Five more canons of the Council of Hippo (393)

In Munier’s edition of the material from the Council of Hippo, on page 32, there is a ‘First series of canons which are excerpted from the council of Hippo but which are not part of the “Summary of statues”‘.  I turned these into English back in December, but I was unable to work out where Munier found them.  The title seems to be his own.  I need to read his apparatus again.  Last time I tried to access some of the manuscripts he referenced, so confusing is Munier’s edition, but in vain.  So… some work still to do here.

But let’s have the text and translation.  At least I can do that.  He numbers them with letters A-E.  Comments welcome as always.

A. Placuit [etiam], propter errorem qui saepe solet oboriri, ut omnes Africanae provinciae observationem diei paschalis ab ecclesia Carthaginensi curent accipere.

It was [also] decided, on account of the error which habitually arises, that all of the African provinces shall arrange to receive the [date of the] observation of Easter day from the church of Carthage.

B. Cresconius Villeregiensis episcopus, qui Tubuniensis ecclesiae cathedram tenuisse dicebatur, plebe sua, hoc est Villeregiensis ecclesiae, iussus est esse contentus.

Cresconius, bishop of Villa Regia, who was said to hold the seat of the church of Tubuna, was ordered to be content with his own people,** i.e. of the church of Villa Regia.

C. Et hoc placuit, ut a nullo usurpentur plebes alienae.

And this was decided, that the congregation of another shall not be usurped by anyone.

D. Primatum proprium Mauritania Sitifensis, cum id postularent, habere permissum est, inchoantibus Mauris.

It was permitted that Mauritania Sitifensis shall have its own primate, seeing that they have asked for it, when the Mauritanians are ready.

E. Ceteri etiam primae sedis episcopi ex consilio episcopi Carthaginensis ecclesiae primatus provinciarum suarum constituendos esse professi sunt, [si aliqua altercatio fuerit].

The other bishops of the First See** also declared that they ought to be appointed by the council of the bishop of Carthage to the primacy of the church of their province [, if there is any dispute].

The great improvement in the last 12 weeks to Google Translate for Latin means that I was able to improve the translations.  It’s sobering to realise that in some places it is better than I am!

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