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ER 2260

Canon 15 (= canon 12 in the Greek version) of the Council of Serdica (Dacia) in 343 allows bishops to leave their church for a period no longer than three Sundays to attend to their estates which are outside their diocese. During the stay far from their diocese, they should attend mass on Sundays in a nearby city that has a presbyter.

Latin text:

Canon 15

OSSIVS EPISCOPVS DIXIT:

Et quia nihil praetermitti oportet—quia sunt quidam fratres et coepiscopi nostri qui non in ea ciuitate possident in qua constituti episcopi esse uidentur, uel certe paruam rem illic habent, alibi autem idonea praedia habere noscuntur et adfec[ta]tiones quibus indulgeant—actenus permitti eis oportet ut accedant ad possessiones suas, disponant ordinent fructum laboris sui, ita tamen ut per tres dominicas et {per} tres septimanas in suis potius fundis morentur: et si est proxima ciuitas in qua praesbyter colligit, ne sine ecclesia facere uideatur Dominicum, accedat; ut nec res eius domesticae per absentiam eius detrimentum sustineant, et si non frequenter uenerit ad ciuitatem in qua est episcopus careat suspicionem ambitionis adque iactantiae.

VNIVERSI DIXERVNT

Placere sibi.

Greek text:

Canon 12

Ὅσιος ἐπίσκοπος εἶπεν·

Ἐπειδὴ οὐδέν ἐστι παραλειπτέον, καὶ τοῦτο ὁρισθήτω· τινὲς τῶν ἀδελφῶν καὶ συνεπισκόπων ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν ἐν αἷς ἐπίσκοποι καθίστανται δοκοῦσι κεκτῆσθαι σφόδρα ὀλίγα ὑπάρχοντα ἴδια, ἐν ἑτέροις δὲ τόποις κτήσεις μεγάλας ἐξ ὧν καὶ ἐπικουρεῖν δυνατοί εἰσιν τοῖς πένησιν· οὕτως αὐτοῖς συγχωρητέον εἶναι κρίνω, ἵνα, εἰ μέλλοιεν εἰς τὰς ἑαυτῶν παραγίνεσθαι κτήσεις καὶ τὴν συγκομιδὴν τῶν καρπῶν ποιεῖσθαι, τρεῖς κυριακὰς ἡμέρας τοῦτ᾽ἔστι τρεῖς ἑβδομάδας ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν κτήμασιν αὐτοὺς διάγειν, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀγχιστευούσῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἐν ᾗ, πρεσβύτερος συναγάγοι, ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ χωρὶς συνελεύσεως αὐτὸν δοκεῖν εἶναι, συνέρχεσθαι καὶ λειτουργεῖν, καὶ μὴ συνεχέστερον εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐν ᾗ, ἐστιν ἐπίσκοπος παραγίγνοιτο. τοῦτον γὰρ τὸν τρόπον καὶ τὰ οἰκεῖα αὐτοῦ πράγματα παρὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπουσίαν ούδεμίαν ὑπομενεῖ ζημίαν, καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀλαζονείας καὶ τοῦ τύφου ἐκκλίνειν δόξει ἔγκλημα.

Ἅπαντες οἱ ἐπίσκοποι εἶπαν·

Ἀρέσκει καὶ αὕτη ἡ διατύπωσις.

(ed. Turner 1939)

Latin text:

Canon 15

BISHOP OSSIUS SAID:

And because it is right that nothing be neglected—since there are some of our brothers and fellow bishops who have no possessions in that city in which they are supposed to have been established as bishops, or at most only a small property there, but elsewhere they are known to have suitable estates and interests which they support, this much ought to be permitted to them, that they may go their properties to distribute [and] regulate the fruit of their labours, provided that they stay on their estates for three Sundays and through three weeks. And if there is a city nearby in which a presbyter is in charge, let the bishop attend lest he seem to spend Sunday without the Church, so that his domestic business may not sustain loss by his absence, and if he does not frequently come to a city in which there is a bishop, he may be free of suspicion of ambition and ostentation.

ALL SAID:

It is pleasing.

Greek text:

Canon 12

BISHOP OSSIUS SAID:

Since it is necessary that nothing should be omitted, let this also be determined. Certain of our brothers and fellow bishops have very few possession of their own in the cities in which they are established [as bishops], but in other places have large possessions from which they are able to relieve the poor. In these circumstances I believe they must be allowed, if, to spend three Sundays, that is three weeks, on their properties, and attend the nearest church in which there is a presbyter [in charge], so that he may not be thought to be absent from the [Eucharistic] gathering to join [the prayers] and to celebrate, and not frequently come to a city in which there is a bishop. In this way his personal affairs will sustain no damage and the accusation of pretension and vanity will be avoided.

ALL THE BISHOPS SAID:

This arrangement is also pleasing.

(trans. Hess 2002: 223, 235-37)

Place of event:

Region

Danubian provinces and Illyricum
Rome

City

Serdica
Rome

About the source:

Title: Council of Serdica 343, Council of Sardica 343, Concilium Serdicense a. 343, Concilium Sardicense a. 343
Origin: Serdica (Danubian provinces and Illyricum)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian, Arian

The Council of Serdica in Dacia was a part of the Trinitarian controversy. The matter failed to be settled at the council of Nicaea in 325 which produced a credo with the controversial term "homoousios" (consubstantial) to describe the Son-Father relation in the Trinity. One of the fiercest pro-Nicenes was bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, whom his opponents managed to sentence at the council of Tyre in 335. This decision caused controversy and there were attempts to revise it. In 341, in Rome, Pope Julius I gathered a council which overturned the sentence. Julius asked the Eastern bishops to approve this revision, but when they gathered in Antioch in 341 they failed to do that; they also issued the formulation of faith which avoided the term "homoousios", approved by the council of Nicaea. Julius I asked the emperors Constans and Constantius to convene a new council to resolve this disagreement. The council gathered in Sardica in 343 and was presided over by Hosius of Cordoba. Eastern bishops arrived but were unwilling to acquit Athanasius (and other pro-Nicenes condemned by the Eastern councils: Marcellus of Ancyra and Asclepus of Gaza) and they soon left the council and withdrew to Philippopolis where they held their own gathering. The Westerners continued the proceedings, rehabilitated Athanasius, and issued a set of disciplinary canons. These survived in two differing versions, Latin and Greek. There are 21 canons in the Latin text, and twenty in the Greek; the arrangement also slightly differs. For a detailed discussion of the council of Serdica 343 and the textual problems caused by the surviving text see: Hess 2003, Stephens 2015. See also Simonetti 1975: 161-87; Hanson 1988: 293-305.

Edition:

C.H. Turner (ed.), Ecclesiae Occidentalis monumenta iuris antiquissima, 2 vols, Oxford 1899-1939

Translation:

H. Hess, The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica, Oxford 2002

Bibliography:

R.P.C. Hanson, The search for the Christian doctrine of God: the Arian controversy 318-381, Edinburgh 1988.

M. Simonetti, La crisi ariana nel IV secolo, Roma 1975.

C.W.B. Stephens, Canon law and episcopal authority: the canons of Antioch and Serdica, Oxford 2015.

Categories:

Functions within the Church - Urban presbyter

Ritual activity - Eucharist

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2260, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2260