The Presbyters Project

Canon 15

Vt clerici cum extraneis mulieribus non habitent.

Familiaritatem extranearum mulierum licet ex toto sancti patres antiquis monitionibus praeceperint ecclesiis euitandam, id nunc tamen nobis uisum est, ut qui talis probabitur, post primam et secundam conmunitionem si emendare neglexerit, donec in uitio perseuerat officii sui dignitate priuetur. Quod si se Deo iuuante correxerit, sancto ministerio restauretur.

(eds. Martínez Díez, Rodríguez 1984: 306)

Canon 15

That clerics must not live with women to whom they are not related.

Although the holy fathers in the ancient admonitions ordered to the churches that any familiarity with unrelated women be avoided, now it seems good to us that those who are proved guilty neglect to improve after the first and second admonitions, they shall be deprived of the dignity of the office as long as they persist in their vice. But if they improve with God's help, they shall be restored to the holy ministry.

(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Lerida

About the source:

Title: Council of Lerida 546, Concilium Ilerdense a. 546
Origin: Lerida (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The date of the council is given in two different ways - the first is a date in the Spanish era which began in 38 BC, the second is a date according to the years of the reign of Theoderic. In the case of the council of Lerida the dates do not agree - year 584 in the Spanish era is AD 546 and the 15th year of the reign of Theoderic is AD 525. The other provincial council held in Valencia was also dated to the 15th year of Theoderic, but the date in the Spanish era there is 587 (so AD 549). The scholars assumed that the name of the ruler was corrupt in the manuscript tradition and they proposed that we should read Theudis. King Theudis began to reign in AD 531, so the 15th year of his reign would be AD 546 (with references to the early modern commentators Hefele 1895: 132; Orlandis, Ramos-Lissón 1986: 124-131).

Edition:

Editions:

J. Vives ed., Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona-Madrid 1963.

G. Martínez Díez, F. Rodríguez eds., La colección canónica Hispana, Monumenta Hispaniae sacra. Serie canónica 4, Madrid 1984.

Bibliography:

C.J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents, v. 4, trans. by W.R. Clark, Edinburgh 1895.

M. Guallar Pérez, Los concilios tarraconenses celebrados en Lérida, (siglos VI-XV), Lérida 1975.

J. Orlandis, D. Ramos-Lissón, Historia de los concilios de la España romana y visigoda, Pamplona 1986.

M. Rodriguez Gil, "Consideraciones sobre una antigua polemica: las Iglesias propias”, Cuadernos de Historia del Derecho 6 (1999), 247-272.

Categories:

Family life - Unspecified permanent relationship

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Woman

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Suspension

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER251, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=251