Folia Theologica et Canonica 7. 29/21 (2018)

Ius canonicum

FOLIA THEOLOGICA ET CANONICA (2018) 301-314

IDONEITY FOR PRIESTHOOD IN THE EARLY CANONICAL DISCIPLINE (AN OVERVIEW BASED ON THE FIRST CENTURIES)*

Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem.

I. Degrees of Holy Orders in writing of patristic authors and in the early councils; II. The Ecclesiastical Disciplines concerning the clerical state, especially canons of the Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua-, Conclusion

The Church as a New Israel has taken numerous customs from Judaism1, especially those services and functions which were related to the Jerusalem temple and the cult of Jerusalem (e.g., archisynagogos - episcopos; hazan hachenes - diaconos). The institution of the Church was “primitive” (undeveloped) in the Apostolic Age, when basically the apostolic authority played the primary and essential role. The rabbi as depositary of the Jewish tradition had been replaced with the apostle within the Christian community who transmitted the Christian tradition (e.g., word of God, word of Christ or the Lord, the word on the Crucifix: ICor 1:18).2 Moreover, within the Christian community were faithful who had various charismatic abilities (Acts 14: 4-13; IThess 2:7; Phil 2:25), and teachers (Eph 4:11), prophets (Acts 13: 1; Acts 15: 31; ICor 14: 1), and deacons (i.e. selection of the seven deacons: Acts 6:1-7). The bishop - presbyter - deacon hierarchical structure had crystalized after this period.’ The two indicated structures were still together in that early epoch when the Didache arose at the end of the 1st or at the beginning of the 2nd century (in Syria or Palestine)4

* This article was written in the St. Michael’s Abbey of the Norbertine Fathers (Orange, CA), at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and in the International Canon Law History Research Center (Budapest). It was presented at the XX' International Canon Law Conference of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Canon Law Institute “ad instar facultatis (Budapest, February 12'b 2018). This publication is supported by the Fundación Derecho y Europa (Coruna, Spain) and by the KAP 18-53018-3.6-JÁK project.

1 Cf. Erdő, P„ Theologie des Kanonischen Rechts. Ein systematisch - historischer Versuch (Kirchenrechtliche Bibliothek 1), Münster 1999. 95-106.

2 Zimmermann, H., Neutestamentliche Methodenlehre. Darstellung der historisch-kritische Methode, Leipzig 1967. 160.

3 Cf. Faivre, A., Naissance d’une hiérarchie. Les étapes du cursus clérical, Paris 1977.

4 népi 8é tcűv dtiOGTokcov Kai Ttpocprytíöv, Kata tő 8cApa toí3 Ét)aYYeA,tot) óútcű 71011)caxe. nag [Sé] áTtóoTokog épxógevog Tipög t>p.ag 8e%9r|Tco 6g KÓptog' ót) pevet 8é <ét p.fi> fiiiépav gíav (...). Rodorf, W. - Tuilier, A. (ed.), La doctrine des dome apőtres (Didaché)