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ER 2193
The Emperor Valentinian and Valens issue a law which allows clerics of curial origin to be exempt from the laws ordering them to go back to the municipal councils if they had not been recalled to them for the previous ten years. The law issued on 17 October 370 (or maybe 373), included in the Theodosian Code published in 438.
XVI.2.19
 
IDEM AA. MODESTO P(RAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O. Quicumque ex curialium natus genere ad clericatum venerit et praeiudicio sanguinis coeperit postulari, certi temporis definitione defendatur, ut, si in consortio clericatus decennium quietis impleverit, cum patrimonio suo in perpetuum habeatur inmunis, si vero intra finitos annos fuerit a curia revocatus, cum substantia sua functionibus subiaceat civitatis: observando hoc, ut hi, quos decennium vindicat, petitione superflua minime fatigentur. DAT. XVI KAL. NOV. HIERAP(OLI) VAL(ENTINI)ANO ET VALENTE AA. CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 841)
XVI.2.19
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO MODESTUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT. If any person born of decurion stock should join the clergy and should begin to be demanded back because of the prejudice of his birth, he shall be protected by the specification of a definite time limit, namely, that if he has spent ten years undisturbed in the association of the clergy, he shall be considered exempt forever, together with his patrimony. If, however, he should be recalled by the municipal council before the prescribed number of years has passed, he shall become subject, along with his substance, to the compulsory public services of the municipality. This rule shall be observed, that those persons whose immunity is established by the ten-year period shall not be harassed by any superfluous claim. GIVEN ON THE SIXTEENTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF NOVEMBER AT HIERAPOLIS IN THE YEAR OF THE CONSULSHIP OF VALENTINIAN AND VALENS AUGUSTI [=17 October 370].
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 443)

Discussion:

Delmaire (2005: 160) suggested that maybe the date should be corrected to 373. In 362 the emperor Julian issued the law ordering clerics of curial origin to be recalled to the municipal councils. If the present law was issued in 373, the ten year period of being undisturbed would mean that anyone who remained unaffected by Julian's law are now exempt.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
City
  • Constantinople
  • Hierapolis

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East)Hierapolis (East),
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:

Social origin or status - Social elite
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Public law - Secular
        Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2193, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2193
          Record by: Marta Szada
          last edited: 2019-08-12 10:25:35
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