The Presbyters Project

Canon 3

De culpatorum receptione uel communione apud ecclesiam.

Vidimus quosdam, et fleuimus, ex numero culpatorum receptos in gratia principum et extorres exstitisse a collegio sacerdotum. Quod denotabile malum illa res agit, qua licentia principalis, in quo se solui licentius curat, ibi alios illigat, et quos in suam communionem uidetur suscipere, a communione et pace ecclesiae eligit separare, ut qui cum illo conuescunt, sola sacerdotum communione priuentur. Et ideo quia remissio talium qui contra regem, gentem uel patriam agunt, per definitiones canonicas antiquorum in potestate solum regia ponitur, cui et peccasse noscuntur, adeo nulla se deinceps a talibus abstinebit sacerdotum communio, sed quos regia potestas aut in gratiam benignitatis receperit aut participes mensae suae effecerit, hos etiam sacerdotum et populorum conuentus suscipere in ecclesiastica communione debebit, ut quod iam principalis pietas habet acceptum, nec a sacerdotibus Dei habeatur extraneum.

(eds. Martínez Díez, Rodríguez 2002: 157-158)

Canon 3

On the receiving of the guilty and the communion in the Church.

We saw and wept that there are many persons guilty of crimes who were received to the grace of the rulers but remain banished from the community of the priests. It is a notably bad thing that the right of the ruler may freely bind one person and absolve the other. We noticed that some people who have committed a crime have been and been received to grace by the rulers remain banished from the community of priests, and we wept at it. Although otherwise the right of the ruler in matters in which he can freely give absolution is binding, when he admits people to his communion, they remain separated from the communion and the peace of the Church, and those with whom he eats are deprived from the communion of priests. This is a notable wrongdoing. And because the remission of deeds against the king, people and kingdom according to the ancient canonical decisions lay solely in the royal power against which [some people] are known to have sinned, those offenders shall from now on not abstain from the communion with priests, but those whom the royal authority restored to the grace of benignity, or with whom the ruler has shared the table, shall be received to the ecclesiastical communion with priests and all the assembly of the people, so that what has already been accepted by the piety of the ruler, shall not be alien to the priests of God.

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

The canon alludes to many canons (definitiones canonicae) of the previous councils of Toledo - canon 8 of the Fifth Council, canon 12 of the Sixth Council in 638, canon 1 of the Seventh Council in 646 [522], canon 2 of the Eighth Council in 653, and canon 2 of the Tenth Council in 656 [745].

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Toledo

About the source:

Title: Concilium Toletanum XII a. 681, Concilium XII Toletanum a. 681, Twelfth Council of Toledo in 681 AD
Origin: Toledo (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The Twelfth Council of Toledo gathered on 9 January 681, after the reign of King Wamba came to an end. The senior bishop at the council was Julian of Seville, and the bishop of Toledo was at the time Julian of Toledo (the author of Historia Wambae). The preface of the acts of the council relates the end of Wamba`s rule, his illness, and the penance he received on his deathbed. He survived, but, as a penitent, he could not continue to be a king; thus the new kingdom passed to Ervig, whose rule the council confirmed. Since the circumstances of Ervig`s ascent to power were at least suspicious, Ervig issued a document, (a tomus) to assert his version of the facts related above that was appended to the acts of the council (Thompson 1960: 229–231). The council also confirmed the anti-Jewish legislation added by Ervig to the Lex Visigothorum (there are 28 of them, many concern priests and presbyters; see [553], [555], [606], [632], [635], [636], [637], [646], [648], [649], [652]), see Collins 2004: 234-235.

Edition:

G. Martínez Díez, F. Rodríguez eds., La colección canónica Hispana, Monumenta Hispaniae sacra. Serie canónica 6, Madrid 2002.

Bibliography:

R. Collins, Visigothic Spain, 409-711, Oxford 2004.

E.A. Thompson, The Goths in Spain, Oxford 1969.

Categories:

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Public law - Secular

Relation with - Monarch and royal/imperial family

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

Administration of justice - Secular

Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema

Equal prerogatives of presbyters and bishops

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER916, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=916