Delatores

(Informers, sometimes called Calumniatores) were those unfaithful brethren in the early Church, who, for money or favor from the civil authorities, betrayed the Christians into the hands of their persecutors. Titus issued an edict forbidding slaves to inform against their masters, or freedmen against their patrons It is not wonderful that during and immediately after the days of persecution the informer was regarded with horror. Thus the Council of Elvira, A.D. 305, excommunicated, even on his deathbed, any informer who had caused the proscription or death of the person informed against; for informing in less important cases, the informer might be readmitted to communion after five years; or, if a catechumen, he might be admitted to baptism after five years. The first council of Aries, A.D. 314, reckons among " traditores " not only those who gave up to the persecutors the Holy Scriptures and sacred vessels, but also those who handed in lists of the brethren; and respecting these the council decrees that whoever shall be discovered, from the public records to have committed such offences shall be solemnly degraded from the clerical order. The capitularies of the Frank kings cite the canon of Elvira. The same capitularies enjoin bishops to excommunicate "accusers of the brethren;" and, even after amendment, not to admit them to holy orders, though they may be admitted to communion. There is attributed to pope Hadrian I a decree: "Let the tongue of an informer be cut out, or let his head be cut off." Precisely the same is found in the Frank capitularies, and nearly the same in the Theodosiancode.