Synod of Agde
The Synod of Agde ( Latin Concilium Agathense ) was convened by Bishop Caesarius from Arles to Agde ( Latin Agatha) in Septimania . It took place on September 10, 506 and was attended by 35 bishops from southern Gaul. At this time, southwest France and Provence were part of the Visigothic Empire under Alaric II. The Visigoths adhered to Arianism , but the majority of the Romanesque majority population was Catholic. The purpose of the synod was to bring the Catholic dioceses of the area closer together in relation to the Arian authorities and to maintain church discipline.
Resolutions of the Synod
The synod passed the following resolutions, among others:
- Resolutions to maintain church discipline. For example, priests who disobeyed their superior bishop or who were haughty toward believers should be disciplined by the bishop. The episcopal power was limited and wrong decisions by individual bishops should be able to be reversed by their episcopal brothers. Clerics who abandoned their office or sought protection from a secular judge for fear of church punishment should (like the judge) be excommunicated . Priests and bishops must be at least 30 years of age at the time of ordination.
- Resolutions on church property. Endowments to the church should no longer be reversible if punished. Clerics who stole church property should be punished. Gifts to clerics are church property and not private property. Church property may not be sold or only under very special circumstances.
- Resolutions on the way of life of church people. They were obliged to abstain . They could have been married before attaining their church office, but were no longer allowed to have conjugal intercourse afterwards. The only women who were allowed to live in the house of a churchman were his mother, sister, daughter or niece. A church man is not allowed to visit strange women alone and also not take part in other people's wedding meals. Church people should not follow a worldly lifestyle, for example not owning hunting dogs or falcons . Drunkenness among clerics should be punished by 30 days of excommunication or corporal punishment. The hairstyle and clothing of clerics was regulated.
- Resolutions on monasteries. These should only be founded or built with the permission of the bishop. Women's monasteries should not be located in the vicinity of men's monasteries. Nuns are only allowed to enter a monastery at the age of 40.
- Resolutions on dealing with and on the rights of slaves . The release of slaves on the basis of merit by a bishop must be respected by his successor in office. Escaped and re-apprehended slaves of a bishop, who could be expected to try this again, could be sold by the bishop.
- Provisions on the obligations of believers. Lay people should be present on Sundays throughout Mass until the bishop's blessing. All church members had to keep the fasting requirement during the quadragese . The ancient practice of abandoning newborns was condemned again. Abandoned children found are allowed to be taken in as their own children by their finders, provided that the parents are not located.
- Regulations for dealing with the Jews. The clergy and lay people were forbidden to participate in the meals of the Jews. If Jews wanted to convert to Christianity, since they had a tendency to return to the old faith, they would have to stay in the catechumenate for eight months before they could be baptized . Only people who are close to death are allowed to be baptized earlier.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Hefele, Karl Joseph , Knöpfler, Alois , Hergenröther, Joseph : Conciliengeschichte . tape 2 . Herder-Verlag , Freiburg im Breisgau 1856, §221: Synod zu Agde (Agatha) in J. 506, p. 631–641 ( digitized (permalink) at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek ).
- ↑ Herwig Wolfram: Die Goten , page 205. ISBN 978-3-406-33733-8 , accessed on September 9, 2011