Council of Agde

The Concile of Agde was held with the church Saint-Andrew of the town of Agde in 506, of the time of the reign of Alaric II which, of religion arienne, authorized the meeting of this catholic assembly. The city was selected for its central geographical location between the dioceses of Provence and those of south-west. It joined together 24 bishop S catholics of the ic Royaume Visigoth, plus ten delegated prelates prevented from going to this synod. With in the chair saint Césaire of Arles, which prepared work and suggested the decisions of them, its goal was to regulate in the kingdom wisigothic the disciplinary and temporal statute of the orthodoxe Church. At the time to separate, the fathers decided to meet again the next year with Toulouse. At the conclusion of the council, 49 guns were written.

Some measurements taken by the Council

It defines the Rite according to which any Christian must receive per annum the Communion 3 times, with Easter, the Pentecost and Christmas.
the people must receive the blessing of the the Blessed Sacrament after the Office of the evening (Canon XXX)
the seventeenth gun specifies certain methods concerning ordination: “ No subway will not have to take on him to order priest or bishop, whoever will not be old die thirty years, which is the age of the perfect man, nor to make very prone deacon not having reached its twenty-fifth year…” . It is advisable to indicate that if this law, at the time, were in force, certain bishops affanchissaient themselves some by exempting the subjects which showed a remarkable piety.
In full period of the cruel Invasions, the council wants to also rule on the Juifs for “to prevent those from contaminating the Chrétiens” , such is the watchword of the Church to the Life century. As of 506, the council defines under which conditions the baptism must be managed to the Jews. It seems, according to the deliberations of this assembly, that certain Jews oscillated between the two religions. Once baptized, they practiced the ancestral religion more or less openly. The Council of Agde consequently decided to impose a withdrawal period: “the Jews which want to adopt the catholic faith must, with the example of the catechumens, to be held for eight month on the threshold of the church; if, at the end of this time, their faith is recognized sincere, they will obtain the grace of the Baptême. But if, in the interval, they are in danger of death, they could be baptized before the term prescribed”. This same council defended with the Christians to eat with the Jews: “Any Christian, clerk or laic, must abstain from taking share with the banquets of the Jews; the latter not eating a same food that the Christians, it is unworthy and Sacrilège that the Christians touch with their food. The mets which we take with the permission of the Apôtre are judged immondes by the Jews. A Christian thus shows the inferior of a Jew if it is subjected to eat dishes that this last presents to him and if, in addition, the Jew pushes back with contempt food of use” Déjà enacted by the Concile of Valves, this prohibition was respected obviously little since other councils renewed it on several occasions (Epône, 517; Orleans, 538 and Mâcon, 581). According to historical sources, the bishops themselves did not obey these regulations. In addition many were those which maintained the cordial relationship with the Jews as attests some this testimony in connection with Cautinus, bishop of Clermont between 551 and 571: “With the Jews with the influence of which it was subjected, it was in familiar terms, not for their conversion, which, as a good Pasteur, had had to be his concern, but to buy invaluable objects to them. It easily was flattered and they lavished a coarse adulation to him. They then sold to him the things at a price higher than their actual value” (Gregoire de Tours, Histoire of the Francs, Denoël, 1974).
In the same council one ordered to fustigate the disobedient Moine S and the Clerc S culprits of drunkenness (Can. XXXVIII)
the council also fits in the line of the rules of the preceding councils which legislated in the field of the female consecrated life. Whereas the regional councils de Gaulle already repealed the female diaconate (Nimes 394-396, Orange 441), the Council of Agde, also prohibited to give the veil to the Moniales before the forty years age. According to Chalcédoine (451), before this age one could not order the deaconesses. In the same way, the council defines future the Règles of fence: “the monasteries of women will be located at a good distance from the monasteries of monks, as well because of the obstacles of the devil as because of the scandalmongerings of people. ”
In gun XX of the council, one defends with the clerks to wear clothes “which were not appropriate in their state, i.e. they began as of-at the time deviating from the rules of modesty and the propriety”
In gun 42 one condemns and one excludes the " clerks and laic who play the augures" . One also condemns that which, clerk or laic, consults them. " The Church will hold it for étranger".
the council confirms also the Sunday précept (gun 47). I.e. in front of the tepidity or the negligence of some it had to clarify the duty of faithful to take part in the Sunday Messe. Thus, the council of Agde east one of the assemblies which will register it in the canon law. These decrees of particular Councils, like a completely obvious thing, led to a universal habit with character of obligation.
In the same way one can say as the council of Agde confirmed the practice of the tonsure (gun 20) while insisting especially on the need for a hairstyle " modeste" for the clerks. This ecclesiastical habit will remain in force until 1972 (reform of the minor orders, Ministeria quaedam of Paul VI).

See too

Council
Kingdom Visigoth
Holy Césaire

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