RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Agapetus Ag-elli
Church honors his memory on that day; the Greek on Feb. 20. <A- Hauck.)
Bibliography: Literce, in MPL, lxxxvii.; Liber pontificalis ed. Duchesne, i. 350-358, Paris, 1886; Bower, Popes, i 469-485'; H. H. Milman, History of \Latin Christianity Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iii. passim, Eng. transl ,' v. 139-144; K. C. Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, I. ii. 24-28. AGDE, agd, SYNOD OF: A synod which met Sept. 11, 506, at Agde (Lat. Agatha), a town on the Mediterranean coast of France (90 m. w. of Marseilles, of which it was originally a colony). The town is unimportant, though it claimed to possess the relics of St. Andrew. The synod met with the permission of Alaric II., king of the West Goths, and thirty-five bishops from the south of France attended, Caesarius of Aries presiding. It passed forty-seven canons relating to questions of discipline, the guardianship of church property, the devout life, and— a matter of no slight importance for the south of France — the position of the Jews. An attempt was made to enforce clerical celibacy; and an almost suspicious attitude was assumed in regard to female monasticism (nuns were not to take the veil before the age of 40; no new convents were to be founded without the permission of the bishop; and the solitary life was disapproved). Provision was made for the maintenance of several traditional customs, such as the strict fast in Lent, the traditio symboli on the Saturday before Easter, the communion of the laity at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost; an effort was made to secure liturgical uniformity. In regard to the Jewish question, it is observable that here, as elsewhere, there was no distinction in social life between Jews and Christians, but that the Church disapproved of intercourse with the Jews, and looked with some distrust on converts from Judaism. The canons of the synod are based upon older and not exclusively Gallic foundations: Spanish and African conciliar decisions are used, as well as the letter of Pope Innocent I. to Exsuperius of Toulouse. In like manner the canons of the First Frankish Synod at Orleans (511) and the Burgundian Synod at Epao (517) depend upon those of Agde. The latter were early included in the collections of church law, and Gratian incorporated a large part of them in his Decretum.
(A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Mansi, Concilia, viii. 319; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 649-660, Eng. transl., iv. 76-86; C. F. Arnold, Casarius von Arelate, Leipsic, 1894.
AGE, CANONICAL: The age required by the canons of the Church for ordination or for the performance of any particular act. The requirement of a definite age for entering the priestly order is first found in the eleventh canon of the oynod of Neoca3sarea (314 or 325): " No one is to be ordained priest before he is thirty years old • for Jesus Christ when thirty years old was baptized and entered upon his ministry." The tost canon of the second series of canons of the synod of Hippo in 393 required the completion of tie twenty-fifth year for the reception of deacon's 0Ik'u These decisions were frequently repeated, as by the Synods of Agde (506, canon xvi.), of Aries KM, canon i.), the Third Synod of Orleans (538,
canon vi.), and the Fourth of Toledo (633, canon xx.), and the later repetitions were included in the canonical collections of the early Middle Ages, but in detail they were frequently changed. Urban II. at the Council of Melfi (1089, canon iv.) laid down the law that no one should be ordained subdeacon before his fourteenth year, or deacon before his twenty-fourth. For the priesthood, though the thirtieth year still remained the minimum in the written law, the practise grew of ordaining at twenty-five. The Synod of Ravenna (1314, canon ii.) fixed the sixteenth year for subdeacons, the twentieth for deacons, and the twenty-fourth for priests. Finally the Council of Trent (1563, session xxiii.) settled the minimum at twenty- two, twentythree, and twenty-four years, respectively, for these offices. It is sufficient to have begun the year specified in the Council. For tonsure and minor orders the Council simply requires the reception of the sacrament of confirmation and a certain degree of learning. In the Protestant Churches the attainment by the candidate of his majority is usually considered sufficient, though here and there the twenty-fourth year is still required.
In the Roman Catholic Church the canonical age is reckoned from the day of birth. Canonically the age of discretion is put at seven years, and then the sacraments of penance and extreme unction may be received because the child, being supposed to be capable of conscious choice, can commit a mortal sin; also the child is then subject to the regulations of the Church respecting abstinence and attendance on mass, and may also, as far as law is concerned, contract a marriage engagement. A marriage may not be contracted before puberty (except in case of extraordinary development of mind and body), i.e., before fourteen for boys and twelve for girls; nor may confirmation and the Lord's Supper be received till the child has been properly instructed. From twenty-one to sixty is the period when fasting at certain seasons is obligatory. The lowest canonical age for a bishop is thirty years completed. The minimum age at which simple vows may be taken is sixteen years completed. Clerics may not profess solemn vows before they have entered on their twentieth year.
Bibliography: KL, i. 632-638; E. Friedberg, Lehrbuch des katholischen und evangelischen Kirchenrechts, pp. 151, 330, Leipsic, 1903; W. E. Addis and T. Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, London, 1903.
AGELLI, a-jelTi, ANTONIO (Lat. Agellius): Roman Catholic scholar; b. at Sorrento, s. of the Bay of Naples, 1532; d. at Acerno, 14 m. e.n.e. of Sorrento, 1608. He joined the order of the Theatins, became bishop of Acerno in 1593, but after a few years returned to his monastery. He was famed for his knowledge of the languages of the Bible, under Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V was member of the commission for the publication of the Septuagint (1587), and assisted also in the publication of the Vulgate (1590).
Agelli wrote commentaries on the Book of Lamentations (Rome, 1598); the Psalms and Canticles (1606); Proverbs (Verona, 1649); and Habakkuk (Antwerp, 1697).
Agenda