Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 318
Canon 5 of the council of Hippo (North Africa, 427 AD) deals with clerics who enrich themselves while in office.
Canon 5
 
a) Item placuit, ut episcopus, presbyter, diaconus uel quilibet clericus, qui nihil habentes ordinantur et tempore episcopatus uel clericatus sui agros uel quaecumque praedia nomini suo comparant, tamquam rerum dominicarum inuasionis crimine teneantur.
b) Si admoniti in ecclesiam eadem contulerint, bene; sin autem ipsi propriae consanguinitati ea uel exteris cuilibet uoluerint relinquere, non permittantur.
c) Si autem ipsis proprie aliquid ex successione parentum uel cognationis obuenerit, faciant inde quod eorum proposito congruit. Quod si a suo proposito retrorsum exorbitauerint, honore ecclesiastico indigni, tamquam reprobi iudicentur.
 
(ed. Munier 1974: 251)
Canon 5
 
a) It has pleased us that bishops, presbyters, deacons or any clerics, who at the time of their ordination own nothing, and in the time of their episcopal or clerical office buy in their own name fields or any other estate, they should be treated as guilty of invading the goods of the Lord.
b) If after being admonished to do so, they bestow it on the same church, it is all right. They should not be allowed, however, to leave it to their own relatives or any other alien person.
c) However, if they receive something by an inheritance from their parents or other relatives, let them do with it what is coherent with their manner of life. If they err again, contrary to their vocation, they will be judged as unworthy of ecclesiastical dignities.
  
(trans. S. Adamiak)
 
 
 

Discussion:

This canon repeats Canon 32 of the Canones in causa Apiarii [265], but with one addition. Apparently, the clerics had found a loophole concerning the second sentence of that canon, about donating property they had bought while in office, and had used it to transfer ownership to their relatives or other people. The present canon explicitly prohibits such practices. The remark about the gifts given to the clerics by the "liberality of someone" is also omitted, speaking about the inheritance as the only "legal" way of enriching clerics.

Place of event:

Region
  • Latin North Africa
City
  • Hippo Regius

About the source:

Title: Council of Hippo 427, Concilium Hipponense a. 427
Origin: Hippo Regius (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The last of the councils, at which Augustine of Hippo and Aurelius of Carthage were present. It issued some disciplinary canons, mainly repeating previous dispositions.
Edition:
C. Munier ed., Concilia Africae a. 345-a. 525, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 149, Turnhoult 1974, 250-253.
 

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    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
                Relation with - Other relative
                  Further ecclesiastical career - Lay status
                    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, ER318, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=318