The Presbyters Project

Canon 7

Aurelius episcopus dixit: Si quisquam in periculo fuerit constitutus et reconciliari se diuinis altaribus petierit, si episcopum absens fuerit, debet utique presbyter consulere episcopum et sic periclitantem eius praecepto reconciliare; quam rem debemus salubri consilio roborare.

Ab uniuersis episcopis dictum est: placet quod sanctitas uestra necessario nos instruere dignata est.

(ed. Munier 1974: 102-103)

Canon 7

Bishop Aurelius said: if someone was in danger [of death] and asked to be reconciled to divine altars, in absence of the bishop, the presbyter should anyway consult the bishop and reconcile such endangered person on the bishop’s orders. This should be strengthened by your salutary council.

All the bishops said: we all agree with what Your Sanctity deigned to instruct us.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The canon refers to Canon 4 of the Council of Carthage AD 390 [158]. It is also a mitigation of the precedent canon [229], which prohibited presbyters to perform reconciliation at all. We may also presume that a general delegation to do this might have been granted by a bishop when he was leaving his city - otherwise the procedure to seek his consent while he was away might have been too cumbersome.

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

City

Carthage

About the source:

Title: Canones in causa Apiarii
Origin: Carthage (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Apiarius, a presbyter of Sicca Veneria in North Africa, was excommunicated for some unspecified crimes by his bishop, Urbanus. In 418 he appealed directly to Pope Zosimus, who sent legates to Africa to assess the charges. The council of African bishops gathered in Carthage in May 419 to address the question. On the 25 May they approved several disciplinary canons, mainly repeated from previous councils, which are known collectively in scholarship as “Canones in causa Apiarii”. They were also sometimes transmitted as the part of “Codex Apiarii causae”, together with other acts of the council of 419.

We follow the edition of Munier, who followed Turner, who established the text according to three codices: Vindobonensis 2141, fol. 106, Monacensis (olim Frisingensis), fol. 64`, and Wirceburgensis Univ. mp. th. f. 146, fol. 66. We ignore the later textual traditions, namely Italian collections (which were the basis of the edition of brothers Ballerini in PL 56), and the redaction of Dionysius Exiguus; both of them have been included in the Corpus Christianorum edition, and they contain only minor changes, which we ignore, with the exception of two canons not transmitted in the first recension.

Edition:

C. Munier ed., Concilia Africae a. 345-a. 525, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 149, Turnhoult 1974, 79-165.

Bibliography:

C.H. Turner, Ecclesiae occidentalis monumenta iuris antiquissima, vol. 1-2, Oxford 1889-1939.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER230, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=230