STATUTA ECCLESIAE ANTIQUA

A canonical compilation from southern Gaul, made between 442 and 506, by a priest with reforming tendencies who enjoyed the privileges of his order. Hence this is not an African collection (4th Pseudo-Council of Carthage in which the Statuta are mentioned in the canonical collections), nor is it a Spanish collection, a work of Caesarius of Arles, nor even a strictly Arlesian work. The compiler, if not the author, was probably Gennadius of Marseilles. The most probable date is 476 to 485, the last years of Euric's reign.

The Statuta is known to us in a threefold tradition: Gallic, Italian, and Spanish (with interpolations). The tripartite ordering and the succession of the primitive canons has been preserved and indicates that it followed the hispana collectio. It includes: (1) prologue (examination of the candidate elected to the episcopacy and professio fidei that distinguishes the De ecclesiasticis dogmatibus of Gennadius of Marseilles); (2) disciplinary canons (cc. 1–89) following the plan of the apostolic constitutions; (3) succinct but very precise ritual of ordinations and of benedictions of persons (cc.90–102), following the Western non-Roman and so-called Gallican style—bishop, priest, deacon, subdeacon, acolyte, exorcist, lector, porter, psalmist, virgins, widows, spouses. The Statuta constitute a major document for Canon Law and the liturgy of the 5th century in the Gallo-Roman Church. It is a work of reform, whose orientation is ascetical, presbyteral, and antidiaconal, addressed to the episcopate and clergy of Provence. Its presence in the canonical collections assured its wide dissemination.

Bibliography: c. f. arnold, Caesarius von Arelate und die gallische Kirche seiner Zeit (Leipzig 1894). b. botte, "Le Rituel d'ordination dans les Statuta ecclesiae antiqua," Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 11 (1939) 223–241. f. x. von funk, "Analekten," Theologische Quartalschrift 693–696. a. malnory, "La Collection canonique des Statuta ecclesiae antiqua rapportée à son véritable auteur, Saint Césaire, évêque d'Arles," in Congrès scientifique international des catholiques tenu à Paris du 8 au 13 avril 1888, 2 v. (Paris 1889) 2:428–439; Saint Césaire, évêque d'Arles (Paris 1894). g. morin, "Hierarchie et liturgie dans l'Église gallicane au V^e siècle," Revue Bénédictine 8 (1891) 97–104. f. peters, "Les Prétendus 104 canons du concile de Carthage de l'an 398," in Compte rendu du troisième Congrès scientifique international des Catholiques tenu à Bruxelles du 3 au 8 Septembre 1894, 9 v. in 3 (Brussels 1895) 1:220–231. j. b. thibaut, L'Ancienne liturgie gallicane, son origine, et sa formation en Provence aux V ^e et VI ^e siècles (Paris 1929). c. munier, Les Statuta ecclesiae antiqua (Paris 1960), critical ed. of text and studies; repr. in Corpus Christianorum 148A (Turnhout, Belgium 1963) 162–188.

[c. vogel]