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ER 2214
The Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian issue a law which confirms exemption from the curial duties for those who became clerics before the beginning of Valentinian`s reign (26 February 364). The law issued on 17 May 371, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438. Confirmed by another law issued on 1 December 372.
XVI.2.21
 
IDEM AAA. AD AMPELIVM P(RAEFECTVM) V(RBI). Ii, qui ecclesiae iuge obsequium deputarunt, curiis habeantur inmunes, si tamen eos ante ortum imperii nostri ad cultum se legis nostrae contulisse constiterit: ceteri revocentur, qui se post id tempus ecclesiasticis congregarunt. DAT. XVI KAL. IVN. GR(ATI)ANO A. II ET PROBO CONSS.
 
XVI.2.22
 
IDEM AAA. AD PAVLINVM PRAESIDEM EPIRI NOVAE. Forma praecedentis consulti etiam circa episcoporum virginumque personas et circa alias, quarum statuto praecedenti facta conplexio est, valeat ac porrigatur. DAT. KAL. DECEM(B). TREV(IRIS) MODESTO ET ARINTHAEO CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 841-842)
XVI.2.21
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO AMPELIUS, PREFECT OF THE CITY. Those persons who have continuously served the Church shall be held exempt from service in the municipal councils, provided, however, that it shall be established that they have devoted themselves to the cult of Our law before the beginning of Our reign. All others who have joined the ecclesiastics after this time shall be recalled. GIVEN ON THE SIXTEENTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF JUNE IN THE YEAR OF THE SECOND CONSULSHIP OF GRATIAN AUGUSTUS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF PROBUS [=17 May 371].
 
XVI.2.22
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO PAULINUS GOVERNOR OF NEW EPIRUS. The general rule of the foregoing decree shall be valid and shall extend also to the persons of bishops and virgins as well as to the other persons who are included in the foregoing statue. GIVEN ON THE KALENDS OF DECEMBER AT TRIER IN THE YEAR OF THE CONSULSHIP OF MODESTUS AND ARINTHAEUS [=1 December 372]
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 444; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

Compare to the similar law issued by Valentinian and Valens [2193]. See Delmaire 2005: 164.  

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Gaul
City
  • Constantinople
  • Trier

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Trier (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
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
    Impediments or requisits for the office - Social/Economic/Legal status
      Public law - Secular
        Described by a title - Ecclesiasticus
          Equal prerogatives of presbyters and bishops
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2214, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2214
            Record by: Marta Szada
            last edited: 2019-08-12 10:25:49
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