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ID
ER 2216
The Emperors Valens, Gratian, and Valentinian issue a law exempting clerics from the rank of presbyters to ostiaries from the compulsory public services that are incumbent on persons. The law issued on 5 March 377, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438 and repeated in in the Justinian Code, promulgated in 529 and then again 534.
XVI.2.24 = cf. CJ I.3.6
 
IDEM AAA. AD CATAFRONIVM. Presbyteros diaconos subdiaconos adque exorcistas et lectores, ostiarios etiam et omnes perinde, qui primi sunt, personalium munerum expertes esse praecipimus. DAT. III. NON. MART. GR(ATI)ANO A. IIII ET MEROBAVDE V. C. CONSS.  
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 842-843)
XVI.2.24 = cf. CJ I.3.6
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO CATAPHRONIUS. We direct that priests, deacons, subdeacons, exorcists, lectors, ostiaries, and likewise all persons who are of the first rank in the Church shall be exempt from the compulsory public services that are incumbent on persons. GIVEN ON THE THIRD DAY BEFORE THE NONES OF MARCH IN THE YEAR OF THE FOURTH CONSULSHIP OF GRATIAN AUGUSTUS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF THE MOST NOBLE MEROBAUDES [=5 March 377].
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 444; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

Munera, that is public services, charges, duties were divided on the munera personalia which were performed personally and munera patrimonii which were performed by the payment of money as a contribution to some public works.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
City
  • Constantinople

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code, Breviary of Alaric, Lex Romana Visigothorum
Origin: Constantinople (East)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Theodosian Code is a compilation of the Roman legislation from the times of the Emperor Constantine to the times of Theodosius II. The work was begun in 427 and finished in autumn 437 when it was accepted for publication. It was promulgated in February 438 and came into effect from the beginning of the year 439.
 
The compilation consist of sixteen books in which all imperial constitutions are gathered beginning with the year 312. Books 1-5 did not survive and are reconstructed from the manuscripts of the Lex Romana Visigothorum, i.e. the Breviary of Alaric, the legal corpus published in 506 by the Visigothic king, Alaric, containing excerpts from the Theodosian Code equipped with explanatory notes (interpretationes), post-Theodosian novels and several other juristic texts.
 
A new compilation was undertaken during the reign of the emperor Justinian. A committee of ten persons prepared and promulgated the Codex in 529. It was quickly outdated because of the legislative activities of the emperor and therefore its revised version had to be published in 534. The Codex together with the novels, the Pandecta, a digest of juristic writings, and the Institutes, an introductory handbook are known under the medieval name "Corpus Iuris Civilis".
Edition:
Theodor Mommsen and Paul Martin Meyer (eds.), Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, 2 vols., Berlin 1905
Paul Krüger (ed.), Codex Iustinianus, Berlin 1877
Gustav Hänel (ed.), Lex Romana Visigothorum, Leipzig 1849
 
Translations:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Les lois religieuses des empereurs romains de Constantin à Théodose (312-438), v. 1, Code Théodosien livre XVI, text latin Th. Mommsen, trad. J. Rougé, introduction et notes R. Delmaire avec collab. F. Richard, Paris 2005
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)
 
G. Savagnone, "Le origini del sinodo diocesano, e l'interpretatio alla c. 23, C. Th. XVI, 2", Studi in onore di Biagio Brugi, Palermo 1910

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    Public law - Secular
      Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2216, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2216
      Record by: Marta Szada
      last edited: 2019-08-12 10:25:59
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