Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
Search Presbyter Records
Search Evidence Records
Print:
ID
ER 2221
The Emperors Arcadius and Honorius issue a law ordering bishops to ordain monks instead of lay persons who might be subjected to various public or private accounts. The law issued on 26 July 398, included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.32) published in 438.
16.2.32
 
IDEM AA. CAESARIO P(RAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O.
Si quos forte episcopi deesse sibi clericos arbitrantur, ex monachorum numero rectius ordinabunt, non obnoxios publicis privatisque rationibus cum invidia teneant, sed habeant iam probatos.
DAT. VII KAL. AVG. HONORIO A. IIII ET EVTYCHIANO CONSS. [=26 July 398]
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 846)
16.2.32
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO CAESARIUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
If perchance the bishops should suppose that they are in need of clerics, they will more properly ordain them from the number of monks. They shall not incur disfavor by holding those persons who are bound by public and private accounts but shall have those already approved.
GIVEN ON THE SEVENTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF AUGUST IN THE YEAR OF FOURTH CONSULSHIP OF HONORIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF EUTYCHIANUS [=26 July 398]
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 446; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

The addresee of the law, Flavius Caesarius, was magister officiorum, then the pretorian prefect of the East in the years 395-97, consul in 397 and then again the pretorian prefect of the East in 400-403 (PLRE I, Caesarius 6; Delmaire 2005: 184). It is then impossible that the law was addressed to him in 398. Delmaire (2005: 184-85) suggested that the law should be addressed to Eutychianus (just as 9.40.16 [2104]) and that the address to Caesarius was the mistake of the Code's redactor.
 

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
  • Latin North Africa
City
  • Constantinople
  • Milan

About the source:

Author: c
Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East)
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
 
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)
 
G. Savagnone, "Le origini del sinodo diocesano, e l'interpretatio alla c. 23, C. Th. XVI, 2", Studi in onore di Biagio Brugi, Palermo 1910

Categories:

Impediments or requisits for the office - Social/Economic/Legal status
    Public law - Secular
      Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
        Monastic or common life
          Shortage of clergy
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2221, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2221
            Record by: Marta Szada
            last edited: 2019-08-12 10:26:23
            Contact
            Privacy policy
            FAQ
            About the project
            Team