Synod of Estinnes
The Synod of Estinnes (sometimes referred to as the Council of Leptinä ) took place on March 1, 743 and served to carry out a church reform for Neustria in the sense of Boniface , as had already been agreed in 742 or 743 at the Concilium Germanicum .
The place of the synod, the Carolingian Palatinate villa listinas , corresponds to today's Estinnes near Binche in Hainaut .
This synod was supplemented by the Synod of Soissons (744) on the area of Pepin the Younger .
backgrounds
Boniface insisted on Frankish imperial synods, since such assemblies had not been convened for many decades. Abuses had broken down, and Boniface found very harsh words against the clergy, who in his eyes were strongly secular and decrepit. He railed against clerics, “who have always lived in fornication, always in adultery and always in all kinds of filth, since their youth. ... You have four or five or more co-sleepers in bed and feel neither shame nor fear when reading the gospel. "
However, Boniface did not proceed entirely without self-interest. It was important to him to become Archbishop of Cologne. Instead he was resigned to the Mainz chair; its owner was guilty of a blood revenge and was for Boniface the model of a depraved bishop. Boniface was given the title of archbishop only ad personam.
Boniface's criticism of the state of the church was largely justified, because education and Catholic teaching were in disarray in many places. So it is not surprising that more far-reaching critics such as Adalbertus appeared, who reviled the priests, considered the sacraments to be worthless and declared that he had received his teaching through letters from Jesus. Adalbert was condemned by the synod, as was his doctrine of angels, which the Pope later opposed with his doctrine of the three archangels.
subjects
The synod regulated the organization of the church in the spheres of power of the caretakers Pippin the Younger and Karlmann . Both areas were to receive two archbishops each:
- In Karlmanns area Boniface became bishop in Germania and Grimo in Rouen .
- In Pippin's area, Abel held the episcopate in Reims , Ardobert that in Sens .
The synod imposed a ban on weapons and hunting on the clergy.
The most problematic was the relationship between church and state authority, especially when it came to concrete rights such as church property. This was largely awarded by Karl Martell to his followers in order to integrate them into the emerging feudal system and to make their performance available for state violence. Such “compulsory expropriations” at the expense of the church were justified with the excessive striving for independence of some church princes and with the higher purpose of defending Christianity by force of arms, i.e. with knights capable of fighting. The church, on the other hand, took the position that such expropriations amounted to a violation of law and also violated canon law.
The Synod of Estinnes tried to find a compromise here: the expropriated churches were entitled to compensation of 12 denarii per court to be paid by the new owners. The whole thing was organized in the legal form of precariousness . The caretakers continued to rely on the use of church property and the affirmation that these goods would be “with God's indulgent tolerance [only] for some time” could hardly satisfy the clergy, since expropriations should only be inadmissible if that was the case This would plunge the diocese into extreme poverty.
In some points Boniface was able to enforce church discipline as well as church organization and dogmatics. On the whole, however, he met an opposition from the bishops who knew how to make life difficult for him. Bishop Milo von Trier in particular resisted Boniface intensely.