Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

736 24. the organization of the church
ii. councils and clergy
Each bishop ruled his own church as final judge, and his judgement could
not be undone by another. His sanction against offenders was excommunication,
a grave matter affecting the whole life and career of the person
concerned. Appeal could be made higher in the church, and the fifth canon
of Nicaea established a system for this: the metropolitan must assemble his
bishops twice a year, before Lent and in the autumn, to review and normally
to ratify all decisions. The system was not scrupulously applied, and
the rule had often to be repeated. Of the bishop’s council or the metropolitan’s
we get only occasional reports, and few full records. They were of
local and temporary interest. Only when wider national or imperial concerns
led to special assemblies from more than one province do the records
sometimes survive.
This state of affairs is well illustrated from Merovingian Gaul. Most
councils engaged more than one metropolitan province; only two are provincial
and one diocesan. Surviving records reflect the fact that major councils
were often called by royal power. The model is provided by Constantine
and Nicaea; so Clovis, who from his conversion in 496 becomes a ‘new
Constantine’, constitutes his state church with the Council of Orleans
(511). The council acknowledges that it meets at his command, and seeks
his approval of its decrees. Its first three canons deal with a matter of civil
concern: the right of criminals to asylum. Only then does it turn to the
more usual occupations of councils – largely rules for the clergy and
monks, and some liturgical items. The relation to royal authority had
already figured large in the holding of councils. The total of fourteen provinces
never met together until the Fifth Council of Paris in 614; but thirteen
were represented by the sixty-five bishops at Orleans V in 549. We
have records of only one diocesan synod, the undatable Auxerre, and of a
number limited to the province of Arles, which was lively and large, with
twenty-three dioceses. 19
The bishops often repeat decrees of earlier councils. Already in the
Council of Agde in 506 the compilation called Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua plays
an important role. 20 The modern editions trace the parallels from council
to council. 21 These same documents illustrate the concerns of the bishops.
One is always the purity of the clergy. Minimum ages (twenty-five for a
deacon, thirty for a presbyter) are stipulated. Slaves may not be ordained
without enfranchisement. From 524 (Arles IV can. 2) laymen could not be
ordained direct to the diaconate or presbyterate. Acceptability to the civil
authority is required, but only rarely is there any concern for educational
19 Gaudemet and Basdevant (1989) 33–4 differs slightly from the count in Wallace-Hadrill (1983)
94–5. 20 Ed. Munier (1963a).
21 For the concerns of the councils, Gaudemet and Basdevant (1989) 44–59.
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