The Presbyters Project

Canon 68

Vt clerici Donatistarum in ecclesia catholica suscipiantur in clero.

African bishops decide to send a letter to Pope Anastasius to inform him that they wish to accept with their dignities Donatist clerics who decide to pass to the Catholic Church. They say that they cannot be directed in this matter by a decision of a council overseas.

(ed. Munier 1974: 200)

Canon 68

Donatist clerics should be accepted in the Catholic church among the clergy.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

This decision is transmitted among the canons of the Council of Carthage of 13 September 401. It goes further than the council of 16 June 401 [280], which was inclined to accept ex-Donatist clerics, but wanted to hear the decision of Rome. It seems that the opinion of Pope Anastasius I and his council was against accepting ex-Donatist clerics; Aurelius and his colleagues formally accepted it, but made a generous exception "for those who care for the Catholic unity", more or less covering all cases in this way.cases.

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa
Italy south of Rome and Sicily

City

Carthage
Capua

About the source:

Title: Carthage Register, Registri Ecclesiae Carthaginensis Excerpta
Origin: Carthage (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The text of the canon was transmitted in the Carthage Register (Registri Ecclesiae Carthaginensis Excerpta). This collection was compiled by an anonymous author in the 5th century and included by Dionysius Exiguus in his "Codex canonum Ecclesiae Universae" in the early 6th century. It is sometimes known as "Codex canonum Ecclesiae Africanae" (Clavis Patrum Latinorum erroneously attributes this name to the "Codices in causa Apiarii" alone). In the text of the collection, the fiction is maintained, as if they were all read at the session of the Council of Carthage, 30 May 418. The canons from this collection were accepted later by the Council of Trullo (AD 692).

Edition:

C. Munier ed., Concilia Africae a. 345-a. 525, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 149, Turnhoult 1974, 173-247.

Categories:

Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Donatist

Change of denomination

Described by a title - Clericus

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER308, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=308