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ER 2164
The Emperor Constantius issues a law granting fiscal privileges for the clerics. The law issued on 27 August 343, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.8
 
IMP. CONSTANTIVS A. CLERICIS SAL(VTEM) DICIT. Iuxta sanctionem, quam dudum meruisse perhibemini, et vos et mancipia vestra nullus novis collationibus obligabit, sed vacatione gaudebitis. Praeterea neque hospites suscipietis et si qui de vobis alimoniae causa negotiationem exercere volunt, immunitate potientur. DAT VI KAL. SEPT. PLACIDO ET ROMULO CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 837)
XVI.2.8
 
Emperor Constantius Augustus to the Clergy, Greetings.
According to the sanction which you are said to have obtained previously, no person shall obligate you and your slaves to new tax payments, but you shall enjoy exemption. Furthermore, you shall not be required to receive quartered persons, and if any of you, for the sake of a livelihood, should wish to conduct a business, they shall possess tax exemption.
Given on the sixth day before the kalends of September in the year of the consulship of Placidus and Romulus. August 27, 343.
  
(trans. Pharr 1952: 442)

Discussion:

This is the only law which is addressed to clerics. According to Delmaire (2005: 136) it can be an extract from Constantius's letter.

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)
 

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Public law - Secular
      Economic status and activity - Buying & selling
        Economic status and activity - Slave ownership
          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, ER2164, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2164
            Record by: Marta Szada
            last edited: 2019-08-12 10:23:55
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