The Presbyters Project

Letter 2

X-XI (=13). De monachis, qui diu morantes in monasteriis, si postea ad clericatus ordinem pervenerint, non debere eos a priore proposito deviare. Aut enim sicut in monasterio fuit, et quod diu servavit, in meliori gradu positus amittere non debet: aut si corruptus postea baptizatus, et in monasterio sedens, ad clericatus ordinem accedere voluerit, uxorem omnino habere non poterit; quia nec benedici cum sponsa potest jam corruptus. Quae forma servatur in clericis, maxime cum vetus regula hoc habeat, ut quisquis corruptus baptizatus, clericus esse voluisset, sponderet se uxorem omnino non ducere.

(ed. Coustant 1845: 477)

Letter 2

X-XI (=13). About the monks who lived for a long time in a monastery, if they arrived later at the grade of clericate: they should not deviate from their earlier resolutions. For [such a man] either served for a long time in the monastery, and there led a better way of life, and so should not abandon it. Or, if he was corrupted and then baptized, and then wanted to accede to the clerical grade while being in the monastery, he can by no means have a wife, because being corrupted he cannot receive the benediction with his wife. It is accepted for all clergy, especially because it has been an old rule, that if someone was corrupted and then baptized, and then wanted to become a cleric, he would have to promise solemnly not to take a wife at all.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The situation described in the letter as the second alternative is probably such: someone had a wife, and then was baptized, and then entered a monastery. Afterwards, he took another wife (the first one may have died in the meantime), thinking that the first one, having been taken before the baptism, does not count (see [1540] from the same letter), and he wanted to be ordained. Innocent I finds it an unacceptable situation. It is also possible that the passage envisages a monk who thought that being ordained would free him from the monastic discipline, including chastity.

Place of event:

Region

Rome
Gaul

City

Rome
Rouen

About the source:

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

Innocent I was the bishop of Rome from AD 401 to 417. Several of his letters, especially to the bishops of Gaul and Spain, are "decretals": authoritative letters containing papal rulings, usually in response to questions raised by the bishops.

Edition:

P. Coustant ed., S. Innocentii Papae Epistolae et Decreta, Patrologia Latina 20, Paris 1845, 463-608.

Bibliography:

D. Jasper, H. Fuhrmann, Papal Letters in the Early Middle Ages, Washington 2001.

Categories:

Sexual life - Sexual abstinence

Described by a title - Clericus

Impediments or requisits for the office - Marriage

Monastic or common life

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1575, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1575