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ER 2183
The Emperor Constantius and the caesar Julian issue a law on fiscal privileges of clerics and churches. The law issued on 30 June 360, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438 and repeated in the Justinian Code, promulgated in 529 and then again 534.
XVI.2.15 = cf. CJ I.3.3
 
IDEM A. ET CAES. AD TAVRVM P(RAEFECTVM) P(RAETORI)O. In Ariminensi synodo super ecclesiarum et clericorum privilegiis tractatu habito usque eo dispositio progressa est, ut iuga, quae videntur ad ecclesiam pertinere, a publica functione cessarent inquietudine desistente: quod nostra videtur dudum sanctio reppulisse. 1. Clerici vero vel hi, quos copiatas recens usus instituit nuncupari, ita a sordidis muneribus debent immunes adque a conlatione praestari, si exiguis admodum mercimoniis tenuem sibi victum vestitumque conquirent; reliqui autem, quorum nomina negotiatorum matricula comprehendit eo tempore, quo conlatio celebrata est, negotiatorum munia et pensitationes agnoscant, quippe postmodum clericorum se coetibus adgregarunt. 2. De his sane clericis, qui praedia possident, sublimis auctoritas tua non solum eos aliena iuga nequaquam statuet excusare, sed etiam pro his, quae ipsi possident, eosdem ad pensitanda fiscalia perurgueri. Universos namque clericos possessores dumtaxat provinciales pensitationes fiscalium recognoscere iubemus, maxime cum in comitatu tranquillitatis nostrae alii episcopi, qui de Italiae partibus venerunt, et illi quoque, qui ex Hispania adque Africa commearunt, probaverint id maxime iuste convenire, ut praeter ea iuga et professionem, quae ad ecclesiam pertinet, ad universa munia sustinenda translationesque faciendas omnes clerici debeant adtineri. DAT. EPISTVLA PRID. KAL. IVL. MED(IOLANO) CONSTANTIO A. X ET IVL(IANO) III CAES. CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 839-840)
XVI.2.15 = cf. CJ I.3.3
 
THE SAME AUGUSTUS AND CAESAR TO TAURUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT. In the synod of Ariminum, when a discussion was held concerning the privileges of churches and clerics, a decree was issued to this effect, namely, that the taxable units of land that appear to belong to the Church should be relieved of any compulsory public service and that all annoyance should cease. Our sanction, formerly issued, appears to have rejected this decree. 1. But the clerics and those persons whom recent usage has begun to call gravediggers (copiatae) must be granted exemption from compulsory public services of a menial nature and from the payment of taxes, if, by means of conducting business on a very small scale, they should acquire meager food and clothing for themselves. The rest, however, whose names were included on the register of tradesmen at the time when the tax payments were officially made, shall assume the duties and tax payments of tradesmen, inasmuch as they have later joined the company of clerics. 2. As for those clerics who possess landed estates, however, Your Sublime Authority shall decree not only that by no means may they exempt other men's taxable units of land from the payment of taxes, but also that the aforesaid clerics must be compelled to make fiscal payments for the land which they themselves possess. For, indeed, We command all clerics, in so far as they are landholders, to assume the provincial payments of fiscal dues, especially since at the court of Our Tranquillity, other bishops who have come from sections of Italy and those also who have come from Spain and Africa, have esteemed that this regulation is very just, and that aside from those taxable units of land and the tax declaration which pertain to the Church, all clerics must be required to sustain all compulsory public services and to provide transportation. GIVEN AS A LETTER ON THE DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF JULY AT MILAN IN THE YEAR OF THE TENTH CONSULSHIP OF CONSTANTIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE THIRD CONSULSHIP OF JULIAN CAESAR. - JUNE, 360.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 443)

Discussion:

The date given in the law is uncertain. Constantius left Milan in 357 and in 360 he was in Edessa. Taurus is attested as the pretorian prefect of Italy between 355-361, and the allusion to the council of Rimini places the law after July-October 359. It was proposed then that the date 30 June 360 is the date of receiving a letter with the law in Milan. Seeck though thought that the formulation "data epistula" refers to a letter by which the pretorian praefect transmitted the imperial constitution (see Delmaire 2005: 152-153).

Place of event:

Region
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
  • East
  • Iberian Peninsula
  • Latin North Africa
City
  • Milan

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Milan (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
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:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Public law - Ecclesiastical
      Public law - Secular
        Economic status and activity - Buying & selling
          Economic status and activity - Ownership or possession of land
            Economic status and activity - Indication of poverty
              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, ER2183, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2183
                Record by: Marta Szada
                last edited: 2020-01-07 11:01:26
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