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ID
ER 2162
The Emperor Constantine issues a law forbidding to ordain clerics who have at their disposal means which can be used to support the public service. The number of clerics should not be inflated, only after the death of a cleric a new person of humble means should be ordained in his place. The wealthy clerics can be removed from the clergy to assume their public obligations. The law issued on 1 June of 326 or 329, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.6
 
IDEM A. AD ABLAVIVM P(RAEFECTVM) P(RAETORI)O. Neque vulgari consensu neque quibuslibet petentibus sub specie clericorum a muneribus publicis vacatio deferatur, nec temere et citra modum populi clericis conectantur, sed cum defunctus fuerit clericus, ad vicem defuncti alius allegetur, cui nulla ex municipibus prosapia fuerit neque ea est opulentia facultatum, quae publicas functiones facillime queat tolerare, ita ut, si inter civitatem et clericos super alicuius nomine dubitetur, si eum aequitas ad publica trahat obsequia et progenie municeps vel patrimonio idoneus dinoscetur, exemptus clericis civitati tradatur. Opulentos enim saeculi subire necessitates oportet, pauperes ecclesiarum divitiis sustentari. PROPOSITA KAL. IUN. CONSTANTINO A. VII ET CONSTANTIO CAES. CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 836-37)
XVI.2.6
 
The same Augustus to Ablavius, Praetorian Prefect.
Exemption from compulsory public services shall not be  granted by popular consent, nor shall it be granted indiscriminately to all who petition under the pretext of being clerics, nor shall great numbers be added to the clergy rashly and beyond measure, but rather, when a cleric dies, another shall be selected to replace the deceased, one who has no kinship with a decurion family and who has not the wealth of resources whereby he may very easily support the compulsory public services. Thus, if there should be a dispute about the name of any person between a municipality and the clergy, if equity claims him for public service and if he is adjudged suitable for membership in the municipal council through either lineage or wealth, he shall be removed from the clergy and shall be delivered to the municipality. For the wealthy must assume secular obligations, and the poor must be supported by the wealth of the churches.
Posted on the kalends of June in the year of the seventh consulship of Constantine Augustus and the consulship of Constantius
Caesar. June 1, 326 or 329.
  
(trans. Pharr 1952: 441)

Discussion:

The law is dated here to 1 June 326. Seeck (1919: 54, 64, 179), however, argued that Ablabius started his prefecture in 329 and proposed to redate this law to 329 (CONSTANTINO A. VIII ET CONSTANTINO C. IIII instead of CONSTANTINO A. VII ET CONSTANTIO CAES. CONSS.). This emendation is accepted by Jones and Martindale (PLRE vol. 1, Ablabius 4) and Chastagnole 1981: 394-98.

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
 
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)
 
A. Chastagnol, "L'inscription constantinienne d'Orcistus”, Mélanges de l'école française de Rome 93 (1981), 381–416.
O. Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Papste, Stuttgart 1919

Categories:

Social origin or status - Social elite
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Impediments or requisits for the office - Social/Economic/Legal status
        Public functions and offices before ordination
          Public functions and offices after ordination - Civic office
            Public law - Secular
              Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth
                Economic status and activity - Indication of poverty
                  Further ecclesiastical career - Lay status
                    Administration of justice - Secular
                      Administration of justice - Demotion
                        Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2162, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2162
                        Record by: Marta Szada
                        last edited: 2019-08-12 10:23:47
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