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The Council of Saltzburgh in the Year 1291.
THF City of Aera having been taken from the Christians by the Sultan of Babylon in the Year * 1.1 1291, Pope Nicholas X. Order'd Provincial Councils to be held for the finding out ways and means of re-entring into Possession of the Holy Land. The Knights Hospitalers, Templars and Teutonicks were accus'd of not having done their Duty. This gave occasion to the Council Held the same Year at Saltzburgh, of Proposing to the Pope the Uniting these Three Orders into One.
There are Three Decrees of a Council at Saltzburgh under Arch-Bishop Conrade without Date, which are commonly attributed to this Assembly.
By the First 'tis order'd, That to remedy the Abuse of Marriages clandestinely Contracted, there shall be Six Honest and Creditable Persons of the Neighbourhood, or Parish of the Contracters, who shall be Present and serve as Witnesses of the Marriage. The same Canon Issues forth the Penalty of Excommunication ipso facto against those who shall transgress this Order, or shall be present at Clan∣destine Marriages, or shall suffer them to be Contracted in their Houses.
In the Second the Secular and Regular Clergy are prohibited from Acquiring, Enjoying, or Re∣taining under any Title whatsoever, any Offices or Employments depending on Secular Princes, or Lords, under the Penalty of Forfeiting their Priveleges and Benefices.
The Third is against several Vagrant Scholars of a loose Life, who styl'd themselves Clerks, and ran about the Country.