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ER 2258
The Emperors Honorius and Theodosius issue a law forbidding clerics to live with non-related women. The lawful wives, however, should not be deserted. The law issued on 8 May 420, included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.44) published in 438 and in the Breviary of Alaric published in Gaul in 506 and repeated in the Justinian Code, promulgated in 529 and then again 534 (1.3.19).
16.2.44 = Brev. 1.6 = C.J. 1.3.19
 
IDEM AA. PALLADIO P(PRAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O.
Eum, qui probabilem saeculo disciplinam agit, decolorari consortio sororiae appellationis non decet. Quicumque igitur cuiuscumque gradus sacerdotio fulciuntur vel clericatus honore censentur, extranearum sibi mulierum interdicta consortia cognoscant; hac eis tantum facultate concessa, ut matres, filias atque germanas intra domorum suarum septa contineant. In his enim nihil scaevi criminis aestimari foedus naturale permittit.
1. Illas etiam non relinqui castitatis hortatur affectio, quae ante sacerdotium maritorum legitimum meruere coniugium. Neque enim clericis incompetenter adiunctae sunt, quae dignos sacerdotio viros sui conversatione fecerunt.
DAT. VIII. ID. MAI. RAU(ENNAE) D.N. THEOD(OSIO) A. VIIII ET CONSTANTIO III V.C. CONSS.
INTERPRETATIO
Quicumque clericatus utuntur officio, extranearum mulierum familiaritatem habere prohibentur; matrum, sororum vel filiarum sibi solatia intra domum suam noverint tantum esse concessa, quia nihil turpe in talibus personis fieri vel cogitari lex naturae permittit. Illae vero mulieres sunt in solatio retinendae, quae in coniugio fuerunt ante officium clericatus.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 851)
16.2.44 = Brev. 1.6 = C.J. 1.3.19
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO PALLADIUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT.
It is not seemly that a man who lives a commendable life of stern discipline in this world should be tarnished by the association of a so-called "sister." If any person, therefore, relies upon any rank whatever in the priesthood, or is distinguished by the honor of the clergy, he shall know that consorting with non-related women is forbidden to him. This concession alone is granted to him, that he may have within the bounds of his own home his mother, daughters, and sisters german; for in connection with these, the natural bond permits no perverse crime to be considered.
1. Chaste affection, moreover, demands that those women who obtained lawful marriage before their husbands assumed the priesthood should not be deserted; for those women who have made their husbands worthy of the priesthood by their association are not unsuitably joined to clerics.
GIVEN ON THE EIGHTH DAY BEFORE THE IDES OF MAY AT RAVENNA IN THE YEAR OF THE NINTH CONSULSHIP OF OUR LORD THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE THIRD CONSULSHIP OF THE MOST NOBLE CONSTANTIUS (=8 May 420).
INTERPRETATION
Those persons who hold clerical office are forbidden to have intimate association with non-related women. They shall know that within their homes the consolation of mothers, sisters, and daughters alone is granted to them, since the law of nature allows nothing shameful to be committed or contemplated in the case of such persons. Those women, moreover, who were wedded before the assumption of clerical office by their husbands shall be kept as a solace.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 448; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

The emperors Honorius and Theodosius are named explicitely in 16.2.40. See Delmaire 2005: 210.

Place of event:

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

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code, Breviarium Alarici, Breviary of Alaric, Codex Iustianianus, Code of Justinian, Justinianic Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Ravenna (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia), Gaul
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian, Arian
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:

Family life - Marriage
    Family life - Permanent relationship before ordination
      Family life - Permanent relationship continued after ordination
        Family life - Separation/Divorce
          Sexual life - Sexual activity
            Sexual life - Extramarital
              Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
                Described by a title - Clericus
                  Public law - Secular
                    Relation with - Wife
                      Relation with - Father/Mother
                        Relation with - Brother/Sister
                          Relation with - Woman
                            Sexual life - Marital
                              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2258, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2258
                              Record by: Marta Szada
                              last edited: 2019-08-12 10:27:00
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