The Presbyters Project

Canon 8

De his qui uxores suas diuortio intercedente relinquunt.

Praeceptum Domini est ut excepta causa fornicationis uxor a uiro dimitti non debeat (cf. Matt 19:6). Et ideo quicumque citra culpam criminis supradicti uxorem suam quacumque occasione reliquerit, quia quod Deus iunxit ille separare disposuit, tamdiu ab ecclesiastica communione priuatus et coetu omnium Christianorum maneat alienus quamdiu et ad societatem relictae coniugis redeat et partem sui corporis honesta lege coniugii sinceriter amplectatur et foueat. Ii tamen qui iam admoniti a sacerdote semel et bis terque ut corrigantur, ad carum suae coniugis noluerint redire consortium, ipsi se suis meritis et a palatinae dignitatis officio separabunt et insuper generosae dignitatis testimonium, quamdiu in culpa fuerint, amissuri sunt, quia carnem suam discidii iugulo tradiderunt.

(eds. Martínez Díez, Rodríguez 2002: 173-174)

Canon 8

On those who divorce from their wives and abandon them.

The precept of the Lord says that apart from in the case of fornication the man shall not put away his wife (cf. Matt 19:6). And therefore whoever leaves his wife for whatever reason without her being guilty of the above-mentioned crime, shall be deprived of the ecclesiastical communion and be a stranger to the community of all the Christians until he returns to the union with the abandoned wife and sincerely embraces and favours her as a part of his own body according to the honest law of the matrimony. Those, however, who have been admonished by the priest once, twice, and thrice to correct themselves, and still do not want to return to the dear union with their wife, shall be deprived of their office in the court and of their entitlements, and shall also lose the testimony of the noble dignity as long as they persist in their crime, because they severed their own body by divorce.

(trans. M. Szada)

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 receiving penance 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

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Noble

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Private law - Ecclesiastical

Pastoral activity

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1016, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1016