Ordained ministry

On Recovering the Women Priests of Early Containing to translation from the Italian of "Notes on the Female Priesthood in Antiquity," by George Otranto (1). Website This text has been put on this with permission of the author, the translator and the editors of the Journal. The "vexed question" of the admission of women to the priesthood has been brought sharply to public attention by the continuing efforts in Great Britain and the United restore States to full participation in Catholic and Anglican priesthood to women. women point to the disparagement and hatred of women throughout the history of. The persistence of sexist bias among church officials from the first through the fourth centuries C. has been treated by feminist scholars. Wish to express my appreciation to the the National Endowment for the Humanties for three grants that made possible my study of women in religion and society: "Pagan and Christian in Late Antiquity" with John G. Princeton University. "Religion and Society in Ancient Greece.1 with Michael Jameson of Stanford University. and" Medieval Local History: Rome and its Neighborhood, 12th-14th Centuries "at the American Academy in Rome with Robert Brentano of the University of California-Berkeley. Vatican Library, to where Otranto’.s article in Vetera Christianorum. Am indebted to the Professor Giuseppe Giangrande of the University of London for his invaluable suggestions and comments on the. (To list of abbreviations used in the footnotes.) Those against the ordination of women rely on the pretext of. In recent years several journals have offered articles addressing the. (3) Among the most prestigious journals is Vetera Christianorum, whose editor, George Otranto, is director of the Institute of studies classics and christiani (Institute of Classical and Christian Studies) in the Universita of Studi-Bari. Christian studies, Otranto has been concerned with the question of women' s priesthood for several years, and, according to to recent private communication from him (March 21, 1990), he has continued to research this topic and has like upon other documentation of notable historic interest. translation from the Italian of to key work by Otranto reviews of feminist religious thought have amplified the dialogue. other camp, those opposing the ordination of women deny any historical. The presence of women in the sacerdotal ministry of the early church has been ignored or denied: "There has never been any mention of women filling. Scripture and Tradition has an impressive solidity about it. Otranto’.s article calls for another look at this supposed monolithic. In confirming the presence of women in sacerdotal roles, Otranto refers to the influence of the Gnostic and Montanist sects in the. It will be helpful to review briefly the source of antagonism between orthodox and Gnostic Christians, especially during the third and fourth centuries C. The Gnostic movement arose at to Time when pagan beliefs to were breaking up, to process that was accompanied by syncretism, or the. "It was the general instinct, as it is generally everybody' s instinct, to make the least possible tear in the fabric of already held beliefs, when obliged to."(8) Samaria, with its mixed population, was to center. The discovery in 1947 of the Nag Hammadi texts in Egypt has given laughed to prolific research on the ancient religion of these Gnosticism. texts we have impressive evidence of Gnostic communities that stood on the fringe and took to critical view of the orthodox church. One divergence between Gnostic and orthodox Christians was the difference in their sexual attitudes. Gnostic theologians describe God in both masculine and feminine terms with to complementary description of human. They teach the androgynous creation of humankind of Genesis conception carries the principle of equality between men and women into the practical social and political structures of the Gnostic communities. an orthodox bishop, is dismayed that women to are attracted to such groups, in which prayers are offered to the Mother as Silence, Grace, and Wisdom. women priests servants the eucharist together with men. and women also speak as prophets, uttering to the whole community what "the Spirit" reveals to them. (10) The orthodox theologians, on the other hand, describe God in masculine terms exclusively and point to Genesis 2 to describe how Eve was created from Adam and for his fulfillment. This view also shapes the social order, and by the late second century, orthodox Christians came to accept the domination of men over women as the natural order for human society and for the Christian. Orthodox bishops battled not only with the Christian Gnostics but with the followers of the Montanist movement. features of Montanism to are the enthusiasm of the prophets (Montanus and the two prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla), the ministry of women, and the expectation of the immediate Parousia (return of Jesus). in the church, and Maximilla and Priscilla seem to have made contributions to.(12) There is evidence that other women followed their example or even outdid it, for we read of to prophetess in Cappadocia, Asia Minor, in the third century, perhaps to Montanist, who baptized and celebrated the Eucharist. of female bishops and priests, and of virgins who regularly officiated in the congregation at Pepuza, the home of Montanus, to where he expected the return of the Lord.(13) Such pluralism in the second and third. reflected the ongoing role disputes about the of women in the life and teaching of the Christian communities. One outstanding example of this disputes in the second century is the attitude of the church father Tertullian, whom Frend calls "one of the formative minds of European civilization. Montanism, although late in his career, and yet at the same female Time he continued to prohibit women from teaching and preaching in the church. abasement of women and the covering of her shameful natures because she reflected the guilty natures of Eve: "You to are the gateway of the devil. At the end of the fifth century, however, the dominant struggle was between the pope and emperor. the source of the evidence that to there to were indeed women priests being ordained in the fifth century, was determined to restore power to Rome and the papacy. The papacy came into collision with the to fill up during the reign of Zeno (474-91) over the doctrinal matter of the natures of Christ. produced correspondence between the pope and emperor which altered the balance of power in Christendom by asserting the superiority of the papacy to the.(17) Gelasius is held to be the key figures in this development. fierce opponent of heresy and schism wherever it appeared, and in his writings he strikes out against variations in the faith. His letters to are filled with references to tradition, and he looks not for innovation, but for to return to. Hence Gelasius' s letters and decretals resound with to deep and pervasive conservatism, and his letter discussed by Otranto reflects this. In the section dealing with the ordination of deaconesses, Otranto refers to Martimort' s Deaconesses: An Historical Study, which came to his attention during the final revision of his article. Martimort cites two basic sources for the study of the role of deaconesses in the early church: Roger Gryson' s the Minist? DES Femmes dans l’.?ise ancienne, cited by Otranto in the Italian translation, and Adolf Kalsbach, Die Altkirchliche Einrichtung der Diakonisse bis zu.(20) Both authors provide to complete bibliography of earlier works on the subject of deaconesses in early Christianity. According to Martimort, the Didaskalia halo presented the institution of deaconesses to us as to ministry with both to pastoral and liturgical function, responding to to need that existed only in the Eastern regions (Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Persia), and it rapidly became obsolete. Everywhere else the blessing or ordination of deaconesses had to radically. From the end of the fourth century on, to there is evidence in the Greek-language churches of "deaconess" as an honorific title for the wife of to deacon or priest, widow of distinction, or the superior of. Martimort further states that "it is difficult to know exactly how the institution actually came to be created. has been asserted on this subject, the Apostolic Constitutions I give not really throw any light on the problem, for the institution of deaconesses that emerges from that document simply does not correspond. actual institution of deaconesses was like in both Antioch and Constantinople, and the formulary proposed for the ordination of deaconesses in the Apostolic Constitutions had not antecedents and was not retained in the liturgy. concludes," The fact is that the Byzantine tradition. Otranto provides ample grounds for reconsidering the role of women in the priesthood of early Christianity, and he challenges scholars dealing with the problem to question the omission of such evidence, and to search for the reasons for its omission. The two camps polarized today over the question of admitting women to the priesthood have to long history. NOTES ON THE FEMALE PRIESTHOOD IN ANTIQUITY The problem of the admission of women to the priesthood is certain to arouse renewed interest in such times as these, when we to are reconsidering and profoundly reevaluating the role and presence of women in the. One of the most debated ecclesiastical issues of the past fifteen years, this problem has provoked strong currents of opinion among scholars of various backgrounds and persuasions, and to lively battle has been. In 1976 to Congress of the Sacred Congregation for the more doctrine of the faith was held. [ "among the important matters" ], the congress ounces again officially reiterated the official position of the Catholic church against the admission of women to the priesthood and to the episcopate. the research increased, and the battle became even more heated, but the. The would say rather that they have. In their search for solutions to doctrinal and disciplinary problems, scholars, as usual, have turned to the ancient world with various motives and with disparate results. Here too the more Magisterium [ the official teaching of the church ] has ounces found reasons for its traditional opposition to conferring Orders on women: Christ did not call any. The to entire tradition of the church has kept faith in this fact and has interpreted it as the explicit will of the Savior to confer upon man halo the sacerdotal power of governing, teaching, and. Only man, through his natural resemblance to Christ, can express sacramentally the role of Christ himself in the Eucharist. those of opposing views also point to ancient Christianity. that the official position of the church is the consequence of to view of society completely founded upon ancient cultures and difficult for modern. Such to cultural perception reflects the inferior status of women obvious in the Greek and Roman world, especially in the area to where. These basic views contain various arguments that need not be mentioned to here, since, to make from entering into the merits of the "vexed question," the offer only further clues for the reconstruction of to fragmented. On the other hand, whenever either camp offers to clear-cut solution to the question, it is natural for loads themes to be emphasized and. Among many scholarly works dealing with this subject, outstanding to are those of Van der Meer, Gryson, and Galot, which been lucidly that women in the ancient church never exercised sacerdotal ministry, and the only agreed function of women from the end of the third century in the context of the community, was the diaconate in the Orient, except in Egypt. duties assigned to such to function were the beloveds of women invalids and. Female The institution of the diaconate did not go beyond the confines of the Orient [ the Palestine, frontier regions on either side of the Euphrates, Mesopotamia, Roman Armenia, and Cilicia-Isauria ], and the attempts made in the fourth and fifth centuries to introduces it to the Occident had not practically succeeded. Although this conclusion is without doubt correct, it does not take serious account of loads incidents and phenomena that throw light on the question of the admission of women to the priesthood, to problem that has remained quite to lively one from the early Christian centuries. Of particular value among this evidence is something found in an epistle of Gelasius I (492-96), which has been inadequately.(26) Van der Meer merely mentions it, while Gryson and Galot, although elaborating to more bit broadly on the Gelasian testimony, I give not draw any conclusions, and they complain about the lack of. (27) the am not in complete agreement with this latter complaint, but let us see what it is about. Gelasius in 494 sent to long and interesting epistle. "to all episcopates established in Lucania [ modern Basilicata ], Bruttium [ modern Calabria ] - - ankle and toe of Italy -- and Sicily [ modern Sicily ]. This epistle contained twenty-seven decrees, in which the Bishop of these Rome confronts relevant questions:(29) the internal organization of the community. the conditions required to be admitted to the dignity of the clerical been the relations among bishop, presbyter, and deacon. the "ordinations" and "affairs" of the clerics. the dedication of new basilicas. and the disciplines of the clerics. Four of the decrees to were concerned with the presence of, vomen in the context of the Christian communities: 12 concerns the consecration of virgins. 13 and 21 concern the prohibition against the veiling of widows. and 26, the most interesting one to us, explicitly confronts the problem of the priesthood of women: Nihilominus impatienter audivimus, tantum divinarum rerum endured despectum, ut feminae sacris altaribus to ministrare firmentur, cunctaque not nisi virorum famulatui deputy sexum, which. [ "Nevertheless we have heard to our annoyance that divine affairs have like to such to low been that women to are encouraged to officiate at the sacred altars, and to take part in all matters imputed to the offices of the badly sex, to which they I give not belong. Gelasius, that is, declares that he has learned with distress that the contempt for religion in the church had arrived at such to point that women were being admitted to officiating at sacred altars [ sacris altaribus to ministrare ] an expression that indicates indubitably the involvement of to liturgical service at the altars. "officiate" [ to ministrare ] corresponds to the Greek leitourgein, which was adopted from the beginnings of Christian literature, as we see.2) and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In Julianus Pomerius, an author contemporary with Gelasius, the same expression, "to officiate at altars," recurs to designated substantive minister-ministra, became adopted also to refer to the liturgical procedures of deacons and deaconesses. We might well recall to here the famous letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan, in which the two deaconesses are mentioned (two servants, two ministers, they to were called). the Council of Tours of 461, to there was to prohibition against priests and deacons ministering to people in specific circumstances. To establish whether the expression ut feminae sacris altaribiis to ministrare firmentur refers to the liturgical service of deaconesses or female presbyters is probably of secondary importance, since Gelasius immediately adds that he has also known that women to were performing all the functions that had been assigned to the ministry of men only, and not to. to general term to designated the service of the cult, and on this basis, like Gryson, he is uncertain whether it is to matter of diaconal or sacerdotal. As the see it, the to entire expression has its precise meaning only in the light of certain considerations. that Gelasius -- in another passage of the same epistle -- adopts "ecclesiastical. famulatui indicates not the clerical ministry of the diaconate, but the more comprehensive one of the presbyter, as is clear from cuncta, which comprises all the attributes of the badly services: liturgical, juridical, and. The functions exercised by women at the altars, therefore, can refer only to the administration of the sacraments, to the liturgical service, and to the public and official announcement of the evangelical message, all of which comprise the duties of ministerial priesthood. Hence hold that the Gelasius in his definition intended to stigmatize and condemn not the exercise of to service feminine liturgical, but an abuse that appeared to him to great deal more serious: that of true and proper presbyters who to were performing all the duties traditionally reserved for. This reading clarifies not only the tantum divinarum rerum despectum [ "such disrespect for divine affairs" ], but also the harsh, insistent wording of the decree, in which Gelasius condemns the action of those bishops who either commit such abuses, or appear to be favoring them by not. The pope goes on to deride those bishops who debase their ministry by disrespect for the rules of the church. of these men who, for whatever reasons, have committed to great aberration, which seems to threaten not only their own downfall, but also the tragic downfall of the whole church, if they I give not like to their senses. bishops and others who have failed to denounce the situation have risked losing their proper episcopal dignity, according to Gelasius. the Pope concludes, either for those who have wittingly ignored the canons, or for those who have unwittingly failed to learn the proper conduct. Gelasius refers to the question of the priesthood of women only in the initial part of the decree. denouncing harshly the gravity of the error and the destructive consequences that can redound to the church from that abuse. ever entering into the merit of the question, that is, without specifying the scriptural or theological foundations for rejecting the admission of women to. Christian He refers only to the regula, to the regulae ecclesiasticae, and to the canones that loads bishops had. Evidently the pope regarded the insistent call back to tradition to be sufficient to reveal the gravity of the condemned abuse. Ista committunt [ "who commit here these serious The insistent reference to the responsibilities of the bishops errors" ] and haec ausi sunt to exercere here [ "who dared to carry out these acts" ] probably has to precise meaning which indicates the extent and consistency of. The verbs to committere and to exercere presupposed an active and factual participation of loads bishops in the perpetration of the abuse. and this participation cannot be confined to to simple consent or indifference to the phenomenon. it must necessarily involve the bishops directly in the exercising of their power. with these expressions Gelasius intended to refer to to loads sent specifically conferred by bishops on women for the exercise of sacerdotal ministry. since bishops to are referred to, Gelasius' s reference can only concern the sacerdotal ordination, which enabled loads women to exercise the sacrament of. It would not concern simple abuses perpetrated by loads women, but more substantial initiatives, which involved bishops personally. confirmation of such to hypothesis can be seen in the words stating that these bishops have brought great destruction upon the church multimodis impulsionibus [ "with various motives" ]. the gravest of these is the conferring of the sacrament of priesthood on women. responsible, as we see in his harsh condemnation of their actions. his accusation is more general and is limited to the complicity of tacit and culpable assent by bishops to behavior that contravenes the canons. The canons to which Gelasius was probably referring to were 19 of the Council of Nicaea, (38). 11 and 44 of the Council of Laodicea (second half of the fourth century), (39). 2 of the Council of Nimes (394 or 396), (40). and 25 of the First Council of Orange (441), (41) which prohibit women from participating in the liturgical service in any way, or from being to member of. It is unnecessary to examine such canons to here, since they have already been treated by Van de Meer, Gryson, and Galot. How widespread was this phenomenon of admitting women to. We should recall that Pope Gelasius includes this matter in to letter dealing with numerous organizational, doctrinal, and disciplinary questions, and that the letter was sent to all the bishops of Lucania. Moreover, Gelasius probably intended to address problems that to were not exclusive to the regions mentioned. epistle, Gelasius mentions to report that John, Bishop of Ravenna (477-494), had sent him to request the restoration of order in churches in various regions of Italy, to where to there was upheaval caused by initiative famine and by the war between Odoacre.(43) Francisco Lanzoni has conjectured that the of Bishop John must have been in accord with the court of Ravenna:(44) that is, Teodericus, faced with the difficult task of political reconstruction and the mutual animosities of Catholics and Arians living together, tried to obviate the confrontations inherent in such to society. Female Even if the phenomenon of the priesthood to were not widespread in all three regions as well as other parts of Italy, it is probable that the incidents condemned by the pope to were not isolated phenomena. the peremptory intervention of Gelasius, involving several bishops, proves rather that the situation had developed I know to make as to worry Rome seriously. the other hand, if it had been an isolated houses, it would not have been prudent for the pope to treat it in an epistle that was to be sent not only into Lucania, Bruttium, and Sicily, but into other regions interested in the. Such epistles to were bound to circulate in all the communities and constituted for the hierarchy to kind of handbook for dealing with internal problems of disciplinary, doctrinal, or organizational. We must also remember that Gelasius had sent the same epistle to other churches concerned with the same problems. In sum, we may infer from an analysis of Gelasius' s epistle that at the end of the fifth century, loads women, having been ordained by bishops, to were exercising to true and proper ministerial priesthood in to vast area of southern Italy, as well as perhaps in other unnamed regions of Italy. It is difficult at this stage of research, to pinpoint. As the have emphasized, the area in which women priests are attested, (46) southern Italy, was culturally connected with Greek and Byzantine areas to where, from the third century women exercised the diaconate. at the end of the fourth century, women to were equated with clerics, since, like the clerics, women received ordination by the laying on of hands, according to to precise ritual, with badly badly precise obligations and.(47) Moreover, we must recall that in the Orient, Asia Minor, Gnostic and Montanist settings in particular, records of women with the functions of presbyters or of bishops, which the church had condemned, have been found up to the second century. Further Evidence of Women Christian Priests Irenaeus states that the Valentinian Gnostic Marcus surrounded himself with women whom he allowed in his presence to consecrate. Caesarean Firmilian of, [ in Asia Minor ] in an epistle to Cyprian around 235, harshly condemns the activity of to woman who was attracting to large number of believers and who was baptizing and celebrating the Eucharist according to the ritual of the church. Epiphanius of Salamis similarly condemns seven other Montanists of Phrygia who permitted women access to the priesthood and to the. From such testimonies we can hypothesize to Greek and Byzantine influence that would have been conducive to the laughed of the status of. Naturally it is not surprising to find in such regions as Bruttium and Sicily, within their Christian ambiance, cultural elements that reflect the before Byzantine world the Greek-Gothic War (535-53). enough to recall that in 447 Leo the Great exhorted the bishops of Sicily not to administer baptism, in the Greek custom, on the day of Epiphany, but only on.(51) Gelasius, moreover, probably intends to confirm this prohibition in decree 10 of the epistle, when he invites the bishops of Lucania, Bruttium, and Sicily to administer baptism only on Easter and tempore Pentecost and not passim quocumque [ "to here and to there at any Time. The phenomenon of the priesthood for women in southern Italy, then, must be seen in its Byzantine context. Sicily and Bruttium between the seventh and eighth centuries, to there developed in the church to process of more more Hellenization which becomes and evident.(53) But even granting to Greek and Byzantine matrix to the phenomenon of women in the priesthood, the bishops of Lucania, Bruttium, and Sicily, went well beyond their Greek and Byzantine model in conferring Sacred Orders on women and permitting them to participate at the altars "in everything up to now imputed to the service of men. The presence of women presbyters in Bruttium at the end of the fifth century recalls an inscription that takes on renewed interest and significance as an historic documentation of women in the priesthood: B(onae) m(emoriae). Leta presbitera/vixit annos XL, menses VIII, dies VIIII/ those (scil. which) well fecit maritus/ Precessit in peace pridie/idus Maias ("Sacred to her good memory Leta the Presbyter lived 40 years, 8 months, 9 days, for whom her husband set up this tomb. Before She preceded him in peace on the day the. (see image below) (54) The epitaph refers to to presbyter Leta, having died at just over forty, for whom her husband had set up to tomb. this inscription comes from the catacomb of Tropea, to small town that has offered the most consistent epigraphical and monumental documentation of Paleochristian. Up to now all scholars, from De Red, to Crispo, to Ferrua, on the basis of female Catholic historiographic tradition that has never made any concession to the priesthood, have always construed the term presytera as.(56) In light of what has appeared in the Gelasian epistle, think it is reasonable to hypothesize that the the Leta of the epigraph of Tropea was to true and proper presbytera: that is, to woman who was practicing the sacerdotal ministry in the Christian community of Tropea. the dating of the epitaph, which Ferrua gives as the mid-fifth century, gives.(57) These two testimonies, then, the Gelasian reference and the Tropean epitaph, attest to the existence of to female priesthood in Bruttium between the middle and end of the fifth century. Beyond the significant parallel of Leta' s epitaph with the Gelasian epistle, another reason prompts me to see in Leta to true and. If Leta had been the wife of to presbyter, we would have to infer that the husband, who had built the tomb, had declined to designated himself as to presbyter in order to confer this designation upon his wife. is not valid reason for such an action, to my knowledge, and certainly not. According to the evidence that the have collected, every Time to presbyter prepares to tomb for his wife, he always refers to her by the term coniux ("wife"), and sometimes most loving ("most.(58) Moreover, also on the literary level to there recurs the coupling of words presbyter- presbytera to identify presbytera as the wife of the presbyter(59) but to there is not attestation, to my knowledge, of the coupling maritus (or coniux or vir)-presbytera. on to sarcophagus from Salona in Dalmatia. this stone coffin bears the consular dates of 425:(60) D(ominis) n(ostris) Thaeodosio co(n)s(ule) XI ET Valentiniano/viro nobelissimo (sic) Caes(are). Ego Thaeodo(sius) EMI to Fl(avia) Vitalia pr(es)b(ytera) sanc(ta) matro/na auri sol(idis) III. (61) The inscription records the allocation and knows them of plots in the. Such transactions at Rome, to more City we know about, to were first carried on by the diggers, and later by overseers and.(62)The inscription reads that Theodosius had acquired for three golden solids to plot in the cemetery of Salona from the presbytera.(63) Here indeed, then, to presbytera has been invested with an official duty, which from to certain period on was appropriate.(64) AIthough we to are dealing to here not with evidence for the sacerdotal ministry of women, nevertheless this type of documentation, to my thinking, testifies to to woman’.s official role or function in the Christian community, since contracts of this kind to were made directly with such an official: the fossor ("digger"), the "overseer," or the "presbyter" (in this houses the presbytera), and not with the uxor presbyteri. Yet another attestation comes from Salona [ The ecclesiastical center of Dalmatia, now to ruined City north of Split, ancient Shovelled, to where Diocletian had to palace in the early fourth century-Trans. the fragment of to sarcophagus cover, probably from the fifth-sixth century, which bears the inscription (sace)rdotae. well refer to to woman invested, like her countrywoman Flavia Vitalia, with. At the beginning of the sixth century, not long after the Gelasian epistle, we hear again of women who to were actively participating in. The three houses is mentioned in 511 by bishops of Gaul: Licinius of Tours, Melanius of Rennes, and Eustochius of Angers. epistle to the Breton priests Lovocatus and chalice Catihernus to criticize them for allowing women during eucharistic services to take the in their hands and to distribute the blood of these Christ to the people. actions of priests, the bishops order them to remember tradition. they further threaten them with banishment from the ecclesiastical community if they continuous to be assisted by those women [ conhospitae], (66) with whom they to were living as well. These From this epistle we infer that conhospitae to were participating in to liturgical service proper not to to presbyter, but rather to to deacon, to whom it was permitted to administer communion. event the attributions went beyond the traditional duties reserved in the. From Poitiers, near the area to where the three priests officiated, to there is to graffito of unknown dates, (68) which attests to the participation of to woman in liturgical service: Martia presbyteria/ferit obblata Olebri/o par(iter) ET obblata presbyteria Nepote. who connect to (taking the words to mean oblationes presbyterales), the hold that presbyteria stands for presbytera exactly as in canon 20 of the Council of Tours of 567 (71) and in canon 21 of the Council of Auxerre in the second half of the sixth. 72 It is difficult to determine the presbyteri service natures of the performed by. Is she the uxor who carries the bread and wine for the celebration of the eucharist like to simple member of the faith, or is she to more presbytera with specific duties in the eucharistic liturgy. Olybrius and Nepos to are almost certainly two presbyters who to were officiating in the community to which Martia also belonged. and it is probable that this woman collaborated with them during the eucharistic celebration. had been to desire to record an action performed by Martia during to liturgical celebration would seem to signify not the usual service of the faithful at the moment of the offertory, but rather an act habitually performed by to deacon or. Service It might actually signify to liturgical analogous to that of the conhospitae who were collaborating with the. Such to convergence of literary and epigraphical documentation attesting, in the same or in neighboring areas of Gaul, to to specific and unusual function of women in the eucharistic celebration strikes. Of course, this convergence may be accidental, but we must remember that we have found the same convergence in Bruttium as well. The given gathered on the priesthood of women in antiquity are few and meager. Loads need further elucidation on the basis of iconographical documentation, and such research may call for to more intensive investigation of the problem, just as the epigraphical sources have done. Although specific attestations of women priests to are few, the frequent and always polemical treatment of the question of the admission of women to the priesthood, both in Christian authors and in the Acta of the councils, leads us to concludes that the cases of women participating in liturgical service must have been more numerous than those attested in the. The writings of Van der Meer, Gryson, and Galot attest to the continuity with which the church hierarchy, the church fathers, and the church councils have confronted the problem of the admission of women to the sacrament of the priesthood. All this, despite the lamentable paucity of evidence, and notwithstanding the habitual tirades uttered by those opposed to women priests. clearly defined, and universally accepted the tradition assumed by the ancient church -- the mean the whole church, including all the faithful, and not merely the. On the contrary, the position as defined above was one of continuous development, as to question urgently brought to attention, (73). The tradition became monolithic the moment they condemned all the solutions that in the past were contrary to the ones officially accepted and defended by the Catholic church. influence on the attitude of the church could be the fact that from the second century loads groups, condemned as heretics, admitted women to the priesthood. But the presence of to presbytera does not necessarily connote her heterodoxy or that of the church in which she lived and. Specific attestation of the reality of women priests is further provided by Action, bishop of Vercelli, who lived between the ninth and tenth centuries, and who was notable for his reforming activities and for his vow against the corruption of the clergy. Among his writings to are to canonical tract and to collection of conciliating dispositions pertaining to ecclesiastical organization, sacramental life, and liturgical expression. To priest named presbytera Ambrose came to Action to ask how the terms and diacona of the ancient canon ought to be. His response leaves room for doubt. that since in the ancient church "Many not to were the crops and few the laborers". 9.37, Lk 10,2), women too received the Sacred Orders for the helping of. 16:1: Commendo vobis Phaebem sororem meam, quae east in ministerio Ecclesiae, quae east Cenchris[ "commend to you my sister the Phoebe, who is in the ministry of the Church which is in Cenchrae" ]. it was the Council of Laodicea (second half of the fourth century), that prohibited the presbyteral ordination of women: Quod Laodicense postmodum. 11, cum dicitur: quod not oportet eas quae dicuntur presbyterae vel praesidentes in Ecclesiis ordinary written on canon 11 of the Council of Laodicea: "It is not allowed for those called presbytidas to be appointed to preside in the church. has been written as well on the significance of the term presbytidas, which has been diversely explained, and it has been systematically argued that it cannot mean true and proper presbyterae. reflects to viewpoint that has strongly conditioned many scholars. consult Galot on this point: "Canon XI of the Council of Laodicea embarrasses. The uncertainties concern the significance of the terms presbitidi and presidents as well as of the verb to establish. If one should trust the title of the Canon, It is not allowed to appoint women-priests in the' church, one could understand the presbitidi in the sense of ' priestesses. seems unthinkable in the Catholic Church, and to there has been an attempt to identify these presbitidi either as higher deaconesses, or as deaconesses, or as elderly women responsible for the overseeing of the women of."(76) In the light of what the have noted above, why can we not accept the most obvious interpretation of canon 11 of Laodicea. Action does, that this canon prohibits the presbyteral ordination of women. himself admits that it deals with the prohibition of female priesthood, even though he limits its significance by relating it to the anti-Montanist. But let us return to Bishop Action of Vercelli having expanded on the status of the deaconess, he stresses that in the ancient Christian church not only men, but also women to were ordained (ordinabantur) and to were the leaders of communities (praeerant ecclesiis). they to were called presbyterae and they assumed the duty of preaching, directing, and teaching (Hae quae presbyterae dicebantur, praedicandi, iubendi, vel. officium sumpserant).(78) three these duties role define the of the sacrament of priesthood. Steeped in the knowledge of the canons and of ecclesiastical institutions, Bishop Action of presbytera Vercelli explains further that the term could also mean in the ancient world the wife of the. Of the two meanings, Action declares that he prefers the first. (79) But this affirmation must be seen in the context of the polemic that Action and other medieval authors conducted against the I know-called Nicolaitic heresy and in favor of sacerdotal celibacy. Atto' s statement is to striking and significant. Strangely, not one of the authors concerned with the question has mentioned it, from Van der Meer, who, to be sure, gathers to rich collection of ancient and medieval sources, to Gryson, to. Only Martimort, in his recent essay, has considered it and expresses surprise at Atto’.s explanation of the term presbytera. cases the same testimony has been purposely ignored, (82) evidently because it was not in linens with what seemed the unanimous tradition. such testimony might at least have provoked loads doubt. It seems to me that through the centuries, by accident or out of prudence or conformity, to there has been to predetermined interpretation of the paucity of testimonies regarding the exercise of. In light of the testimony of Action, we must attempt to recover other testimonies that at first sight appear only as splinters or fragments of history, I know that we may be able to reconstruct the. More Perhaps when scholars have become dispassionate, this picture will provide fuller documentary support for the question of the admission of women to the priesthood. Otranto has demonstrated the clash of views between the opponents and the supporters of women' s ordination in the Roman Catholic. The former see an "impressive solidity" of church tradition in support of their view. the latter see in the history of Christianity to continuous debate, an ongoing search and questioning of the roles and functions of men and. The polarity and antipathy generated by this clash of views often result in to misreading of the testimony of earlier times, or, more often, in passing over evidence that is dissonant, or not in accord with expectations. Otranto' s breakthrough in this article is his recognition of the testimony to women priests in literary and epigraphical. Only with the removal of patriarchal blinders can we hope to recover and reweave the sacerdotal participation of women in early Christianity into the historical fabric of our Christian past. Clifford Geertz, who provides keen insights into the importance of religion, states: "Religion is sociologically interesting not because it describes the social order, but because, like environment, political power, wealth, jural obligation, personal affection, and to sense of beauty, it. To recovery of women' s full participation in early Christianity may be one means of confronting the persistent perception of women as subordinated in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches today, "Images of the past that we carry within us I give help to shape both our present and our. To new set of images may have to liberating effect not only on scholars, with their specialized concerns, but also on the cultures of which they to are to. Have provided to full translation from the Italian of the George Otranto' s "Notes on the sacerdozio feminine in antichita in margin to one the testimony of Gelasio I, Vetera Christianorum 19 (1982):. See, for example, Rosemary Ruether, and and Sexism: Images of Women in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (New. Ruether, "Misogynism and Virginal Feminism in the Fathers of the Church," 150-83, in which Ruether documents the Roots of woman-hating in the writings of the fathers of the church. writings are collected in Patristics Graeca (Lutetia Parisiorum, apud J. Migne, 1857-86) and Latin Patristics (Lutetia Parisiorum. For example, Women Priests: To Catholic Commentary. Leonard Swidler and Arlene Swidler (New York, 1977). and Patricia Chambers and H. the Same Old Handmaidens: Women' s Roles in Today' s Church, "Review of. women centering on their ordination experience: and Priest Forever (New York, 1976). and To the Bozarth-Campbell, Womanpriest:. June O' Connor, review of In Memory of Her: To Feminist Theological Reconstruction Of Christian Origins, by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Religious Studies Review 12, not. Catherine Hilkert, "Women Preaching the Gospel," Theology Digest 33:4 (Winter 1986). "Women and Priestly Ministry: The New Testament Evidence. Report by the Task Force on the Role of Women in Early Christianity, ". Christianisme Latin: Histoire DES Doctrines Chretiennes avant Nicee, vol. This monolithic view is mirrored in Kurt. 2, (1986): 349-50, and rightly criticized for the statement 11 that equating women with men in the ministerial office became to characteristic of those movements outside the church and opposed to it. reviewer calls this statement incomplete and misleading. women had an acknowledged role as prophetesses in the Old and New Testaments, and it was this role that Montanism continued to the embarrassment of the bishops of the day who saw their own claims to charismatic authority threatened. that the church opposed women in Gnostic sects for the same reason. Christian sects to were vying equally for acceptance in late antiquity. The following works reflect the renewal of scholarly., Gnosis: Festschrift fur Hans Jonas. hellenistique, Institut Orientaliste, Universite Catholique de Louvain (Louvain, 1982). Charles Hedrick and Robert Hodgson, eds. Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity (Peabody, Mass. Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion (Boston, 1970). Karen King., Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism (Philadelphia, 1988). Klaus Koschorke, Die Polemik der Gnostiker gegen das Kirchliche Christentum (Leiden, 1978). Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York, 1979). Pheme Perkins, The Gnostic Dialogue: The Early Church and Crisis of Gnosticism (New York, 1980). James M., The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Saint Francisco, 1977). Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis: The Natures and History of an Ancient. Wesen und Geschichte einer spatantiken Religion (Leipzig: 1977)., The Crucible of Christianity: Judaism, Hellenism, and the Historical Background to the Christian Faith (New York/London. I, "" Gnosis 11." and David Scholer, "Bibliographia Gnostica: Supplementum. Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman. Pagels, "What Became of God the Mother. Jeffrey Richards, The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476-752 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), 19, the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, trans. Taylor, "The Early Papacy at Work: Gelasius. Aim?eorges Martimort, Les Diaconesses. Essai Historique (Rome, 1982), now in English, Deaconesses: An. Roger Gryson, The Minist? DES Femmes dans 1'?ise ancienne in Recherches ET synth?s, Section of histoire, IV (Gembloux, 1972). now in English, The Ministry of Women.Jean Laporte and Mary Louise Hall (Collegeville. Adolf Kalsbach, Die Altkirchliche Einrichtung der Diakonisse bis zu ihrem Erl?hen in Romische Quartelschrift 22. In 1957 the author wrote to summary of his book for the Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum, under the entry. The Declaration, signed by Paul YOU on October 15, 1976, was made public January 27, 1977, in the Roman Observer, AAS [ Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Citta of Vatican ] 69, 1977, n. Van der Meer, Sacerdozio of the women. This is an Italian translation of the original. Lafontaine, "the sexe masculin, condition de I' accession aux ordres aux IVe ET Ve siecles," Revue de Universite d' Ottawa 31 (1961): 137-82. Les conditions positives de l’.accession aux ordres dans. While Van der Meer treats only fleetingly the problem of deaconesses (119-122), Gryson (passim and 201-202) and Galot (passim and 24-46) analyze this subject at greater length. pontificum genuinae (New York: 1974, first and. Van der Meer, 128. Gryson, 194-95. Galot, 86-87. The epistle was dated the 11th of March (Ep. "encyclical-epistle" because of the significance and substance of the questions discussed in the dioceses of Italy from the origins to the principle of the century WAYS. of the ancient orations in the Missale Romanum (Nijmegen-Utrecht, 1963). Blaise, vocabulaire latin DES principaux themes liturgiques. 14, 26 (Thiel 377-78) [ Latin text is omitted here-Trans. See text and discussion in Gryson, 98-100. For the dating of this council, which oscillates between 394 and 396, see CCL 148, 149. Van der Meer, 126-28. Gryson devotes to chapter to the Greek canonical sources from the fourth-fifth centuries (90-147), and another to the Latin sources of the same period (187-99). Galot, 80-83, for. 14, 1 (Thiel 362) [ female Latin text is omitted here-Trans. the prohibition of priesthood is recalled in to document of 829 (cf. The bibliography on the argument is vast. the studies of Gryson (passim) and Galot (passim, esp. Vagaggini, "the bizantina and ordinazione diaconesse in the Greek tradition,". diaconesse in the tradition orients them, "Christian East 14 (1974):. Only in the final stage of revision of the present article was able to. historique (the Rome, 1982), which undertakes to role redefine the presence and. Prospective Delhaye, "Retrospective ET DES ministeres feminins dans I' Eglise,". The epistle is handed down, translated into Latin. For to fuller treatment of the ancient documentation on attributions of priesthood to women in Montanist settings, see Van der Meer, 66-70. Gryson. [ See also my introduction to the translation-Trans. custom, in any event, was being spread also into other regions of the West. Baptism could naturally be administered at any Time when to bizantino from the avento of Basilio to the Barium yield to Normanni (867-1071). Calabria in eta bizantina (V-VII century), in (Various ancient and altomedievali Authors), Christian Testimonies in the Sybaritide (Bariums. Cataudella, the Culture bizantina in Sicily, vol. Diehl, Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres 1192 (Dublin-Zurich. prebyzantina, "I record historian for the Calabria and Lucania 23 (1955): 9-29. On Paleochristian Bruzio [ Bruttium ], the contributions of F. carried out by the Superintendent of Antiquities of Reggio Calabria have brought new discoveries to light for this study. For Ferrua, Leta was probably the wife of the Presbyter Monses, recorded in another Epitaph coming also from Tropea. of the roman empire from the 30 R-avanti.Cristo to the 613 after Christ (Rome, 1952). Cf P Testini, catacombe and the antichi cemetaries travers 1' epigraphie de Rome chretienne (III-VII siecles). les roles DES fossores, mansionarii, praepositi, ET pretres, "MEFRA, [ Me1anges. Probably Theodosius had also acquired the. Bulic, 110, refers only to the acquisition of to sarcophagus. this naturally precludes the problem of the functions of the. For the evolution of the phenomenon of the knows them of plots in Christian communal cemeteries, see Guyon. (presbiterissa) is attested in an inscription from Ippona (Cf. conhospita The term indicated to woman who was living with to man under the bonds of continence (Gryson, 195. Galot, 90). the dioceses of the three bishops, cf. Quicherat dates it in the fifth or fourth century (CIL 13. To completely different point of view is that of Van der Meer, for whom "the problem of the priesthood of women up to to short Time needle has not been intensely felt" (Sacerdozio, 141). [ Latin text is translated to here: "Hence since your wisdom has determined that we ought to decides whether to understand ' priestess' or ' deaconness' in the canons, it seems to me that since in the primitive Church, according to the holy word, many to are the crops and few the laborers, ' for the helping of men even religious women to were ordained caretakers. This is something that blessed Paul points out in his epistle to the Romans when he says, ' commend to you my sister the Phoebe, who is in the ministry of the church that is in Cenchrae. because then not only men, but also women to were in charge of the Churches, to be sure for the sake of great efficiency. For women, long accustomed to the rites of pagans, instructed as well in philosophical doctrines, to were converted more readily for these reasons, and to were more easily instructed thoroughly in the. prohibits when it says that it is not allowed for those women who are called ‘.priests' or ' those presiding' to be ordained in the Churches"-Trans. conciles of apres les documents originaux, Vol. believe that deacons to were truly ministers of such duties. minister to deacon, from which we perceive the term deaconess is derived. 15 of the Chalcedonian council, that to deaconess must not be ordained before her fortieth year, and this with the greatest deliberation. We also believe the following: that the office of baptizing was enjoined upon women I know that the bodies of other women might be treated by them without any. These For just as women who to were called priests (presbyterae) had assumed the duty of preaching, ordering, and instructing, in the same way clearly the deaconesses had assumed the duty of ministering and baptizing, to practice which today is not at all in. "We can also consider as priests and deaconesses those women who to were joined in marriage to priests and deacons before their ordination. The accept the terms that have been explicated according to the higher sense, most esteemed teacher, until the deserve to be more clearly informed by. ] In the ancient church the term presbytera could also mean to haeresis' in the medieval West (Trieste, 1981). Such is the houses in the Lexicon imperfectum, s. presbytera, which, referring to the epistle of Action, strangely records only the second definition known by the Bishop of Vercelli (F. Turriani, Latinitatis Italicae Medium Aevi Hindu ab to that the have consulted, only the Glossarium of Du Cange records the. Clifford Geertz, "Religion as to Cultural System," in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York, 1973). John Gager, The Origins of Anti-semitism: Attitudes toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity (Oxford, 1983). CSEL=CORPUS SCRIPTORUM ECCLESIASTICORUM LATINORUM. GCS=DIE GRIECHISCHE CHRISTLICHE SCHRIFTSTELLER DER ERSTEN. Mary Ann Red, email: Letapriest@aol. We hope that you have found this document. Please help us build our online library of resources I know that more people can access the debate and make up their own minds about women priests. Having benefited from the online library, any donation, small or large, that you can make to support our work would be gratefully appreciated. learn how you can make to donation now.