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ER 312
Canon 90 of the council of Milevis (North Africa, AD 402), preserved in the 5th-century Carthage Register, forbids the ecclesiastical transfer of anyone who even only once read publicly in a church.
Canon 90
 
Item placuit, ut quicumque in ecclesia uel semel legerit, ab alia ecclesia ad clericatum non teneatur.
 
(ed. Munier 1974: 208)
Canon 90
 
It pleased us that if someone [publicly] read in a church, even once, he cannot be promoted to a clericate by another church.
  
(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The readers were counted as members of the clergy, so it was clear from other regulations that they cannot change their diocesan allegiance without the consent of their bishop. However, this canon states that it was enough to read once in a church to be treated somehow as a member of her clergy, and therefore barred from accepting ecclesiastical functions in other dioceses.
It shows that the laity were allowed to read publicly during liturgy; we know from other regulations concerning lectors that they were often established at a young age.
See [565] for the case which this canon probably refers to.

Place of event:

Region
  • Latin North Africa
  • Italy south of Rome and Sicily
City
  • Carthage
  • Milevis
  • 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:

Ecclesiastical transfer
    Former ecclesiastical career - Lower clergy
      Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER312, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=312
      Record by: Stanisław Adamiak
      last edited: 2018-07-25 17:48:02
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