The Presbyters Project

Letter 1

16. Feminas vero non alias esse patimur in domibus clericorum, nisi eas tantum, quas propter solas necessitudinum causas habitare cum iisdem synodus Nicaena permisit.

(ed. Coustant 1845: 1140-1142)

Letter 1

16. We certainly do not allow women in the houses of clerics, other than those alone whom the synod of Nicaea, for reasons only of necessities, permitted to live with them.

(trans. R. Somerville, B. Brasington; http://www.historyandapologetics.com/2015/02/letter-of-pope-siricius-to-bishop.html)

Discussion:

The passage refers to Canon 3 of the Council of Nicaea (325), which forbade the presence of the "subintroductae" women in the houses of clerics, except for their mothers, sisters, aunts, or any women "beyond suspicion". See also [64], [69], [212].

Place of event:

Region

Rome
Iberian Peninsula

City

Rome

About the source:

Author: Siricius
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The letter, written in early AD 385, is the response to the questions sent by Himerius, bishop of Tarragona in the Iberian Peninsula, to the predecessor of Siricius, Damasus. It is considered to be first papal "decretal", i.e. a letter aimed at correcting doctrinal errors and impose discipline in an authoritative way.

Edition:

P. Coustant ed., S. Siricii papae epistolae et decreta, Paris 1845, Patrologia Latina 13, 1131-1178.

H. Wurm, Studien und Texte zur Dekretalensammlung des Dionysius Exiguus, Bonn 1939.

Translation:

Robert Somerville and Bruce Brasington, Prefaces to Canon Law Books in Latin Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) 36-39

Bibliography:

A. Ferreiro, "Pope Siricius and Himerius of Tarragona (385): Provincial Papal Intervention in the Fourth Century”, [in :] The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity, Farnham, Burlington 2015.

Categories:

Family life - Unspecified permanent relationship

Relation with - Woman

Food/Clothes/Housing

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1477, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1477