Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 873
Canon 10 of the Eleventh Council in Toledo (Iberian Peninsula, AD 675) orders clerics to swear before their ordination to guard the Catholic faith, observe the canonical rules, and be obedient to their superiors.
Canon 10
 
Vt omnes pontifices rectoresque ecclesiarum tempore quo ordinandi sunt, sub cautione promittant quam iustissime uiuere debeant.
 
Quamquam omnis qui sacris mancipatur ordinibus, canonicis regulis teneatur astrictus, expedibile tamen est ut promissionis suae uota sub cautione spondeant quos ad promotionis gradus ecclesiastica prouehit disciplina. Solet enim plus timeri quod singulariter pollicetur quam quod generali  innexione concluditur. Et ideo placuit huic sancto concilio, ut unusquisque qui ad ecclesiasticos gradus est accessurus, non ante honoris consecrationem accipiat quam placiti sui innodatione promittat ut fidem catholicam sincera cordis deuotione custodiens iuste et pie uiuere debeat, et ut in nullis operibus suis canonicis regulis contradicat, atque ut debitum per omnia honorem atque obsequii reuerentiam praeminenti sibi unusquisque dependat, iuxta illud beati papae Leonis edictum: "Qui scit se quibusdam esse praepositum, non moleste ferat aliquem sibi esse praelatum, sed oboedientiam quam exigit, etiam ipse dependat". Poena tamen iuxta ecclesiasticae consuetudinis morem et placitis talium inserenda et ab his qui transgressores fuerint, persoluenda est.
 
(eds. Martínez Díez, Rodríguez 2002: 113-114)
Canon 10
 
That all the pontiffs and the rectors of the Churches in the time of ordination shall promise giving a guarantee that they will live very justly.
 
Although every person who serves in the sacred orders is restrained by the canonical rules, it is, however, profitable that those who are promoted by the ecclesiastical discipline to a higher grade shall give an assurance of their promises. For usually these things that were once specifically promised are more feared than those that are decided by the general restriction. And therefore it pleased the holy council that everyone who is to accede to an ecclesiastical grade shall not receive the consecration of the honour before he give a promise that he will live piously and justly observing the Catholic faith with sincere devotion of heart, and he will not oppose in any of his actions the canonical rules, and that he will in every regard owe the honour and reverence of servanthood to those more eminent than himself, according to the edict of the blessed pope Leo: "Who finds himself being a superior of others, shall not bear it with distress, but he shall himself observe the obedience he exacts." A punishment shall be set according to the ecclesiastical custom and according to the written document, and it shall be imposed on transgressors.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

The quotation from the papal edict comes from letter 14, chapter 17 of Leo I to Anastasius of Thessaloniki from AD 446 (eds. Ballerini 1753: col. 692).
 
It is possible that the legislators have in mind not only an oral promise but also an issuance of some kind of written document.
 

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Toledo

About the source:

Title: Concilium Toletanum XI a. 675, Concilium XI Toletanum a. 675, Eleventh Council of Toledo in 675 AD
Origin: Toledo (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Eleventh Council of Toledo in AD 675 was the first council convened in the capital since AD 656. However, in contrast to the previous Toletan councils (apart from the one held in AD 597), it was not a plenary gathering of the bishops from all the Spanish provinces (on the discontinuation of the plenary councils see Collins 2004: 99-100), but only a provincial council of the Carthaginensis. It was gathered by King Wamba (AD 672-680). Present were seventeen bishops, six abbots and three representatives of absent bishops.
Edition:
G. Martínez Díez, F. Rodríguez eds., La colección canónica Hispana, Monumenta Hispaniae sacra. Serie canónica 6, Madrid 2002.
Bibliography:
P. and G. Ballerini eds., Sancti Leoni Magni Romani pontificis opera, vol. 1, Venice 1753
R. Collins, Visigothic Spain, 409-711, Oxford 2004.

Categories:

Former ecclesiastical career - Unspecified clerical grade
    Public law - Ecclesiastical
      Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
        Described by a title - Rector
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER873, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=873