The Council of Agde was a regional synod held in September 506 at Agatha or Agde , on the Mediterranean coast east of Narbonne, in the Septimania region of the Visigothic Kingdom , with the permission of the Visigothic King Alaric II .
6-546: Matricula , a Latin word meaning a register, has several meanings in Christian antiquity. The word is applied first to the catalogue or roll of the clergy of a particular church; thus clerici immatriculati denoted the clergy entitled to maintenance from the resources of the church to which they were attached. Allusions to matricula in this sense are found in the second and third canons of the Council of Agde and in canon 13 of
12-464: The Fourth Council of Orléans (both of the sixth century). As a registry, a matricula can also be used to refer to a document students sign at the beginning of their collegiate careers as part of a matriculation or convocation ceremony that some colleges and universities perform for incoming students to formally mark the beginning of their studies. A second use of the term was to refer to
18-747: The Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis to that of the Visigoth migrants. They are also of some importance for the study of certain early ecclesiastical institutions. Its canon VII, forbidding ecclesiastics to sell or alienate the property of the church from which they drew their living, seems to be the earliest indication of the later system of benefices . In Canon IX, the Council ruled that if married deacons or priests wish to return to marital relations, they should be deprived of all of their ecclesiastical dignities and offices; those, however, who were unaware of
24-429: The ecclesiastical list of poor pensioners who were assisted from the church revenues; hence the names matricularii , matriculariae , by which persons thus assisted, together with those who performed menial services about the church, were known. The house in which such pensioners were lodged was also known as matricula , which thus becomes synonymous with xenodochium . Council of Agde The Council met under
30-402: The presidency of Bishop Caesarius of Arles . It was attended by 35 bishops : ‡ represented by a priest. ‡‡ represented by a deacon. The Council of Agde promulgated 47 canons on ecclesiastical discipline. In general, its canons shed light on the moral conditions of the clergy and laity in the historical region of Septimania at the beginning of the transition from Roman social order within
36-416: The prohibition, could be allowed to retain their office if they abstain in the future. In Canon X, a cleric was forbidden to visit women to whom he was not related, and could have in his house only his mother, sister, daughter, or niece. A bishop was not to ordain anyone a deacon who was not yet twenty-five years old. In order to be ordained a priest or bishop, one had to be at least thirty years of age. If
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