The Presbyters Project

Canon 9 (7)

His etiam constitutionibus adnecti placuit, ut defuncto episcopo, presbytero uel diacono uel quemquam ex iuniore ordine clericum non per preceptum neque per iudicem neque per qualemcumque personam res ecclesiae uel eorum proprietas, quousque aut de testamentis aut qualemcumque obligationem fecerit cognoscatur, a nullo penitus supra scriptae res contingantur, sed ab archidiacono uel clero in omnibus defendantur et conseruentur. Quod siquis inmemor definitionis huius temere aliquid exinde auferre presumpserit aut auso temerario in res ipsas ingressus fuerit et de dominatione ecclesiae abstulerit, ut negatur pauperum a communione priuetur.

(ed. de Clercq 1963: 277)

Canon 9 (7)

It has also pleased us to add to these resolutions that when a bishop, presbyter, or deacon, or anyone of the lower ranks of the clergy dies, neither the church property nor their personal possessions shall be seized by anyone, either by decree or by a judge or by any other person, until the will or the obligations which he has entered into are known, but that the property shall be defended and preserved in its entirety by the archdeacon or clergy. Whoever dares to appropriate any of it in rash disregard of this decision, or in imprudent boldness enters the estates and removes them from the ecclesiastial domain, shall be deprived of communion as a murderer of the poor.

(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Paris

About the source:

Title: Fifth Council of Paris, Concilium Parisiense V anno 614
Origin: Paris (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The Fifth Council of Paris was called by King Chlothar II one year after he became the sole ruler of the Frankish lands. On 10 October 614, it gathered twelve metropolitan bishops, sixty-three bishops (including the bishop of Rochester), and the abbot of Canterbury. Although it was one of the biggest of the Merovingian councils, its acts were preserved in only two canonical collections, and was surprisingly little cited by the later medieval compilators. Five days after the council, King Chlothar II issued an edict in which he repeated the synodal decrees, albeit using slightly different wording.

Edition:

C. de Clercq ed., Concilia Galliae a. 511-a. 695, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 148 A, Turnhout 1963.

Translation:

J. Gaudemet, B. Basdevant, Les canons des conciles mérovingiens VIe-VIIe siècles, Sources chrétiennes 353, Paris 1989.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Economic status and activity - Ownership or possession of land

Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth

Economic status and activity - Inheritance

Relation with - Another presbyter

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Deacon

Relation with - Lower cleric

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1588, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1588