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ER 2184
The Emperor Valentinian and Valens issue a law forbidding wealthy people from entering into holy orders. The law issued on 10 or 12 September 364, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.17
 
IMPP. VAL(ENTINI)ANVS ET VALENS AA. AD BYZACENOS. Plebeios divites ab ecclesia suscipi penitus arcemus. DAT. IIII ID. SEPT. AQVIL(EIAE) DIVO IOVIANO ET VARRON(IANO) CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 840)
XVI.2.17
 
EMPERORS VALENTINIAN AND VALENS AUGUSTI TO THE INHABITANTS OF BYZACENA. We forbid altogether that wealthy plebeians shall be received as clerics by the Church. GIVEN ON THE FOURTH DAY BEFORE THE IDES OF SEPTEMBER AT AQUILEIA IN THE YEAR OF THE CONSULSHIP OF THE SAINTED JOVIAN AND OF VARRONIANUS.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 443)

Discussion:

This law is an extract from the longer law addressed to the provincials of Byzacena, other extracts are 5.15.16, 10.10.9, 11.19.3, 12.1.59 and 60. Seeck (1918: 216) corrects the date to 12 September.

Place of event:

Region
  • Latin North Africa
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
City
  • Aquileia

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Aquileia (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 It was quickly outdated because of the legislative activities of the emperor and therefore its revised version had to be published in 534.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)
 
Otto Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Päpste für die Jahre 311 bis 476 n. Chr.: Vorarbeit zu einer Prosopographie der christlichen Kaiserzeit, Stuttgart 1918

Categories:

Impediments or requisits for the office - Social/Economic/Legal status
    Public law - Secular
      Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2184, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2184
      Record by: Marta Szada
      last edited: 2019-08-12 10:25:18
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