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ER 2269
The Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian issue a law confirming judicial privileges for clerics. The law issued on 6 August 425, included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.47) published in 438.
16.2.47
 
IDEM A. ET CAES. BASSO C(OMITI) R(ERVM) P(RIVATARVM)
Privilegia ecclesiarum omnium, quae seaculo nostro tyrannus inviderat, prona devotione revocamus, scilicet ut quidquid a divis principibus constitutum est vel quae singuli quique antistites pro causis ecclesiasticis impetrarant, sub poena sacrilegii iugi solidata aeternitate serventur. 1. Clericos etiam, quos indiscretim ad saeculares iudices debere deduci infaustus praesumptor edixerat, episcopali audientiae reservamus. Fas enim non est, ut divini muneris ministri temporalium potestatum subdantur arbitrio. Et cetera.
DAT. VIII ID. OCTOB. AQVIL(EIAE) D. N. THEOD(OSIO) A. XI ET VAL(ENTINI)ANO CAES. CONSS. (=8 October 425; should be 6 August 425)
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 852)
16.2.47
 
THE SAME AUGUSTUS AND CAESAR TO BASSUS, COUNT OF THE PRIVY PURSE
We restore with eager devotion to all the churches their privileges which the tyrant had begrudged to Our age, namely, that whatever was established by the sainted Emperors or whatever any bishop had impetrated from them for ecclesiastical purposes shall be preserved and confirmed throughout all eternity, under the penalty prescribed for sacrilege. 1. Clerics, also, who the accursed presumptor had declared must be led indiscriminately before secular judges, We reserve for a hearing before the bishops. For it is not right that ministers of the divine service should be subjected to the judgement of temporal authorities. Etc.
GIVEN ON THE EIGHTH DAY BEFORE THE IDES OF OCTOBER AT AQIULEIA IN THE YEAR OF THE ELEVENTH CONSULSHIP OF OUR LORD THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF VALENTINIAN CAESAR (=8 October 425; should be 6 August 425?)
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 449)

Discussion:

The law is an excerpt from the Sirmondian Constitution 6, just like 16.2.47, 16.5.62, 16.5.63, and 16.5.64. 16.5.63 is dated to 6 August 425 and is directed to the  pretorian prefects of Gauls. See Delmaire 2005: 215.
 
The "tyrant" mentioned in the law is the usurper John who raised to power in Rome in 423-24.

Place of event:

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

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Aquileia (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
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:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
      Relation with - Secular authority
        Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
          Administration of justice - Secular
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2269, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2269
            Record by: Marta Szada
            last edited: 2020-09-10 18:56:46
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