The Presbyters Project

Canon 128

Quod excommunicati ad accusationem admitti non debeant.

Placuitque omnibus, quoniam superioribus conciliorum decretis de personis quae admittendae sint ad accusationem clericorum iam constitutum est, et quae personae non admittantur non expressum est, idcirco definimus: eum rite ad accusationem non admitti qui, posteaquam excommunicatus fuerit, in ipsa adhuc excommunicatione constitutus, siue sit clericus, siue laicus, accusare uoluerit.

(ed. Munier 1974: 230)

Canon 128

The excommunicated should not be allowed to bring accusations.

It has already been decided by previous councils who is to be allowed to bring accusations against clerics. Since it was not expressed who is not to be allowed, we decide therefore that if someone was excommunicated and this has been constituted, be he cleric, or layman, he cannot bring accusations.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The canon seems to mention some two-grade procedure of excommunication (the meaning of the "constitution" of excommunication is unclear). The prohibition refers certainly only to episcopal courts, but since the secular magistrates may have felt unable to procede against the clerics, the canon may have been effectively barring the excommunicated from the possibility of any legal action against clerics.

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 (692).

Edition:

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

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Conflict

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, ER316, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=316