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ER 2182
The Emperor Constantius and the caesar Julian issue a law confirming fiscal privileges of clerics and their families. The law issued on 6 and 28 December 356, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438 and repeated in the Justinian Code, promulgated in 529 and then again 534.
XVI.2.14 = cf. CJ I.3.2
 
IDEM A. ET IVLIANVS CAES. FELICI EPISCOPO. Omnis a clericis indebitae conventionis iniuria et iniquae exactionis repellatur inprobitas nullaque conventio sit circa eos munerum sordidorum. Et cum negotiatores ad aliquam praestationem conpetentem vocantur, ab his universis istiusmodi strepitus conquiescat; si quid enim vel parsimonia vel provisione vel mercatura honestati tamen conscia congesserint in usum pauperum adque egentium, ministrari oportet, ut, quod ex eorundem ergasteriis vel tabernis conquiri potuerit et colligi, collectum id religionis aestiment lucrum. 1. Verum etiam hominibus eorundem, qui operam in mercimoniis habent, divi principis, id est nostri statuta genitoris multimoda observatione caverunt, ut idem clerici privilegiis conpluribus redundarent. 2. Itaque extraordinariorum a praedictis necessitas adque omnis molestia conquiescat. 3. Ad parangarium quoque praestationem non vocentur nec eorundem facultates adque substantiae. 4. Omnibus clericis huiusmodi praerogativa succurrat, ut coniugia clericorum ac liberi quoque et ministeria, id est mares pariter ac feminae, eorumque etiam filii inmunes semper a censibus et separati ab huiusmodi muneribus perseverent. DAT. VIII ID. DECEMB. MED(IOLANO), LECTA V KAL. IAN. APVT ACTA CONSTANTINO A. VIIII ET IVLIANO CAES. II CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 839)
XVI.2.14 = cf. CJ I.3.2
 
THE SAME AUGUSTUS AND JULIAN CAESAR TO BISHOP FELIX. Clerics shall be protected from every injustice of an undue suit and from every wrong of an unjust exaction, and they shall not be summoned to compulsory public services of a menial nature. Moreover, when tradesmen are summoned to some legally prescribed tax payment, all clerics shall cease to be affected by such a disturbance; for if they have accumulated anything by thrift, foresight, or trading, but still in accordance with honesty, this must be administered for the use of the poor and needy, and whatever they have been able to acquire and collect from their workshops and stalls they shall regard as having been collected for the profit of religion. 1. Moreover, with respect to their men who are employed in trade, the statutes of the sainted Emperor, that is, of Our father, provided with manifold regulations that the aforesaid clerics should abound in numerous privileges. 2. Therefore, with respect to the aforesaid clerics, the requirement of extraordinary services and all molestation shall cease. 3. Moreover, they and their resources and substance shall not be summoned to furnish supplementary postwagons. 4. All clerics shall be assisted by the prerogative of this nature, namely, that wives of clerics and also their children and attendants, males and females equally, and their children, shall continue to be exempt forever from tax payments and free from such compulsory public services. GIVEN ON THE EIGHTH DAY BEFORE THE IDES OF DECEMBER AT MILAN (DECEMBER 6). READ INTO THE RECORDS ON THE FIFTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF JANUARY IN THE YEAR OF THE NINTH CONSULSHIP OF CONSTANTIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE SECOND CONSULSHIP OF JULIAN CAESAR. - DECEMBER 28, 357 (recte: 356).
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 442-443)

Discussion:

Bishop Felix to whom the law is addressed was installed as a bishop of Rome in 355 when Constantius exiled Pope Liberius (Felix was removed in 358 and Liberius was allowed to come back).
 
The date in the law is December 357 but as we know that Constantius left Milan in spring 357, the date should be corrected (just as the previous one, 16.2.13 [2168]) to 356 (see Delmaire 2005: 148).

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
City
  • Rome
  • Milan

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Milan (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia), Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian, Arian
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:

Family life - Marriage
    Family life - Offspring
      Described by a title - Clericus
        Public law - Secular
          Economic status and activity - Buying & selling
            Economic status and activity - Artisanship
              Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth
                Economic status and activity - Slave ownership
                  Economic status and activity - Taxes and services
                    Pastoral activity - Helping the poor and needy
                      Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2182, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2182
                      Record by: Marta Szada
                      last edited: 2019-08-12 10:24:50
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