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Church Councils of the Anglo-Saxons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2009
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Church councils have played a great rô1e in ecclesiasti-cal history. Whether their actual influence has been as great upon the development of the Church is a question open to discussion. Nevertheless Nicæa, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon will always stand as landmarks in the development of theology and the constitution of the Church. Apart from these great gatherings, held only on special occasions and at irregular and long intervals, there were other church councils which formed, in design at least, a permanent and important part of ecclesiastical governmental machinery. These were the provincial and diocesan synods or councils, held respectively by the archbishop for his province and the bishop for his diocese. In them much of the orderly administration of a well-governed diocese took place.
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References
page 91 note 1 Cf. Loening, , Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenrechts, 1878, ii, pp. 361 ff.Google Scholar
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page 92 note 3 Occasionally we have decisions of what appear to be lawsuits of a secular character. Hinschius, (Kirchenrecht, iii p. 587, nn. 1, 2.) gives long lists of such. In the case of England there is the greatest difficulty in determining the nature of the gathering, whether it is a church council or a witenagemot, even when the texts speak of a sacred synod. See below. For English use, see can. 3, 20, Clovesho 747; can. 3, Chelsea 787.Google Scholar
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page 93 note 1 Hefele, , Condliengeschichte, iii, p. 64.Google ScholarWilkins, , Concilia Britannia, i, p. 29.Google Scholar Ep. ii, ad Zachariam Papam, A.D. 742.Google Scholar
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page 94 note 2 The statement of Haddan and Stubbs (iii, 84) that he took his pallium with him in flight to Rochester is not borne out by the reference, Beda, ii 20.
page 94 note 3 H. & S., iii, p. 83.
page 95 note 1 H. e., iv, 2. “Isque primus erat in archiepiscopis, cui omnis Anglorum ecclesia manus dare consentiret.” Cf. Plummer, ad loc., in his edition of Beda, vol. ii, pp. 200, 205.
page 96 note 1 Constitutional History, 1883, §87 ad init.
page 96 note 2 Egfrid, King of Kent, was present, but this did not affect the character of the assembly. Cf. Beda, v, 24.
page 96 note 3 Beda, iv, 5. Cf. H. & S., iii, 118.
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page 99 note 1 The names are used interchangeably. Both are applied to lay, clerical, and mixed assemblies. Cf. Ducange, Glossariutn, s. v. synodus. It was the same on the Continent. Cf. Hauck, op. cit., ii, p. 215, n. 4.
page 99 note 2 Beda, iv, 28; H. & S., iii, 165.
page 99 note 3 H, & S., iii, 251.
page 99 note 4 Ibid. iii, 264.
page 99 note 5 Ibid. iii, 300.
page 99 note 6 Ibid. iii, 238 ff.
page 99 note 7 Ibid., iii, 268.
page 100 note 1 Cf. Hinschius, op. cit. iii, pp. 475–485.
page 100 note 2 The term “province” is perhaps unfortunate from its connotation. It is apt to be misunderstood as being a division of a national church. It meant the district within which an archbishop had metropolitical authority. It might be coterminous with a political district as a kingdom or be merely part of a kingdom. The province was a province of the universal Church.
page 100 note 3 H. & S., iii, 360. The canons may be found in Gee and Hardy, , Documents illustrative of English Church History, London, 1896, p. 15.Google Scholar
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page 101 note 2 Cf. H. & S., iii, 120.
page 101 note 3 Can. 1, Con. Lond., 1075. See Wilkins, Concilia, i, 363; Gee and Hardy, Documents, etc., p. 54.
page 102 note 1 H. & S., iii, 512.
page 102 note 2 Ibid., iii, 541.
page 102 note 3 Ibid., iii, 592.
page 102 note 4 Ibid., iii, 596.
page 102 note 5 Ibid., iii, 443.
page 102 note 6 Ibid., iii, 447. See also Earl of Selborne, Ancient Facts and Fictions, concerning Churches and Tithes, London 1892, pp. 144–168. The canons may be found in Gee and Hardy, Documents, etc., pp. 32 ff.
page 103 note 1 I. e. the church of a nation and not merely of a race or a geographical area. The unity of the entire Church of the Anglo-Saxons, other than being parts of the Universal Church, depends upon the unity of the Anglo-Saxon people. In the constant reference to the unity of the Church the existence of the Province of York is quite left out. Cf. Green, Making of England, p. 323 f.
page 103 note 2 Cf. Stubbs, Constitutional History, i, p. 260.
page 103 note 3 H. & S., iii, 527.
page 103 note 4 Ibid., iii, 465.
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page 104 note 2 H. & S., iii, 474, 483, 512, 530.
page 104 note 3 H. & S., iii, 541.
page 105 note 1 Cf. Loening, op. cit., ii, pp. 203 f. for the conditions in the Frankish kingdom. See also Hinschius, op. cit., iii, p. 477.
page 105 note 2 H. & S., iii, 579.
page 105 note 3 Ibid., iii, 617.
page 105 note 4 Ibid., iii, 620.
page 105 note 5 Ibid., iii, p. 624.
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