The Presbyters Project

Letter 236

2. Auditores autem qui appellantur apud eos, et carnibus uescuntur et agros colunt et, si uoluerint, uxores habent, quorum nihil faciunt, qui electi uocantur. sed ipsi auditores ante electos genua figunt, ut eis manus supplicibus inponatur non a solis presbyteris uel episcopis aut diaconis eorum sed a quibuslibet electis.

(ed. Goldbacher 1911: 524)

Letter 236

2. But those who are called hearers among them eat meat and cultivate fields and, if they wish, take wives; the elect do none of these things. But the hearers kneel before the elect in order that not only their presbyters or bishops or deacons but even any of the elect may impose hands on these supplicants. [...]

(trans. R. Teske 2005: 134, slightly altered)

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

About the source:

Author: Augustine of Hippo
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Hippo Regius (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The letters of Augustine of Hippo cover a wide range of topics: Holy Scripture, dogma and liturgy, philosophy, religious practice and everyday life. They range from full-scale theological treatises to small notes asking someone for a favour. The preserved corpus includes 308 letters, 252 written by Augustine, 49 that others sent to him and seven exchanged between third parties. 29 letters have been discovered only in the 20th century and edited in 1981 by Johannes Divjak; they are distinguished by the asterisk (*) after their number.

The preserved letters of Augustine extend over the period from his stay at Cassiciacum in 386 to his death in Hippo in 430.

Edition:

A. Goldbacher ed., S. Augustini Hipponiensis Episcopi Epistulae, Pars 4, Ep. 185-270, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 57, Vienna-Leipzig 1911.

Translation:

Saint Augustine, Letters 211–270, 1*–29*, trans. R. Teske, New York 2005.

Categories:

Ritual activity - Imposition of hands

Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Manichaean

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER730, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=730