Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 232
The law issued by King Reccesvinth (ca AD 649-672) concerning clerics who are married or live with a woman. The codification known as Lex Visigothorum (issued and re-edited several times between 569 and 702).
III.4.18
 
XVIII. FLAVIUS GLORIOSUS RECCESSVINDUS REX.
 
De inmundicia sacerdotum et ministrorum.
 
Quia, quanto munditiam carnis sacra auctoritas inperat, tanto hanc adpetere ipsius ministros eius clamor informat, adeo et nos ponere finem inlicitis ausibus rite conpellimur; quoniam et ipsi divinis nutibus devotissime placere conamur. Igitur quemcumque presbiterum, diaconem adque etiam subdiaconem devote vidue, penitenti seu cuicumque virgini vel muliercule seculari aut coniugio aut adulterio conmixtum esse evidentissime patuerit, mox hoc episcopus sive iudex repperierint, talem conmixtionem disrumpere non retardent. Redacto autem illo in sui pontificis potestatem, sub penitentie lamenta iuxta sacros canones deputetur; quam districtionis eius severitatem si pontificum torpor inplere neclexerit, idem pontifex duas libras auri fisco persolvat et conmissum malum vindicare non differat. Quod si corrigere hoc nequiverit, aut concilium adpellet aut regis hoc auditibus nuntiet. Mulieres vero, que illis fuerint predictis inmundiciis inplicate, centenis flagellis a iudicibus verberentur, et conmiscendi se illis aditus omnino negetur, servata ab episcopis etiam super hoc scelere in utroque sexu patrum sententia, que canonum decretis agnoscitur ordinata. In ulciscendis autem talibus sceleribus non passim damus accusandi vel puniendi licentiam, nisi aut manifestis indiciis patuerit scelus, aut legitime fuerit id ipsum malum adcusatum adque convictum; quatenus nulla videamur intentione vel ordine patrum transgredi precepta sanctorum aut obviare sacris regulis antiquorum.
 
(ed. K. Zeumer 1905: 158)
III.4.18
 
XVIII. FLAVIUS RECCESUINTH THE KING.  
 
On the impurities of priests and ministers.
 
The sacred authority orders bodily purity insofar as its call instructs its ministers that they should strive after it. Therefore, we feel compelled to bring formally to an end illicit and audacious deeds as we try as well to devotedly comply with the divine will. Thereupon, if it is most evident, that a presbyter, or a deacon, or even a subdeacon is married or involved in adultery with a consecrated widow, or a virgin, or some secular woman (muliercule seculari), a bishop or a judge should not delay breaking up this relationship as soon as he finds out about it. Then, the cleric should be placed under the authority of his bishop and condemned to the laments of penance according to the sacred canons. If the bishop neglects out of sluggishness to impose the punishment with severity, he will pay two pounds of gold to the fisc, and he will not delay punishing the committed crime. If the cleric does not want to improve, the bishop should appeal to the council or announce it at the royal audience. Women, however, who were involved in the above-mentioned impurities, should be whipped one hundred lashes by the judges and denied completely any possibility to couple with those clerics. For this crime men and women should also be sentenced by the bishop to the punishment ordered by the canons. However, we do not give an absolute liberty of accusing of and punishing those crimes, but only when the crime is evident from the clear indications, or when one is legitimately accused and convicted for it, so that it would not seem that our intentions or orders transgress the precepts of the fathers or ignore the ancient sacred rules.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

Reccesuinth was a Visigothic king from 649 (together with his father Chindasuint who died in 653) to 672. Law XVIII was included in the codification both in the revisions of both Reccesvinth and Ervig.
The law makes an allusion to Canon 5 of the Eighth Council of Toledo (653) [651].

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
  • Gaul

About the source:

Title: Lex Visigothorum, Liber iudiciorum, Liber iudiciorum sive Lex Visigothorum
Origin: Iberian Peninsula
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Lex Visigothorum is a codification of law first composed during the reign of King Leovigild (569-586) on the basis of the Code of Euric, but the origin of all extant manuscripts is its revised version from the reign of King Recceswinth (649-672). The codification was also enlarged in the times of King Ervig (680-687) and Ecgica (687-702).
Edition:
K. Zeumer ed., Liber iudiciorum sive lex Visigothorum, Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Leges nationum Germanicarum 1, Hannover, Leipzig 1902, 33-456.
 
Translation:
The Visigothic Code (Forum Judicum), trans. S.P. Scott, Boston 1910
Bibliography:
Leges Visigothorum in: Bibliotheca legum regni Francorum manuscripta,  Karl Ubl (Ed.) assisted by Dominik Trump and Daniela Schulz, Cologne 2012. URL: http://www.leges.uni-koeln.de/en

Categories:

Family life - Marriage
    Family life - Concubinage
      Family life - Permanent relationship continued after ordination
        Family life - Permanent relationship after ordination
          Family life - Separation/Divorce
            Sexual life - Sexual activity
              Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
                Public law - Ecclesiastical
                  Public law - Secular
                    Private law - Secular
                      Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
                        Relation with - Wife
                          Relation with - Monarch and royal/imperial family
                            Relation with - Secular authority
                              Relation with - Woman
                                Described by a title - Minister/λειτουργός/ὑπηρέτης
                                  Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
                                    Administration of justice - Secular
                                      Administration of justice - Penance
                                        Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER232, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=232