The Presbyters Project

Canon 32

Item placuit, ut episcopi, presbyteri, diaconi uel quicumque clerici, qui nihil habentes ordinantur et tempore episcopatus uel clericatus sui agros uel quaecumque praedia nomini suo comparant, tamquam rerum dominicarum inuasionis crimine teneantur, nisi admoniti in ecclesiam eandem ipsa contulerint.

Si autem ipsis proprie aliquid liberalitate alicuius uel successione cognationis obuenerit, faciant inde quod eorum proposito congruit; quod si a suo proposito retrorsum exorbitauerint, honore ecclesiastico indigni, tamquam reprobi iudicentur.

(ed. Munier 1974: 110)

Canon 32

It pleases us that bishops, presbyters, deacons or any clerics who at the time of their ordination own nothing and in the times of their episcopal and clerical office buy in their own name fields or any other estate should be treated as guilty of invading the goods of the Lord, unless after being admonished for doing so, they bestow it to the same church.

However, if they receive something by the liberality of someone, or by inheritance from a relative, let them do with it what is coherent with their manner of life. If they err again, contrary to their propositions, they will be judged as unworthy of ecclesiastical dignities.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The canon gives us an interesting insight into the material status of the clergy, the possibility of being ordained in a state of penury and of being enriched while in office.

At the Council of Hippo (AD 393) the canon referred to bishops alone (Canon 8 of the Breviary of Hippo). It was repeated at the Council of Hippo in AD 427 [318] and in the Breviary of Ferrandus.

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

Act of ordination

Economic status and activity - Buying & selling

Economic status and activity - Ownership or possession of land

Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth

Economic status and activity - Indication of poverty

Economic status and activity - Gift

Economic status and activity - Inheritance

Administration of justice - Demotion

Livelihood/income

Devotion - Donations and offerings

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER265, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=265