Fifth Council of Orléans

The Fifth Council of Orléans (28 October 549) assembled nine archbishops and forty-one bishops.Sacerdos of Lyon presided over this council. The presence of these bishops indicates both the wide spread of Christianity in Gaul by the sixth century, and the increased influence of the Merovingian kings.

‡ Absent, represented by a priest.
‡‡ Absent, represented by a deacon.
‡‡‡ Absent, represented by an Abbot.

King Childebert had ordered the Council to be summoned to deal with the case of Bishop Marcus of Orleans, who had been driven from his See. After defending Mark, Bishop of Orléans, from attacks made upon him, finding nothing in the charges made by his enemies, the Council issued some twenty-four canons.

The Council pronounced an anathema against the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches (Canon I). It prohibited simony, and prescribed that the election of bishops take place in all freedom, by the clergy and the people, and with the consent of the king (Canon X). Likewise, that no one be consecrated a bishop until he had been one year in the clergy, during which he is to be taught by learned and proven persons in spiritual discipline and rules (Canon IX).

It censured all who attempted to subject slaves who had been emancipated within the church to any servitude whatsoever, and those who dared take, retain, or dispose of church property (Canon XXII). It stated however that bishops should not ordain slaves, and that a slave who was freed should not be ordained without the consent of his former master (Canon VI). It threatened with excommunication all who embezzled or appropriated funds given by King Childebert for the foundation of a hospital of Lyon (Canon XV), and it placed lepers under the special charge of each bishop.

The Council ruled that if any cleric of any degree should return to the marriage bed, he should be deprived of his clerical Order and his office, but that communion must be administered to him (Canon IV).

It forbade priests from suspending persons from Holy Communion for small and trivial reasons, and ordered that they should adhere to the traditional rules of the Church Fathers (Canon II).

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