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ER 2244
The Emperors Arcadius, Honorius and Theodosius issue a law confirming privileges of churches and clerics. The law issued on 15 November 407, included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.38) published in 438.
16.2.38
 
IMPPP. ARCAD(IVS), HONOR(IVS) ET THEOD(OSIVS) AAA. PORFYRIO PROC(ONSVLI) AFRIC(AE).
Post alia: privilegia, quae ecclesiis et clericis legum decrevit auctoritas, hac quoque praeceptione sancta et inviolata permanere decernimus. Adque hoc ipsis praecipuum ac singulare deferimus, ut, quaecumque de nobis ad ecclesiam tantum pertinentia specialiter fuerint impetrata, non per coronatos, sed ab advocatis eorum arbitratu et iudicibus innotescant et sortiantur effectum. Sacerdotes vero provinciae erunt solliciti, ne sub hac scilicet privilegii excusatione etiam contra eorum utilitatem aliquid his inferatur incommodum.
DAT. XVII KAL. DEC. ROMAE HONORIO VII ET THEODOSIO II AA. CONSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 848)
16.2.38
 
EMPERORS ARCADIUS, HONORIUS, AND THEODOSIUS AUGUSTI TO PROPHYRIUS, PROCONSUL OF AFRICA.
(After other matters.) By this regulation also We decree that the privileges which have been decreed by the authority of the laws in favor of churches and clerics shall remain sacred and inviolate. Further, We confer upon them this special and particular privilege, that if any rights pertaining only to the Church have been specially impetrated from Us, not through provincial priests of imperial cult (coronati) but by advocates, by their decision such rights shall be made known to the judges [=governors of the province] and shall obtain their effect. Priests of the province, however, shall be very careful that, under this excuse of privilege, as it were, nothing unsuitable may be inflicted upon them contrary to their advantage.
GIVEN ON THE SEVENTEENTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF DECEMBER AT ROME IN THE YEAR OF THE SEVENTH CONSULSHIP OF HONORIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE SECOND CONSULSHIP OF THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS = 15 November 407.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 447; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

The council of Carthage in 407 asked the emperor to allow the churches to appoint defensores ecclesiae through whom the petitions to the governors of the province could be made, because until then such petitions must have been made through coronati, that is provincial priests of the imperial cult. In the present law, the emperors agreed to do that but under restriction that the defensores should act only in strictly ecclesiastical cases; any other privileges of the coronati should not be diminished. See Delmaire 2005: 196-197, n. 1.

Place of event:

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

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Milan (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
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)

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2244, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2244
    Record by: Marta Szada
    last edited: 2019-08-12 10:26:41
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