Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 858
Canon 13 of the Council of Vannes (Gaul, AD 461/491) deals with drunken clerics.
[Capitulum secundum cod. A] XIII. De ebriosos clericis.
 
Ante omnia a clericis uitetur ebrietas, quae omnium uitiorum fomes ac nutrix est; nec quis potest liberum corporis sui ac mentis habere iudicium, cum captus uino a sensu probetur alienus et procliuis ad uitium mente labefacta ducatur, ac plerumque possit peccatum aut crimen, dum nescit, incurrere. Sed ignorantia talis non potest non subiacere poenae, quam ex uoluntaria amentia manasse constiterit. Itaque eum quem ebrium fuisse constiterit, ut ordo patitur, aut triginta dierum spatio a communione statuimus submouendum aut corporali subdendum esse supplicio.
 
(ed. Munier 1963: 155, 158)
[Title according to cod. A] XIII. On drunken clerics.
 
Above all, clerics should avoid drunkenness, which is the root and mother of all vices. For when someone is overcome by wine, he cannot make an impartial judgment of body or mind; he is deprived of reason and weak in resolve; he is inclined to a vice, and can commit many sins and crimes, of which he is not aware afterwards. But this kind of ignorance cannot reduce the punishment, because it derives from voluntary stupidity. Therefore, we decree that one who gets drunk will be, according to his order, banned from communion for a period of thirty days or punished corporally.
 
(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Discussion:

Compare with canon 2 of the First Council of Tours (AD 461) [815].

Place of event:

Region
  • Gaul
City
  • Vannes

About the source:

Title: Council of Vannes, Concilium Veneticum anno 461/491
Origin: Vannes (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
This council took place in Vannes in Brittany sometime between 461 and 491. The acts of this synod are known from the letter which the synodal fathers – six bishops, with the Bishop Perpetuus of Tours mentioned in first place – have sent to the absent Bishops Victor and Thalasius. The main cause for the episcopal gathering was the ordination of Paternus to the bishopric of Vannes.
Edition:
Ch. Munier ed., Concilia Galliae a. 314-a. 506, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 148, Turnhoult 1963.

Categories:

Food/Clothes/Housing - Food and drink
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Public law - Ecclesiastical
        Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
          Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema
            Administration of justice - Corporal punishment
              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER858, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=858