II. THE CANONS OF THE SECOND SYNOD have a style quite different from those of the first, are not so simple,
7. If an unmarried man is ordained, he must not have his house
managed by a woman, but by a manservant or friend, or by his mother or sister, if he has such.
8. If a layman, after his wife (i.e. after her death), has known any other woman (free or a slave), he must not afterwards be received into the clergy. Cf. c. 8, Dist. 34.
9. If, in a sickness, anyone has received the benedictio poenitentioe, f255 called the Viaticum, by means of the communion; and if, after recovery, he has not been required to do public penance in the church, he may be received into the clergy, if he has otherwise had no irregularity (si prohibitis vitiis non detinetur obnoxius). Remi Ceillier (l.c. page 683) and Richard (Analysis Concil. t. 1, page 491) translate these words incorrectly, “if he is not convicted of the offense charged against him.”
10. Daily, after matins and vespers, the Lord’s Prayer is to be said by the priest (bishop). Cf. c. 14, De Consecrat. Dist. 5.
SEC. 230. TWO GALLICAN SYNODS BETWEEN 514 AND 517.
About the same time two Synods were held in Gaul, of which only quite scanty information has reached us. The one must have been held in the year 514, probably at Reims. Hincmar of Reims in his Vita S. Remigii, and after him Flodoard in his History of the Church of Reims (lib. 1, c. 19), relate that all the bishops present had greeted the holy archbishop, S. Remigius of Reims, at his entrance into the assembly, by reverently standing, with the exception of an insolent Arian. This man, they say, consequently, by a
miracle, immediately lost his speech, and received it again through Remigius as soon as he was disposed to confess the orthodox faith. f256 The other Council, Cenomanicum, held at Le Mans, in France, in the year 516 or 517, confirmed the donations which a rich Christian, Harigar, with his family, had made for the building of a monastery in honorem S. Marioe et SS. Martyrum Gervasii et Protasii, in the diocese of Le Mans. f257
SEC. 231. SYNOD AT EPAON, IN BURGUNDY, A.D. 517.
We have seen (sec. 227) that King Sigismund of Burgundy, after he had returned to the orthodox faith, summoned the bishops of his kingdom to a Synod at Agaunum. A second Synod he held a short time afterwards at Epaon, evidently with the purpose of improving church discipline in his kingdom, and to bring back the earlier ecclesiastical ordinances. It began probably on September 6, 517, since for this day the bishops were
summoned to Epaon, as we learn from the letter of convocation of Avitus of Vienne (see below). The meeting came to an end September 15, 517, as is expressly set forth in the subscriptions of the bishops at the end of the minutes.
At the head of the assembled bishops stood Avitus. Besides him we find, in the subscriptions, the names of the bishops Viventiolus of Lyons, Silvester of Cabillonum (Chalons on the Saone, or, if we are to read Cabilicensis, then Cavaillon, in the Department of Vaucluse), f258 Gemellus of Vaison, Apollinaris of Valence, Valerius of Sistaricum (Sisteron), Victurius of Grenoble, Claudius of Besancon, Gregory of Langres, Pragmatius of Autun, Constantius of Octodurum (Martigni, in the Canton Vallais), Catulinus of Ebredunum (Embrun), Sanctus of Tarantasia (Moustiers, in Tarantaise, in Savoy), Maximus of Geneva, Bubuleus of Vindonissa, f259 Saeculatius of Dea (S. Die, in the neighborhood of Valence), Julian of Carpentras, Constantius of Vapincum (Gap, in the Department of Hautes Alpes), Florence of Orange, a second Florence of Tricastina (Paul de trois Chateaux, in the Department of Drome), Philagrius of Cavaillon, Venantius of the Civitas Albensium or Alba Augusta (now Viviers or Albe, in the Department of Herault), Praetextatus of Apt (Department Vaucluse), Turicianus of Nevers, and the priest Peladius of Aventicum (now
Avenche), as representative of his bishop, Salutaris. f260 Reckoning Avitus, there were thirty-four bishops and one priest. Where Epaon or Epaunum was situated, or under what name it may now be identified, we can no
longer decide with certainty; and on this subject the most conflicting suggestions have been proposed, and whole dissertations written. f261 It is most probable that Epaona is to be sought in the neighborhood of
Agaunum (S. Maurice in the Canton Vallais), and that in the year 563 it was buried by a landslip under Mons Tauretunensis, in the neighborhood of Tarnada. Somewhat further back in the valley lies Evienna, to which the remaining inhabitants of Epaona may have withdrawn. f262
The Synod of Epaon was summoned by the two metropolitans of
Burgundy, Avitus of Vienne and Viventiolus of Lyons, and we still possess copies of their letter of convocation to the suffragans. That of Avitus is addressed to Bishop Quintian. As, however, this bishop occupied the chair of Clermont, in Auvergne, and belonged neither to the ecclesiastical province of Vienne nor to the Burgundian kingdom, Sirmond suggested in his edition of the works of Avitus, that the direction to Quintian and the letter of convocation to the suffragans are not properly connected, but that the letter to Quintian has been lost, and that the direction of that letter has been improperly prefixed to the other document. f263
In this letter of invitation Avitus says: “The old canons ordain that two provincial Synods shall be held annually; but it would be well if at least one should take place every two years.” The Pope of the venerable city (Rome) had reproached him, that this institution had hitherto been so greatly neglected (in Burgundy). He therefore requested all his brethren to appear in the parochia of Epaon on the 6th of September, or if anyone were hindered by sickness, to send two approved priests as representatives, who should be able to counsel the Synod. f264
A similar letter was despatched by Archbishop Viventiolus of Lyons, in which he said that, besides the bishops, clerics were also required to come to the Synod, and laymen were permitted to come; and that perfect
impartiality and liberty of speech should prevail. f265
Another document belonging to the Council of Epaon bears the title
Prooemium, and is nothing but the introduction to a speech made by one of the bishops or priests present at the request of the members of the Synod, probably at the opening solemnities of the meeting. With many words there is only one thought in this speech, that the speaker was peculiarly
unworthy and unfit to speak before such an assembly; but that he did so because he had been ordered, in order at least thus to edify others by obedience. This shows that the Prooemium could not possibly have been
— what is suggested in the Histoire lit. de la France, l.c. page 92 — a kind of preface which the cleric intrusted with the editing of the canons had put as introduction to them. We find, however, a kind of preface in the five lines under the heading Proefatio, explaining that the bishops assembled, by the grace of God, at Epaon had drawn up the following (forty) Titles:
f266 —
1. If a metropolitan summons his suffragans to a Synod, or for the