The Presbyters Project

Canon 18

De synodo facienda.

Propter ecclesiasticas curas et altercationum solutiones bene placuit per singulas provincias bis in anno concilium fieri, convocante metropolitano episcopo omnes provinciae episcopos, ita ut in his conciliis procedant omnes presbyteri, diacones vel hi quorum in concilio causae examinatae ad iustum iudicium perducantur, et si qui manifeste episcopi vel presbyteri aut diacones inventi fuerint in offensa, secundum rationem excommunicentur, quamdiu communi consensu mitiorem de his placuit dare sententiam. Nulli autem episcopo liceat propria apud semetipsum concilia facere praeter eos qui sunt metropoles creditae.

(ed. Barlowe 1950: 129)

Canon 18

On the gathering of the council.

We decree that a council shall be held in every province twice a year for the various ecclesiastical cares and solutions of the conflicts. The metropolitan bishop shall convoke all the bishops of the province in such way that also all presbyters, deacons and all those whose cases are to be examined for the just judgment on the council arrive, and if some bishops, presbyters, or deacons are found to be guilty of an offence, they shall be excommunicated according to their guilt provided that the council with the common consent does not decide to issue a more lenient sentence in their case. But no bishop except of those who are metropolitans shall make his own councils at his see.

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

Cf. canon 20 of the council of Antioch in AD 341.

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Braga

About the source:

Author: Martin of Braga
Title: Collectio orientalium canonum, seu Capitula Martini, Capitula Martini, Collection of the Eastern canons
Origin: Braga (Iberian Peninsula), Antioch (East)

In the manuscript tradition the canons of the Second Council of Braga (Iberian Peninsula) in AD 572 are followed by the Eastern canons collected and translated into Latin by Martin of Braga (Iberian Peninsula). He was using a Greek collection, impossible to identify with any of the collections known today, which gathered the canons of the several Eastern councils. Martin quotes also the canons of the First Council of Toledo AD 400. Martin dedicated his work to Bishop Nitigisius of Lugo (Iberian Peninsula). Those two bishops met on the Second Council of Braga, and possibly the collection was composed for this occasion (Barlowe 1950: 84-87).

Edition:

C. Barlowe ed., Martini episcopi Bracarensis opera omnia, New Haven 1950.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Ecclesiastical administration - Participation in councils and ecclesiastical courts

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, ER1064, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1064