5. In 615 a council was convened under king Clotaire II. This was the most numerously attended of the Gal-
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lie councils up to that period. Seventj-^-nine bishops from all the newly united provinces of Gaul were pres- ent. Fifteen canons have been preserved, but others probably were published. Among the most noteworthy enactments are :
1. Declares elections of bishops made without consent of the metropolitan and the bishops of the province, and of the clergy and people of the city, or made by violence, cabal, or bribery, to be null and void.
2. Forbids bishops to appoint their own successors; forbids to appoint another to the see during the lifetime of the actual bishop, except the latter be incapable oiman- agiuET his Church.
4. Declares that no secular judge may try or condemn any priest, deacon, or other ecclesiastic, without first giv- ing warning to the bishop.
14. Forbicls marriage with a brother's widow, and other incestuous marriages.
15. Forbids a Jew to exercise any public oflBce over Christians, and in case of his obtaining such au office, contrary to canon, insists upon his being baptized with all his family.
INIost of the other canons refer to the property of the Church and of ecclesiastics. King Clotaire published an edict for the execution of these canons, with some modification however, since he commanded that the bishop elected according to canon 1 should not be conse- crated without the leave of the prince. See Labbe, Cone. V, 1G49.
G. In November, 825, a council convened, and the bishops who attended addressed a synodal letter to the emperors Louis and Lothaire, in which they declare their approval of the letter of Hadrian to the emperor Constantine and his mother Irene, so far as relates to his rebuke for thtir audacity and rashness in removing and breaking the images, but his command to adore them (eas adorare) they refuse to approve, styling all such ad- oration superstitious and sinful ; they also declare that in their opinion the testimonies wliich he Lad collected from the holy fathers in support of his view, and had inserted in his letter, were very little to the purpose. They further declare that, without approving the acts of the Council of Constantinople in 754, they condemn the second Council of Nicaa, and hold that it was no light error on the part of those who composed it to as- sert not only that images should be venerated and adored (coli et adorari), and called by the title of hoh'. but that even some degree of holiness was to be attained through their means (verum etiam sanctimoniam ab els se adipisci professi sunt). They declared their adhesion to the Caroline books. See Goldast, In Dee. Imp. de Imaff.; Labbe, Cone, vii, 1542.
7. Another important synod was held at Paris June 6, 859, under Louis le Debonnaire. It was composed of the four provinces of Rheims, Sens, Tours, and Rouen ; twenty-five bishops attended, besides the four metropol- itans of the above-mentioned provinces. The council was held in the church of St. Stephen the elder. The acts of the council are divided into three Books of Canons.
Book I relates to ecclesiastical discipline.
Canon 7. Forbids to baptize except at the canonical times, without necessity.
8. Directs that persons bapti-zed in illness, beyond the proper canonical times for baptism, shall not be admit- ted to holy orders, according to the twelfth canon of Neo- Ciesarea.
16. Declares that all property amnssed by bishops and priests after their ordination shnll be considered as be- longing to their churches, and that their heirs shall have no part of it.
18. Declares that the pnstors of the Church ought to possess the property of the Church without beins,' jjoh- sessed hy it, and that in the possession of it they ought to despise it. It condemns also those worldly people who are ever complaining that the Church is too rich.
26. Orders that one or two provincial councils shall he held annually.
2T. Is intended as a check upon the chorepiscopi; for- bids them to confirm and to perform any other function peculiar to the episcopate.
44. Forbids women to take the veil uutil thirty days after their husbands' death, at which time they were by the emperor's edict free to marry again.
45. Forbids women to touch the sacred vessels, or to give the vestments to the priests ; also forbids them to
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give the holp Eucharist to the people: an abuse which it seems had crept in in some phices.
47. Forl)iils to say mass in private hoxises, or in gardens and chapels, except when ou travel, and iu extreme cases when pei)i)lc are very far from a church.
4S. Forbids priests to say mass alone.
50. Insists iijjon the proper observation of Sunday, and directs that a humble supplication should be addressed to the prince, entreating iiim to stop all pleadings and markets on that day, aiul to forbid all work.
Book II relates to the duties of princes aud lay persons.
Canon 10. Condemns the error of those persons who think that, havinj; been baptized, they must eventually be saved, whatever sins they may commit.
Book III contains a collection of twenty-seven of the foregoino; canons, which tlie bishops forwarded to the emperors Louis and Lothaire, specially requesliug the execution of some of the number.