Folia Canonica 4. (2001)
STUDIES - George Nedungatt: Who is to Administer Church Property? - The Answer of the Ecumenical Councils
WHO IS TO ADMINISTER CHURCH PROPERTY? 133 to the Church from bishops misappropriating ecclesiastical property and diverting it in favour of their own family and children, Emperor Justinian I (482-565) legislated in 528 that bishops had to remain celibate and refrain from generating children.36 That imperial legislation, after certain peripeteia, passed into the Eastern canonical discipline, which forbids men with a marriage bond to be ordained bishops. While presbyters and deacons are allowed to retain their wives, the bishops had either to be chosen from among the celibate men (hence the widespread practice of choosing monks for episcopal ordination) or, if the candidate was a married man, he had first to separate from his wife with her consent and, upon ordination, send her away to a distant convent.37 That was the price, as a wit has put it, the bishops had to pay: they kept custody of Church property and lost their wives! 36 Justinian’s Codex, 1.3.41 (42).4. The Council in Trullo both sanctioned the apostolic tradition of married clergy (presbyters and deacons, c. 13) and canonized the imperial law demanding episcopal celibacy (c. 12). See C. PlTSAKlS, Clergé marié et célibat dans la législation du concile in Trullo: le point de vue oriental, in The Council in Trullo (nt. 22), 263-306, esp., 281-291. “C’est par la voie de la législation séculière que s’est introduit le célibat épiscopal” (281). 37 “The wife of one who has been promoted to the rank of bishop, having previously been separated by mutual consent from her husband, shall, after his ordination as bishop, enter a monastery situated far away from the episcopal residence, and she shall enjoy benefit from the provision made for her by the bishop; and if she proves worthy, she shall be promoted to the dignity of deaconess.” The Council in Trullo (nt. 22), 130.
