Clermont, Councils of
Clermont, Councils Of (Concilium Claromontanum). Of these there were two, which are sometimes also called Councils of Auvergne, because they were held somewhere in that French province. They were provincial in their jurisdiction. SEE GALLICAN COUNCILS.
I. Held on Nov. 8, 535; Honoratus, archbishop of Bourges, presiding over fourteen other bishops. Sixteen canons were published.
2. Deprives of communion those who endeavor to get themselves appointed to bishoprics by the influence of persons in high station, or by artifice or bribery; and declares that those persons shall be consecrated who have been duly elected by the clergy and people, with consent of the metropolitan.
8. Forbids to lend the ornaments of the Church upon occasion of wedding festivities, and the like.
15. Directs that the priests who serve chapels in the country shall come together to celebrate the principal festivals with their bishop. See Labbe, Concil iv, 1803.
II. Held in November, 1095, by pope Urban II, at the head of thirteen archbishops, two hundred and five bishops and abbots. Here the crusade was determined upon. Philip I, king of France, who had deserted his lawful wife, and married Bertrade, was a second time excommunicated. The "Treve de Dieu" was confirmed, as was the primacy of Lyons; the archbishop of Tours, also, in this council recovered his jurisdiction over Bretague, and the bishop of Dol, who had the title of archbishop, was compelled to submit to the archbishop of Tours. Lastly, thirty-two canons were published.
1. Declares the days upon which the "Treve de Dieu" shall be kept, and orders that it shall be observed towards the clergy, monks, and women.
2. Declares that the pilgrimage to deliver Jerusalem, undertaken from motives of piety, supplies the place of every other penance.
5. Forbids to appoint laymen, or any one under the order of subdeacon, to bishoprics.
6. Forbids the purchase of a benefice of any kind by any person for himself or another; orders that benefices so purchased shall lapse to the bishop to dispose of.
8. Forbids the exaction of any fee for burials
10. Forbids any women, save those permitted by former canons, to dwell in the same house with a clergyman.
11. Forbids the ordination of illegitimates.
12 and 14. Forbid pluralities.
15 and 16. Forbid the clergy to receive any ecclesiastical preferment at the hand of a layman, and kings, etc., to make any such investiture.
18. Forbids the laity to have chaplains independent of the bishop.
23. Forbids to eat flesh from Ash Wednesday to Easter.
24. Directs that holy orders shall be conferred only in the Ember seasons and on Quadragesima Sunday.
28. Directs that all who communicate shall receive the body and blood of Christ under both kinds, unless there be necessity to the contrary.
29 and 30. Accord the same safety to those who, when pursued by their enemies, take refuge by a cross, as if in the Church itself.
32. Devotes to eternal infamy those who arrest or throw into prison a bishop.
Of all the acts of this council the most celebrated is the publication of the crusade to recover the Holy Land. This project was conceived by Gregory VII; and Urban, yielding to the earnest entreaties of Peter the Hermit, put it into execution, declaring that all penitents who assumed the cross should be thenceforward absolved from all their sins, and freed from the duty of fasting, and every other penitential work, in consideration of the perils and fatigues they would have to encounter. Those who, having taken the cross, tailed to fulfil their vow, were excommunicated. See Labbe, Concil. x, 506. SEE CRUSADES.
