Councils of Clermont

Council of 535

This first Concile of Clermont proceeded starting from the November 8th 535, in the auvergnate city of Arvernis, which will take at the 9th century the name of Clairmont (Clermont), and that one calls today Clermont-Ferrand.
One also speaks about the “local Synode of Clermont”.
Sixteen decrees were taken there.

Participation

Fifteen bishops took part at this local assembly of which:

Césaire of Arles;
Gall, bishop of Clermont;
Holy Hilaire, bishop of Mende, sign with Clermont decrees of morals and interior discipline;
Holy Nizier, bishop of Trier, of which one with the subscription i.e. the signature of approval of this council;
Desired of Verdun, 9th bishop of Verdun, saint.

Nomination of the bishops

The second gun of the council of Clermont points out that the episcopal dignity, the fact of becoming bishop , must be granted according to the merits and not following intrigues. An ideal is to be reached: the total independence of the political arena in the choice of the bishops. The bishop will be freely elected by the clergy and the people, with the assent of the metropolitan .

A council anti-Jews

As at the time of the councils of Elvira (305), of Valves (465), of the three councils of Orleans (533, 538, 541), with the council of Clermont (535) , the Church prohibited with the Jewish S to in common have meals with Christian , to make mixed Marriage S and proscribes the celebration of the Sabbat. The goal being to limit the influence of the Judaism on the population. But the Church goes further; it engages in a policy of forced conversion. Thus, in 576, the bishop Avit de Clermont requires with the 500 Jews of his city which they convert before exiling with Marseilles the recalcitrant ones.

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Council of 1095

This Concile is held with Clairmont ( Clermont ) - today Clermont-Ferrand - in Auvergne in 1095. Six months after the council of Pleasure, it joins together with the call of the Pape Urbain II most of the bishop S and Abbé S French and Spanish. The German are absent, the pope being then in conflict with the emperor Henri IV. He had, as at the time it preceding council, to deal with problems of ecclesiastical discipline.

The adopted guns of the 18 to the November 26th relate to the nomination of the clerks with the laic ones, the simony and begin again by specifying them of the former decrees. The Peace of God, until imposed there only on the regional plan, is extended to all the Church. The plenary indulgence is promised with all those which will leave to release the Church of God with Jerusalem.

The call of Clermont

To close the council, Urbain II pronounces a sermon in the presence of a crowd of clerks and the laic ones brought together in a field outside the city: after having evoked misfortunes of the Christians of the East, the pope entreats the Christians of Occident to cease their fratricidal wars and to link himself to fight the pagan ones and to deliver their brothers in the East. Without hiding the sufferings which await them on the road, the pope calls with the renouncement and the sacrifice. He quotes the apostle Matthieu: “ If somebody wants to come to my continuation, that he disavows itself, that he takes care of his cross and that he follows me. ” With this call, enthusiastic crowd, with the cries of “ God wants it ”, would have decided, after the bishop of the Puy, Adhémar de Monteil, appoints legate and chief of forwarding, “ to take the cross ” and makes wishes of going to Jerusalem. As a sign of this wish, the first volunteers make sew between their shoulders a fabric cross which makes call them “ cruce signati ”.

Judgment by the pope

The King Philippe I {{er}} is excommunicated to have repudiated Berthe of Holland and to have married Bertrade de Montfort.

Launching of the first crusade

The main subject of this council is the organization of the First crusade to release Jerusalem and the holy Lieux of the East. The call to the Croisade is launched on November 27th 1095. He also answers at the request of help formulated with Plaisance by the Byzantine emperor Alexis Comnène fights about it in the East against the Turks Seldjoukides and in North against the Pétchenègues.

This call is also a means for the pope of reinforcing his authority in Occident since it places the crusade under the direct authority of the Église via its Légat, the bishop of the Puy Adhémar de Monteil. Urbain II completes the Gregorian Réforme thus by sending the Western knight S to fight in the East and puts forward the idea of war right.

Dogmatic reforms

But the council of Clermont treats also Dogme and relationship between the Église and the political power since one condemns the Simonie to it, the Clérogamie and the laic nomination for the ecclesiastical benefit. The prohibited council moreover with a Clerk to lend an oath of Vassalage to a laic Lord.

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