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RATISBON (792). [Concilium Ratisponense.] Held in 792. In this council the errors of Felix, Bishop of Urgel, who maintained, with Elipandus of Toledo, that our Lord is only the adoptive Son of God, were condemned, and he himself sent to Rome to Pope Adrian, before whom he confessed and abjured his heresy in the church of St Peter.—Tom. vii. Conc. p. 1010. (See C. NARBONNE, 791.)
RATISBON (796). Held in 796. Grievous complaints having been made both by the priests and laity of the conduct of the Chorepiscopi, who assumed episcopal functions, it was decided in this council that the latter had no power to perform episcopal functions, being only priests, and that, consequently, all such functions previously performed by them were null and void; it was also forbidden to make any new Chorepiscopi. This rank, however, amongst the clergy did not entirely cease until the middle of the tenth century. (See C. PARIS, 829, can. 27; MEAUX, 845, can. 70; METZ, 888, can. 8.—Tom. vii. Conc. p. 1152.)
RATISBON (932). Held in 932, January 14th. Odulpertus, Archbishop of Salzburg (Juvavia); Vodalfredus, Rubilocensis Episcopus; Wolfram, Frigisiensis Episcopus; Hizingrimus of Ratisbon; Gerard of Petow (Pataviensis); Suarzlow, a Chorepiscopus; Egilof, an abbot, and a large body of priests, were present. After the Litany had been sung in procession, “in the accustomed manner,” the people all carrying crosses, the synod was held in the church of St Peter, the bishops sitting near the altar. First the bishops mutually entreated one another in charity to mention anything that any one of them might have seen in the conduct of another deserving of blame; then they exhorted the sacred congregation, and gave them advice, instructing them in sound religion and morality. The prelates further entered into the agreement so common about this time, that whenever any one of them should die, the surviving prelates should at once say twelve masses for his soul, and the priests and other clerks and monks four psalters. They also agreed to make an offering for the good of the soul of the deceased.—Mart., Vet. Scrip. Coll. Tom. v. col. 53.
RAVENNA (877). [Concilium Ravennate.] Held July 22, 877, by Pope John VIII., at the head of forty-nine bishops; the object of the council was to remedy the disorders of the Church. Nineteen chapters remain to us, relating to the discipline and privileges of the Church; also a letter, confirming the possession of the Monastery of Flavigny to the Bishop of Autun.
Chap. 1. Enjoins the metropolitan to send to Rome for the pallium within three months after his consecration, and forbids him to exercise any of the functions of his office until that be done.
2. Enjoins that all bishops elect shall be consecrated by their metropolitans within three months after election, under pain of excommunication.
3. Forbids metropolitans to make use of the pallium, except on great festivals and during mass.
5, 6, 7, and 8. Excommunicate and anathematise those who rob the church, injure ecclesiastics, and commit various other crimes.
9. Declares those persons to be themselves excommunicated who voluntarily communicate with the excommunicated.
12. Excommunicates those who absent themselves from their parish church on three Sundays successively.
19. Forbids judges and royal commissioners to hold courts and to lodge in churches.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 299.
RAVENNA (898). Held in 898, by John IX., in the matter of Formosus and Stephen. The Emperor Lambert being present and seventy-four bishops. Ten regulations were approved.
1. Enacts the observation of the canons of the fathers, and all that is contained in the capitulars of Charlemagne, Louis le Debonnaire, Lothaire, and Louis II.
3. Confirms the privileges granted to the Church of Rome by the Emperors.
4. Approves all that had been done in the Council of Rome, A.D. 898, in the matter of Formosus.
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Relate to the political circumstances of the Roman see.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 507.
RAVENNA (967). Held in April, 967. In this council the Emperor, Otho I., yielded to the Pope, John XIII., the city and territory of Ravenna. Heroldus, Archbishop of Salzburg, was deposed and excommunicated; the act of deposition being subscribed on the 25th of April, by the emperor and fifty-seven bishops, including the pope. Lastly, Magdeburg was erected into an archbishopric; this, however, was not completed until the following year.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 674.
RAVENNA (997). Held May 1st, 997, by Gerbert, Archbishop of Ravenna, and eight suffragans. Three canons remain, of which
1. Condemns an infamous custom which existed in the cathedral of Ravenna, of selling the Holy Eucharist and chrism.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 766.
RAVENNA (1014). Held April 30th, 1014, by the new archbishop, Arnold, to remedy the abuses caused by the long vacancy of eleven years, and the intrusion of Adelbert, who had unlawfully conferred holy orders and dedicated certain churches. It was determined that those upon whom orders had been thus conferred should remain suspended until the matter could be minutely considered; and that the consecrations of churches and oratories made by Adelbert were null and void.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 833.
RAVENNA (1128). Held by Peter, Cardinal of St Anastasia, in 1128. Here the Patriarchs of Aquileia and Venice, or Grade, were deposed, having been convicted of favouring schismatics.—Pagi. Tom. x. Conc. p. 936.
RAVENNA (1286). Held on July 8th, 1286, by Bonifacius the archbishop, who presided, assisted by eight bishops, his suffragans. Nine canons were published.
2. Exhorts the clergy to almsgiving, and grants indulgences to those who feed and clothe the poor.
3. Relates to the dress of the clergy; and forbids them to carry arms without the bishop’s permission.
5. Orders that the usual daily distributions shall be made only to those canons who attend the holy office.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1238.
RAVENNA (1310). Held in 1310, by Rainaldus the archbishop, in the matter of the Templars. Present: eight bishops of the province, three inquisitors, two preaching friars, and one minorite: seven Templars were brought before them, who constantly affirmed their innocence. On the following day it was determined that they who had confessed from a fear of torture only, should be considered innocent: nevertheless, there were five who went through the canonical ordeal.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1533.
RAVENNA (1311). Held in 1311, by Rainaldus the archbishop: five bishops and six proctors attending. Thirty-two canons were published.
2. Orders mass to be said daily for a month by the other bishops in behalf of a bishop deceased.
3. Orders that yearly, on the 20th of July, a solemn service shall be said for the deceased bishops; and that on that day twelve poor persons shall be fed.
4. Enjoins the same thing on behalf of patrons and benefactors of churches.
6. Orders that the sacraments be administered fasting.
10. Enjoins curates to warn the people every Sunday, after the gospel and offertory, of the festivals and fast days in the coming week.
11. Orders that the form of baptism shall be publicly said in church three times a year.
15. Orders that the canon “omnis utriusque sexus” shall be published at Advent and Lent. That medical men shall not visit a patient a second time if he have not called in the priest.
16. Forbids to give a benefice to any one who cannot read or chant.
18. Orders annual synods.
23. Orders that Jews shall wear a distinguishing badge.
26. Renews the canonical penalties for striking, maltreating, and driving the clergy from their churches.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1569.
RAVENNA (1314). Held in 1314, by the same archbishop, assisted by six bishops and four deputies: twenty canons were published.
2. Forbids to ordain to the priesthood persons under twenty-five years of age: also to ordain a deacon under twenty, and a sub-deacon under sixteen years.
6. Orders that the church bells shall be rung when a bishop passes, that the people may come out to receive his blessing upon their knees: also regulates the form to be observed by the chapter of a cathedral upon the bishop’s visit.
8. Declares, under pain of excommunication, that no monks, or other persons, can claim exemption from episcopal visitation upon plea of prescriptive right, or any other plea.
10. Enacts that the clergy shall be soberly dressed, that they shall not carry arms, nor dress in coloured clothes; that they shall wear a close cassock, observe the tonsure, and keep their hair cut short, &c.
11. Forbids men to enter the monastic houses of females.
14. Orders curates to teach their people the form of baptism at least once a year.
16. Orders fasting and almsgiving on the three days before the meeting of provincial councils.
29. Revokes the permission given to monks to preach indulgences.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1603.
RAVENNA (1317). Held in 1317. (See C. BOLOGNA, 1317.)
READING (1279). [Concilium Redingense.] Held in July 1279, by Friar John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by his suffragans. The constitutions of Othobon, made in the Council of London A.D. 1268, having been read, the twelve following constitutions were published:—
1. Renews the twenty-ninth constitution of Othobon against pluralities; and directs bishops to cause a register to be kept of all incumbents in their dioceses, with all particulars relating to them and their livings.
2. Relates to commendaries, and declares such as are held otherwise than the constitution of Gregory, made in the Council of Lyons, 1273, permits, to be vacant.
3. Orders all priests, on the Sunday after every rural chapter, to explain to the people the sentences of excommunication decreed by the Council of Oxford in 1222; and to publish four times in each year the constitutions of Othobon concerning baptism at Easter and Pentecost, and that concerning concubinaries at the four principal rural chapters, the laity being first dismissed.
4. Orders that children born within eight days of Pentecost and Easter shall be reserved to be baptised at these times; but that children born at other times shall be baptised at once, for fear of sudden death.
5. Orders the eighth constitution of Othobon (1268) against concubinary priests to be read openly in the four principal rural chapters, and declares that such reading shall be taken as a monition. If the dean or his deputy neglect this, he is directed to fast every Friday on bread and water until the next chapter.
6. Relates to the chrism: orders that what remains of the old chrism shall be burnt when the new is consecrated: directs that priests shall be bound to fetch the chrism for their churches every year from their bishops before Easter; forbids to use any other than the new chrism, under the heaviest penalties.
7. Orders that the consecrated host be kept in a fair pyx, within a tabernacle: that a fresh host be consecrated every Lord’s day: that it be carried to the sick by a priest in surplice and stole, a Ian thorn being carried before, and a bell sounded, that the people may “make humble adoration wheresoever the King of Glory is carried under the cover of bread.”
8. Declares the custom of praying for the dead to be “holy and wholesome;” and ordains that upon the death of any bishop of the province of Canterbury, his surviving brethren shall perform a solemn office for the dead, both singly in their chapels, and together, when called to assemble in council or otherwise, after the death of the said bishop: orders further, every priest to say one mass for the soul of his deceased diocesan, and entreats all exempt religious priests and seculars to do likewise.
9. Relates to the preaching of indulgences, and orders caution in so doing, “lest the keys of the Church be despised.”
10. Forbids to set free, or admit to purgation, on slight grounds, clerks who, having been put into prison for their crimes, are delivered to the Church as convicts.
11. Enjoins that care be taken to preserve the chastity of friars and nuns: forbids them to sojourn long in the houses of their parents and friends.
12. Forbids parishioners to dispose of the grass, trees, or roots growing in consecrated ground; leaves such produce at the disposal of the rectors: forbids the latter, without sufficient cause, to spoil or grub up such trees as are an ornament to the churchyards and places thereabouts.
Then follows (in some copies) an injunction that the clergy of each diocese should send at least two deputies to the next congregation, to treat with the bishops for the common interests of the Church of England. This injunction, however, is by some persons said to be not genuine.
In this same council a deed protecting the liberties of the scholars at Oxford was drawn up, in which the archbishop declared that, “moved by their devout prayers, he received under his protection their persons and property, and confirmed to them and their successors the liberties and immunities granted to them by bishops, kings, and others of the faithful:” it is also provided that sentences of suspension and excommunication passed by the chancellor or his deputies, &c., upon men on account of offences committed by them in the University, shall be put into execution throughout the province of Canterbury: further, it is ordered that the benefices of clerks found in arms by day or night, to the disturbance of the peace of the University, shall be sequestered for three years; and if the clerks so offending be unbeneficed, they shall be incapable of holding any benefice for five years, unless they shall make competent satisfaction in the interim.
Thirteen prelates attended this council, viz., the Archbishop and the Bishops of Lincoln, Salisbury, Winchester, Exeter, Chichester, Worcester, Bath, Llandaff, Hereford, Norwich, Bangor, Rochester.—Johnson, Ecc. Canons. Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1062. Wilkins’ Conc., vol. ii. p. 33.
RENNES (1273). [Concilium Redonense.] Held on the Monday after Ascension-day, 1273. Seven chapters were published.
1. Enacts that any one laying violent hands upon a bishop, abbot, or abbess, or setting fire to their houses, shall, if a clerk, be delivered over to anathema, and forbidden to hold any sort of ecclesiastical preferment; if a layman, shall be excluded with his children to the third generation from receiving holy orders.
6. Allows bishops to absolve persons in their own diocese excommunicated by the present council.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 933.
RHEIMS (624). [Concilium Renmise.] Held in 624 or 625, by the Archbishop Sonnatius, at the head of forty, or more, Gallican bishops. Twenty-five canons were published.
2. Directs that clerks who cabal against their bishops shall be deposed.
3. Confirms the canons of Paris (made in 614).
7. Defends the inviolability of the asylum afforded by churches.
13. Forbids bishops to sell slaves or other property belonging to the Church.
20. Forbids a bishop to dispose of the vessels of the Church, unless it be in order to redeem captives.
25. Directs that no one be consecrated bishop of any see unless he belong to that country, have been elected by all the people and bishops of the province, and have been approved by the whole council.—Tom. viii. Conc. p, 1688.
RHEIMS (819). Held in May 819, by Vulfairius, or Wilfarius, the archbishop, who presided. The council was preceded, according to custom, by a fast of three days. Forty-four canons were drawn up.—Tom. viii. Conc. p. 1253.
RHEIMS (or ST BASLE) (991). Held June 17, 991, by order of Hugo Capet, against Arnulphus, Archbishop of Rheims, and son of Lothaire, who was suspected of carrying on a secret intelligence with his uncle, Charles of Lorraine. Sequinus, Archbishop of Sens, presided, and Arnulphus, Bishop of Orleans, set forth the object of the council, viz., to decide whether Arnulphus of Rheims were guilty of high treason; proofs were then brought forward to establish his guilt. Arnulphus of Rheims was, on his side, defended by three distinguished men, John of Auxerre, Ranulphus, Abbot of Sens, and Ebbo of Fleuri, who produced extracts from the false letters of the African bishops to Pope Damasus, and from some false decretals, to show that the judgments of bishops ought to be reserved for the pope. The great reverence paid to the code of the African Church was shown in this Synod, in which these canons were appealed to as having the force of law.
Arnulphus of Orleans then spoke, saying, amongst other things, that the Church of Rome was ever to be held in honour on account of St Peter, and that the decrees of the pope should always be received when they are not contrary to the canons; “if,” said he, “any one pretends with Gelasius, that the Church of Rome is judge of all, whilst she is judged of none, let him place at Rome a pope whose judgment cannot err.” He then proceeded to show that even Rome herself had approved that bishops, when accused, should be judged on the spot, without reference to the holy see; that the primitive rule and custom had been broken in upon by false decretals; that he advocated deference to the pope by consulting him; “but,” said he, “if his judgment be not just, let us obey the apostle, and not listen even to an angel speaking contrary to the gospel.”
Finally it was decided that the council possessed the power of judging in the matter; whereupon Arnulphus was introduced, and his accusation read over to him; in reply, he made a weak defence, and after a short time confessed his guilt, and desired to renounce the episcopate.
In the second session, the two kings, Hugo and Robert, were present; Arnulphus of Rheims knelt before them, and delivered up his ring and pastoral staff; he then read the act renouncing his episcopal office, and declaring that for his sins he was unworthy of the episcopate. After this, Gerbert was elected in his room (subsequently Pope Silvester II.)—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 738.
RHEIMS (1049). Held October 3rd, 1049, by Pope Leo IX., who presided over twenty bishops, nearly fifty abbots, and many other ecclesiastics. In the first session, the abuses which had led to the convocation of the council were detailed, viz., simony, usurpations, and persecution of churches by the laity, incestuous marriages, the apostacy of monks and clerks, the pillage of the poor, and other crimes. All the bishops, except four, and the Archbishop of Rheims, cleared themselves of the charge of simony; the abbots did the same, with a few exceptions.
In the second session several confessed the sin of simony, and they, with others, were condemned. Certain bishops, who having been cited to the council, neither attended nor sent their excuses, were excommunicated; afterwards twelve canons were published.
1. Enacts that no one shall be raised to any bishopric but by the vote of the clergy and people.
2. Forbids simony.
5. Forbids any fee for burial, baptism, and the Holy Eucharist.
7. Forbids usury.
8. Forbids the clergy and monks to quit their state
10. Forbids to harass the poor.
12. Forbids to leave a lawful wife in order to marry another.—See Baron, A.D. 1049, xvii. Tom. x. Conc. p. 1028.
RHEIMS (1094). Held in 1094, composed of three archbishops and eight bishops. King Philip hoped in this council to have had his marriage with Bertrade approved, his wife Bertha being dead. Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, who strenuously opposed the marriage, absolutely refused to attend, and appealed to the pope, declaring that the king might do what he pleased to him, but that he would suffer anything for the law of God.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 497.
RHEIMS (1115). Held in 1115, by Conon, the Roman legate. St Godfroi, Bishop of Amiens, was brought before the council from his retreat amongst the Carthusians, so worn out by fastings and mortifications, that he could scarcely stand; he was rebuked by the legate for deserting his see, and sent back there.—(See C. of SOISSONS, 1115.) Tom. x. Conc. p. 801.
RHEIMS (1119). Held from the 20th to the 30th of October 1119, by Pope Calixtus II., who presided over thirteen archbishops and more than two hundred bishops, convoked from all the provinces of the West. Besides the prelates, there were present a very large number of abbots, and Louis VI., King of France. After mass, the pope seated himself upon a raised throne opposite to the door of the church, and when the litany and prayers were finished, delivered a Latin homily upon the Gospel. Then the Bishop of Ostia explained to the assembly the various matters upon which they had been called together to deliberate. First, Louis le Gros complained of the violent seizure of Normandy by the King of England; but the council refused to judge the question.
Then Hildegarde, Countess of Poictiers, followed by her ladies, brought forward a complaint against William, Duke of Aquitaine, who had deserted her, in order to take in her place the wife of the Viscount de Châtelleraut, and had plunged into every kind of debauchery. The excuses of the prelates of Aquitaine were received, who alleged that their duke, from illness, was unable to obey the pope’s mandate and to attend the council. A delay was granted to him, within which to present himself at Rome, and to take back his lawful wife.
After this the Archbishop of Lyons complained, in behalf of the Bishop of Maçon, of the conduct of Pontius, the Abbot of Clugny, against whom many other clerks and monks brought great complaints of his extortions and violence. The Abbot of Clugny defended himself, and declared that all the charges brought against him arose simply from his care to preserve inviolate the property and privileges of his monastery.
Five canons were published.
1. Against simony.
2. Forbids investitures at the hands of laymen.
4. Forbids any fee for burial or sacrament.
5. Forbids priests, deacons, or sub-deacons to have wives or to keep mistresses.
In the last session all the bishops and abbots, to the number of four hundred and twenty-seven, each holding a taper in his hand, rose up, and the pope solemnly excommunicated certain persons, amongst whom were the emperor and the anti-pope Burdinus.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 862.
RHEIMS (1131). Held October 18, 1131, by Pope Innocentius II., who presided, at the head of thirteen archbishops and two hundred and sixty-three bishops, besides abbots, clerks, and monks from France, Spain, England, and Germany; amongst the abbots present was St Bernard. The king and queen and nearly all the nobility of France also attended.
The election of Pope Innocentius was here confirmed, and Peter of Leon (Anacletus) excommunicated; also Louis, the son of Louis VI., was consecrated by the pope. Seventeen canons were published, one of which forbids monks and regular canons to study civil law or medicine as a profession; another forbids risking life and limb at tournaments; another anathematises every person striking an ecclesiastic.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 989, misprinted for 979.
RHEIMS (1148). Held in 1148. Pope Eugenius III. presiding, assisted by several cardinals and bishops from France, Germany, England, and Spain. St Bernard compelled Gilbert de la Porée, Bishop of Poictiers, to confess that he had taught that the Divine Nature, which is called the Divinity, is not God, that one only God is not the Three Persons, nor the Three Persons one only God. The holy abbot vigorously attacked this doctrine, and drew up a profession of faith opposing the errors of Gilbert, which was approved by the council; in substance it was as follows:—
1. We believe that the simple nature of the Divinity is God, and that God is the Divinity; that He is wise by that wisdom which is Himself; great by that greatness which is Himself, &c.
2. When we speak of three Divine Persons, we confess that they are one God and one Divine substance; and, on the other hand, when we speak of one God, one Divine substance, we say that it is Three Persons.
3. We believe and say that God alone, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is eternal, and that there is no other thing, whether we call it relation, or property, or anything else, which can be eternal without being God.
4. We believe that the Divinity itself, the Divine Nature, or the Divine Substance, is incarnate, but in the Son.
As several members of the council, including the cardinals present, were in favour of Gilbert, the pope did not confirm the judgment of the council against him by a solemn decree, but only obliged him to retract his errors, and forbad any to read his book until it had been so corrected. His recantation appears to have been sincere.
In this same council, a fanatic, a Breton, called “Eon of the Star,” was brought forward, who had led astray vast multitudes, publishing that it was he who should judge the quick and the dead, alleging as a proof these words of the Church exorcism: “Per eum qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos,” &c.; the first two words of which were often badly pronounced, thus, “per eon.” He was sentenced to be imprisoned, and soon after died. Many of his disciples preferred being burnt to death to recanting.
In the same assembly an accusation was brought against William, Archbishop of York, that he had been neither canonically elected nor lawfully consecrated, but intruded into the see by the king’s authority. He was convicted, and Albert, Bishop of Ostia, pronounced against him, in the name of the pope, sentence of deposition, alleging that before his election he had been nominated by King Stephen. However, this sentence was passed contrary to the advice of many.
Eighteen canons were published in this council, most of them being but renewals of those made in previous councils. 10. Forbids to commit any church to the care of a hired priest instead of its own priest, and insists that every church shall have its own priest. 12. Forbids tournaments.—(See C. of PARIS.) Tom. x. Conc. p. 1107. Martene, Thes. Anec., tom. iv. col. 141.
RHEIMS (1157). Held in 1157 by Samson the Archbishop. Seven canons are extant. (1) Against the sect of the Manichæans or Albigenses, called in French in contempt, “Pifres” (Piphili); (3) Concerning the “Pax,” or Tréve de Dieu, which it orders shall be observed from Wednesday evening till Monday morning; (4) against tournaments—forbids Christian burial to those who fall, and all hospitality to persons going to such tournaments or returning from them (6) of regulars holding parishes.—Mart., Vet. Scrip. Coll., tom. v. col. 74.
RHEIMS (1164). Held in 1164, by Pope Alexander III., for the crusade. The Abbot Conon coming late into council in his ecclesiastical vestments, and finding no seat, sat down upon the ground, which the pope seeing, and delighted with his humility, sent to him the seat upon which he was himself accustomed to sit. A tax upon all the nobility and clergy for four years was agreed to.—Pagi, note, in BARON, A.D. 1164.
RHEIMS (1287). Held October 1, 1287, by Peter Barbet, the archbishop, with seven of his suffragans, and the deputies of two others, who unanimously agreed to send a deputation to Rome, to proceed to the utmost with their cause against the friars of St Dominic and St Francis, in the matter of their privileges of hearing confessions and preaching, granted to them by Martin IV.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1317.
RHEIMS (1564). Held in 1564, by Cardinal Charles of Lorraine. The Bishops of Senlis, Soissons, and Chalons-sur-Marne, were present, with the Archbishop of Sens, and the Bishop of Verdun, who at the same time were in Rheims, and took part in the deliberations. Besides these prelates, the proctors of the Bishops of Noyon, Laon, Amiens, and Boulogne attended. The deputies of chapters and the abbots who were present, had the right of voting given to them. Nineteen congregations were held. In the second it was agreed that the question of the reformation of morals should be delayed until the next council, and that each bishop should, in the meantime, examine closely into the state of his diocese, and see what reform was necessary. Nineteen of the canons made in this council are printed.
1. Orders residence.
2. Warns all curates to preach the Word of God at least on every Sunday and festival: orders them to keep by them a copy of the Tridentine acts in French and Latin, and to conform their teaching to that standard.
3. Directs that curates shall take care to instruct the faithful in the virtue of the sacraments to give remission of sin, lest they should receive them to their damnation.
4. Directs that they shall instruct them in the spiritual benefits of holy baptism.
7. Directs that in the annual diocesan synod six learned men should be named to examine persons to be instituted to benefices.
8. Enjoins great care in the proof of those to be ordained.
10 and 11. Relate to the re-establishment of the minor order of clerks.
18. Relates to archidiaconal visitations, and to the duties of rural deans.—Tom. xv. Conc. p. 43.
RHEIMS (1583). Held in 1583, by Louis, Cardinal of Guise, Archbishop of Rheims, assisted by the Bishops of Soissons, Laon, Beauvais, Chalons-sur-Marne, Noyon, and Amiens, and the deputy of the Bishops of Senlis. The following subjects were discussed: Divine service, the Breviary, Missal, and Ritual,; festival days; the sacraments, seminaries, burials, curates, chapters, simony, usury, episcopal visitations, diocesan synods: these several matters were treated of in five congregations, and thirty regulations drawn up, which were approved by a brief of Gregory XIII. July 10th, 1584.—Tom. xv. Conc. p. 884.
RIEZ (439). [Concilium Regense, or Regiense.] Held November 29th, 439, by St Hilary of Arles, at the head of about twelve bishops. The object of the council was to examine into the circumstances attending the consecration of Armentarius, a young man of quality, who had been elected to the see of Embrun contrary to the canons. A party, composed of laymen, had nominated him without the consent of the metropolitan, and had obtained his consecration by two bishops only, although the canons insist on three.
The decision of the council, with regard to the consecrating bishops, was that they should be pardoned, although they had merited to be deposed; but that they should be thenceforth for ever excluded from assisting at any episcopal consecration, and at the provincial synods.
The consecration of Armentarius was declared to be invalid, and it was settled that he should be treated as the fathers of Nicea had determined with regard to the Novatians, i.e., that it should be open to any bishop who desired it to give him a district, either in the capacity of chorepiscopus, or to assist at service there, and take part in the holy communion as a foreign bishop: that he was incapable of managing more than one parish, or of ordaining even to the lowest order (although both were frequently done by the chorepiscopi), or of performing any strictly episcopal function, except confirmation and the consecration of virgins, and that in his own church only. In all eight canons were published.
1. Contains the sentence against the two consecrating bishops, and agrees with that made in the Council of Turin, A.D. 401, Can. 3.
2. Declares the invalidity of the consecration of Armentarius, &c., as above.
3. Relates to Armentarius as above.
4. Relates to the ordinations made by Armentarius, and gives permission to the actual Bishop of Embrun, either to employ the persons whom Armentarius had ordained in his own diocese or to send them with Armentarius.
5. Gives to Armentarius permission to consecrate virgins, &c.
6 and 7. Forbid any clerk to enter a vacant see, except it be the nearest bishop, for the sake of setting things in order, and require him to leave the city within seven days after the death of the bishop.
8. Renews the fifth council of Nicea concerning the holding of two provincial councils in each year.—Tom. iii. Conc. p. 1289.
RIEZ (1285). Held February 14th, 1285, by Rostan, Archbishop of Aix, who presided, assisted by the Bishops of Apt, Riez, Sisteron (Cistaricensis), and Frejus, the proctor of an absent bishop and two abbots. Twenty canons were published.
3. Orders, that, to prevent frauds on the part of rectors, each bishop should keep a register (Cartularium) containing the names and properties of all his churches.
4. Forbids abbots and other patrons to present benefices to fictitious persons, an abuse apparently not uncommon.
7. Forbids excommunicated persons not merely to enter into a church, but even to stand without so as to see the celebration of the Holy Office through a door or window. Bids the officiating priest, if he cannot drive them away, to cease from the office till they depart.
10. Forbids apothecaries and others to sell any poison without signifying the same, together with the names of the buyers, to the civil powers. Offenders to be excommunicated, and absolution reserved to the see of Rome.
12. Contains a long complaint of the conduct of the regulars who were exempt or otherwise privileged, who received excommunicated persons, and did many other irregular acts.
16. Orders that the dead be buried in the cemeteries of their proper parishes, except they had in the life expressed clearly a wish to the contrary. Forbids both regulars and seculars to cause them to be buried elsewhere under penalty of forfeiting what might have been left to them by the will of the deceased.—Martene, Thes. Anec., tom. iv. col. 191.
ROME (196). [Concilium Romanum.] Held in 196, by Victor, and fourteen other bishops, in order to fix the period for the celebration of Easter on the Sunday after the fourteenth day of the moon. Several councils were held in different parts of the world in this year upon the same subject; as the councils of Cesarea, Pontus, Corinth, Osrhoend, Lyons.
In another council, held at Rome in the following year, Victor desired to excommunicate the Asiatic quartodecimani, which drew from several bishops, especially from St Irenæus, strong remonstrances.—Tom. i. Conc. p. 596.
ROME (251). Held in October 251, by Cornelius, upon the case of the relapsed: about sixty bishops attended, many of whom were confessors; a large number of priests and deacons were also present. They decided that the relapsed might be reconciled, following the opinion of the African Church, which was that they might be admitted to communion after a long course of penance, and even before the expiration of that penance if they were in danger of death. They also decided that Novation, and all the followers of his inhuman opinions, should be regarded as enemies of the Church, and cut off from it.
The penitential canons of the first council of Carthage were confirmed.—Tom. i. Conc. p. 715. Pagi in Bar. A.D. 254, note 25.
ROME (261). Held in 261, by Pope St Dionysius, upon occasion of the charge preferred by the Bishops of Pentapolis against St Dionysius of Alexandria, that in refuting the Sabellian heresy he had denied the consubstantiality of the Son, and taught an inequality and difference of substance in the three Divine Persons. A letter was written to St Dionysius of Alexandria in the name of the pope and council, exhorting him to confute the charge, which he fully did, in a book which he called a book of refutation and defence.
ROME (313). Held on October 2nd, 313, upon the schism of the Donatists, and the affair of Cecilianus, Bishop of Carthage. This council was convoked by order of the Emperor Constantine, and was held in the palace of the Empress Fausta: the Pope Miltiades (or Melchiades) presided, at the head of nineteen bishops. Cecilianus was present with his accusers, amongst whom was Donatus. The latter was convicted of having caused, when only a deacon, a schism at Carthage, in the time of Mensurius, Bishop of Carthage, of having re-baptised several persons, and of having given imposition of hands a second time in the case of certain bishops who had relapsed in the persecutions. Donatus finding the proof of these things established against himself, quitted the assembly and did not again appear, upon which the other accusers of Cecilianus dropped their charge against him.
In the second session the charge brought against Cecilianus was examined into and proved to be utterly groundless. The decision of the Council of Carthage in 311 (at which seventy Numidian bishops had deposed Cecilianus and elected Majorinus in his stead), was declared to be null, since Cecilianus had been condemned in his absence, not having been able to attend through fear of violence.
In the third session Cecilianus was declared to be innocent, and his consecration was approved. Donatus was condemned as the author of all the mischief. The bishops who had condemned Cecilianus, and those who had come to Rome to accuse him, were, nevertheless, not separated from the Roman communion, since nothing had been proved against them.
The council further ruled that those bishops who had been consecrated by Majorinus should be permitted to retain their sees; and, moreover, that in places where there were two bishops, one consecrated by Majorinus, and the other by Cecilianus, the bishop of longest standing should retain the see, and the other be appointed to some other bishopric. This, as Fleuri observes, is a singular instance of the exercise of a dispensing power, moderating the rigour of the law for the sake of peace.
The acts of this council were sent to the Emperor Constantine.—Tom. i. Conc. p. 1401. See Councils CIRTA, ARLES.
ROME (342). Held in 342, by Pope Julius I., who presided at the head of fifty bishops. The object of the council was to judge the cause of St Athanasius and others, who had come to Rome to complain of the conduct of the Eusebians. According to Tillemont, it is probable that Hosius of Cordova and Vincentius of Capua were amongst the complainants.
Julius had summoned the Eusebians both to make good their charge against Athanasius, and to defend themselves from the accusations brought against them by Marcellus of Ancyra; they, however, did not think good to appear, which strengthened the suspicions against them. Great attention was paid by the council to the synodal letter of the Council of Alexandria, A.D. 340, in defence of St Athanasius, which, when taken in conjunction with the testimony of several other bishops, to the fact that Arsenius was then living, showed clearly the falsehood of one of the chief heads of accusation. In short, the whole of the proceedings in the Council of Tyre were declared to be unjust and irregular. St Athanasius was pronounced to be innocent, and was confirmed in the communion of the Church, as a lawful bishop. Then the cause of Marcellus of Ancyra was examined, together with the profession of faith which he had made in his letter to the pope. The council declared itself satisfied on this head, and pronounced his condemnation and deposition to be invalid. Julius wrote a long epistle upon these subjects to the Orientals in the name of the council.—Tom. ii. Conc. p. 598. Pagius in Bar., A.D. 342, note iii. P. 132.
ROME (366). Held in 366, against Ursacius and Valens, under Pope Damasus, and attended by several bishops. Damasus applied himself earnestly to recover those who had fallen into Arianism, and to discover the authors and heads of that heresy. The creed of Nicea s confirmed. All the proceedings of the Council of Arminium were annulled, and decreed to be utterly void; and Ursacius and Valens were excommunicated with their followers.
A letter was written to the African prelates, imploring them to preserve episcopal unity, and not to give heed to those who upheld the Council of Ariminum to the prejudice of that of Nicea.—Tom. ii. Conc. p. 886. Pagius in Bar., A.D. 369, note v.
ROME (372). Held in 372, under the same pope. Ninety-three bishops assembled, and excommunicated Auxentius of Milan; they also discussed the question of the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit.—Tom. ii. Conc. p. 888.
ROME (374). Held in 374 or 375, by Pope Damasus, against the Apollinarians, a sect originating with Apollinarius, Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria. The distinguishing point of this heresy was the notion that our Lord Jesus Christ took unto Himself the human body only, without the reasonable soul, and that His Divinity supplied the place of the soul. Afterwards, distinguishing the animal soul by which we live from the reasoning intellect, they allowed that our Lord possessed the former. The grounds which they alleged for denying our Lord to be perfect man were these.
1. Because in that case He would have been sinful like ourselves.
2. Because two perfect things cannot make one only thing.
3. Because the Divinity would, in that case, have been only a part of a whole; so that it would have been necessary to acknowledge two Sons and two Christs.
Subsequently the errors of these heretics were carried much further; for, as they would not confess two substances and two natures in Jesus Christ, they maintained that He had but one nature; that the Divine and human natures were mixed, His flesh being consubstantial with the Divinity; that a part of the Word had been converted into flesh and bones, into a Body having the outward form and appearance of our bodies, but no other resemblance, a Body co-eternal with the Divine nature, and formed out of the Substance of the Eternal Wisdom; and that, accordingly, it was the Divinity of the Son, consubstantial with the Father, that was circumcised and nailed to the cross, and not a human body like our own. From which they inferred that the Substance of His Body was not taken from the Virgin Mary, but that she was merely the channel by which He entered into the world; accordingly they refused to her the title of mother of God, saying that His Body existed before Mary; that it was, indeed, from all eternity, and was both celestial and uncreated.
Besides these errors upon the subject of the Incarnation, they were heretical in their belief in the blessed Trinity, putting a difference between the Three Persons, calling the Holy Spirit great, the Son greater, and the Father the greatest. They also held the opinions of the Millenarians, and believed in three resurrections.
All these several errors were condemned in this council, as were also Apollinarius and Timotheus, a disciple of Apollinarius, who, having imposed upon St Athanasius, obtained from him letters to Damasus at Rome, and gave himself out as a bishop. He anathematised St Peter of Alexandria, St Basil, Paulinus, St Epiphanius, and others.
St Basil vehemently opposed the spread of this heresy, and, in consequence of his letters upon the subject, Damasus convoked another council to Rome in 378, when the errors of Apollinarius and many other heretics were condemned. The council also addressed the Emperors Valentinian and Gratian on the matter of Ursinus, banished in 374, and other bishops involved in his sedition, who yet retained their sees in spite of the ecclesiastical and civil powers. The council mentioned further that Damasus had subjected himself to the strictest investigation, not only as to the specific charge made against him, but his whole life. The imperial rescript enforced what the synod decreed. The Apollinarian heresy was also condemned at Antioch, A.D. 380, and in the œcumenical council of Constantinople, 381. Apollinarius himself persisted in his errors, and died at an advanced age in the reign of Theodosius.—Tom. ii. Conc. p. 896. Pagius in Baron., A.D. 373, note ii.; A.D. 378, note xiv.
ROME (382). Held in 382, under Pope Damasus, in consequence of the schism in the Church of Antioch. Besides Damasus, there were present St Ambrose, St Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, and Paulinus, recognised by the orientals as Bishop of Antioch. The assembly appears to have been numerous, but nothing certain is known of what passed, except that a synodal letter was received from the oriental bishops assembled in council at Constantinople, excusing themselves from attending the Roman council. It is supposed that Paulinus was confirmed in the communion of the Church, and that it was resolved to refuse communion to Flavianus, as well as to Diodorus of Tarsus and Acacius of Berea, who were the authors of his election.—Tom. ii. Conc. p. 1013. (See AQUILEIA, 382; also ANTIOCH, 380 or 372; ALEXANDRIA, 362.)
ROME (386). Held in 386, under Pope Siricius; eighty bishops attended. A letter to the bishops throughout Africa was drawn up (in the name of Siricius only). It related to the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline in the African Church, and contained nine regulations or canons.
1. Forbids the consecration of a bishop without the knowledge of the metropolitan or the patriarch of Rome.
2. Forbids the consecration of a bishop by one bishop only.
3. Forbids to admit to holy orders a man who, after remission of sins (holy baptism), has carried the sword in worldly warfare.
4. Forbids a clerk to marry a widow.
9. Deprives of communion those amongst the priests and deacons who, having received holy orders after marriage, continue to have commerce with their wives.—Tom. ii. Conc. pp. 1028 and 1035.
ROME (390). Held by the same pope, in 390, against Jovinianus, who taught that they who have been baptised, believing, could not be overcome by the devil, and that virgins have no higher merit than widows; he also denied that the blessed Virgin continued a virgin after the birth of Jesus Christ. This council is not found in the collection of Labbe, and is possibly the same with that held at Milan in this year (which see).
ROME (402). Held about 402, under Innocentius I. Sixteen canons were drawn up, addressed to the Gaelic bishops, in answer to certain questions proposed by them.
1. Enjoins many years of penitence to those who, after having made a vow of chastity, or taken the veil, marry.
2. Deprives of communion for a time those who break a resolution made to the above effect, although they have made no vow.
4. Excludes from holy orders persons who, after their baptism, have served in war.
6. Declares that as there is but one faith in the Catholic Church, so should there be but one order of discipline.
7. Allows both priests and deacons to baptise at Easter in the presence of the bishop. If it shall be necessary to baptise at any other time, the priest alone may officiate.
9. Forbids to marry a brother’s widow, and to keep concubines with a wife.
12. Orders that clerks only shall be made bishops.
13. Deprives of the episcopate bishops who leave their first church.
14. Forbids to receive even to lay communion a clerk driven from his own church by his bishop.—Tom ii. Conc. p. 1316.
ROME (417). Held in January 417, by Innocentius I., who had received three letters from Africa against the heretics Pelagius and Celestius. Three synodal letters were written in reply. 1. To Aurelius and the Bishops of Carthage. 2. To Silvanus and the Bishops of Milevi. 3. To the five Bishops, Aurelius, Alipius, Augustine, Evodius, and Possidius.
In September in the same year, another council was held in the Basilica of St Clement, by Zosimus against Celestius.—(See C. MILEVI, 416.) Tom. ii. Conc. pp. 1283–1290.
ROME (430). Held August 11, 430, by Pope Celestinus, against Nestorius. It is not known what bishops attended, but their decrees passed as the decrees of the whole Western Church. In this council the homilies and letters of Nestorius were read, the bishops unanimously crying out against his heretical opinions as they heard them. The two letters of St Cyril, with his confession of faith, and Cassian’s Treatise on the Incarnation were approved, and declared to be orthodox. Celestinus then delivered a discourse, tending to prove from the fathers that the blessed Virgin is truly Θεοτόκος, the mother of God. The decision of the council was, that they who denied this faith, should be deposed from the ministry.
The decrees of the council were dictated by the pope, who also wrote, as to other bishops, so to Nestorius and to St Cyril, declaring that the two letters which Nestorius had already received from St Cyril should be reckoned as two monitions, and the present letter from himself as the third; that if within ten days after receiving the last, he did not openly, and without equivocation, declare his assent to the faith as taught by the Churches of Rome and Alexandria, and by the whole Catholic Church, and also condemn his own new doctrine, he should be thenceforth separated from the communion of the Church, and deprived of the powers and dignity of the priesthood. Celestinus further insisted that he should condemn what he had hitherto believed, and teach the doctrine of St Cyril; that his followers should either renounce his errors in writing, or be separated from communion; and, moreover, that if he did not afford a proof of the sincerity of his amendment, after condemning his errors, by receiving back into the Church all those whom he had deprived of communion, he should be himself cut off from it. The pope left it to St Cyril to notify this sentence to Nestorius and the others.—Tom. ii. Conc. p. 1688.
ROME (445). Held in 445, under St Leo. In this council Chelidonius, who had been deposed in the Council of Besançon (C. VESONTIONENSE, 444), was restored, and St Hilary of Aries was deprived of communion with the Roman see. Condemnation was also pronounced against those who, lifted up with pride, despised the assemblies of the Church.—Tom. iii. Conc. p. 1463.
ROME (449). Held in October 449, under St Leo; at which a large number of bishops were present. All that had passed in the Latrocinium at Ephesus was condemned, and several synodical letters were written. In that to the Emperor Theodosius, Leo complained of the violence of Dioscorus, and of the irregularity of the assembly at Ephesus, and entreated him to convoke an œcumenical council to some place in Italy, as the best means of settling the disputes relating to the faith.—Tom. iii. Conc. p. 1475.
ROME (465). Held in 465, by the bishops, who had come to Rome to celebrate the anniversary of the consecration of Hilary or Hilarus to the popedom. They numbered about forty-four (Labbe, forty-eight), of whom two came from Gaul, viz. Ingenius of Embrun and Saturnus of Avignon; the others belonged to the vicariat of Rome. St Maximus of Turin was present. Five canons were published.
1. Orders that the canons of Nicea and the decrees of the apostolic see be observed.
2. Forbids to admit to holy orders men who have been married twice, or who have married any women except virgins.
3. Also forbids to admit to holy orders illiterate or maimed persons, and those who have done public penance.
5. Relates to the case of Ireneus, whom Nondinarius, Bishop of Barcelona, at his death had appointed his successor. By this canon such transactions were entirely forbidden.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1060.
ROME (484). Held in July 484, by Felix III., according to Baronius, or, as others designate him, Felix II., who presided at the head of sixty-seven bishops. Acacius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was here condemned, who had caused much evil to the Church by his connection with the heretics. Amongst other things, he it was who had induced the Emperor Zeno to publish the “Henoticon” (or decree of union) in 482. This formulary was intended to reunite all those who were out of the Church, and was filled with those propositions which both Catholics and heretics confessed equally; and although it did not actually contain the heresy of Eutyches, it at least did not condemn it, but rather favoured it, by destroying the authority of the Council of Chalcedon, and by opening the door to Church communion to the Eutychians.
This decree caused a fearful schism in the Church, a number of bishops being driven from their sees for refusing to sign it.
Besides this, Acacius had embraced the communion of Peter Moggus or Mongus, an Eutychian, who had been schismatically intruded into the see of Alexandria, and maintained there by an imperial edict, A.D. 482.
After the council had received proof of the guilt of Acacius, he was deposed and anathematised, with Peter of Alexandria. At the same time the legates of the Roman see, Vitalis and Misenius, whom Acacius had induced to communicate with Mongus, and who had generally favoured Acacius and his party, were excommunicated. The sentence of condemnation, although signed by sixty-seven bishops, runs in the name of the pope only.
The act of condemnation was contained in a letter addressed to Acacius, reproaching him for having consecrated John to the see of Tyre, and ordained Elimerus priest; it then alludes to the affair of Peter Mongus and to the treatment of the Roman legates; and, finally, declares him to be deposed from the episcopate, deprived of Catholic communion, and cut off from the body of the faithful. Concluding thus: “Know then that you have no longer either the power or the name of a bishop: that you have been degraded by the sentence of the Holy Spirit, and condemned by apostolical authority, and that nothing can ever deliver you from the bond of this anathema.”
Besides this, Felix procured another act to be passed, depriving Acacius of the sacerdotal dignity, on account of the contempt he had evinced towards the pope, in disregarding his two monitions, and of his having imprisoned the pope in the persons of his two legates; declaring also, that if any bishop, or other ecclesiastic, monk, or layman should communicate with him, he should fall under the same anathema, “Sancto Spiritu exequente.”
This sentence was mainly the cause of the long schism, which separated the two Churches for thirty-five years. Acacius, upon receiving it, erased the name of Felix from the sacred Diptychs.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1123.
ROME (487). Held in March 487, under Felix III., in the Basilica of Constantine, upon the subject of the restoration of those who had relapsed in Africa during the persecution of Huneric, King of the Vandals: forty-four (or thirty-eight) bishops and seventy-six priests were present. A letter addressed to the bishops by the pope remains, but the decision of the council is lost. In this letter Felix requires the fulfilment of the following conditions by all penitents:—
Firstly, That they confess their faults: being persuaded that he who deceives others in matters of religion really deceives himself.
Secondly, That they humble themselves and mourn with sincerity, renouncing every delicacy, and persevering in fastings and every other mode of penance prescribed.
After this he descends to particulars: he directs that bishops, priests, and deacons, who have consented to be re-baptised, whether voluntarily, or by reason of the violence of their tortures, shall remain in a state of penance until death, deprived of the privilege of praying with the faithful and even with the catechumens; he permits them only lay communion in the hour of death. With regard to other ecclesiastics, monks, virgins, and lay persons, who having relapsed without compulsion, desires sincerely to return to their duty, he orders that they shall be three years amongst the “audientes,” and seven years amongst the penitents, and that they shall remain for two years more praying with the laity, without any oblation. If, however, they have fallen through the violence of torture, he permits that they be admitted to communion by imposition of hands after three years’ penance.
With regard to infants, he directs that even they shall not be admitted into Church without penance, but that they shall undergo a course of penance, and receive imposition of hands, in order to be eventually admitted to communion.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1149.
ROME (495). Held in 495, under Pope Gelasius; fifty-five prelates and fifty-eight priests being present. Misenus, who, as legate, had prevaricated at Constantinople, in 484 (see C. of ROME, 484), presented a petition, imploring mercy on account of his old age. By the pope’s direction he entered and bowed down before the council, after which he was restored to the privilege of communion, and to the sacerdotal dignity. Vitalis, the other legate, died some time before.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1269.
ROME (496). Held in the following year under the same pope; seventy-two bishops being present. According to some Roman writers, a catalogue of the canonical books of Holy Scripture was drawn up, agreeing with that now received in the Church of Rome, and in which, after the inspired books, the council declared that the Church received the four œcumenical councils of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, together with the councils which the fathers had authorised; then the works of Saints Cyprian, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzen, Basil, Cyril of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Hilary, Ambrose, Augustin, Jerome, and Prosper, and Theophilus of Alexandria, and the letter of St Leo to Flavianus, &c. Amongst the apocryphal works are reckoned those of Clement of Alexandria, Arnobius, Lactantius, Eusebius, Pamphylus, Faustus of Riez, and Cassianus.
The distinction between the ecclesiastical and secular powers was also defined in this council by Gelasius, and in these words:—“The emperor has not the title of pontiff, nor the pontiff the regal dignity; God hath separated the functions of the two powers, so that Christian princes have need of the pontiffs to obtain eternal life, and it is the duty of pontiffs to obey the imperial ordinances in all things temporal.”—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1260.
ROME (499). Held March 1, 499, by Pope Symmachus, who had just been elected to the papal chair. Seventy-two bishops and many priests attended. The object of the council was to devise means for putting an end to the intrigues of the bishops, and the popular commotions to which the papal elections gave rise. Five decrees were published.
3. Enacts that any priest, deacon, or other clerk found guilty of having canvassed for, or promised, a vote in the election to the papacy, during the lifetime of the existing pope, shall be deposed and excommunicated.
4. Declares that when the pope shall die suddenly, without having had opportunity of providing for the election of a successor, the bishop who shall have the majority of the votes shall be consecrated pope.
5. Not only pardons but orders a reward to any accomplice who shall betray an act of bribery or intrigue relating to the election.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1312.
ROME (501). Held in 501, and called the “Synodus Palmare,” probably from the place at which it was held. One hundred and fifteen bishops had, in the preceding year, declared Symmachus to be guiltless of the accusations preferred against him before King Theodoric, by the partisans of Laurentius: whereupon the king sent Peter, Bishop of Altino, as visitor of the holy see, who convoked this council, wherein it was ordered that the pope should administer the holy communion, and that the faithful should receive at his hands. Seventy-six bishops subscribed this judgment.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1323.
ROME (502). Held in 502, by the same pope. The law of Odoacer, forbidding any election to the popedom to be made without the consent of the King of Italy, was abolished. Certain decrees forbidding the alienation of Church property were passed.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1333.
ROME (531). Three councils were held at Rome in this year. In the first, Pope Bonifacius II. appointed Vigilius, the deacon, his successor.
In the second, this appointment was annulled by Bonifacius himself, as illegal, and contrary to the canons.
In the third, under the same pope, the affair of Stephen of Larissa, the Metropolitan of Thessaly, who had been deposed by Epiphanius of Constantinople, and had appealed to Rome, was debated. The decision of the council is unknown; but many letters and other documents were read, tending to prove that Thessaly belonged to the patriarchate of Rome, and not to that of Constantinople. In one of these councils the celebrated St Benedict was present, the pope having called him from his monastery at Monte-Cassino.—Tom. iv. Conc. p. 1691.
Rome (534). Held in 534, under Pope John II., in which the proposition, “Unus e Trinitate passus est carne,” was approved; and the Acœmetian monks, who denied it, were condemned and excommunicated.
ROME (590). Held in 590, or in the beginning of 591, in which Pope Gregory I. wrote a synodal letter to the four eastern patriarchs, testifying that he received the four œcumenical councils equally with the four Gospels, and adding that he paid the like respect to the fifth, as he had before declared in a letter to the bishops of Istria, who refused to admit the fifth.
ROME (595). Held July 5th, 595, under Pope Gregory I. Twenty-two bishops and thirty-three priests were present, with certain deacons, who remained standing. John, a priest of Chalcedon, who had appealed from the sentence of John, the Patriarch of Constantinople, was absolved. Six canons were published.
1. Orders that in future the ministers of the holy altar shall not chant, but only read, the gospel at the mass, and that the subdeacons or inferior clerks shall chant the Psalms and read whatever else is required.
2. Orders certain clerks or monks to be always about the bishop, to act as secret witnesses of his actions.
4. Forbids the custom then prevalent, of covering the body of a pope, at his funeral, with a dalmatic, in order afterwards to divide it among the people as a relic.
5. Forbids to take money for ordination, for the pall, and for letters, under any pretext whatever.—Tom. v. Conc. p. 1602.
ROME (600). In a council held in the year 600, a certain false monk, named Andrew, a Greek, but living in the Basilica of St Paul, was condemned. The errors attributed to him, and which he chiefly defended by corrupted extracts from the fathers, were these:—
1. That the body of Christ was impassable and incorruptible.
2. That the body of Adam before the fall was neither mortal nor corruptible.
3. That the world is incorruptible, and will never be destroyed.—Pagius in Bar., A.D. 601, xxix. Tom. v. Conc. p. 1609.
ROME (601). Held on the 5th of April 601, under the same pope. In this council a constitution in favour of the monks was drawn up and signed by twenty bishops, and sixteen cardinal priests. It was thereby forbidden to any bishop to diminish the property, revenue, &c., of any monastery; it was ordered that the election of the abbot should be made by the free choice of the community, and out of their own body, and that he should have sole rule in his house, &c.—Tom. v. Conc. p. 1607.
ROME (606). Held in 606, under Pope Bonifacius III., assisted by seventy-two bishops, besides priests and deacons. It was forbidden to proceed to the election of any one to the see of Rome until the third day after the funeral of the deceased pope.—Anastasius, Vita Bonifacii. Tom. v. Conc. p. 1616.
ROME (610). Held 27th of February 610, by Bonifacius IV., Mellitus, Bishop of London, being present, who had applied to the pope upon matters connected with the Church of England: First, for his advice with regard to the opinion of a certain party in England, who denied that monks could exercise the sacerdotal office; this question was decided in favour of the monks. Secondly, for his confirmation of the monastery founded at Canterbury by King Ethelbert, and consecrated by St Augustine, who had lately died. The pope addressed a letter to the king—Tom. v. Conc. p. 1617.
ROME (639). Held in 639, in which Pope Severinus condemned the Ecthesis of Heraclius—Tom. v. Conc. p. 1773.
ROME (649). See LATERAN.
ROME (678). Held in October 678, under Pope Agatho; fifty bishops and abbots being present. The object of the council was to consider the case of Wilfred, Bishop of York, who was present, and complained of having been unjustly deposed, and of the division of his bishopric into three. The council ordered that he should be re-established in his see and the intruders removed, finding that he had not been canonically convicted of any crime deserving deposition. Upon his return to England with the pope’s letter, King Egfrid, instead of yielding to the decision of the Roman Council, threw him into prison, whence he was released at the end of nine months, and went into Sussex. At the expiration of ten years, Egfrid being dead, Alfrid recalled him to his first see; but Wilfrid still refused to consent to the division of his bishopric, which had now been divided into four, viz., York, Hexham, Ripon, and Lindisfarne, and was subsequently deposed the second time, by Bertwald, or Brihtwald, of Canterbury; he again appealed to Rome.—(See C. of ROME, A.D. 703.) Tom. vi. Conc. p. 579. Johnson, A.D. 680.
ROME (679). Held March 27, 679, Pope Agatho presiding at the head of one hundred and twenty-five bishops, amongst whom was Wilfred of York. Deputies were sent to the œcumenical council at Constantinople, who carried with them letters from the pope and from the council to the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus; these two letters are all that remain to us of the acts of this council. In that of the pope, the catholic faith upon the two subjects of the blessed Trinity and the Incarnation is explained, and particularly in all relating to the question concerning the two wills, he says plainly, that the Three Divine Persons, having but one nature, have also but one will; but that in Jesus Christ there being two natures, there are of necessity two wills. He supports his arguments by passages in the original language from the Greek fathers, and from other passages out of the Latin fathers, translated into Greek. The synodal letter is written in his name and in that of all the western province, and is in substance like that of Agatho.—Tom. vi. Conc. p. 584.
ROME (703). Held in 703, under Pope John VI. The affair of Wilfred of York, who had been a second time deposed, was again debated, deputies being present from Bertwald, Archbishop of Canterbury; during four months, seventy congregations were held upon this question, and eventually Wilfred was entirely justified, and sent back by the pope to his church, with a letter from John VII. to Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, and to Ethelred, King of the Mercians, who had become an abbot. These letters had no effect during the lifetime of Aldfrid; but after his death, at the instigation of Bertwald and Ethelred, Wilfred was put in possession of part of his diocese; he died at Oundle, in Mercia, A.D. 709, and was buried at Ripon. (See C. NID, 705.)
ROME (721). Held April 5, 721 (or 722 Mansi), under Gregory II.; thirty-two bishops being present. Seventeen canons were published, chiefly relating to unlawful marriages. Thus, any person marrying a woman whose husband had been ordained priest (“presbyteram”), is declared to be anathema, it being forbidden to such a woman to marry even after her husband’s death. Also they are condemned who marry a deaconess, a nun, a brother’s widow, a niece, a father’s or son’s widow, &c. The twelfth canon forbids all soothsaying and enchantments. The seventeenth forbids the clergy, under anathema, to wear long hair.—Tom. vi. Conc. p. 1455.
ROME (732). Held in 732, under Gregory III., composed of ninety-three bishops. In this council it was decreed, that whosoever should despise the use of the Church with respect to the veneration of images, or should remove, or destroy, or profane, or speak with contempt of them, should be excommunicated.—Tom. vi. Conc. p. 1485.
ROME (744). Held in 744, under Pope Zachary; fifteen chapters are extant.
1. Forbids bishops to live in the same houses with women.
2. Forbids priests and deacons to have any women in their houses, except a mother or near relation.
3. Orders bishops, priests, and deacons, to dress themselves properly in a sacerdotal tunic, and to wear a cloak in towns.
5. Anathematises him who shall marry a nun, or the wife of a priest, deacon, or monk.
6. Forbids marriage within certain degrees.
7. Anathematises those clerks and monks who let their hair grow long.
9. Forbids to make a festival of New Year’s Day as the Pagans did.
11. Directs that the proper season for ordination be observed, viz., in the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth months; forbids to admit to holy orders men who have been twice married, or who have married widows.
13. Forbids bishops, priests, and deacons to carry a stick at the celebration of mass, or to go up to the altar with the head covered.
15. Of marriages.—Tom. vi. Conc. p. 1546. Bar., A.D. 743, xvii.
ROME (745). Held in the patriarchal church of Lateran by Pope Zachary, in October 745; seven bishops, priests, and deacons being present. Deneardus read the letter of St Bonifacius to the pope, in which he complained of two most vile and open heretics and blasphemers against God, Adalbert a Gaul, and Clement, a Scot [i.e., Irishman], and implored the pope’s help, requesting him to issue letters to the Franks and people of Gaul, bidding them not run after vain prodigies and signs of the precursor Antichrist, but to turn to the faith of sound doctrine. Deneardus, a priest, deputed by St Bonifacius, Archbishop of Mayence, complained that Adalbert and Clement, two schismatical and heretical bishops, who had been deposed in the Council of Soissons, refused to obey the judgment of the council, and still retained their office and dignity. Adalbert was accused, amongst other things, of having been simoniacally consecrated, of consecrating altars, and erecting chapels and crosses in his diocese in his own name. Clement was an Irishman; he was accused of rejecting the authority of the canons and the writings of the fathers, of endeavouring to retain his office of bishop after having had adulterous children, of permitting a man to marry his brother’s wife, &c.
The writings of Adalbert were ordered to be destroyed, and both he and Clement deposed and put to penance.—Tom. vi. Conc. p. 1556.
ROME (769). Held in 769, under Pope Stephen IV. (or according to some III.); twelve French bishops and several others from Tuscany, Campania, and other parts of Italy, being present. The false pope, Constantine, was condemned to perpetual penance, and the acts of the council in which his election had been confirmed were burnt. Besides this, it was ordered that the relics and images of the saints should be duly honoured, according to ancient tradition; and the Greek council, held a short time before, in which the worship of images was condemned, was anathematised. Another decree, passed in this council, forbids the elevation of any layman to the rank of cardinal, except he have first passed through all the ecclesiastical orders; and forbids bishops, priests, and monks to attempt to obtain the dignity of Cardinal-Priest or Cardinal-Deacon, by the infringement of any canon or law of the Fathers. This canon seems to imply that at this period there were no Cardinal-Bishops attached to the see of Rome. Indeed, Anastasius leads us to believe that this pope first instituted the rank of Cardinal-Bishops.—(See ROME 963.) Tom. vi. Conc. p. 1721.
ROME (774). Held in 774, by Charlemagne, who was present, with the Pope Hadrian I. and one hundred and fifty-three bishops. In this council Hadrian granted to Charlemagne the right of electing the sovereign pontiff, and ordained that the bishops of every province should receive investiture at his hands, forbidding any to be consecrated, under pain of anathema, that were not so invested.
Baronius, Pagi, Marca, and others, maintain that this council is fictitious. Pagi, however, acknowledges that its authenticity is allowed by many even of the Italians, and what is certain is, that this constitution is cited by Leo VIII. who renewed it in favour of Otho I., both with respect to the election of the pope and the investiture of bishops. Pagius in Bar., A.D. 774, xiii. Corp. Jur. Canon. Distinct. 63. c. 22, 23.
ROME (792). Held in 792, under Hadrian II., in which Felix d’Urgel, who had been sent to Rome from the Council of Ratisbon, held in the same year, confessed his errors and was sent back to his see. Labbe ascribes this council to the pontificate of Leo III., A.D. 799.—Tom. vii. Conc. p. 1149.
ROME (799). It appears from the confession made by Felix of Urgel, at the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 799, that he had been convicted in a council held here, under Pope Leo III. in the same year, on account of his letter to Albinus (or Alcuinus) written after the Synod of Frankfort, in which he had defended his errors. There were present fifty-seven bishops, besides priests and deacons, in three sittings. The pope charged Felix with having broken his word, and had not kept the oaths he took at Ratisbon and Rome (under Adrian). In the third session Felix was anathematised, but recommended to mercy should he turn and recant.—(See C. GERMANIA i. 336.)
ROME (809).—(See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, 809.)
ROME (826). Held in 826, by Pope Eugenius II.; sixty-three bishops, seventeen priests, and several deacons being present. Thirty-eight canons were published. Amongst other things, they forbid priests to live in the houses of laymen; order the clerks belonging to a church to dwell together near the church, having a common refectory and dormitory; forbid to ordain priests unnecessarily; order ruined churches to be rebuilt by their possessors, in case of their inability, the people to assist them; forbid the laity during mass to enter that part of the church which is appropriated to the priests; order the erection of schools for the people, &c. 35. Forbids dancing and feasting at church on festival days, and declares that the people should be warned to come for prayer only. 37. Forbids any man to have two wives, or a wife and mistress, at the same time, “quia cum domui non sit lucrum, animæ fit detrimentum.”—Tom. viii. Conc. p. 103.
ROME (848). Held in 848, under Leo IV., who addressed a synodal letter to the Breton bishops, with six chapters, declaring that no bishop might take any money for conferring holy orders, under pain of deposition, but that their past conduct should be overlooked.—(See C. of BRETAGNE, 848.) Tom. viii. Conc. p. 30.
ROME (853). Held in December 853, under Leo IV., at the head of sixty-seven bishops. The thirty-eight canons made in the council held at Rome in 826, under Eugenius II., were confirmed, and others enacted, making altogether forty-two.
After the other business of the council was ended, Anastasius, a priest-cardinal of St Marcellus, was deposed, for having, contrary to the canons, deserted his parish for five years. Three bishops had been sent to call him to the council, but he refused to attend.—Tom. viii. Conc. p. 113.
ROME (862). Held in 862, by Nicholas I., against the sect of Theopaschitæ, who maintained that the divine nature of Christ suffered with His human nature.—Tom. viii. Conc. p. 738.
ROME (863). Held in January 863, under Pope Nicholas I. In it all the proceedings at Constantinople against the patriarch Ignatius, and in favour of Photius, in 861, were condemned. Zachary, Bishop of Anagni, one of the pope’s legates, was excommunicated and deposed; the other, Rodoaldus, Bishop of Parto, being absent, his sentence was deferred. In delivering judgment upon what had passed at Constantinople, the council spoke after this manner: that Photius, who adhered to the party of the schismatics, and who had left the warfare of this world in order to be ordained bishop (which he was by Gregory of Syracuse), who, in the lifetime of Ignatius, had usurped his see, and entered into the sheepfold as a thief; who had dared in a council to anathematise Ignatius; who had corrupted the legates of the holy see; who had banished those of the bishops who refused to communicate with him; who still persecuted the Church, and did not cease to cause Ignatius to suffer every kind of evil; that this Photius was deprived of all sacerdotal honour, and forbidden to exercise any clerical function, by the authority of Almighty God, of the apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and of all the saints, of the six œcumenical councils, and by the judgment of the Holy Spirit delivered through the bishops there present.—Tom. viii. Conc. p. 774, and p. 287.
ROME (863). Held about November 1, 863. In this synod, Nicholas passed a final judgment on the case of King Lothain, who, with the consent of his bishops, had put away his lawful wife Thietburga (for a pretended cousin), and married another. (See AIX-LA CHAPELLE, 860 and 862.) The Council of Metz held in this year was condemned, Bishops Theutgard and Greuthar, who were the chief supporters of the king in his sin, were deposed, and threats of the same punishment held out to the other bishops present in that council unless they repented.—(C. of GERMANIC, ii. 287.)
ROME (868). Held in 868, under Hadrian II., against Photius of Constantinople, who had condemned Pope Nicholas. A decree was made, anathematising the Constantinopolitan council. Hadrian admitted that Honorius had been anathematised when dead, but denied that any one patriarch or bishop would have had any authority to pronounce sentence upon him unless the decision of the holy see had been first given. After this, Hadrian condemned the writings of Photius to be burnt, and anathematised him. This sentence was subscribed by thirty bishops, amongst whom were Hadrian himself, and John, the legate of Ignatius.—Tom. viii. Conc. p. 941.
ROME (879). Held in August 879. The Pope, John VIII., in this council resolved to recognise Photius as the patriarch of Constantinople (Ignatius being dead). Cardinal Peter was sent as legate to Constantinople to absolve Photius from the ecclesiastical censures, with an instruction signed by seventeen bishops.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 321.
ROME (896). Held in 896 or 897. In this council Pope Stephen VI. (or VII.) caused the body of his predecessor, Formosus, which he had disinterred, to be brought forward, and reproached it with having left the bishopric of Porto, in order to usurp that of Rome. Afterwards he condemned the body, stripped it of the sacred vestments with which it was clothed, cut off three fingers and the head, and threw it into the Tiber. At the same time he deposed all those whom Formosus had ordained. Very shortly after Stephen was made to pay the penalty of these horrible iniquities, being driven from his see, thrown into prison, and strangled.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 478.
ROME (898). Held in 898, as Pagi has shown, by John IX., who was therein consecrated in the presence of the legates of the Emperor Lambert. All the acts of the preceding council were annulled; the bishops whom Stephen had deposed were re-established, whilst Sergius and his companions were condemned, with a prohibition ever to restore them. The election of Lambert was confirmed, and the coronation and consecration of Berengarius were declared null.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 502. Pagi in Bar., 898, note iv. Mabillon, Mus. Ital., tom. i. pt. 2. p. 86.
ROME (963). Held December 4, 963, by the Emperor Otho I., at the entreaty of the Roman bishops and people, in order to depose John XII., accused of many crimes; in his place was elected Leo VIII., a man of tried merit. The acts of the council are lost.
Two councils were held in the following year: in the first of which John XII. deposed Leo VIII.; and in the second Leo, in his turn, deposed Benedict V., elected to succeed John, who had been assassinated. Neither of the councils which recognised Leo are received by the Roman Church.—Tom. ix. Conc. pp. 648, 659.
ROME (993). Held on January 31, 993, for the canonisation of St Uldaric, Bishop of Augsburg. The narrative of the miracles worked by him, both when alive and dead, was first read by Lintolf, Bishop of Augsburg. This is the first act of canonisation known: the bull signed by John XV., five other bishops, nine cardinal-priests, and three deacons, is extant.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 741.
ROME (998). Held by Pope Gregory V. in 998, assisted by twenty-seven bishops, in the presence of the Emperor, Otho III., and of Gerbert, Archbishop of Ravenna. Eight canons were published; of which the first decrees that King Robert should separate from Bertha, his relation, whom he had married, contrary to the canons, and perform seven years of penance; and the second, that all the bishops assisting or present at the marriage should be excommunicated.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 772.
ROME (1047). Held in January 1047, by Clement II., to settle a dispute concerning precedency, which had arisen between the Archbishops of Milan, Aquileia, and Ravenna, all of whom claimed the right of sitting on the pope’s, right hand. The case was decided in favour of Ravenna. Acts were also passed against simony.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 946.
ROME (1049). Held in March 1049, under Leo IX.; composed of bishops from Gaul and Italy. All simoniacal ordinations were declared to be null and void, and several bishops deposed on that account in the council. As this decision created the most fearful tumult and confusion (scarcely a priest being found to carry on the services of the Church), the pope subsequently adhered to the decree of Clement II., which permitted those who had been simoniacally ordained to exercise the functions of their office after forty days’ penance.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 1027.
ROME (1050). Held in April 1050, by Leo IX., to whom the case of Berenger had been referred. The council was numerous. The pope caused Berenger’s letter to Lanfranc, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, to be read, in which his views concerning the Holy Eucharist were developed; he erred in regarding the bread and wine as mere symbols, and in denying the real presence. His sentence was, that he should be deprived of Church communion. Lanfranc, who had been suspected of entertaining similar views, cleared himself of the charge to the satisfaction of the pope and council.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 1052.
ROME (1051). Held after Easter in the year 1051, by Leo IX. Gregory, Bishop of Vercelli, was excommunicated on account of adultery. He was not present in the council, and, subsequently, having promised satisfaction, was allowed to resume the discharge of his episcopal functions. A decree was also made in this council that all women within the walls of Rome prostituting themselves to priests should, in future, be adjudged as slaves to the palace of Lateran. This was subsequently extended to other churches.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 1066.
ROME (1057). Held April 18, 1057. Victor II. excommunicated Guifrad of Narbonne for simony.
In this year several councils were held at Rome by the same pope, to devise means for preventing the marriages of the clergy.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 1087.
ROME (1059). Held in April 1059, under Nicholas II., assisted by one hundred and thirteen bishops. A constitution was published concerning the election of the Roman pontiff, which grants to the cardinals the chief voice in the election of the pope; and declares that if any one shall enter upon the papal chair without the unanimous and canonical consent of the cardinals, and that of the other clergy and the laity, he shall not be regarded as pope, but as an intruder. Also thirteen canons were enacted.
1. Places the election of the pope in the hands of the cardinal-bishops.
3. Forbids to hear mass celebrated by a priest who keeps a concubine.
6. Forbids priests and other clerks to receive churches at the hands of laymen.
7. Forbids any priest to serve two churches at once.
9. Forbids simony.
10. Forbids laymen to judge clerks.
11. Forbids marriages within seven degrees of consan guinity.
Besides this, a decree against simony was published, and a profession of faith concerning the Eucharist was also made, which Berenger signed with an oath. This being his third recantation, he nevertheless afterwards wrote against it, and attacked Cardinal Humbert, who was the author of the confession he had signed.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 1099.
ROME (1061). Held in 1061, by Nicholas II., against those who had been guilty of simony; amongst whom was Aldred of York. He was at first deposed as simoniacal; but having been robbed and plundered on his journey to Rome, he excited so much commiseration by his appearance, that his sin was forgiven, and the pope restored to him his archbishopric and the pall.
ROME (1065). Held in 1065, by Alexander II., against incestuous marriages, and against those who maintained the validity of certain marriages contracted within the limits forbidden by the canons.—Tom. ix. Conc. p. 1181.
ROME (1073). A council was held apparently in this year, in which bishops were forbidden to arrogate to themselves the title of pope.
ROME (1074). Held in Lent, 1074, under Gregory VII., for the reformation of the Church. It was decreed that they who had received holy orders simoniacally, should be deprived. That those who had given money for any benefices should lose them; and that those who continued to live in a state of incontinence, should not be permitted either to celebrate mass, or to discharge any of the inferior offices of the altar. Twenty-four chapters were published.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 313.
ROME (1076). Held in Lent, 1076, under Gregory VII.; who excommunicated Henry of Germany, anathematised him, deprived him of his kingdom, and absolved all his subjects from their oath of allegiance. This was the first time that such a sentence had been pronounced. Several bishops on this side the Alps were also suspended or excommunicated. Baronius (in Ann.) pretends, without any reason, that the Dictatus to be found amongst the letters of Gregory VII., and falsely attributed to that pope, was made in this council.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 355.
ROME (1078). Held in Lent, 1078, by Gregory VII.; consisting of about one hundred bishops, besides abbots and other clerks. An immense number of excommunications were pronounced; amongst others, against the Archbishops of Milan and Ravenna. It was also determined to send legates into Germany to hold an assembly, in which the claims of Henry and Rudolph might be settled. The latter had been elected to the imperial dignity in 1077 by the princes of Suabia and Saxony, who revolted from Henry when the sentence pronounced against him in the last-mentioned council was published. Henry, however, by the most abject submission, had in some degree propitiated the pope in the preceding year. Four canons were published in this council.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 369.
ROME (1078). Another council was held in November in the same year, under Gregory VII. Berenger again made a confession of the faith. Nicephorus, who had got possession of the empire of Constantinople, was excommunicated, with several others. The deputies of Henry and Rudolph swore that their masters would do nothing to hinder the conference about to be held by the legates in Germany. Lastly, twelve canons were published.
7. Forbids to eat meat on Saturdays, except it be a festival.
12. Directs that the faithful shall endeavour to make some offering at mass, according to ancient custom.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 371.
ROME (1079). Held in 1079, under Pope Gregory VII., composed of one hundred and fifty bishops. The question concerning the Holy Eucharist was discussed in the presence of Berenger. Alberic of Monte-cassino, and St Bruno of Asti, who was shortly after made Bishop of Segni, disputed with him; he ultimately confessed his error, in saying that the Holy Eucharist is but the figure of the Lord’s Body and Blood; and he desired to obtain pardon. But no sooner had he returned to France, than he once more retracted all that he had declared in this council, and even wrote against his own confession. The controversy was still carried on by Lanfranc and Guitmund, who warmly attacked him; but Berenger preserved a profound silence ever after, and soon retired from the world to the island of St Cosma in the neighbourhood of Tours, where he died in 1088.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 378.
ROME (1080). Held by Gregory VII., in 1080, shortly after the battle of Fladenheim, in which Henry was vanquished by Rodolph. Henry was here again excommunicated with his partisans, and his kingdom given to Rodolph. Afterwards a matter in dispute between the Archbishop of Tours and the Bishop of Dol was discussed, the former insisting that Bretagne should recognise the Archbishop of Tours as its metropolitan. It was found to be impossible to settle the question. The prohibition to give or receive investitures was renewed.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 381.
ROME (1081). Held in May 1081, to consider the question whether it was lawful to pledge or dispose of the sacred property of the Church in order to raise money to oppose Wibertus, Archbishop of Ravenna, who was attacking the Roman See. The prelates, having searched for precedents, declared that it was unlawful to expend the property of the Church for war, but only for the support of the poor, the administration of divine service, and the redemption of slaves.—Mart., Vet. Scrip. Coll., tom. v. col. 64.
ROME (1083). Held by Gregory VII., in 1083, during the siege of the city by Henry, King of Germany. Certain rules relating to discipline were drawn up. Excommunication was denounced against all persons hindering the approach of those who desired to enter Rome. Ordinations uncanonically made were declared to be null, and the incontinence of the clergy forbidden.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 401.
ROME (1084). Held in 1084, by Gregory VII., who had been compelled to flee to the Castle of St Angelo, upon the approach of the Emperor Henry to Rome, of which he took possession March 22, 1084, causing the anti-pope Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna, to be enthroned on Easter Sunday under the style of Clement III. Gregory, in this council, renewed the sentence of excommunication against Guibert, Henry, and all their followers.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 402.
ROME (1099). Held in 1099, in the third week after Easter, by Urban II., at the head of one hundred and fifty bishops, amongst whom was Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. Thirteen canons were published, of which the first eleven are taken, word for word, from those of Placenza. The penalty of excommunication was declared against all laymen who should give investiture, and all ecclesiastics who should receive them at their hand. Everything approaching to simony was forbidden. All the faithful were directed to fast every Friday for their sins. Moreover, in this synod the anti-pope Guibert was a second time excommunicated.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 615.
ROME (1133). Held by Innocentius III., in which the pope granted to Berthold of Paderborn the right to wear the Rationale (λογιον), at stated times, viz., at the sacrifice, at the consecration of Churches, and at ordinations, but only within his own bishopric. The Rationale is a quadrangular piece of silk worked with gold and gems, with an opening for the head to go through, and hangs over on the breast and shoulders, with four fasciæ hanging behind. It is not unlike the epomis, and is also called superhumerale.
ROME (1144). Held in 1144, by Pope Lucius II.; in which the churches of Bretagne were all submitted to the Archbishop of Tours as their metropolitan, with the exception of that of Dol, which, during the lifetime of Geoffrey, the then bishop, it was declared should be subject to the pope only. This difference between the prelates of Tours and Dol was not entirely settled until 1199.—(See C. ROME, 1080.)
ROME (1227). Held in 1227, November 18, under Gregory IX., who, in this council reiterated the excommunication which he had already pronounced against the Emperor Frederick, on account of his not having embarked for the Holy Land, according to his vow.
In the following year, in a council held in Lent, the same pope confirmed this sentence; which, however, the emperor made light of, and in the June following he embarked for the Holy Land, in spite of the pope’s prohibition to him to assume the character of a crusader until the censures pronounced against him had been removed.—Tom xi. Conc. p. 413.
ROME (1302). Held in 1302, under Bonifacius VIII.: who, in this council, made great demonstrations against King Philip le Bel, without, however, putting any of his threats into execution. The famous decretal “Unam Sanctam,” was the work of this council. In this bull the pope declares that we are instructed by the holy Gospels, that in the Church and under its authority, are two swords, the spiritual and the temporal; the former to be employed by the Church, the latter for the Church by the hand of the prince, in accordance with the order and permission of the pontiff; and that it is needful that one of these swords be subject to the other, viz., the temporal to the spiritual.
It is necessary, as Fleury remarks, to distinguish carefully between the preamble and the decision contained in this bull.
The whole of the preamble tends to show that the temporal power is entirely subject to the spiritual, and that the pope possesses the right to institute, correct, and depose princes. However, Bonifacius, ambitious as he was, did not dare openly to draw this inference, although it flowed naturally from his premises. He, therefore, contented himself with asserting generally that every person whatever is subject to the pope (“Omnem humanam creaturam subesse Romano Pontifici”).—(See C. PARIS, A.D. 1302.) Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1476.
ROME (1412 and 1413). Held in the years 1412–13, by John XXIII. The deputies of the University of Paris, who had come to demand that the Gallican Church should be relieved from the burden of tithes, services, and other assistance which the Court of Rome required, were refused a hearing in spite of their entreaties. No other act of the council appears, except the condemnation of the writings of Wiclif. Tom. xi. Conc. p. 2322.
ROME (1442). See FLORENCE, 1439.
ROME (1725). Held in 1725, under Benedict XIII., upon matters relating to faith, morals, and ecclesiastical discipline. In this synod the subject of the constitution, unigenitus, was discussed, which was read and inserted in the acts of the council. A decree on the subject was made. The acts were printed at Rome in 1725, in 4to; at Brussels in 12mo, in 1726.
ROSCOMMON (1158). Held in 1158, under Edanus, Archbishop of Tuam. Various good regulations were drawn up, which are lost.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 1184.
ROUEN (650). [Concilium Rothomagense.] Held in 650. Sixteen canons were published.
1. Orders the burning of incense during the reading of the Gospel.
2. Orders that the priest who celebrates mass shall communicate himself.
4. Directs the extermination of magicians, &c.
5. Directs that persons baptised in heresy shall be received by imposition of hands.
12. Orders twenty days’ penance for a layman who has shed blood in anger, thirty for a clerk, six months for a deacon, a year for a priest, and two years and six months for a bishop.—Bessin in Conciliis Normanniœ.
ROUEN (1049). Held in 1049, Maugier (or Malgerius), Archbishop of Rouen, presiding; who drew up a synodal letter addressed to the bishops and the faithful within his province, containing the following nineteen regulations:—
1. That they should hold fast the creed of the Catholic and Apostolic Church.
2. That the clergy should, on no account, give presents, &c., to princes, or to their officers, in order to obtain bishoprics.
3. That bishops should not go from one see to another from ambitious motives.
4. That monks should, on no account, appoint any person abbot on consideration of money given to them.
5. That no bishop or abbot should dispossess another.
6. That bishops should receive nothing on account of ordinations.
7. Nor their officers, viz., archdeacons and secretaries.
8. That no one be ordained unless he be of competent age and knowledge.
9. That no bishop should ordain a clerk belonging to another diocese, without permission of the bishop of that diocese.
10. That bishops should not give ecclesiastical lands or revenues to lay persons.
11, 12, 13. That ecclesiastics should not endeavour to supplant one another.
14, 15, 16. That they should exact nothing for the holy chrism, the dedication of churches, or for holy baptism.
17. Relates to the offerings to be made by the newly baptised.
18. Forbids to diminish the prescribed penance on account of money received.
19. Requires the newly baptised to wear the white dress, and carry a lighted taper for eight days in the church of their baptism.—Bessin, Conc. Norm. Tom. ix. Conc. p. 1047.
ROUEN (1063). Held in 1063, in which the doctrine of Berenger was condemned.
ROUEN (1072). Held in 1072, in the presence of William the Conqueror, by John de Bayeux, Archbishop of Rouen, who presided. Twenty-four canons were published.
1. Orders the bishop to consecrate the holy oil at the proper time, in the presence of twelve priests in their vestments.
4. Forbids a priest to celebrate the communion without communicating himself.
5. Orders that priests shall administer holy baptism fasting, and habited in the alb and stole, unless in cases of necessity.
8. Directs that holy orders shall be conferred on Saturday night or on Sunday morning, the Saturday’s fast not having been broken.
15. Declares that priests, deacons, and sub-deacons, by marriage, forfeit all right to their ecclesiastical revenues and are rendered incapable of performing any of the functions of their office, either personally or by deputy.
21. Forbids any one to eat on any day during Lent until the hour of Nones was passed.
23. Directs, that when a festival falls upon a day on which it cannot be celebrated, it shall be kept on the octave below.
24. Restricts the baptism of adults to Easter and Whitsuntide, except in cases of necessity; allows of infant baptism at all times.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1225.
ROUEN (1074). Held in 1074, by the same archbishop. The cause of assembling this council was a tumult which had happened in the Church of St Ouen in the preceding year. The monks of St Ouen were condemned. The doctrine of the sacred Trinity was laid down in accordance with the definitions of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. And fourteen canons were published.
1. Condemns the purchase of benefices, and simony of all kinds.
3. Forbids to receive a clerk without letters from his bishop.
7. Enjoins upon monks and nuns the rule of St Benedict.
9. Declares that Christian burial is not to be denied to those who die suddenly (unless they were in a state of sin), nor to women with child, nor to those who have just been confined.
12. Forbids clerks who have been degraded for their sins to live in the world as laymen.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 310. Bessin, Conc. Norm.
ROUEN (1096). Held in February 1096; the Archbishop William presiding, assisted by his suffragans. The decrees of the Council of Clermont, under Urban II., and those of the Council of Auvergne, were read and confirmed, and eight canons published.
1, 2, 3, 4. Relate to the Trève de Dieu.
6. Forbids lay persons to present priests to churches without the bishop’s consent, or to sell them. Orders all men to keep their hair cut short, as becomes Christian men, under pain of excommunication.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 599.
ROUEN (1118). Held on October 7, 1118, by Henry, King of England. Matters concerning the peace of the kingdom were discussed; Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury, and other bishops, as well as the lords of the province, being present. One bishop excused himself for his absence on the plea, he was engaged in defending his country against the common foes.—Tom. x. Conc. p. 824.
ROUEN (1190). Held February 11, 1190; Walter, the archbishop (formerly Bishop of Lincoln), presiding at the head of all his suffragans, and several abbots. Thirty-two canons were published, most of which are repetitions of those published in preceding councils, amongst others, in the Council of Lateran, A.D. 1179.
2. Forbids to consecrate the Eucharist except in vessels of gold or silver, unless with the bishop’s consent.
3. Forbids to carry the consecrated host either by day or by night without tapers and the cross, or without the presence of a priest, unless in cases of urgent necessity.
13. Directs that bishops shall not hinder appeals to Rome, but rather themselves encourage them.
17. Enacts that the regulations of the Popes Urban, Gregory, and Clement, concerning the property, wives, and families, of crusaders shall be executed.
18. Forbids, under anathema, to try causes in churchyards involving corporal punishments.
23. Directs the excommunication of those who refuse to pay tithe.
25. Forbids, under anathema, those societies in which persons bound themselves to afford mutual aid to one another under all circumstances.—Bessin, Conc. Norm.
ROUEN (1223). Held in 1223, by Th., Archbishop of Rouen, and all his Suffragans except the Bishop of Constance. Nineteen canons were published.
1. Directs the appointment of fit persons in every diocese who shall simply and plainly make enquiry as to what needs reform, and report it at the next synod.
ROUEN (1231). Held in 1231, under Archbishop Maurice. Forty-nine canons of discipline were published, twenty-two of which relate to the monastic orders.
10. Orders that the hair of the concubines of priests shall be publicly cut off in church on some Sunday or Holy day.
14. Directs that priests shall forbid dances in churchyards and churches, under pain of excommunication.
21. Forbids lay persons to make their wills in the absence of the priest, except in cases of necessity.
34. Forbids deacons to administer the viaticum to the sick, to receive confessions, or to baptise, except in the absence of the priest.—Bessin, Conc. Norm. Mart., Thes. Anec. tom. 4 col. 175.
ROUEN (1299). Held June 18, 1299, under William of Flavacourt, the archbishop, in the monastery of Bonne-Nouvelle, near Rouen. Seven canons were published.
1. Relates to the conduct of the clergy. From this canon it seems that some of the clergy at this time appeared publicly in short dresses, with a sword by their side; that they kept mistresses at home; that they discharged offices in the secular courts, and lent money at usury. For each of these irregularities they were sentenced to lose the revenues of their benefices for one year.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1426.
ROUEN (1335). Held by Peter, the archbishop, in 1335. Thirteen canons were drawn up.
1. Orders that the holy office be said devoutly.
5. Forbids patrons to present to benefices for money.
8. Relates to the repairs of the fabric, works, and ornaments, of the churches.
11. Relates to the publication of such causes as are reserved to the pope or to the bishop of the diocese.
12. Exhorts rectors of churches to be kind to mendicant friars.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1835.
ROUEN (1445). Held December 15, 1445, by Ralph, Archbishop of Rouen, with his suffragans. Forty canons were published.
The first three recommend attachment to the faith of the church, and condemn heretical books and books of magic.
5. Forbids to swear by the body, the head, the blood, or the members, of Jesus Christ.
6. Orders that they who invoke demons, &c., shall be publicly denounced, and exposed with a mock mitre upon their heads.
7. Condemns the practice of addressing prayers to images under particular titles, as, to “our Lady of recovery,” “our Lady of pity,” “of consolation,” and the like; because such practices tend to superstition, and to make many imagine that there is more in one image than another.
10. Renews the canon of Lateran, “Omnis utriusque sexus.”
12. Forbids all compulsory fees for orders, letters of orders, confirmation, benediction of the ecclesiastical vestments and furniture, carrying the Holy Eucharist to the sick, &c.
15 and 16. Order that candidates for ordination be duly examined, and insist upon a bona fide title.
25. Forbids to communicate with excommunicated persons, and orders the priest before mass to bid them retire.
29. Forbids walking about, and profane and idle talk, in churches.
30. Forbids to play at any game of chance or other improper amusement on Christmas night.
34 and 38. Relate to monks.—Tom. xiii. Conc. p. 1303.
ROUEN (1581). Held April 2, 1581, to promulgate the Tridentine decrees, by Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, Archbishop of Rouen, assisted by his suffragans. Twelve chapters were drawn up, containing in an abridged form, all matters connected with faith and discipline. They begin with a confession of faith relating to the articles of the creed, the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, the seven sacraments, the worship of saints, indulgences, &c.; in the next place, they treat of matters relating to divine service, the administration of the sacraments, the duties of bishops and canons, holy orders, appointments to benefices, visitations, the duties of priests having cure of souls, the religious orders, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, &c.—Tom. xv. Conc. p. 820.
RUFFEC (in POITOU) (1258). [Concilium Roffiacense.] Held on August 21st, 1258, by Gerard de Malemort, Archbishop of Bordeaux; a regulation was published, containing ten articles, which chiefly relate to the temporal interests of the Church; all persons combining to restrain the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, are declared excommunicate.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 773.
RUFFEC (1327). Held in 1327, by Arnold of Bordeaux, who presided; two canons were published.
1. Directs the entire cessation of divine service in all places where lay judges, having possession of clerks, refuse, after due monition, to deliver them up to the Church.—Tom. xi. Conc. p. 1773.
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