The Presbyters Project

Canon 12

Felix episcopus dixit: Suggero secundum statuta ueterum conciliorum ut si quis episcopus, quod non optamus, in reatum aliquod incurrerit, et si fuerit nimia necessitas non posse plurimos congregare, ne se crimine remaneat, a duodecim episcopis audiatur.

Et a sex, uel septem cum proprio, presbyter audiatur et a tribus diaconus.

(ed. Munier 1974: 104)

Canon 12

Bishop Felix said: I suggest that in accordance with the statutes of ancient councils if a bishop (which we do not wish!) is accused of any crime, and if it is impossible for a larger number of bishops to gather, lest he remain accused for too long a time, he should be heard by twelve bishops; a presbyter should be heard by six (or seven, including his own bishop), and a deacon by three.

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The canon repeats the decisions of the councils of Carthage of 345/348 AD [129] and 390 [162], and of the council of Hippo of 393 AD [190], but it makes the jury chosen to judge a presbyter larger: his own bishop is to be counted as the seventh, not the sixth, as in the previous canons.

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

City

Carthage

About the source:

Title: Canones in causa Apiarii
Origin: Carthage (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Apiarius, a presbyter of Sicca Veneria in North Africa, was excommunicated for some unspecified crimes by his bishop, Urbanus. In 418 he appealed directly to Pope Zosimus, who sent legates to Africa to assess the charges. The council of African bishops gathered in Carthage in May 419 to address the question. On the 25 May they approved several disciplinary canons, mainly repeated from previous councils, which are known collectively in scholarship as “Canones in causa Apiarii”. They were also sometimes transmitted as the part of “Codex Apiarii causae”, together with other acts of the council of 419.

We follow the edition of Munier, who followed Turner, who established the text according to three codices: Vindobonensis 2141, fol. 106, Monacensis (olim Frisingensis), fol. 64`, and Wirceburgensis Univ. mp. th. f. 146, fol. 66. We ignore the later textual traditions, namely Italian collections (which were the basis of the edition of brothers Ballerini in PL 56), and the redaction of Dionysius Exiguus; both of them have been included in the Corpus Christianorum edition, and they contain only minor changes, which we ignore, with the exception of two canons not transmitted in the first recension.

Edition:

C. Munier ed., Concilia Africae a. 345-a. 525, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 149, Turnhoult 1974, 79-165.

Bibliography:

J. Gaudemet, Les Sources du droit de l'Église en Occident du IIe au VIIe siècle, Paris, 1985.

C.H. Turner, Ecclesiae occidentalis monumenta iuris antiquissima, vol. 1-2, Oxford 1889-1939.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER237, https://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=237