L The First Council ok Orleans (Concilium Au- relianense) was held July 10, 511, by order of Clovis. It was attended by the archbishops of Bordeaux, Bourges, Auch, Tours, and Kouen, with twenty-seven bishops, among whom were Quintianus, bishop of Rodcz, near Clermont, Blelanius, bishop of Rennes, and Theodosius of Auxerre. Tliirty-one canons were published:
1. Establishes the inviolability of churches as places of refuge.
3. Declares that a runaway slave taking refuge iu a church shall be given up to his master, an oath having been lir^t made by the latter not to hurt him.
4. Forbids to oidain lay persons without the king's per- mission. The children of clerks are left to the bishop's dii^cretiou.
5. Directs that the revenue arising from property <riven to any church by the prince shall be employed (1) in the repair of the building, (2) for the support of the clergy, (r!) for the relief of the poor, and (4) for the redemption of slaves.
7. Forbids clerks and monks to go to the prince to ob- tain favors without letters from their bishop.
8. Enacts that a bishop wilfully ordaining a slave un- known to his master shall pay twice his price to the mas- ter.
12. Permits deacons and priests in a state of penance to baptize in cases of necessity.
13. Forbids the wife of a priest or deacon to marry.
17. Submits to the bishop's jurisdiction all churches built within his territory.
IS. Forbids to marry a brother's widow, or a sister's widower.
19. Submits to the bishop's jurisdiction all abbots, and directs that they shall attend him once a year at the place which he i^hall appoint.
20. Forbids monks to use the stole or handkerchief ("tzangas") within their monasteries.
21. Declares a monk who shall leave his monastery and marry to be forever excluded from takini; orders.
24. Orders a fast of forty, and not fifty, days before Easter.
27, 28. Order the proper observation of the Rogation days.
2!). Forbids all familiarity between clerks and women.
30. Excommunicates all who have dealings with divin- ers.
31. Enjoins bishops (o attend the offices of the Church every Sunday in the neaiest place of worship. See Pagi in Baronius, A.D. 507, x, xii ; Labbe', Cone, iv, 1403.
IL A Second Councit- was held in 533, on May 24, bj' order of Theodoric, Childebert, and Clothaire, the three kings of France^ Twenty-six archbishops and bishops attended from the provinces, Lyons, and Aqui- taine. Twenty-one canons were published against si- mony and other abuses, most of wliich were old regula- tions renewed :
The 12!h warns those persons who have made a vow to drink and sinp; and frolic iu any church that they ought not to fulfil their vow.
13. Forbids abhots, chaplains, recluses, and priests to give letters dismissory to clerks.
15. Forbids to accept the bequests of suicides; permits those of persons killed in the conimissimi of any crime.
20. Commands that they be excluded from communion who have eaten of meats oftered to idols, or of things strangled, etc.
21. Excommunicates abbots who despise the orders of their bishops. See Labbe, Cunc. iv, 1T79.
in. A Third Council was held at Orleans May 7, 538. Nineteen bishops attended, among whom were Lupus of Lyons, who presided, Pantathagus of Vienne, Leo of Sens, etc. Thirty-three canons were published :
1. Orders that a metropolitan who shall permit two years to pass without convoking a provincial synod shall be suspended from celebrating mass for one year, and also those bishops who neglect to attend it without just hin- derance.
3. Directs that metropolitans be consecrated by a met- ropolitan in the presence of all the bishops of the province, and the bishops of each province by the metropolitan.
7. Directs that clerks who have received orders of their own free will shall, if they marry afterwards, be excom- municated ; that if they were ordained without their owu consent they shall be only deposed; that clerks commit- ting adultery shall be shut up iu a monastery for life, without, however, being deprived of communion.
25. Orders that persons who fall back from a state of penance into a worldly life shall be deprived of commun- ion until at the point of death.
28. Forbids to work in the fields on Sunday, but permits travelling on horseback or iu a carriage, the preparation of food, and all things needful for the proper neatness of house and i)erson ; the denial of which things it states to belong rather to the Jewish than the Christian observance of the day.
29. Forbids lay persons to leave church at mass before the end of the Lord's Prayer, or if a bishop be present, be- fore he has giveu liis blessing.
30. Forbids Jews to mix with Christians from Holy Thursday to Easter-day. See Labbe, Cone, v, 294.
IV. A Fourth Council was convened at Orleans in 54L Thirty-eight bishops and the deputies of twelve absent attended ; Leontius, archbishop of Bordeaux, pre- sided. Thirty-eight canons were published; most of them similar to those published in the preceding coun- cils. The following are among those which differ :
1. Orders the celebration of Easter every year according to the table of Victorius (or Victor).
4. Orders that no one at the oblation of the holy chalice shall presume to offer anything but wine mixed with wa- ter, because it is held as sacrilegious to ofler anything difl'erent from what the Saviour instituted iu his most holy commandments.