A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

Council of Rheims, under Sonnatius.

FLodoard relares, That Sonnatius, Bishop of Rheims, held a Council of about forty Bishops, which made ••••veral Constitutions, whereof he inserted the Extract in his History. * 1.1

By the 1st. it is order'd, that no Body shall appropriate to himself what the Church hath invested him▪ in as Tenant o•• Trustee▪ how long soever his Possession be.

The 2d. forbids the Cabals of Presbyters and Clerks against their Bishops.

The 3d. cof••••••s the Canons of the Council of Paris, held under Clotharius.

The 4th. orders, That the Pastors of Churches shall carefully seek out Hereticks, to con∣vert them.

The 5th. prohibits rash Excommunications, and gives to the Provincial Council Authority to judge of the Validity of the Excommunication.

The 6th. forbids Secular Judges to impose upon Clerks publick Taxes, or to lay any Penal∣ty upon them, without the Bishop's Consent. Bishops are enjoyned to correct Clerks, and forbidden to admit into the Clergy, without the Prince's or the Judge's Leave, those that are entrusted with the Care of the Revenue of the King's Lands.

The 7th. threatens to excommunicate those that shall violently take from the Church the Criminals fled into it ff 1.2. It orders, That before they be delivered, they shall take an Oath from them, into whose Hands they are delivered; That they shall not put them to Death, nor maim them, nor rack them; and that none shall be suffered to go out, before he hath promised to do Penance for his Crime.

The 8th. is against them that contract incestuous Marriages: It does excommunicate them, if they do not separate themselves, and declareth that they are to be deprived of their Places and Estates, till they have separated themselves.

The 9th. declareth, That Men ought to have no Converse with one guilty of wilful Mur∣der, unless he committed it in his own Defence, and does not grant him the Viaticum, that is to say, the Absolution, but only at the Point of Death.

The 10th. condemns those that keep to themselves the Goods given by their Parents toChurches or Monasteries.

The 11th. forbids Christians to sell Christian Slaves to the Jews or Pagans.

The 12th. forbids Clerks to go out of their own Diocess, without Letters from their Bishop.

The 13th. forbids Bishops to sell or alienate Church-Lands.

The 14th puts to Penance those that imitate the Superstitions of Pagans.

The 15th. forbids to receive the Accusations of Slaves, and does not permit an Accuser, who could not prove the first Charge, to alledge any other.

The 16th. excommunicates those that shall seize on Church-Goods, after the Bishop's Death.

The 17th. is against those that would enslave free-born persons.

The 18th. forbids Clerks to go to Law without their Bishop's Consent.

The 19th. forbids to put in Lay-men for Arch-priests in Parishes. It permits only to ordain him a Clerk, who is an Elder among the Laity.

The 20th. Orders, That what shall be bestowed upon the Bishops by Strangers, shall belong to the Church, except those things given be a Feoffment of Trust.

The 21st. excommunicates those that seize on Church-Lands.

The 22d. deprives ab Officio, the Bishops who shall break the Holy Vessels, unless it be in extream Necessity, and to redeem Captives.

The 23d. prohibits ravishing of Widows or Virgins consecrated to God.

The 24th. excommunicates Judges, that shall despise the Canons, or violate the Prince's Edict, given at Paris.

The 25th. imports, That he that is ordain'd Bishop ought to be a Native, and chosen by the Votes of the People and the Bishops of the Province, and approved by the whole Council; that those that shall not be thus ordain'd, shall be turned out of their See; and the Bishops that have ordained them, shall be suspended ab Officio, for three Years.

These are all the Canons of this Council, which was held about 630. There are 21 more attributed to this Council; but it is evident they are much posterior to it: They are not related by Flodoard.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Council of Rheims.
• ff 1.2

  [The 7th. threatens to excommu∣nicate those that shall violently take from the Church the Criminals fled into it.] The Ori∣ginal of this Privilege, allowed by the Heathens, and afterward by the Christi∣ans, to their Temples or Churches, was certainly taken from the Divine Consti∣tution, given to Moses, to erect six Cities of Refuge in the Jewish Nation, though not altogether conformable to it, nor of so beneficial an use; for Moses made the Cities only a Refuge, and that for such Man-slayers alone as had killed their Neighbours unawares; but the Heathens made their Temples, and that for all manner of Wickednesses, for so Livy says of the Asylum erected by Romu∣lus at Rome: Asylum aperuit, quo quisquis perfugerit ab omni noxa liberatus esset: And so Herodotus speaks of Hercules's Asylum at Athens. These Refuge-Temples were afterward much increased among the Heathen, and at length, about the Year 300, came to be in use among the Christians; for they thought it a shame that the Temples of the Heathen Gods should enjoy so great a Privilege, as to be Refuges for the Oppressed, and the Christian Temples should be destitute of it: Whereupon they were made such by the Edict of Theodosius and Valentinian, and also by the Canons of the Councils. But although such Grants might be of very good Advantage among Christians, being kept within the Bounds of the first Institution, to be a Protection for the Innocent and Oppressed; yet as they have been, and still are, abused in the Roman and other Churches, being made a Refuge for Murtherers, Rebels, and other enor∣mous Criminals, they are grievous both to the Church and all Civil Societies and have been complain'd of, as such, by many eminent Lights of the Church, in the several Ages of it.]
• * 1.2.1

  Numb. 35. 6
• * 1.2.2

  Liv. hist. l. 1. dec. 1. Herod. l. 2.
• * 1.2.3

  Theod. & Val. in Const. ad Antioch. Syn. Araus. anno 440. c. 5. Aug. de con. Evang. l. 1. c. 12. Pol. Virgil. l. 3. c. 12.