Codex of the African Church: the canons of the African councils after 397

Contents

Reading pages: 57–92 · 93–132 · 133–138

1. 57Those baptized as children among the Donatists who later join the catholic church by the laying on of hands may be ordained clergy.
2. 57.0Dating notices and summaries of the councils of 397, 399, and June 401, and Aurelius's opening address on the shortage of clergy.
3. 66The council resolves to deal gently and peaceably with the Donatists.
4. 66.0The council of 13 September 401 receives the letters of Anastasius of Rome urging action against the Donatists.
5. 67Letters are to be sent to the African magistrates asking them to record publicly what the Donatists did to the Maximianists, who had split from them.
6. 68Rome is to be asked to allow converted Donatist clergy to keep their ranks where this serves unity, as an exception to the overseas council's ruling.
7. 69Envoys are to show the Donatists from public records that they themselves readmitted Maximianists, and so cannot condemn the catholic church for communion with those they accused.
8. 70Bishops, presbyters, and deacons must abstain from relations with their wives or be removed from office; lower clergy follow local custom.
9. 71A bishop may not leave his principal see for a church in his district or neglect it by staying on his estates.
10. 72On baptizing infants when it is doubtful whether they were baptized; the edition prints only a cross-reference to the Breviary of Hippo.
11. 73The date of Easter is to be announced by letters, and the annual council is to meet on 23 August, as fixed at Hippo.
12. 74An interim administrator of a vacant see may not keep it and must provide a bishop within a year; the emperors are to be asked for defenders of the poor.
13. 76Bishops must attend councils in rotating groups or send excuses, under pain of being restricted to their own church's communion; Cresconius of Villa Regia is summoned.
14. 78A commission of bishops, including Alypius and Augustine, is sent to provide a bishop for Hippo Diarrhytus, deprived of its deposed bishop Equitius.
15. 79Excommunicated clerics who wish to prove their innocence must bring their case within a year, or lose the right to be heard.
16. 80A bishop may not ordain or make superior a monk received from another's monastery.
17. 81A bishop who leaves his property to unrelated persons, heretics, or pagans rather than to the church is anathematized after death and his name removed from the diptychs.
18. 82The emperor is to be asked to allow the freeing of slaves in church.
19. 83False shrines of martyrs without relics or reliable tradition are to be destroyed; the emperors are asked to destroy the remains of idolatry.
20. 85The bishop of Carthage may dictate and sign the council's letters in the name of all, including the mandates of the legates to the Donatists.
21. 86Bishops must keep the order of seniority by ordination; the register and archive of Numidia are to be kept both at the primate's see and at Constantina.
22. 86.0Dating notice and opening of the council of Milevis (27 August 402), which confirms the earlier African decrees.
23. 87Quodvultdeus of Centuria is suspended from communion, but not deposed, until his case is concluded.
24. 88Maximian of Bagai is asked to resign his see.
25. 89Newly ordained bishops are to receive letters from their ordainers stating the date, to settle seniority.
26. 90One who has served even once as reader in a church may not be taken into the clergy of another.
27. 91Each bishop is to summon the Donatist leaders of his city, through the magistrates, to a conference.
28. 91.0Opening of the council of Carthage (25 August 403): the legates' report and the attendance of the provinces.
29. 92The form of summons to the Donatists, inviting them to choose delegates for a peaceful conference; then the notice of the council of 404 sending Theasius and Evodius to the emperors.
30. 93The instructions to the legates of 404: they are to ask the emperors for protection against Donatist violence and the Circumcellions and for the enforcement of the laws against heretics.
31. 94The compiler's brief summary of the council of 405: legations, letters to the magistrates on unity, thanks to the emperors for the edict against the Donatists, and Innocent's letter discouraging bishops' journeys overseas.
32. 95The general African council is no longer to meet yearly but only when a common cause requires; there is no further appeal from judges chosen by both parties; five executors are requested for the church's needs.
33. 95.0Opening of the council of Carthage of 407, which revises the rule of an annual plenary council.
34. 97The emperors are to be asked for church advocates with access to the courts; Primosus, summoned, failed to appear; districts without bishops receive them only by decree of the provincial council and consent of their bishop.
35. 99Converted Donatist congregations with bishops may keep them; after the edict of unity, Donatist churches and property pass to the catholic bishop of the place.
36. 100The case of Bishop Maurentius against the elders of Nova Germania is sent to judges, including Augustine, at Thubursicum.
37. 101Pope Innocent is to be asked to restore peace between the churches of Rome and Alexandria.
38. 102Neither a husband nor a wife who has been put away may marry another; they must remain unmarried or be reconciled, or be put under penance.
39. 103Only liturgical prayers approved in council, or collected by the more prudent, are to be used.
40. 104A cleric who asks the emperor to have his case tried in the secular courts loses his rank; to ask for an episcopal court is permitted.
41. 105Clerics excommunicated in Africa who take communion overseas lose their rank; clerics travelling to the court need letters of credence from Rome stating their purpose.
42. 107A provincial council of 407 rules that no bishop may try a case alone; the compiler did not copy its proceedings.
43. 107.0Notices of two councils of 408 (16 June and 13 October) sending embassies against pagans and heretics.
44. 108.0Notice of the council of 410 sending an embassy against the Donatists.
45. 109Anathema on whoever says that Adam would have died even without sin.
46. 109.0Notice of the general council of Carthage of 1 May 418 against the Pelagians.
47. 110Anathema on whoever denies infant baptism or denies that infants are baptized for the remission of an original sin inherited from Adam.
48. 111Anathema on whoever says that grace only forgives past sins and does not also help us not to sin.
49. 112Anathema on whoever says that grace only teaches us what to do and does not also give the love and power to do it.
50. 113Anathema on whoever says that grace only makes obedience easier, as if the commandments could be kept without it.
51. 114Anathema on whoever says that the saints confess sin in 1 John 1:8 only out of humility, not truly.
52. 115Anathema on whoever says that the saints pray "Forgive us our debts" only for others and not for themselves.
53. 116Anathema on whoever says that the saints pray "Forgive us our debts" out of humility and not truly.
54. 117Where both catholic and Donatist congregations existed under different sees, a reunited place keeps its existing allegiance, whenever the union was made.
55. 118Where a converted Donatist bishop and a catholic bishop have congregations in the same places, they divide them equally: the senior divides and the junior chooses; a single place goes to the nearer see or by the people's choice.
56. 119A place converted and held for three years without challenge stays with the bishop who holds it, with three years from appointment or conversion allowed for claims.
57. 120A bishop who seizes congregations he claims instead of taking the case to episcopal judges loses his case.
58. 121A bishop who neglects to win his Donatist places within six months of a warning loses them; no appeal lies from judges chosen by consent; a bishop negligent against heretics is excluded from communion.
59. 124A bishop who falsely claims that Donatists had entered into communion with him loses his see.
60. 125Clerics may appeal from their bishops to neighbouring bishops, then to African councils or primates, but anyone appealing overseas is excommunicated in Africa.
61. 126In danger of abduction or of death, a bishop may veil a virgin under twenty-five despite the age rule.
62. 127A committee of three judges from each province, with Aurelius, is chosen to finish the council's business.
63. 128No one under excommunication may bring an accusation.
64. 128.0Notice of the session of 30 May 419 held by the judges chosen from each province, with the Roman legate Faustinus.
65. 129Slaves, freedmen of the accused, the infamous, heretics, pagans, and Jews may not accuse clerics except in their own causes.
66. 130An accuser who fails to prove his first charge against a cleric may not proceed to others.
67. 131Those barred from accusing, members of the accuser's household, and children under fourteen may not be witnesses.
68. 132A bishop's unsupported report of a private confession is not enough to condemn one who denies it.
69. 133A bishop who excommunicates on evidence he cannot prove is himself excluded from communion while he persists; Aurelius closes the session.
70. 138The African council's letter to Pope Celestine on the case of Apiarius: it reports his confession, asks Rome not to receive those excommunicated in Africa or to entertain appeals overseas, and denies that the Nicene canons allow Roman legates in such cases.