Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 346
Canon 5 of the Third Council of Toledo (Iberian Peninsula, AD 589) orders bishops and other clerics converted from Arianism to separate from their wives and forbids Catholic clerics from living with non-related women.
[Titulus in recensione Iuliana] V  Vt sacerdotes et Leuitae caste cum uxoribus suis uiuant.
[Titulus in recensione Vulgata] V Vt episcopis, presbyteris et diaconibus ex haerese uenientibus iam non liceat misceri uxoribus uel quod ii qui semper catholici fuerunt, in cellulis suis cum mulieribus extraneis non morentur.
 
Canon 5
 
Compertum est a sancto concilio episcopos, presbyteres et diacones uenientes ex haerese carnali adhuc desiderio uxoribus copulari. Ne ergo de cetero fiat, hoc praecipitur quod et prioribus canonibus terminatur, ut non liceat eis uiuere libidinosa societate sed manente inter eos fide coniugali communem utilitatem habeant et non sub uno conclaui maneant, uel certe si suffragat uirtus, in aliam domum suam uxorem faciat habitare ut castitas et apud Deum et apud homines habeat testimonium bonum. Si qui uero post hanc conuentionem obscene cum uxore elegerit uiuere, ut lector habeatur. Qui uero semper sub canone ecclesiastico iacuerunt, si contra ueterum imperata in suis cellulis mulierum quae infamem suspicionem possunt generare, consortium habuerint, illi canonice quidem distringantur, mulieres uero ipsae ab episcopis uenundatae, pretium ipsum pauperibus erogetur.
 
The summary of the canon in the latter part of the concilar acts, so-called Edictum regis:
 
[5] Vt episcopis, presbyteris et diaconibus ex haerese conuersis iam non liceat misceri uxoribus, uel quod ii qui semper catholici fuerunt, in cellulis suis cum mulieribus extraneis non morentur.
 
(eds. Martinez Diez, Rodriguez 1992: 103, 105, 112-114)
 
 
 
 
 
 
[Title in the recension Iuliana] V That priests (sacerdotes) and Levites shall live with their wives in chastity
[Title in the recension Vulgata] V That bishops, presbyters and deacons that have come from the heresy shall not join themselves to their wives, and those who were always Catholics, shall not live in their dwellings with non-related (extaneae) women
 
Canon 5
 
The holy council has learnt that bishops, presbyters, and deacons that came from the heresy still have carnal relations with their wives. This shall not continue, and therefore it is decided (as has been already fixed by the previous canons) that it is not allowed for them to live in a lustful relationship, but they shall stay faithful to their conjugal bond for mutual benefit. If virtue prevails, they will not live in the same house, but the wife shall live in another house, so that there can be good testimony before God and before the people of chastity. If, however, after this council someone chooses to live indecently with his wife, he shall be demoted to [the grade of] lector. If, however, those who have always lived under the canonical discipline against the ancient prohibitions consort in their dwellings with women, which can generate shameful suspicion, they shall be hindered according to the canons, while their women shall be sold by bishops, and the profit from their sale shall be given to the poor.
 
The summary of the canon in the latter part of the concilar acts, so-called Edictum regis:
 
[5] That bishops, presbyters and deacons converted from the heresy no longer have carnal relations with their wives, and that those who were always Catholic shall not live with non-related (extraneae) women in their dwellings.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Toledo

About the source:

Title: Third Council of Toledo (589), Concilium III Toletanum, III Concilium Toletanum a. 589
Origin: Toledo (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Third Council of Toledo in 589 is a pivotal event that changed the religious allegiance of the Visigothic kingdom. The ruling elites of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse (418-507), and later in the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula adhered to the Arian (Homoian) Christianity, whereas the Roman population were dominantly Catholic (though the frontiers between the denominations were not impenetrable, as we know Goths who converted to the Nicene Christianity and Romans who were Homoian). In 587 King Reccared converted to Catholicism. This was followed by the decision to eliminate the religious division in the kingdom. The Third Council of Toledo in 589 assembled in May to confirm the conversion of all the Gothic leaders and Arian clergy to the Catholicism.
The literature on the conversion of the Visigoths and the Third Council in Toledo is voluminous - only a few seminal books and papers are signalised in the bibliography section below.
 
The acts of the Third Council of Toledo are transmitted in the 7th-century canonical collection from Spain, so-called Hispana. Its authorship has been atrributed to Isidore of Seville (it is still accepted by Martinez Diez 1966; other scholars reject this attribution: Munier 1966; Gaudemet 1967: 122-124; Schaferdiek 1967: 144-148; Landau 1968: 406-418). The collection has several recensions: primitive one, so-called Isidoriana, lost today; the Juliana recension edited after 681 and attributed to Julian of Toledo, that adds to the previous recension the acts and canons of the councils from the fifth council of Toledo do the twelfth (in 681); the Vulgata recension edited between 694-702 that adds the acts and canons of the councils from the the thirteenth council of Toledo up to the seventeenth held in 694, this recension was the most widespread during the Middle Ages (more bibliography see Kéry 1999: 61-67). The two recensions Iuliana and Vulgata give different titles to the canons of the Third Council of Toledo (Martinez Diez 1992: 17-20).
Edition:
G. Martínez Díez, F. Rodríguez eds., La colección canónica Hispana, Monumenta Hispaniae sacra. Serie canónica 5, Madrid 1992.
J. Vives ed., Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona-Madrid 1963.
 
Bibliography:
El Concilio III de Toledo. XIV Centenario, ed. R. Gonzalvez, Toledo 1991.
R. Collins, Visigothic Spain, 409-711, Oxford, OX, UK; Malden, MA, USA 2004.
J. Gaudemet, review of: "G. Martinez Diez, La coleccion canonica Hispana 1", Revue historique de droit français et étranger 4e ser.  45 (1967), 122-124.
J.N. Hillgarth, "La conversión de los Visigodos. Notas criticas", Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia 34/1 (1961), 21-46.
L. Kéry, Canonical collections of the early Middle Ages (ca. 400-1140): a bibliographical guide to the manuscripts and literature, Washington, D.C 1999.
M. Koch, Ethnische Identität im Entstehungsprozess des spanischen Westgotenreiches, Berlin; New York 2012.
P. Landau, review of: "G. Martinez Diez, La coleccion canonica Hispana 1", Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte Kanonistische Abteilung 54 (1968), 406-414.
G. Martínez Díez, La Colección canónica Hispana, vol. 1 Estudio, Madrid 1966.
C. Munier, "Saint Isidore de Séville est-il l’auteur de I’Hispana chronologique?", Sacris Erudiri 17 (1966), 230-241.
K. Schaferdiek, review of: "G. Martinez Diez, La coleccion canonica Hispana 1", Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 78 (1967), 144-148.
E.A. Thompson, "The Conversion of the Visigoths to Catholicism", Nottingham Medieval Studies 4 (1960), 4-35.
 

Categories:

Family life - Marriage
    Family life - Unspecified permanent relationship
      Family life - Permanent relationship after ordination
        Family life - Separation/Divorce
          Sexual life - Sexual activity
            Sexual life - Sexual abstinence
              Food/Clothes/Housing - Type of housing
                Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Arian
                  Change of denomination
                    Further ecclesiastical career - Lower clergy
                      Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
                        Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
                          Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
                            Relation with - Wife
                              Relation with - Woman
                                Sexual life - Marital
                                  Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
                                    Administration of justice - Demotion
                                      Private law - Ecclesiastical
                                        Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER346, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=346