Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
Search Presbyter Records
Search Evidence Records
Print:
ID
ER 2257
The Emperors Honorius and Theodosius issue a law confirming judicial privileges of the clerics. The law issued on 11 December 411, included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.41) published in 438.
16.2.41
 
IDEM AA. MELITIO P(PRAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O.
Clericos non nisi aput episcopos accusari convenit. Igitur si episcopus vel presbyter, diaconus et quicumque inferioris loci christianae legis minister aput episcopos, si quidem alibi non oportet, a qualibet persona fuerint accusati, sive ille sublimis vir honoris sive ullius alterius dignitatis, qui hoc genus laudabilis intentionis arripiet, noverit docenda probationibus, monstranda documentis se debere inferre. Si quis ergo circa huiusmodi personas non probanda detulerit, auctoritate huius sanctionis intellegat se iacturae famae propriae subiacere, ut damno pudoris, existimationis dispendio discat sibi alienae verecundiae impune insidiari saltem de cetero non licere. Nam sicut episcopos presbyteros diaconos ceterosque, si his obiecta comprobari potuerint, maculatos ab ecclesia venerabili aequum est removeri, ut contempti post haec et miserae humilitatis inclinati despectu iniuriarum non habeant actionem, ita similis videri debet iustitiae, quod adpetitae innocentiae moderatam deferri iussimus ultionem. Ideoque huiusmodi dumtaxat causas episcopi sub testificatione multorum actis audire debebunt.
DAT. III. ID. DEC. RAU(ENNAE) HONOR(IO) VIIII ET THEOD(OSIO) V AA. COSS.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 849-50)
16.2.41
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO MELITIUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT.
Clerics must not be accused except before bishops. Therefore, if a bishop, a presbyter, a deacon, or any person of inferior rank who is a minister of the Christian faith should be accused by any person whatever before the bishops, since he must not be accused elsewhere, that man, whether of lofty honor or of any other dignity, who may undertake such a laudable type of suit, shall know that he must allege only what may be demonstrated by proofs and supported by documents. If any man, therefore, should lodge unprovable complaints about such persons, he shall understand that by the authority of this sanction he will be subject to the loss of his own reputation, and thus by the loss of his honor and the forfeiture of his status he shall learn that he will not be permitted, for the future at least, to assail with impunity the respect due to another. For, just as it is equitable that bishops, presbyters, deacons, and all other clerics should be removed from the venerable Church as persons attained if the allegations against them can be proved, so that they shall be despised thereafter and bowed under the contempt of wretched humilitation and shall not have an action for slander, so it must appear to be an act of similar justice that We have ordered an appropriate punishment for assailed innocence. Bishops, therefore, must hear such cases only under the attestation of many persons and in formal proceedings.
GIVEN ON THE THIRD DAY BEFORE THE IDES OF DECEMBER AT RAVENNA IN THE YEAR OF THE NINTH CONSULSHIP OF HONORIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE FIFTH CONSULSHIP OF THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS (=11 December 412, recte 411).
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 448; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

The emperors Honorius and Theodosius are named explicitely in 16.2.40. Melitius stopped to be the pretorian prefect in 6 June 412, so the date of the present law has to be corrected to 11 December 411. See Delmaire 2005: 204.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
City
  • Constantinople
  • Ravenna

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code, Breviarium Alarici, Breviary of Alaric
Origin: Constantinople (East), Ravenna (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 - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Public law - Secular
        Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
          Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema
            Administration of justice - Demotion
              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2257, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2257
              Record by: Marta Szada
              last edited: 2019-08-12 10:26:54
              Contact
              Privacy policy
              FAQ
              About the project
              Team