Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 882
Canon 2 of the Twelfth Council in Toledo (Iberian Peninsula, AD 681) forbids priests to give penance to unconscious or unwilling persons.
Canon 2
 
The canon forbids people who entered the order of penitents during sickness without being fully conscious to reject the obligations of penance.   
 
[...] Nec enim ista instituentes, sacerdotes quosque, ut passim et licenter donum paenitentiae non petentibus audeant prorogare, absoluimus. Sed hos qui qualibet sorte paenitentiam susceperint, ne ulterius ad militare cingulum redeant, religamus; sacerdotes tamen qui non sentienti neque petenti ausu temerario paenitentiam dederit, neque se exhortatum eius qui paenitentiam accepit, manuum indiciis, uel quibuslibet aliis euidentibus significationibus inuitatum fuisse probauerit, unius anni excommunicationis sententiae subiacebit.
 
(eds. Martínez Díez, Rodríguez 2002: 157-158)
Canon 2
 
The canon forbids people who entered the order of penitents during sickness without being fully conscious to reject the obligations of penance.   
 
But we do not decree that it is permitted for priests to dare randomly and freely to give the gift of penance to those who do not ask for it. But those who undertook penance in whatever way we bind not to go back to secular service [literally: to the military belt]. The priests, however, who had the effrontery to offer penance to a person not conscious or not asking for it, and who were not urged by the person who recieved penance by a gesture of hands or invited by any other evident sign, shall be punished by one year of excommunication.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

This canon has to be read in the context of the abdication of Wamba. The impossibility of regaining "cingulum militare" (the military belt that symbolises military or public service) after undertaking the penitential discipline, enacted by canon 17 of the Sixth Council of Toledo [500], was confirmed here to corroborate the lawfulness of Wamba's abdication.

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Toledo

About the source:

Title: Concilium Toletanum XII a. 681, Concilium XII Toletanum a. 681, Twelfth Council of Toledo in 681 AD
Origin: Toledo (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Twelfth Council of Toledo gathered on 9 January 681, after the reign of King Wamba came to an end. The senior bishop at the council was Julian of Seville, and the bishop of Toledo was at the time Julian of Toledo (the author of Historia Wambae). The preface of the acts of the council relates the end of Wamba`s rule, his illness, and the penance he received on his deathbed. He survived, but, as a penitent, he could not continue to be a king; thus the new kingdom passed to Ervig, whose rule the council confirmed. Since the circumstances of Ervig`s ascent to power were at least suspicious, Ervig issued a document, (a tomus) to assert his version of the facts related above that was appended to the acts of the council (Thompson 1960: 229–231). The council also confirmed the anti-Jewish legislation added by Ervig to the Lex Visigothorum (there are 28 of them, many concern priests and presbyters; see [553], [555], [606], [632], [635], [636], [637], [646], [648], [649], [652]), see Collins 2004: 234-235.
Edition:
G. Martínez Díez, F. Rodríguez eds., La colección canónica Hispana, Monumenta Hispaniae sacra. Serie canónica 6, Madrid 2002.
Bibliography:
R. Collins, Visigothic Spain, 409-711, Oxford 2004.
E.A. Thompson, The Goths in Spain, Oxford 1969.

Categories:

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
    Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance
      Public law - Ecclesiastical
        Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
          Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
            Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema
              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER882, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=882