Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 267
Canons 33 and 34 of the Council of Carthage (North Africa, AD 419) establish mutual consent between the bishop and his presbyters as a condition for the disposal of the goods of the Church.
Canon 33
 
Ita etiam placuit ut presbyteri non uendant rem ecclesiae ubi sunt constituti, nescientibus episcopis, quomodo episcopis non licet uendere praedia ecclesiae, ignorante concilio uel presbyteris suis.
 
Canon 34
 
Non habente ergo necessitatem, nec episcopo liceat matricis ecclesiae, nec presbytero rem tituli sui usurpare.
 
(ed. Munier 1974: 110-111)
Canon 33
 
It also pleased us that the presbyters should not sell without the knowledge of their bishops the property of the churches in which they are constituted; and it is not lawful for the bishops to sell the estates of the Church without the knowledge of the council or his presbyters.
 
Canon 34
 
Therefore, if there is no necessity, neither should a bishop usurp the property of the maternal Church, nor a presbyter usurp the property of his parish church (titulus).
 
(trans. S. Adamiak)
 
 
 

Discussion:

There are many textual variants of the ending of the canon, I follow the version of the Wircenburgensis codex. The differences in the text, however, do not change the general ideas: presbyters are presented here as controlling quite a part of Church property. They were only forbidden from selling it without the "knowledge" (which does not necessarily mean consent!) of their bishops. On the other side, the bishops also need to consult "the council" (i.e. other bishops) or their own presbyters before disposing of land property ("praedia") of the Church. Canon 34 shows the bishops as controlling the property of the cathedral churches (this is probably how "matrix ecclesia" should be understood), whereas the presbyters control that of the parish churches ("tituli").

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:

Functions within the Church - Parish presbyter
    Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
      Ecclesiastical administration - Administering Church property
        Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
          Equal prerogatives of presbyters and bishops
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER267, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=267