The Presbyters Project

Canon 28

Item placuit ut presbyteri et diaconi uel ceteri inferiores clerici in causis quas habuerint, si de iudicio episcoporum suorum questi fuerint, uicini episcopi eos audiant et inter eos quidquid est causae finiant adhibiti ab eis episcopi ex consensu episcoporum suorum.

Quod si et ab eis prouocandum putauerint, non prouocent nisi ad Africana concilia uel ad primatus suarum prouinciarum.

Ad transmarinam autem qui putauerit appellandum a nullo intra Africam in communionem suscipiatur.

(ed. Munier 1974: 109-110)

Canon 28

It pleased us that if presbyters, deacons and other lower clerics were dissatisfied with the judgements of their bishops, they should be heard by neighbouring bishops, with the consent of their bishops and the cause should end there.

If they thought that they had reason to appeal this decision, they should appeal only to African councils or to the primates of their provinces.

And if someone dares to appeal overseas, he shall not be accepted into communion by anyone in Africa.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The canon deals with the very reason for convoking the council, namely the appeal of the presbyter Apiarius to the pope. The canon shows the various ways of appeal available to presbyters and lower clergy, explicitly forbidding them, under threat of excommunication, from doing what Apiarius had done: appealing “overseas”, that is to Rome. Such appeal was, however, available to bishops.

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:

J. Gaudemet, Les Sources du droit de l'Église en Occident du IIe au VIIe siècle, Paris, 1985.

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

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER260, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=260