The Presbyters Project

GELASIUS QUINIGESIO ET CONSTANTINO EPISCOPIS.

Felix et Petrus ecclesiae Nolanae clerici contumaciter et contra constitutum rebelles ad comitatum filii mei regis putaverunt esse properandum dicentes sibi vim fuisse generatam tacito clericatus officio; et auctoritate promerita contra civilitatem redemptis sibi barbaris supra scriptum episcopum suum gravibus iniuriis et dispendiis affecerunt. proinde necessarium fuit, ut ad eundem dominum filium meum supra dictus frater noster Serenus episcopus convolaret ostensaque fraude secundum beatitudinem temporum suorum vir praecellentissimus filius meus Theodoricus rex ad nostrum contumaces clericos remisit examen.

(ed. Mommsen 1894: 391)

GELASIUS TO BISHOPS QUINIGESIUS AND CONSTANTINUS

Felix and Peter, clerics of the church of Nola, revolting stubbornly and against the law decided to go to the court of my son the king. Having concealed their clerical office they said that they had suffered violence. And having gained authority in a way which is contrary to civility, having bribed the barbarians, they inflicted on the said bishop serious injuries and losses. Therefore, it was necessary that the said bishop, our brother Serenus appealed to the same lord, our son, and, as their fraud has been revealed, my son, the most excellent man King Theoderic according to the blessedness of his times, submitted us the case of the stubborn clerics for examination.

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

Andreas Thiel (1868: 63) surmised that Constantinus might be identical with Bishop Constantinus of Capua who was present at the council of Rome in 499. About Quingensius we do not have any firm information but probably he was also the bishop of a city neighbouring to Nola. For a conflict of the clerics Felix and Peter with their bishop see discussion in [2202].

Place of event:

Region

Rome
Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
Italy south of Rome and Sicily

City

Rome
Ravenna
Nola

About the source:

Author: Gelasius
Title: Epistulae, Epistulae Theodoricianae Variae
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Gelasius I was the bishop of Rome between AD 492 and 496. Several of his letters, among them those directed to Ereleuva, mother of King Theoderic, were preserved only in the early twelfth-century canonical collection commonly known as the Collectio Britannica because its only witness is preserved in the British Library in London (Add MS 8873; the excerpts of the letters of Gelasius are on ff. 27v-38v). The papal letters included in the collection were edited by Paul Ewald, and those which concerned Italy of Theoderic were later printed in the appendix to Theodore Mommsen`s edition of Cassiodorus`s Variae under the title Epistulae Theodoricianae variae (letters to Ereleuva have there numbers 4 and 5).

Bibliography:

A. Thiel, Epistolae Romanorum pontificum genuinae et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a s. Hilaro usque ad Pelagium II, Brunsberg 1868.

Categories:

Conflict

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Monarch and royal/imperial family

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2203, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2203