Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 347
Canon 8 of the Third Council of Toledo (Iberian Peninsula, AD 589) forbids the reclamation of slaves of the treasury who have became clerics.
[Titulus in recensione Iuliana] VIII Vt clericus de familia fisci a principe non donetur.
[Titulus in recensione Vulgata] VIII Quod de clero ex familiis fisci nullus unquam a rege postulet, et qui acceperit, irrita talis donatio maneat.
 
Canon 8
 
Iubente autem atque consentiente domno piissimo Reccaredo rege, id praecepit sacerdotale concilium, ut clericos ex familia fisci nullus audeat a principe donatos expetere, sed reddito capitis sui tributo, ecclesiae Dei cui sunt alligati usque dum uiuent regulariter administrent.
 
The summary of the canon in the latter part of the concilar acts, so-called Edictum regis:
 
[8] Quod clericos ex familiis fisci nostri nullus unquam a rege postulet, et qui acceperit, irrita talis donatio maneat.
 
(eds. Martinez Diez, Rodriguez 1992: 103, 105, 115, 135)
 
 
 
 
 
 
[Title in the recension Iuliana] VIII That a cleric who was a slave of the treasury shall not be donated by a monarch.
[Title in the recension Vulgata] VIII That no one shall demand from the king a cleric who was a slave belonging to the treasury, and that if such a donation has been already made, it is not valid.
 
Canon 8
 
With the order and consent of the most pious lord king Reccared the priestly council decided that no one dare to demand from the king to donate him a slave belonging to the treasury who become a cleric, but this cleric, having paid the tribute for himself, shall regularly serve the Church of God to which he is bound as long as he lives.
 
The summary of the canon in the latter part of the concilar acts, so-called Edictum regis:
 
[8] That no one ever demand from a king clerics who belonged as slaves to our treasury, and if a king agrees, this donation will not be valid.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

The exact meaning of the canon is obscure, a lot of different interpretations have been proposed. The 18th-century scholar, J.F. Masdeu (1792: 375) understood this canon as a prohibition directed to the "procurator of the treasury" who shall not claim the slaves of the treasury that were donated for the service of God by the king, and that their churches shall pay the tribute for them. Similarly, Tejada (1861: 232) believed that the prohibition is more universal (that nobody, not only a procurator of the treasury, shall claim those slaves). E. Florez (1859: 143), admitting, however, that this canon is a most difficult to understand, thought that it forbids clerics from appropriating goods donated by the king for the service of God. Something else was proposed by Perez Pujol (1896: 264) – according to his interpretation the king is donating his slaves to the Church, but he still has the right to claim the poll-tax (capitatio humana) for them. However, after clerical ordination slaves become free in the eyes of the Church, and thus not obligated to pay tax. In this situation the fiscal magistrates are trying to revoke the donation, because the treasury not only loses a slave (effect of the donation), but also the tax revenue. The canon thus decides that the representatives of the treasury cannot reclaim a former slave who became a cleric as long as he pays the poll-tax for himself. Perez Pujol's interpretation was the main inspiration for the translation proposed above. P.D. King (2006: 68, n. 3) argues that the last part of the canon cannot be translated "Let them serve the church, for administrare takes the accusative". But administrare takes accusative in the meaning "to administer, manage (an estate)", but it takes dative in the meaning "to give attention, to minister" (Glare 1982, s.v. administro).

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:
Editions:
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:

Social origin or status - Slaves
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Relation with - Monarch and royal/imperial family
        Relation with - Secular authority
          Economic status and activity - Taxes and services
            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, ER347, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=347