The Presbyters Project

Letter 38

Innocentius Maximo et Severo episcopis pro Brittios.

Ecclesiasticorum canonum norma nulli esse debet incognita sacerdotum: quia nesciri haec a pontifice satis est indecorum, maxime cum a laicis religiosis viris et sciatur, et custodienda esse ducatur. Nuper quidem Maximilianus filius noster agens in rebus cujusmodi querelam detulerit, libelli ejus series annexa declarat. Qui zelo fidei ac disciplinae ductus, non patitur Ecclesiam pollui ab indignis presbyteris, quos in presbyterio filios asserit procreasse. Quod non licere exponerem, nisi nossem vestram prudentiam legis totius habere notitiam. Et ideo, fratres charissimi, libelli, qui subjectus est, tenore perspecto, eos qui talia perpetrasse dicuntur, jubebitis in medio collocari; discussisque objectionibus, quae ipsis presbyteris impinguntur, si convinci potuerint, a sacerdotali removeantur officio: quia qui sancti non sunt, sancta tentare non possunt; atque alieni efficiantur a ministerio, quod vivendo illicite polluerunt. Miramur autem haec eorum dissimulare episcopos, ut aut connivere, aut nescire esse illicita judicentur.

(ed. Coustant 1845: 605)

Letter 38

Innocent to Maximus and Severus, the bishops in Calabria (Bruttium).

No priest should be ignorant of the norms of the ecclesiastical canons. It is truly undignified when a bishop does not know what should be known and observed even by religious laymen. Our son Maximilianus, agens in rebus, made a complaint, adding the list of the cases. Driven by the zeal of the faith and dicipline, he cannot tolerate that the Church is polluted by unworthy presbyters who, as it is asserted, conceived children while they were already presbyters. I would expose publicly this misbehaviour, if I was not sure that Your Prudence is aware of this law in its full extent. However, my dearest brothers, it seems from the attached report that you were ready to accept those who were said to have committed such things, whereas such presbyters, if they were charged with such accusations, should have been removed from the priestly office. This is because those who are not holy cannot handle holy things; they have also proven to be alien to the ministry, which they have fouled by their forbidden ways of life. We wonder, however, why it is that the bishops either turn a blind eye or pretend not to know that it is illegal.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

Since the collection of Innocent I is generally ordered chronologically, this letter must have been written towards the end of his pontificate.

Place of event:

Region

Rome
Italy south of Rome and Sicily

City

Rome

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:

G.D. Dunn, "The Development of Rome as Metropolitan of Suburbicarian Italy. Innocent I’s Letter to the Bruttians”, Augustinianum 51 (2011), 161–190.

Categories:

Family life - Offspring

Sexual life - Sexual activity

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς

Impediments or requisits for the office - Improper/Immoral behaviour

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Further ecclesiastical career - Lay status

Administration of justice - Demotion

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1736, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1736