Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 252
Canon 16 of the Council of Lerida (Iberian Peninsula, AD 546) forbids clerics to appropriate the property of the bishop after his death.
Canon 16
 
Si sacerdos moritur, quid de rebus ecclesiae obseruetur.
 
Licet de re huiuscemodi, quam constituere salubri ordinatione decernimus, prisca auctoritas canonum nequaquam siluerit sed euidenti sanctione praeceperit ut cuiuscumque ecclesiae pontifice defuncto non passim pro libito suo in earum rerum direptionem quas obiens derelinquet quisquis irruat domumque subuertat, sed sacerdos qui exsequiarum tempore adest, omnia quae ad utilitatem et conseruationem pertinent debeat diligenti circumspectione munire, tamen quia haec ipsa sanctio, quod peius est, a multis clericis cognoscitur uiolari, ita ut occumbente sacerdote, expectorato affectu totaque disciplinae seueritate posthabita, immaniter quae in domo pontificali reperiuntur inuadant et abradant, id nunc omnes huius placiti uel constituti inter nos censura placuit custodiri, ut defuncto antestite uel etiam adhuc in supremis agente nullus clericorum, cuiuslibet ordinis, officii gradusue sit, quicquam de domo auferre praesumat uel de utilitate quae instrumenti domus esse noscitur, id est mobili et immobili rei ecclesiasticae, conetur inuadere, nihil furto, nihil ui, nihil dolo supprimens, auferens atque abscondens, sed is cui domus conmissa est, subiunctis sibi cum consilio cleri uno uel duobus fidelissimis, omnia usque ad tempus pontificis substituendi debeat conseruare uel his qui in domo inueniuntur clericis consueta alimonia administrare; substitutus autem antestis, suscepta ea prout discessor suus ordinauit uel huic Deus imperauerit, uti cum his debeat quos cognouerit disciplinae et caritate decessoris sui fideliter paruisse. Quod si quisquam post haec cuiuslibet ordinis, ut superius dictum est, clericus quacumque occasione de domo ecclesiae uel de omni facultate quippiam probatus fuerit abstulisse uel forsitan dolo aliquo suppressisse, reus sacrilegii prolixiori anathemate condemnetur, et uix quoque peregrina ei communio animae concedatur. Quia durum est ut ii quos constat in seruitio Domini cum primae sedis antestite desudasse, illorum qui suarum rerum incubatores uel utilitatibus seruientes atque uacantes fuisse noscuntur, despectibus aliquatenus crucientur.
 
(eds. Martínez Díez, Rodríguez 1984: 306-309)
Canon 16
 
What shall be observed regarding the property of the church after the death of a bishop.
 
In this matter in regard to which we decided to issue salutary laws, the ancient authority of the canons was not completely silent. It ordered in a clear decree that after the death of a bishop of a church, his property which he has left shall not be plundered at will, and his house shall not be invaded and turned upside down, but a bishop (sacerdos) who is present at the funeral, shall defend with diligent circumspection all useful things worthy to be conserved. Nonetheless, it is known that this sanction is violated, what is worse, by a lot of clerics. As soon as the bishop dies, they banish from their minds any affection, neglect the severity of the discipline, and they brutally invade the bishop's house and they plunder everything they can find there. Therefore, we command that from now on all among us shall be subject to this constitution. When a bishop dies, or is in agony, no cleric, no matter of what order or degree of office, must dare to take anything from the bishop's house, or try to seize anything of the utilities that are known to be the property of the house, or of the mobile or immobile property of the church. Let no one take anything secretly, or by force, or by deceit, and hide it. He to whom the house has been entrusted shall co-opt one or two faithful clerics as his assistants, and they shall preserve everything until a new bishop comes, but they shall give customary alms to the clerics they find in the bishop's house. A new bishop shall use the received property according to the orders of his predecessor and the will of God, together with the clerics whose discipline and faithful love toward his predecessor is known to him. Therefore, if henceforth any cleric of whatever order, as it has been already said above, is proved to have taken on any occasion anything from the house of the church or from its property, or to have withheld it by some deceit, let him be condemned as guilty of sacrilege by a major anathema, and also let scarcely the peregrine communion be conceded to him for his soul, because it is very harsh if those who toil in the service of God together with a bishop are tormented by the contempt of those who unlawfully possess their things and use their property as if it was ownerless.
 
(trans. by M. Szada)
 
 

Discussion:

Canon 16 is one of the four instances (two in the canons of the Council of Agde in 506 [868] and [900], and one in the canons of the Council of Riez in 439, [404]) where the communio peregrina is mentioned. This evidence makes clear a few things - communio peregrina is a kind of punishment prescribed only for the clergy, it lessens their status in their churches, and somehow involves the Eucharist. The meaning of the adjective peregrinus may suggest that this was kind of communion intended for the peregrini, that is the clerics or laypersons travelling outside of their churches who should have letters of recommendation from their bishops confirming their status and in consequence allowing them to participate in the sacraments given in the visited church. In that case, persons who could not be validated, would receive somehow a diminished form of communion (Vogel 1973: 80-81). Another possibility proposed by Mathisen (2006) is that a cleric punished with communio peregrina could receive communion only in his home church, and would be peregrinus in any other church. However, as above mentioned suppositions cannot be supported by any evidence, the exact nature of this punishment will remain unclear.

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:
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.
R.W. Mathisen, "The communio peregrina in Late Antiquity: Origin, Purpose and Implementation", [in :] Studia Patristica. Papers Presented at the Fourteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 2003, v. 40, Oxford, 49-54.
M. Rodriguez Gil, "Consideraciones sobre una antigua polemica: las Iglesias propias", Cuadernos de Historia del Derecho 6 (1999), 247-272.
C. Vogel, "Laica communione contentus. Le retour du presbytre au rang des laïcs (Eléments du dossier)", Revue des Sciences Religieuses (1973), 56-122.

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus
    Ecclesiastical administration - Administering Church property
      Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
        Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
          Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema
            Private law - Ecclesiastical
              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER252, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=252