Folia Theologica et Canonica 7. 29/21 (2018)
Ius canonicum
306 SZABOLCS ANZELM SZUROMI, O.Praem. that only the first 21 canons were issued by the original council and the further canons were added later by other Hispanic councils.25 According to other opinions, the Council of Elvira could be only a collection of early Hispanic conciliar canons which sources could be originated in - or even before - the middle of the 3rd century.26 Canon 33 of this indicated council declares: “It has seemed good absolutely to forbid the bishops, the priests and the deacons, i.e. all the clerics engaged in service at the altar, to have [sexual] relationship with their wives and procreate children; should anyone do so, let him be excluded from the honor of the clergy.”27 Based on this sentence was allowed to ordain a married man a priest, but after the ordination the married life-form was excluded. This meaning of the text constitutes the common background of both the Eastern and Western discipline of celibacy28. Within the Western discipline crystalized the impediment for ordination of married man - and removed from office those who had already ordained - since the early 4lh century (i.e. the regulations of the 4lh-5lh Century Hispanic and Gallic councils). In the East has remained the ordination of married man, with the condition that after ordination a priest must keep the obligation of abstaining life. Based on the Council of Trullo (692) it means complete abstinence for bishops.29 If we observe the regional councils in the 4lh and 5th Century, we can find some laymen without any degree of Holy Orders but were present at the council.3'1 It is well known that in North Africa the lay persons had a very important role as organizers of the Christian community after the invasion of the Vandals. These persons were named seniores laid or seniores ecclesiae.3' But these expressions cannot be confused with those Holy services which had needed some of degrees of Holy Order. The state of deaconesses in the early Church was a similar problematic question for researchers. Teams of widows and virgins were important in the apostolic age (i.e. Rom. 16:1; ITim. 5:9-16),32 who played various roles in the Church and which were especially welcomed by Ignatius of Antioch (t 110) in his letter to the Smirnians.33 Female deaconesses were 25 Cf. Laeuchli, S., Sexuality and Power. The Emergence of Canon Law at the Synod of Elvira. Philadelphia 1972. Hess, H., The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council ofSerdica. Oxford 2002. 40-42. Sotomayor, M. - Berdugo, T., Valoración de las actas, in Sotomayor. M. - Urbina, J. F. (ed.), El Concilio de Elvira y su tiempo, Granada 2005. 94—114. 26 Cf. Meigne, M., Concile ou collection d’Elvire, in Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 70 (1975) 361-387. Martinez, S. J., Nuevos concilios hispano-romanos de los siglos Uly IV. La colet cion de Elvira, Malaga 1987. Szuromi, Sz. A., Az egyházi intézményrendszer története, 55-56. 27 Erdő P., Az ókeresztény kor egyházfegyelme (Ókeresztény írók 5), Budapest 1983. 254. 28 Szuromi, Sz. A., Az egyházi intézményrendszer története, 56-57. 29 In detailed cf. Pompanon, J-C., Le Sacrement de l’ordre, Paris 2015. 7-65. 30 Faivre, A., Les laXcsaux origines de l’Église, Paris 1984. 106-107. 31 See Caron, P. G., Les seniores laid de l’Église d’Afrique, in Revue Internationale des Droits l ’Antiquité 6 (1951) 7-21. 32 Cf. i.e. Gryson, R., Le ministére des femmes dans l’Église ancienne, Gembloux 1972. 33 Can. 13; cf. Camelot, P. Th. (ed.),Ignace d’Antioche, 142-144.
