The same Augustus to John, Praetorian Prefect. We decree that absolutely no one, neither a curial nor a tax-official, shall henceforth be made bishop or presbyter; this law in no way concerning or touching those who before it were deemed worthy of priesthood of this kind: but henceforth let absolutely no one who is of the aforesaid station ascend to the aforesaid consecrations; and especially if he had also previously served, or had served tax-collecting commands; for him who has been nurtured in violent (or harsh) executions and in the sins which befall from that occupation, it would by no means be just that he should at one moment be a tax-official, and a councillor, and do the most bitter of all things, but soon after be ordained a priest, expounding doctrines of humanity and innocence.
Except if from infancy, and at an age not yet passing beyond youth, it befell him to be numbered among the most reverend monks, and to abide in that very habit; for then we permit him both to become a presbyter, and to come to the episcopate, since it is manifest that, as soon as any such thing has occurred and he has appeared worthy of the priesthood, he shall straightway have liberty to remain in the episcopate and to minister, provided that he furnish a fourth part of his whole substance to the decurions and to the fisc (according to the law lately laid down by us concerning the fourth part), or to the fisc alone, if indeed it has befallen him to be of the tax-officials' stock.
But if he be reckoned also among the most reverend archimandrites, and have remained among them, in this manner too we grant liberation from his station, he being then also about to furnish a fourth part of his substance (as we have said before): but otherwise we neither grant that such a one be ordained, nor, if he be ordained, do we permit him to do any such thing. Your Excellency knowing that these things ought to be observed by all the bishops beloved of God, who shall await a penalty touching the priesthood itself, if they shall have done any such thing; besides which, not even shall he himself, once ordained, enjoy the priesthood, although he were previously ordained in some grade of the priesthood, but he shall be reduced among private persons, and shall discharge the ministries to which he was previously subject.
All which things we will to hold good for time to come, since they have now first been devised by us, this law in no way pertaining (as we have said) to those who have once been adorned with this priestly dignity, but they having liberty to minister through substitutes, according to the constitution of Theodosius and Valentinian of pious memory, which was rescripted to Thomas. §1. To these things we decree that that also is just, and holds good, and is in use, which, laid down from the beginning and observed by usage, has, we know not in what manner, passed into disuse.
For we remember that we have come upon a constitution of Arcadius and Honorius of pious memory, willing that clerics, if they neglected their orders, and passed over into any armed military service whatsoever, or, having been deposed by the bishops beloved of God, dared to serve as soldiers, should themselves indeed be discharged once the military service was attained, but be handed over to the courts of the cities to serve henceforth the public, since they have abdicated even the service of the Lord God for as long as they soldiered. All which things we decree shall hold good from this our law, ordering that they themselves be straightway and at once made curials of that city from which they are, unless the city abound exceedingly in curials:
in which case let them be transferred to another, even of a neighboring or more distant province, where there is most especially established a scarcity of curials. But if they become (as is probable) fugitives, we give liberty to the curials at once to enter upon their goods, to retain their property, and to make sufficient provision for themselves therefrom according to the law. These things therefore, concerning the most reverend clerics of whatever grade, we decree shall hold good in perpetuity, and in those things which have already been perpetrated we will that that law hold good which was in force before as well.
And since we have also found a certain constitution treating of monks, and willing that they not leave their own monasteries, nor disturb the cities, which some suspect was sanctioned for a certain limited time, we have judged it fitting, taking occasion thence, to reform it more perfectly and for all time as well, so that henceforth no liberty be to any of the most reverend monks to do any such thing, namely to leave behind the monastic habit, but to gird himself about with any military service whatsoever, or a belt of office, or a dignity, or to follow the life of those who are engaged in lawsuits, and to prefer human occupations to the service of God or to acknowledge them; he who shall have done any such thing being given over to the council of that city from which he is, or even to another, as has been said before, and if indeed he be wealthy, being about to undergo even pecuniary burdens, but if not, corporal burdens;
and here too liberty is to be given to the councils (as we have said before), if they become invisible, to occupy their goods, and to satisfy themselves out of these according to the law. But in all cases in which we order the councils to receive out of these causes, we will that the curials indeed receive the middle part of these things not in gold, but in immovable possession, either such as is already at hand, or such as is to be procured according to the law previously issued by us, and that the other half be brought to the general treasury of your Excellency;
so that your throne also may watch vigilantly, lest any such thing (committed) lie hidden, but, as soon as anything shall have been done, a fitting remedy be applied concerning it: except if now they themselves of their own accord and willingly shall have left the military service, or simply the habit which they have, and shall return again seriously and truly to the monastic life, and hasten to be numbered among the most reverend clerics. For if they shall have done this within one year from the passing of this law, we remit to them the penalty, deeming the correction sufficient for them from the very experience. And these things we will to hold good for the time to come, not leaving outside the said penalty those, however many, who since our principate, having become monks, have done any such thing; for that which has gone before
we dismiss, partly indeed out of humanity, and partly also out of regard for the time, since nothing had been expressly enacted before. §2. Likewise this we ordain: whether father, or mother, or any other, on account of a failure of children, shall have introduced a restitution or substitution for certain persons, whether males or females, but these have not chosen to come to marriage by reason of their manner of life, that such restitutions or substitutions be rescinded; and that they have the power to consecrate to whatever pious manner they shall will the things which proceed therefrom; and either to consume them while surviving, or to leave them when dying: just as also, if under the condition of taking up children anything shall have been left to them, it behooves that they have this very thing too, being by no means compelled to take up children.
The same provision of the law we also extend and apply to women who have professed virginity, and to the most reverend clerics who are altogether forbidden to take wives, and we render this grace as worthy of God for our times. §3. To these things we decree that whether a man shall have wished to come to the solitary life, or a woman, having left her husband, shall have come to the monastic discipline, this be no cause of loss; but that each in every way recover their own, so that it be lawful for the wife to recover both her dowry, and the donation on account of marriage from him who had cohabited with her;
and that the profit which comes therefrom be claimed not according to that which is upon repudiation and disjunction, or remain with him who did not depart, but according to that which is, by pact, made for the case of death; as though he who departs from the common life with the other should seem to be dead in the other's companionship, since to the cohabitant he is altogether useless; but whatever shall have been received in the dotal instruments out of the pacts for the case of death, let that be understood as a debt. The woman not daring, before the lapse of a year, to look to another marriage, on account of the uncertainty of generation (or of the seed). But if any such thing should come to pass, let the divorce be sent at once, which on that account is called a divorce by good grace.
by that person who does not choose conversion, and thus let that one do what he or she shall have willed, the profits (as has been said before) pertaining to that one. Of course, with that which was to be gained from such a cause being in every way preserved, if both in the prior marriage either the man or the woman had remained, for the common children born of that marriage, if any there were. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of December, at Constantinople, after the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, in the first year, 532.