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| The Exemption of the Clergy.
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Chapter
VII.—The Exemption of the
Clergy.
Copy of an Epistle in which
the emperor commands that the rulers of the churches be exempted from
all political duties.2966
| 2966 Municipal offices and magistracies were a great burden under the
later Roman empire. They entailed heavy expenses for those who filled
them, and consequently, unless a man’s wealth was large, and his
desire for distinction very great, he was glad to be exempted, if
possible, from the necessity of supporting such expensive honors, which
he was not at liberty to refuse. The same was true of almost all the
offices, municipal and provincial offices, high and low. Discharging
the duties of an office was in fact practically paying a heavy tax to
government, and of course the fewer there were that were compelled to
pay this tax, the greater the burden upon the few. As a consequence,
the exemption of any class of persons always aroused opposition from
those who were not exempted. In granting this immunity to the clergy,
however, Constantine was granting them only what had long been enjoyed
by the heathen priesthood, and also by some of the learned professions.
The privilege bestowed here upon the African clergy was afterward
extended to those of other provinces, as we learn from the Theodosian
Code, 16. 2. 2 (a.d. 319). The direct result
of the exemption was that many persons of means secured admission to
the ranks of the clergy, in order to escape the burden of
office-holding; and this practice increased so rapidly that within a
few years the emperor was obliged to enact various laws restricting the
privilege. See Hatch’s Constitution of the Early Christ.
Churches, p. 144 sq. |
1. “Greeting to thee, our most esteemed Anulinus. Since it
appears from many circumstances that when that religion is despised, in
which is preserved the chief reverence for the most holy celestial
Power, great dangers are brought upon public affairs; but that when
legally adopted and observed2967
| 2967 ἐνθέσμως
ἀναληφθεῖσαν
καὶ
φυλαττομενην | it affords the
most signal prosperity to the Roman name and remarkable felicity to all
the affairs of men, through the divine beneficence,—it has seemed
good to me, most esteemed Anulinus, that those men who give their
services with due sanctity and with constant observance of this law, to
the worship of the divine religion, should receive recompense for their
labors.
2. Wherefore it is my will that
those within the province entrusted to thee,2968
| 2968 i.e. the proconsular province of Africa (see above, chap. 5,
§ 18). | in the catholic Church, over which
Cæcilianus presides,2969
| 2969 i.e. the Church of the entire province; for the bishop of Carthage
was the metropolitan of the province, and indeed was the leading bishop
of North Africa, and thus recognized as in some sense at the head of
the church of that entire section of country. | who give their
services to this holy religion, and who are commonly called clergymen,
be entirely exempted from all public duties, that they may not by any
error or sacrilegious negligence be drawn away from the service due to
the Deity, but may devote themselves without any hindrance to their own
law. For it seems that when they show greatest reverence to the Deity,
the greatest benefits accrue to the state. Farewell, our most esteemed
and beloved Anulinus.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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