Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 851
Canon 20 of the Council in Mérida (Iberian Peninsula) in AD 666 regulates the manumissions of slaves of the Church performed by bishops and presbyters.
Canon 20
 
Qualiter libertos episcopi faciant vel qualiter liberti a patrocinio ecclesiae numquam discedant.
 
In priorum canonum ordine institutum manet qualiter episcopi de familiae ecclesiae libertis debeant facere. Multi etenim sacerdotes, prout illis concessit divina gratia, habent unde canonicum ordinem impleant et sic libertos faciant, et sunt multi qui nihil habentes ad hanc gratiam veniunt et sic libertos facere praesumunt. Tales etiam libertos regula canonica esse non iubet stabilitos; contingere etenim solet ut postquam manumissor eorum ab hac discesserit luce, talis occurrat successor qui aut ecclesiae familiam minime quaerat aut per bonam volumtatem vel negligenciam hii a quo nihil ecclesiae offerente liberi facti sunt longo pro tempore libertos se esse defendant, atque eas libertates ita abscondant ut pro hoc quaerenti episcopo laborem faciant. Talium si sit volumtas, licentia conceditur nulla quia non potuerunt neque a servitio ecclesiae numquam discedunt et pro his rebus in libertate permanere non poterunt. Sanctorum canonum non abicienda sunt instituta atque his quae implenda esse oportet addimus nova.
Placuit huic sanctae synodo, ut quisquis digne iuxta canonicam regulam libertus fuerit factus, in libertate maneat et a patrocinio ecclesiae ipse aut posteritas eius numquam discedat. Quisquis vero, non ut ordo canonicus poscit, libertus fuerit factus, quamvis prolixitas temporis in scripturae suae textu inveniatur, quia a servitio ecclesiae numquam visus est abscessisse, et canonica sententia rescindi iubet talem libertatem, ut ille et posteritas omnis eius in servitio permaneant sanctae ecclesiae, cui debiti manent per veram originem. Illos vero per omnia stabilitos in libertate esse instituimus, qui ab his episcopis liberi sunt vel fuerint facti, qui de suo bona plurima sanctae ecclesiae, in qua praesident, per suae scripturae textum cognoscitur contulisse: et hii quamlibet iubeantur esse stabiles, nullo modo recedendi sunt a patrocinio sanctae ecclesiae.
Quod si contigerit eos eorumque filios personis ingenuis esse coniunctos, et quandoque eorum posteritas patrocinium ecclesiae voluerit despicere ex cuius familia per veram originem constat eos genitos esse, si ex his libertis trahunt originem qui iuxta canonicam sententiam iubentur esse stabiles, et dignitatis suae nomen teneant, et ecclesiae patrocinium nunquam amittant. Certe si ex his inventi fuerint originem trahere, quos canonicae regulae non iubent liberos esse, quamlibet post longa tempora dummodo origine firmata, reducendi tamen sunt ad sanctae ecclesiae cui pertinent iura. Liberti tamen ex familia ecclesiae facti et posteritas quae ex his est procreata, si libertatem suam vel parentum suorum inventi fuerint celasse aut abscondere, et tempore quo ab episcopo fuerint ammoniti eam praesentare distulerint, dum eorum origo, ut iam diximus, fuerit manifestata per legalem testem, ad servitium ecclesiae reducantur, et ut episcopo fuerit placitum ita eos habeat. Haec forma et in presbyteris servanda erit, qui cum voluntate episcopi sui iuxta canonicam regulam de familia suae ecclesiae liberos facere voluerint.  
 
(ed. Vives 1963: 339-340)
Canon 20
 
How bishops shall emancipate people and how freed men shall never be detached from the patronage of the Church.
 
In the rules of the earlier canons, it has been decreed how bishops should emancipate people from within the familia of the Church. For many priests, according to what is conceded to them by divine grace, have enough to fulfil the canonical order, and they emancipate slaves accordingly, and there are many others who have nothing and nevertheless are so grateful that they also presume to liberate [slaves]. The canonical rule does not order such freed men to be fixed [to the Church], yet it frequently happens that after their manumissor dies, either his successor does not make inquiries into the familia of the Church because of good will or negligence, or those who were emancipated without an offering having been made to the Church [for them] defend for a long time that they are freed men and conceal their liberties, pretending that they work for the bishop who is making the enquiry. Even if they have been manumitted in the will [?], they shall not be granted permission because they cannot do it. They will not abandon the service of the Church, and for the reason [of irregular manumission?] they cannot remain free. The decrees of the holy canons shall not be discarded, and to these we add the new things that shall be fulfilled.
It pleased the holy council that anyone who has been set free according to the canonical rule shall remain free, and that they, as well as their posterity, shall never leave the patronage of the Church. However, if anyone is emancipated in defiance of the canonical rule, even if some time has passed from issuing his document [of liberation], because he has never in fact left the service of the Church, then the canonical decree declares that such liberty be rescinded so that he and all his posterity remain in the service of the holy Church to whom they belong by their true origin. We decree that those, however, shall remain in liberty who have been liberated by their bishops who conferred many goods of their own by documents to the Church over which they preside. Even though they are regarded to have been fixed, they shall not leave the patronage of the holy Church.
But if it happens that they or their children marry the free-born persons, and their posterity would like to recede from the patronage of the Church in whose familia they were born by their true origin, if they trace their origin to those freed men who, according to canonical decree, had been judged fixed, they shall keep the name of their dignity and never renounce the patronage of the Church. But if they are proved to trace their origin to those freed men whom the canonical rules do not declare free, even if a long time has elapsed, they shall be brought back to the Church to which they pertain. If freedmen of the familia of the Church and their children are found to conceal their freedom or the freedom of their parents, and fail to present themselves after being admonished by the bishop, when their origin, as we have said, is demonstrated by a legitimate witness, they shall be brought back to the service of the Church, and the bishop will deal with them according to his will. This rule shall also be observed by the presbyters who, in keeping with the will of their bishop [and] according to the canonical rule, would like to emancipate persons from the familia of their Church.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

The canon is directed against the irregular manumissions performed by the bishops and parish priests. The earlier canonical regulations (as e.g. the canon 1 of the First Council of Seville) ordered manumitters to compensate the Church for the loss of a slave from his own property. All the manumissions performed without such compensations are considered to be an illicit alienation of the Church property and thus shall be rendered invalid. See also the canons 67-74 of the Fourth Council of Toledo in AD 633 [485], [486].

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 called "Jerusalem" in November AD 666. It was presided over by Bishop Proficius of Mérida, and eleven other bishops were present.
Edition:
J. Vives ed., Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona-Madrid 1963.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    Economic status and activity - Slave ownership
      Legal practice
        Reasons for ordination - Patronage
          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, ER851, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=851