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

Ius canonicum

IDONEITY FOR PRIESTHOOD IN THE EARLY CANONICAL DISCIPLINE... 305

by St. Augastine “Council of Africa”) canon 67. A letter of Pope Gelasius 1 (492^-96) is also significant - in particular its Capp. 16 and 19 - wherein he notes that the illiterate, truncated and crippled man cannot let for clerical degree. The age limit for the applicants who receives a certain degree of Holy Orders was questionable and not regulated generally for long time. The possible age was basically between 25 and 35. The Council of Neocaesarea (314-319) fixed the age limit for ordination a priest at 30 years. This is a reference to the baptism of Jesus Christ who had begun his public teaching activity at 30.2' Pope Zosimus (417—418) finally made a decision in 418, which prescribed the following age limits: for acolyte 20; for subdeacon 24; for deacon 29; and for presbyter 30 years old. He also indicated that the candidate had to be a freeman and celibate.

Regarding the condition of “freeman” there are several references in the early sources. Nevertheless, here I must emphasize, that Constantine the Great granted several privileges to the Church after 313 and among them can be found the competence of bishops for deliberation from slaves, accepted by full legal effect in civil law. Therefore, the “freeman” question was easily solvable from the 4lh Century.

The celibate status as condition is more complicated. The word “celibacy” (celibates)1* springs from the Latin “caelebs” which means unmarried man. Jesus Christ himself emphasizes the abstaining life which is undertaken for the Heavenly Kingdom (Mt 19:12). The Apostles had left everything behind only for follow Christ - as we can read in Mt 19:27 - therefore, who accepts the vocation of priesthood had chosen the life without marriage (ICor 7:7. 32-34). The Old Testament’ rule regarding priest (i.e. Lev 21:13-14) prescribed at most the one time married status (unius uxoris vir), hence he could not be remarried, which regulation appears in the Letter to Titus by St. Paul (Tit 1:5-6) and also in the 1st Letter to Timothy (ITim 3:2) which New Testamental sources exclude the second marriage of priests. Because the strong bond between the references in the New Testament and the meaning in the Old Testament, the recent scholarly research tries to analyze more precisely the original meaning and contents of the Hebrew expression. In the conciliar sources the “celibacy” - based on our current knowledge - appears with the so called document: Council of Elvira (Concilium Eliberitanum). Concerning the contents of the Council of Elvira’s text, several scholarly opinions have arisen because the various manuscript traditions of its acts. Based on these considerations is possible 23 24

23 Can. 11: Presbyter ante tricesimum aetatis suae annum nullatenus ordinetur, licet valde sit dignus: sed hoc tempus observet. Nam Dominus noster tricesimo aetatis suae anno baptizatus est, et sic coepit docere. Joannou, P. P. (ed.), Les Canons des Synodes Particuliers, 80.

24 DThC I. 2068-2078. Kurtscheid, B., Historia, 73-75. About the historical development of celibacy, cf. Gryson, R., Les origines du célibat ecclesiastique du premier au septiéme siede, Gembloux 1970. Stickler, A. M., Das Klerikerzölibat, Roma 1994.