Canons of the Third Council of Toledo

Canons of the Third Council of Toledo

§ 1

A.D. 589.

After King Eeccared had embraced the Catholic faith, he summoned the bishops of his kingdom (Spain and Gallia Narboncnsis),in. May 589, to a general Synod at Toledo (Toletana in.), of which the minutes have come to us in a tolerable state of completeness. Before the transactions began, Eeccared requested the bishops to prepare themselves, by fasting and prayer, for the holy work. They resolved to fast for three days, and then met, on the 8th of May, for the first session. The King was again present, besought the Synod to return thanks to God for the return of so many to the true faith, and then caused to be read a declaration drawn up by him. It contains the orthodox confession of the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaches His procession a Patre et a Filio (cf. vol. iii. sec. 167), describes how the orthodox faith had been hitherto oppressed in Spain, and relates how he, the King, had returned to the Catholic Church, and had invited his whole people to take the same step. The famous and noble nation of the Goths, he says, now in full agreement with him, takes part in the communion of the Catholic Church, and also the Suevi, whom he had subjected, and who had been misled by another (Leovigild) into heresy, he had called back again to the truth (see above, sec. 285, Braga 2). It was now the business of the bishops to instruct these peoples, and he had called the Synod in order to bear witness to his orthodoxy before it. Accordingly he anathematised Arius with his doctrine, and recognised the Synods of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, with the Councils of all orthodox bishops who did not depart in the faith from the four Synods named. He added the declarations of faith of Mcaea, Constantinople, and Chalcedon verbally, that of Constantinople with the formula ex Patre et Filio procedentem, and subscribed this document with his consort Badda.

The Synod replied with acclamations in honour of God

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and the King, and requested the newly -con verted Gothic bishops, clerics, and nobles, on their side, to make their confession. They did so in twenty-three anathematisms : —

1. If anyone still holds the doctrine and communion of the Arians, let him be anathema.

2. If anyone does not confess that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is begotten of the substance of the Father without beginning, is like to and of one substance with the Father, etc.

3. If anyone does not believe that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son, and is coeternal with and like unto the Father and the Son, etc.

4. If anyone does not distinguish the persons in the Trinity, etc.

5. If anyone declares the Son and Spirit inferior to the Father, etc.

6. If anyone does not believe that Father, Son, and Spirit are of one substance, one omnipotence, and eternity, etc.

7. If anyone maintains that the Son is ignorant of anything, etc.

8. If anyone ascribes a beginning to the Son or Spirit, etc.

9. If anyone maintains that the Son, in His Godhead, was visible or capable of suffering, etc.

10. If anyone does not hold the Holy Ghost as the true Almighty God, as the Father and the Son, etc.

11. If anyone declares any other faith than that of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon to be the Catholic faith, etc.

12. If anyone separates the Father, Son, and Spirit in regard to glory and Godhead, etc.

13. If anyone believes that the Son and Spirit are not to be honoured along with the Father, etc.

14. If anyone does not say: "Gloria et honor Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto," etc.

15. If anyone defends or practises rebaptism, etc.

16. If anyone regards as good the abominable treatise which we composed, in the twelfth year of Leovigild, in order

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418 HISTORY OF THE COUNCILS.

to mislead the Romans to the Arian heresy, etc. (see above, sec. 286).

17. If anyone does not condemn the Council of Ariminum with all his heart, etc. (see vol. ii).

18. We confess that we have been, with all our heart, etc., converted from the Arian heresy to the Catholic Church. The faith which our King has confessed before the Synod we also confess and teach to our congregations. If anyone does not hold this faith, let him be anathema maranatha (1 Cor. xvi. 22).1

19 to 22. If anyone rejects the faith of the Synods of Nicsea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chaldsea, etc.

23. This condemnation of the Arian heresy we have subscribed with our own hands. The definitions of those Synods of Nicaea, etc., we have subscribed. They contain clearly the true doctrine on the Trinity and Incarnation. If anyone falsifies this holy doctrine, and separates himself again from the Catholic communion which we have now obtained, he is guilty before God and the world.

Again, the decrees of the faith of Nicsea, Constantinople, and Chalcedon were added literally as in the declaration of the King, and the whole was subscribed by eight bishops, many other clerics, and the Gothic leaders present.

The King then proposed to the Synod to ordain that, in the West Gothic kingdom, after the manner of the Greek Fathers, the holy creed should be recited before communion, in order to confirm the orthodox faith. The bishops were further requested to draw up disciplinary prescriptions for the regulation of morals. This was done as follows : —

Capitulum 1. The old canons, the ordinances of the Councils, and the synodal letters of the holy bishops of Eome have validity. No one shall henceforth, in opposition to them, attain to clerical dignities.

2. In accordance with the proposal of the King, before the Lord's Prayer, the Creed of Constantinople shall be sung with clear voice.

3. No bishop may alienate Church property. What he

1 On maranatha, cf. the Kirchenlexicon of Wetzer and Welte. On the addition of maranatha to anathema, see Kober, KircJienbann, S. 40 f.

SPAIN BECOMES CATHOLIC, A.D. 589. 419

gives, without inconvenience to his church, to monks, or to churches in his diocese, shall be valid. He shall also support strangers, the clergy, and the poor.

4. With the assent of his Synod the bishop may turn one of his parish churches into a monastery.

5. As the bishops, priests, and deacons who have come over from heresy still partly live in matrimony with their wives, this is now forbidden to them. Whoever does so shall be regarded as a lector. Whoever has strange women in his dwelling so as to excite suspicion, shall be punished, and those women shall be sold by the bishop. The proceeds of the sale belong to the poor.

6. Those who are set free from slavery stand under the protection of the Church.

7. During the meals of the clergy, there shall be readings from the Holy Scripture.

8. Clerics, born of families who belong to the Exchequer, are to be demanded by no one under the pretext that the King had given them to him. They have only to pay their polltax, and remain in the Church. The King agrees with this.

9. The churches, formerly Arian and now Catholic, belong, with their property, to those bishoprics in which they lie.

10. If widows do not wish to marry again, nobody must compel them to do so. If, however, they wish to marry again, they are at liberty to marry him whom they themselves freely choose. So also with maidens ; and they must not be compelled, against their own will or that of their parents, to take anyone for husband. If anyone hinders a widow or virgin from f ulfilling her intention of remaining unmarried, he is excommunicated.

11. In some churches of Spain, disorder in the ministry of penance has gained ground, so that people sin as they like, and again and again ask for reconciliation from the priest. This must no longer happen ; but according to the old canons everyone who regrets his offence must be first excluded from communion, and must frequently present himself as a penitent for the laying on of hands when his time of penance is over, then, if it seems good to the bishop, he may again be received

420 HISTORY OF THE COUNCILS.

to communion ; if, however, during his time of penance or afterwards, he falls back into his old sin, he shall be punished according to the stringency of the old canons.1

12. If a man wished to do penance his hair must first be cut, but a woman must first change her garment, for it frequently happens that laymen, after lax penance, return again to their old offences, therefore sharper penance must be introduced, with cutting of hair, etc. (cf. sees. 222, 252, and Aguirre, Concil. Hispan. t. ii. pp. 280 and 363. C election de Canones de la iglesa espanola, por Gonzalez, Madrid 1849, t. ii. p. 213 sqq.).

13. One cleric may not bring another before a secular tribunal.

1 4. No Jew may have a Christian woman as wife or concubine ; and if there are children of such a union, they must be baptized. Neither must Jews exercise any public office over Christians with power of punishment. They may not buy for their own use Christian slaves ; and if the latter have been by them stained with any Jewish rite they shall become free, and without ransom return to Christianity. It is the King's will that this be taken into the canons.

15. If servants of the Exchequer have built and endowed churches, the bishop shall petition the King to confirm such.

16. The ecclesiastical and the secular judges must work in common, to the end that the idolatry widely spread in Spain and Gaul may again be rooted out (see sees. 285 and 286).

17. So also must they in common root out the widely - spread horrible crime of parents killing their children, that they may not have the expense of bringing them up.

18. Since the churches of Spain are so poor and so far removed from one another, only one provincial Synod (instead of two) shall be held annually. In accordance with the command of the King, the judges and officers of the Exchequer

1 The ancient Church appointed only one single public penance, and, if anyone after penance again fell into a gross sin he remained for ever excommunicated (see vol. i. p. 139, c. 3 ; p. 140, c. 7 ; p. 157, c. 47, and p. 411). On the llth and 12th canons of our Synod of Toledo, Cardinal Aguirre wrote several excellent dissertations in his collection of Spanish Councils, t. ii. p. 358 sqq.

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must meet on the 1st of November, in order to learn how the people must be dealt with gently and justly. The bishops, too, by the will of the King, must exercise oversight on the conduct of the judges, and must censure them if they are guilty of insolent behaviour, or inform the King, or excommunicate them, if they do not amend. The bishop shall consider, with two seniors, what a province can, without injury, pay to the judges.1 Before the close of a Synod the time and place of the next shall be announced, so that no further writings and invitations may be necessary for the metropolitan.

19. Many who have built a church request the consecration of it on the condition that the property made over by them to the church should not be subject to the administration of the bishop. This cannot be allowed.

20. Many bishops burden their clergy improperly with feudal services and taxes in a cruel manner. Nothing unusual, however, shall be rendered to them ; and the burdened clergy shall complain to the metropolitan (see sec. 285, Synod of Braga).

21. Judges and officials may no longer turn the servants of the Church and of the clergy to feudal services for public or private purposes, under penalty of excommunication.

22. At funerals only psalms shall be sung. The special elegies, and the custom of beating on the breast, are forbidden. Where possible, the bishop shall enforce this with all the faithful, and at least with the clergy.2

23. Dances and unclean songs on feast days are forbidden.

The King confirmed these decisions in a special decree introduced into the minutes of the Synod, required their observance of clergy and laity, and threatened the transgression of them with severe punishments. Then he signed first the minutes, and after him sixty-four bishops and seven representatives of bishops. Among the bishops come first the Metropolitans Massona of Emerita, Euphemius of Toledo,

1 Instead otjudicium, we should, with Gams, read judicibus.

2 Religiosus is here not merely monk, but cleric generally. Cf. c. 1 of Narbonne, sec. 288.

422 HISTORY OF THE COUNCILS.

Leander of Seville, Migetius of Narbonne, and Pantardus of Braga in Galicia. The last-named subscribed at the same tune for his colleague Nitigisius, the second metropolitan of Galicia. Also the eight formerly Arian bishops, who had come over, signed. Finally, S. Leander of Seville delivered an address, in order to express the joy of the Church over the conversion of the West Goths.1