Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 915
Canon 10 of the Council of Agde (Gaul, AD 506) forbids clerics to live in one house and spend time with women to whom they are not related.
[Titulum secundum cod. A] X. De familiaritate extranearum mulierum.
[Titulum secundum cod. R] X. Quae mulieris in domus habitent clericorum.
[Titulum secundum coll. Hispanam] X. Vt nullus clericorum cum extraneis feminis habitet.
 
Id etiam ad custodiendam uitam et famam speciali ordinatione praecipimus, ut nullus clericorum extraneae mulieri qualibet consolatione aut familiaritate iungatur. Et non solum in domum illius extranea mulier non accedat, sed nec ipse frequentandi ad extraneam mulierem habeat potestatem, sed cum matre tantum, sorore, filia et nepte, si habuerit aut uoluerit, uiuendi liberam habeat potestatem, de quibus nominibus nefas est aliud, quam natura constituit, suspicari.
 
(ed. Munier 1963: 199-200, 220, 222, 224)
[Title according to cod. A] X. On familiarity with non-related women.
[Title according to cod. R] X. What women can live in the houses of clerics.
[Title according to the Hispana collection] X. That no cleric should live with unrelated women.
 
This we also command with a special regulation that, in order to guard his life and reputation, no cleric should seek in a woman to whom he is not related whatever kind of consolation or familiarity. And not only should non-related woman not dwell in his house, but also he himself should not have the right to spend time with a non-related woman. If he can and wants to, he is free to live only with his mother, sister, daughter and granddaughter, of whom nothing else should be suspected than what nature has decreed.
 
(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region
  • Gaul
City
  • Agde

About the source:

Title: Council of Agde, Concilium Agathense anno 506
Origin: Agde (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Council of Agde was held in September of 506 under the auspices of Cesarius, bishop of Arles, and with the permission of the Visigothic King Alaric. The first 47 canons are considered genuine, since only those are present in the oldest codices. The rest, present in some manuscripts, must have been taken from the other council acts, especially those of the Council of Epaone in 517. This council was attended by 24 bishops, and 8 presbyters and 2 deacons, who represented their bishops. More on the council, see Klingshirn 1994, 97-104.
Edition:
Ch. Munier ed., Concilia Galliae a. 314-a. 506, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 148, Turnhoult 1963.
Bibliography:
W.E. Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles: the making of a Christian community in late antique Gaul, Cambridge 1994.

Categories:

Family life - Offspring
    Sexual life - Extramarital
      Food/Clothes/Housing - Type of housing
        Described by a title - Clericus
          Relation with - Father/Mother
            Relation with - Children
              Relation with - Other relative
                Relation with - Woman
                  Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER915, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=915