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ER 2166
The Emperor Constantius and Constans issue a law granting exemptions from taxes and obligatory services to the clerics and their families. The law issued on 26 May 346, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.10
 
IMPP. CONSTANTIVS ET CONSTANS AA. VNIVERSIS EPISCOPIS PER DIVERSAS PROVINCIAS. Ut ecclesiarum coetus concursu populorum ingentium frequentetur, clericis ac iuvenibus praebeatur immunitas repellaturque ab his exactio munerum sordidorum. Negotiatorum dispendiis minime obligentur, cum certum sit quaestus, quos ex tabernaculis adque ergasteriis colligunt, pauperibus profuturos. Ab hominibus etiam eorum, qui mercimoniis student, cuncta dispendia.... esse sancimus. Parangariarum quoque parili modo cesset exactio. Quod et coniugibus et liberis eorum et ministeriis, maribus pariter ac feminis, indulgemus, quos a censibus etiam iubemus perseverare immunes. DAT. VII KAL. IVN. CONSTAN(TINO)P(OLI) CONSTANTIO VI ET CONSTANTE CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 838)
XVI.2.10
 
Emperors Constantius and Constans Augustuses to all  the Bishops throughout the various provinces.
In order that organizations in the service of the churches may be filled with a great multitude of people, tax exemption shall be granted to clerics and their acolytes, and they shall be protected from the exaction of compulsory public services of a menial nature. They shall by no means be subject to the tax payments of tradesmen, since it is manifest that the profits which they collect from stalls and workshops will benefit the poor. We decree also that their men who engage in trade shall be exempt from all tax payments. Likewise, the exaction of services for the maintenance of the supplementary postwagons shall cease. This indulgence We grant to their wives, children, and servants, to males and females equally, for We command that they also shall continue exempt from tax assessments.
Given on the seventh day before the kalends of June at Constanople in the year of the sixth consulship of Constantius and the
consulship of Constans. [May 26, 353; 346]
  
(trans. Pharr 1952: 442)

Discussion:

The consular date given in the law is certainly incorrect. Mommsen proposed an emendation: CONSTANTINO A. VI ET CONSTANTINO C., that is 320 but Constantine was not then in Constantinople (which was not yet called "Constantinople" in 320). Seeck proposed CONSTANTIO IIII ET CONSTANTE III AA, that is 346, the only possible consular date for Constantius II and Constans, when the emperor was in Constantinople.
 
The phrase "clericis ac iuvenibus" is unclear. Mommsen proposed to correct it "clericis senioribus ac iuvenibus" and compared it with a Greek phrase "πρεσβύτεροι καὶ διάκονοι". Delmaire (2005: 130) proposes that the word "iuvenes" refers here to young boys serving as lower clerics (e.g. lectors). Faivre (1977: 284-85) it might refer to fossores.
 
On the menial duties in Delmaire 2005: 138-139.

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. Faivre, Naissance d’une hiérarchie: les premières étapes du cursus clérical, Paris 1977

Categories:

Social origin or status - Social elite
    Social origin or status - Merchants and artisans
      Family life - Marriage
        Family life - Offspring
          Described by a title - Clericus
            Public law - Secular
              Economic status and activity - Buying & selling
                Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth
                  Economic status and activity - Slave ownership
                    Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2166, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2166
                    Record by: Marta Szada
                    last edited: 2019-08-12 10:24:13
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