Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2266
Canon 19 (= canon 15 in the Greek version) of the Council of Serdica (Dacia) in 343 forbids bishops to ordain for themselves clerics from another diocese.
Latin text:
 
Canon 19
 
OSSIVS EPISCOPVS DIXIT:
Et hoc uniuersi constituimus, ut quicumque ex alia parrocia uoluerit alienum ministrum sine consensu episcopi ipsius et sine uoluntate ordinare, non sit rata ordinatio. Quicumque autem hoc usurpauerit, a fratribus et coepiscopis nostris {et} admoneri debet et corrigi.
 
Greek text:
 
Canon 15
 
Ὅσιος ἐπίσκοπος εἶπεν·
Καὶ τοῦτο ἅπαντες ὁρίσωμεν, ἵνα εἴ τις ἐπίσκοπος ἐξ ἑτέρας παροικίας βουληθῇ ἀλλότριον ὑπηρέτην χωρὶς τῆς συγκαταθέσεως τοῦ ἰδίου ἐπισκόπου εἴς τινα βαθμὸν καταστῆσαι, ἄκυρος καὶ ἀβέβαιος ἡ κατάστασις ἡ τοιαύτη νομίζοιτο. εἴ τινες δὲ ἄν τοῦτο ἑαυτοῖς ἐπιτρέψειαν, παρὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν καὶ συνεπισκόπων ἡμῶν καὶ ὑπομιμνήσκεσθαι καὶ διορθοῦσθαι ὀφείλουσιν.
Ἅπαντες εἰρήκασιν·
Καὶ οὗτος ὁ ὅρος στήτω ἀσάλευτος.
 
(ed. Turner 1939)
Latin text:
 
Canon 19
 
BISHOP OSSIUS SAID:
And this we have all determined, that whoever shall wish to ordain a cleric belonging to someone else from another diocese [parrocia] without the consent and will of his bishop, the ordination shall not be approved. Moreover, whoever shall take possession in this way, ought to be admonished and corrected by our brothers and fellow bishops.
 
Greek text:
 
Canon 15
 
BISHOP OSSIUS SAID:
Let us also all decide this: that if any bishop wishes to ordain a cleric from another diocese [paroikia] to any rank without the agreement of his own bishop, the ordination shall be of no force and invalid. If anyone permits himself to do this, let him both be reminded [of this] by our brothers and fellow bishops, and be liable to correction.
ALL ANSWERED:
Let this decree also stand unshakeable.
 
(trans. Hess 2002: 225, 239)

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
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:

Ecclesiastical transfer
    Public law - Ecclesiastical
      Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
        Described by a title - Minister/λειτουργός/ὑπηρέτης
          Impediments or requisits for the office - Improper ordination
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2266, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2266