by Horatius Piscinus on Sun Jan 12, 2003 5:24 pm
Salvete collegae omnes
I will prefrence my comments by referring to our Regula Fundamentalis.
I.4 "The Societas recognizes the recreated and reformed Religio Romana as its official spiritual basis, but guarantees full freedom of religious belief, conscious and practice to its members in whatever tradition of faith they follow."
VIII.5 "Collegia are responsible for their own internal organization, and are not subject to interference by the Senatus or any magistratus, with the exception of the Aediles, whose responsibility it is to ensure that democratic procedures and the protection of individual rights are being carried out in each collegium..."
I will emphasize once more that the Collegium Religionis is not, and has never been, intended solely for practitioners of the Religio Romana. Our Societas is a community, composed of various individuals, choosing their own paths in different religious traditions. The Collegium Religionis may be said to be most responsible for developing the spiritual life of our community, and the Religio Romana is given a special role, but not an exclusive role in our Societas. The Collegium Religionis may, if it so desires as a whole, to recognize certain individuals as a priesthood serving the gods and the community of SVR. If we do decide on that, then it cannot be solely a priesthood for the Religio Romana.
In the imperial period, outside Rome and its immediate area, the imperial culti deorum of local communities were administered by flamines. Not quite the same type of flamines we know in the Religio Romana. In addition each temple was headed by a sacredotus. Sacredotus is a general term for priest. Additionally there were a variety of religious sodalitates. If we were to form priesthoods for SVR, and do so in a manner that respects all religious traditions, then I think we should consider the religious life in Roman towns rather than Rome itself and only the Religio Romana. We should be flexible in our approach.
Cicero will have to explain his ideas more, but what I have gathered thus far, with priests and priestess dedicated to serving a particular deity, this refers to flamines. Individuals in SVR who wish to promoted the worship of a particular deity on our lists and write contributions for our websites could be regarded as flamines.
In addition, individuals who establish and maintain real world facilities of worship, such as shrines, sanctuaries, or religious groups, I would designate as sacredotes. Others who maintain virtual temples online could also be designated as sacredotes or as curiones.
Individual members who wish to gather either in local groups or online could form sodalitates.
None of the flamines, sacrodates, curiones, or sodalitates would necessarily have to be positions limited to any particular faith. The priests of various non-Roman temples were still referred to as sacredotes, such as the priests who administered the mysteries of Eleussium, or the temples of Egypt. In some instances, in the provinces, there were flamines and sacredotes to composite deities such as Ceres-Isis. Then there were sodalitates for different purposes, these were regulated by the Roman Senate. A Mithraist group, or a Christian congregation for that matter, could be taken as a sodalitas, and have its own flamines or sacredotes.
In addition, because of the role set for the Religio Romana for SVR, there could be additional priesthoods to consider, such as augures and Vestales Virgines, to serve special functions for our Societas. We continue to use the titles of pontifices for the officials of this Collegium Religionis, which I think needs to be rectified since our collegial officials do not fill the role of pontifices. I do not think we wish to create a hierarchial system of priesthoods, so certain titles should not be used. Keep it simple and keep it to serving the needs of our community.
The collegium as a whole should consider whether we wish to take this step of creating priesthoods for SVR. From our discussions on the lists, the pontifices will then be responsible to draft a proposal for the collegae to vote on. If we wish to grant titles and honours, recognizing some individuals as priests and priestesses for SVR, then the Senate of SVR may also need to give its approval of the measure.
I assume that since this idea has been brought up on different occasions, that there is felt to be a need to form priesthoods for SVR. That is the first thing to consider. Then we can address what priesthoods, define their responsibilities and the requirements set to grant such titles and honours. Any titles and honours we would grant to be used in the whole of SVR and outside this collegium should be approved by the Senate before implementation.
Di deaeque vos semper ament
Moravius Piscinus
Consul iterum
Pontifex et Praeceptor Religionis Romanae
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!