Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2267
Canon 20 (= canon 16 in the Greek version) of the Council of Serdica (Dacia) in 343 forbids presbyters and deacons to stay too long in Thessalonica in neglect of their own churches.
Latin text:
 
Canon 20
 
AETIVS EPISCOPVS DIXIT:
Non ignoratis quanta et qualis sit Thessallonicensium ciuitas: saepe ad eam ueniunt ex aliis regionibus praesbyteri et diacones, et non sunt contenti ut breui tempore morentur; aut resident ibi aut certe uix post longa spatia ad sua redire coguntur.
VNIVERSI DIXERVNT:
Ea tempora quae constituta sunt circa episcopos, et ad horum personas pertinere debent.
 
Greek text:
 
Canon 16
 
Ἀέτιος ἐπίσκοπος εἶπεν·
Οὐκ ἀγνοεῖτε ὁποία καὶ πηλίκη τυγχάνει ἡ τῶς Θεσσαλονικέων μητρόπολις· πολλάκις τοιγαροῦν εἰς αὐτὴν ἀπὸ ἑτέρων ἐπαρχιῶν πρεσβύτεροι καὶ διάκονοι παραγίνονται, καὶ οὐκ ἀρκούμενοι βραχείᾳ, διαγωγῇ χρόνου ἐναπομένουσι καὶ ἅπαντα τὸν χρόνον αὐτόθι ποιοῦντες διατελοῦσιν, ἣ μόλις μετὰ πλεῖστον χρόνον εἰς τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἐπανιέναι ἐκκλησίας ἀναγκάζονται· περὶ τούτων οὖν ὁριστέον.
Ὅσιος ἐπίσκοπος εἶπεν·
Οὗτοι οἱ ὅροι, οἱ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐπισκόπων ὡροσμένοι, φυλαττέσθωσαν καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων τῶν προσώπων.
 
(ed. Turner 1939)
Latin text:
 
Canon 20
 
BISHOP AETIUS SAID:
You are not ignorant of how great and of what kind is the city of Thessalonica. Presbyters and deacons often come to it from other regions, and are not content to stay there for a short time, [but] either they take up their residence there or at any rate it is with difficulty that after a long time they are compelled to return to their own [city].
ALL SAID:
That time which was established for bishops ought also to appertain to these persons.
 
Greek text:
 
Canon 16
 
BISHOP AETIUS SAID:
You are not unaware of what sort and how great is the city of Thessalonica. Frequently, therefore, presbyters and deacons come from other provinces and, not content to spend a short time, stay and spend all their time there, or it is not until after a long period that they are with difficulty compelled to return to their own churches. A determination should be made with regard to this.
BISHOP OSSIUS SAID:
Let those rules that have been made with regard to bishops be observed also with respect to these persons.
 
(trans. Hess 2002: 225, 239)

Discussion:

The motion is introduced by Bishop Aetius of Thessalonica.

Place of event:

Region
  • Danubian provinces and Illyricum
  • East
City
  • Serdica
  • Thessalonica

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:

Travel and change of residence
    Functions within the Church - Rural presbyter
      Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
        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, ER2267, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2267