Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Majorianus, Julius Valerius
Majorianus, Julius Valerius, declared emperor of the West Apr. 1, 457,
at Columellae, six miles from Ravenna. Tillemont argues (Emp. vi. 634) that
he did not become emperor till some months later. Majorian apparently remained at
Ravenna till Nov. 458, the year of his consulship, which was marked by a series
of remarkable laws, which may be found among the "Novels" at the end of the Theodosian
Code. An outline of these laws is given by Gibbon; the seventh enacted that a curialis
who had taken orders to avoid the duties of his position, if below
the rank of a deacon, should be at once reduced to his original status, while, if
he had been ordained deacon, priest, or bishop, he was declared incapable of alienating
his property. The sixth law, intended to encourage marriage, forbade nuns to take
the veil before the age of forty. A girl compelled by her parents to devote herself
to perpetual virginity was to be at liberty to marry if at her parents' death she
was under 40. The whole of this law, except the restrictions on the testamentary
power of widows, was repealed by Majorian's successor, Severus. It is remarkable
that the Catalogue of the Popes given by the Bollandists (AA. SS. Apr. i.
33) states that Leo the Great forbad a woman taking the veil before 60 years of
age, or according to a various reading 40, and that the 19th canon of the council
of Agde (Mansi, viii. 328), following the law of Majorian, fixes the age at 40.
On his arrival at Lyons, before the close of 458, Majorian was greeted by Sidonius with a long panegyric (Carm. v.). At Arles, Mar. 28, 460, he issued a law declaring ordinations against the will of the person ordained to be null; subjected an archdeacon who had taken part in such an ordination to a penalty of ten pounds of gold to be received by the informer, and referred a bishop guilty of the same offence to the judgment of the apostolic see. By the same law parents who compelled a son to take orders against his will were to forfeit to him a third part of their property.
On Majorian's return to Italy in 461 Ricimer excited a mutiny in the army against him at Tortona, forced him to abdicate on Aug. 2, and five days afterwards caused him to be assassinated on the banks of the Ira.
[F.D.]