Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 831
Canon 12 of the Council in Mérida (Iberian Peninsula) in AD 666 allows bishops to promote presbyters and deacons from their diocese to the cathedral clergy, but obliges them to provide a replacement in parish churches.
Canon 12
 
Ut episcopus qui illi placiti fuerint de parrochia sua presbyteres atque diacones cathedrales sibi faciant.
 
Si priorum canonum sententiae hunc recte tenet ordinem, ut episcopus ab alio episcopo, si indigenciam habuerit, clericum ad ordinandum petat et accipit: quur qui in dioecesim suam habet eos, quos pro Dei officio et suo iuvamine dignos repererit ad suam principalem ecclesiam non perducat et habeat? Pro huius rei causa hoc elegit unanimitas nostra, ut omnis episcopus provinciae nostrae si voluerit de parrochianis presbyteris atque diaconibus cathedralem sibi in principali ecclesia facere, maneat illi per omnia licentia. Hii tamen qui fuerint transducti humilitatem dignam episcopo suo teneant, et eo honore et reverencia habeantur et venerentur in cathedrali ecclesia, sicut hii quos constat fuisse ordinatos in ea, et quamvis ab episcopo suo stipendii causa per bonam obedienciam aliquid accipiant, ab ecclesiis tamen in quibus prius consecrati sunt vel a rebus earum extranei non maneant, sed pontificali electione sub presbyteri ipsius ordinatione presbyter alius instituantur, qui sanctum officium peragat et discretione prioris presbyteri victum et vestitum rationabiliter illi  ministretur ut non egeat: aut si quaesierit qui ordinatur stipendium a suo presbytero accipiat quantum dignitas officii eum habere expectat; clericis vero vel quos ad serviendum ei dederit per discretionis modum quae necessaria sunt ministret. Si quis sententiae huius ordinem implere distulerit, prout ratio permiserit, excommunicandum se esse noverit.
 
(ed. Vives 1963: 333-334)
Canon 12
 
That a bishop can promote [clerics] they like from their diocese to [the office of] cathedral presbyters and deacons.
 
As the decrees of previous canons rightly introduced the rule that a bishop can ask for and receive a cleric to ordain from another bishop if he suffers shortages, why should not a bishop having in his diocese those whom he finds fit for the service of God bring them to and have them in his principal church? Our unanimity decides in this case that every bishop of our province who wants to promote a diocesan presbyter or deacon to the cathedral office in the principal Church has every right to do so. Those, however, who have been transferred shall display proper humility to their bishop, and they shall be held in the same reverence and honour in the cathedral Church as those who have been ordained in this Church. Although they will receive a stipend from the bishop for their good obedience, they shall not be removed from the churches in which they were previously ordained and from their property, but by the pontifical choice other presbyters shall be installed in their place (sub presbyteri ipsius ordinatione) to perform the holy office. And he shall receive food and clothes according to the disposition of the first presbyter lest he be in want. Or the one ordained can demand a stipend from his presbyter in proportion to the dignity of the office. [The first presbyter] will also provide according to his judgement all the necessary things for [lower] clerics and others whom he will give him [his deputy] at service. If anyone fails to fulfil the rule of this decree according what is reasonable, he shall be excommunicated.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Merida

About the source:

Title: Council of Merida in 666, Concilium Emeritense a. 666, Council of Mérida in 666
Origin: Merida (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The provincial council of the Lusitania was held in Mérida in the church of Jerusalem in November 666. It was presided by the Bishop Proficius of Mérida, and eleven other bishops were present.
Edition:
J. Vives ed., Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona-Madrid 1963.

Categories:

Travel and change of residence
    Functions within the Church - Parish presbyter
      Functions within the Church - Cathedral presbyter
        Functions within the Church - Rural presbyter
          Functions within the Church - Urban presbyter
            Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
              Public law - Ecclesiastical
                Conflict
                  Relation with - Another presbyter
                    Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
                      Further ecclesiastical career
                        Livelihood/income
                          Shortage of clergy
                            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER831, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=831