The Presbyters Project

Canon 30b

Et ut presbyteri inconsulto episcopo non reconcilient paenitentes, nisi absentia episcopi, necessitate cogente.

(ed. Munier 1974: 41)

Canon 30b

Presbyters should not reconcile penitents without consulting their bishops, unless the necessity is pressing and the bishop is absent.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

See also Canon 4 of the council of Carthage 390 [158]. These canons do not deny presbyters the faculty of reconciliation, but make them perform it only with the bishops' consent.

The canon was repeated in Registri Ecclesiae Carthaginensis Excerpta as Canon 43b.

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

City

Carthage
Hippo Regius

About the source:

Title: Breuiarium Hipponense
Origin: Carthage (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The bishops of Byzacena arrived too early for the African plenary council at Carthage in AD 397. Since they had to leave the city before the actual beginning of the proceedings Aurelius of Carthage charged them with editing the decisions of the Council of Hippo of AD 393. The document drafted in this way and accepted on 13 August 397 was called the "Breviarium Hipponense", and it was included later in the Canons in causa Apiarii from AD 419, Registri Ecclesiae Carthaginensis Excerpta, Breviarium of Ferrandus and Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua.

Edition:

C. Munier ed., Concilia Africae a. 345-a. 525, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 149, Turnhoult 1974, 23-53.

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus

Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER222, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=222