Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 667
Canon 3 of the Second Council of Seville (Iberian Peninsula, 619 AD) issues a decision in the case of the Presbyter Ispassandus who transfered to the other Church. The council generally forbid clerics to change the Church in which they serve.
Canon 3
 
De desertoribus clericis ut episcopis restituantur.
 
Tertia definitione ad nos oblata precatio est a reverentissimo fratre nostro Cambrane Italicensi episcopo pro quodam clerico Ispassando, qui desserens ecclesiae suae cultum in qua dicatus ab infantiae exordiis fuerat ad ecclesiam Cordobensem se contulit; quem elegimus ut si nihil proponeretur de eo citra dilatationis obiecta proprio reformaretur episcopo. Scribitur enim in lege mundiali de colonis agrorum, ut ubi esse quisque iam coepit ibi perduret. Non aliter et de clericis qui in agro ecclesiae operantur canonum decreto praecipitur nisi ut ibi permaneant ubi coeperunt. Ideoque placuit, ut si quis clericus ministeriis ecclesiae propriae destitutus ad aliam quam prius incoluerat remittatur. Qui vero eum suscepit nec statim sine ullo nisu exceptionis ad propriam ecclesiam remittendum elegerit, quamdiu eum restituat conmunione se privatum agnoscat. Desertorem autem clericum cingulo honoris atque ordinis sui exutum aliquo tempore monasterio deligari convenit sicque postea in ministerium ecclesiasticci ordinis revocari. Nam non poterit in talibus pervagationibus aboleri licentia nisi fuerit in eis propter correctionem disciplinae subsequuta censura.
 
(ed. Vives 1963: 164-165)
Canon 3
 
On the clerics who deserted their church that they shall be restored to their bishop.
 
In the third session the most reverend bishop, our brother, Cambra of Italica submitted a petition in the case of a certain cleric named Ispassandus who having abandoned the service in his Church to which he had been dedicated from the earliest childhood went to the Church of Cordoba. We decide that he shall be restored to his own bishop unless new facts emerge. In the secular law there is one concerning the coloni working in the farms that says that one shall stay there where he began his work. The same is decided by the canonical decree in the case of clerics who toil in the field of the Church that they shall remain where they started. Therefore it pleased us that if a cleric abandon the ministry in his own Church for the other, he should go back in where he dwelled before. If, however, someone receives him and does not send him back to his own Church without making any exceptions, he shall be deprived of communion as long a time as he did not restore the cleric. A deserting cleric shall remove the belt of the dignity of his order and spend some time closed in the monastery; only then can he be restored to the ministry of the ecclesiastical order. This is because it is impossible to restrain the licence of these wanderings without a disciplinary punishment to correct them.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Seville

About the source:

Title: Second Council of Seville 619 AD, Concilium Hispalense a. 619, Concilium Spalense a. 619, Concilium II Hispalense, Concilium II Spalense, Concilium Hispalense secundum, Concilium Spalense secundum
Origin: Seville (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The second council of Seville was a provincial gathering held in the Jerusalem Church on 13th of November 619 during the reign of king Sisebut. It was presided over by Isidore of Seville, and 8 of his suffragans were present.
Edition:
J. Vives, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona-Madrid 1963.

Categories:

Education - Education by clerics
Travel and change of residence
Ecclesiastical transfer
Described by a title - Clericus
Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
    Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema
      Administration of justice - Demotion
        Reasons for ordination
          Administration of justice - Imprisonment
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER667, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=667