Canon
XXXIII. (Greek xxxvi.)
That presbyters should not sell the goods of the
Church in which they are constituted; and that no bishop can rightly
use anything the title to which vests in the ecclesiastical maternal
centre (μάτρικος).
also seemed good that
presbyters should not sell the ecclesiastical property where they are
settled without their bishop’s knowledge; and it is not lawful
for bishops to sell the goods of the Church without the council or
their presbyters being aware of it. Nor should the bishop without
necessity usurp the property of the maternal (matricis) Church
[nor should a presbyter usurp the property of his own cure
(tituli)].
Notes.
A presbyter is not to sell ecclesiastical property
without the consent of the bishop. A bishop is not to sell
without the approbation of his synod a country property.
Fuchs (Biblioth. der Kirchenvers., vol. iij., p. 5) thinks the text is corrupt in the last sentence and should be corrected by Canon x. of the Council of Carthage of 421, so as to read, “that which is left by will to a rural church in the diocese must not be applied to the Mother Church through the usurpation of the bishop.”
“Or title.” So I turn the Lat. Titulus for want of a proper English word. It denotes a lesser church in any city or diocese, served by a priest.
“The Mother Church,” i.e., The cathedral, the Church in which the bishop resides.
Moreover at this Synod we read all the conciliar decrees
of all the Province of Africa in the different synods held in the time
of Bishop Aurelius.
Concerning the Synod which assembled in Hippo Regio.
Under the most illustrious consuls, the most glorious
Emperor Theodosius Augustus for the third time, and Abundantius, on the
viij. Ides of October, at Hippo Regio, in the secretarium of the
Church of Peace. And the rest of the acts of this Synod have not
been written down here because these constitutions are found set forth
above.
Of the Council of Carthage at which the proconsular
bishops were appointed legates to the Council at Adrumetum.
In the consulate of the most glorious
emperors—Arcadius for the third time and Honorius for the second
time, Augustuses, on the vi day
before the Calends of July, at Carthage. In this council the
proconsular bishops were chosen as legates to the Council of
Adrumetum.
Of a Council of Carthage at which many statutes were
made.
In the consulate of those most illustrious men, Cæsarius and Atticus, on the v day before the Calends of September in the secretarium of the restored basilica, when Aurelius the bishop, together with the bishops, had taken his seat, the deacons also standing by, and Victor the old man of Puppiana, Tutus of Migirpa and Evangel of Assuri.
The Allocution of Aurelius the bishop of Carthage to the
bishops.