The canon shows us two things: firstly, the clergy of higher grades (bishops, presbyters, and deacons) were retained as the heads of their households, including probably their spouses, children and servants. Secondly, religious divisions could also run deep inside families. Since the canon was passed in Africa, it is most probably aimed against Donatists (thus the stress on 'Christian Catholics') and pagans.
The canon was repeated in Registri Ecclesiae Carthaginensis Excerpta as Canon 36, in the Breviary of Ferrandus (523/546) as Canon 15 and in Collectio Hispana.