, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438 and in the Breviary of Alaric published in 506 in Gaul.
XVI.2.2 = Brev. Alar. XVI.1.1
 
IDEM A. OCTAVIANO CORRECTORI LVCANIAE ET BRITTIORVM. Qui divino cultui ministeria religionis inpendunt, id est hi, qui clerici appellantur, ab omnibus omnino muneribus excusentur, ne sacrilegio livore quorundam a divinis obsequiis avocentur. DAT. XII KAL. NOV. CONSTANTINO A. V ET LICINIO CAES. CONSS.
INTERPRETATIO. Lex haec speciali ordinatione praecipit, ut de clericis non exactores, non allectos facere quicumque sacrilega ordinatione praesumat, quos liberos ab omni munere, id est ab omni officio omnique servitio iubet ecclesiae deservire.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 835)
XVI.2.2 = Brev. Alar. XVI.1.1
 
The same Augustus to Octavianus, Governor of Lucania and of Bruttium.
Those persons who devote the services of religion to divine worship, that is, those who are called clerics, shall be exempt from all compulsory public services whatever, lest, through the sacrilegious malice of certain persons, they should be called away from divine services.
Given on the twelfth day before the kalends of November in the year of the fifth consulship of Constantine Augustus and of Licinius Caesar. October 21, 319.
INTERPRETATION: This law by special ordinance directs that no person whatsoever by sacrilegious ordinance shall presume to make tax collectors or tax gatherers of clerics. The law commands that such clerics shall be free from every compulsory public service, that is, from every duty and servitude, and shall zealously serve the Church.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 441)

Discussion:

According to Delmaire 2005: 124 the date given by the text, that is 21 October 319, should be corrected as 21 October 313 (so the third, and not the fifth, consulship of Constantine and Licinius, and of Licinius Augustus, and not of Licinius Caesar). Delmaire assumes that Rufinus Octavianus (as corrector Lucaniae et Bruttiorum in CTh VII.22.1 (313) and I.16.1 (315)) to whom the law is addressed is the same as Octavianus who is comes Hispaniarum 316-317 (mentioned in CTh IX.1.1 and XII.1.4) and therefore the law must be earlier than 316. Delmaire accepts the correction of Seeck that the date should be read as CONSTANTINO A. III ET LICINIO III CONS.
 
For the arguments against the identification of Rufinus Octavianus with Octavianus comes Hispaniarum see Wiewiorowski 2006.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy south of Rome and Sicily
City
  • Constantinople

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code, Breviary of Alaric, Lex Romana Visigothorum
Origin: Constantinople (East), Gaul
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
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)
 
J. Wiewiorowski, "Comes Hispaniarum Octavianus – the special envoy of Constantine the Great (some Remarks)", Gerión. Revista de Historia Antigua 24 (2006), 325–340.

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Public functions and offices after ordination - Civic office
      Public law - Secular
        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, ER2159, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2159