The Presbyters Project

Canon 18

Si sacerdotis uidua uel Leuitae maritum acceperit in finem tantum communicet

Si qua uidua episcopi uel presbyteri aut diaconi maritum acceperit nullus clericus, nulla religiosa cum ea conuiuium sumat, nunquam communicet, morienti tantum ei sacramenta subueniant.

(eds. Martínez Díez, Rodríguez 1984: 335)

Canon 18

If a widow of a priest or Levite remarried, she would receive communion only before death

If a widow of a bishop or presbyter or deacon remarried, no cleric and no nun should eat with her and she should not receive communion. But let her be supported by the sacred mysteries before death.

(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Toledo

About the source:

Title: Council of Toledo I, Concilium Toletanum I, First Council of Toledo, Concilium I Toletanum
Origin: Toledo (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The First Council of Toledo was convened to deal with divisions among the Spanish episcopate caused by the conviction and execution of Priscillian in 385. Many people in Spain, the bishops among them, considered the judgement unfair and venerated Priscillian as a martyr. The acts of the council consist of the twenty canons with the preface and the subscriptions of the bishops, the creed (regula fidei) with 18 anathemas against Priscillian, the professions of faith declared by the former adherents of Priscillian and the closing sententia definitiva. The last two are excerpts from the full version of the conciliar acts which has not survived and has been transmitted in the manuscript tradition separate from canonical collection of Hispana (Chadwick 1976: 179-181; Burrus 1995: 104-105).

The date of the council is given in the beginning of the preface - it is the time of Arcadius and Honorius (then between 395-408) and of the consulship of Stilicho (400 or 405). The date given in the Spanish era is unreliable, because a lot of different versions survived in manuscripts. G. Martínez Díez and F. Rodríguez (1984: 326) thought that it was a later addition. Moreover, Ambrosius of Milan and Siricius are both already dead (the title sanctae memoriae is added before their names), therefore the council must have been held after 399. Also Hydatius in Chronicle dates the council to 400, so this is the most probable solution (Weckwerth 2004: 89-90).

Edition:

Edition:

G. Martínez Díez, F. Rodríguez, eds., La colección canónica Hispana, v. 4 Concilios Galos. Concilios Hispanos: primera parte, Madrid 1984.

J. Vives, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona-Madrid 1963.

Bibliography:

V. Burrus, The making of a heretic: gender, authority, and the Priscillianist controversy, Berkeley 1995.

H. Chadwick, Priscillian of Avila: the occult and the charismatic in the early church, Oxford 1976.

A. Weckwerth, Das erste Konzil von Toledo: philologischer und kirchenhistorischer Kommentar zur Constitutio concilii, Münster, Westfalen 2004.

Categories:

Family life - Marriage

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER113, https://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=113