Provinzialkonzil (Prov. Dublin); 1240
A Dublin provincial council was held at Wexford on 9 September and produced four canons, which clearly reflect synodical material from English dioceses, and in particular from the council held at Oxford in 1222. The first canon dealt with tithes and in particular with the estates of deceased rectors which retained the right to collect them for a year after the rector’s decease, in order to pay off his debts. The second forbade the involvement of clergy in secular affairs, the third canon defined who was to be excommunicated and why. Not only those who robbed churches, but also anyone who made false objections to proposed marriages, or false claims of crimes supposedly committed by innocent people, anyone who slandered another person or who attempted to block the arrest of someone guilty of such crimes, would also incur the penalty. Finally, the fourth canon censured the abuse of the weapon of excommunication in order to force people to pay their tithes. It is not clear whether the similarity of these canons to ones passed earlier in England was a reflection of the desire to make the two national churches as much like one another as possible, or whether it was simply the logical outcome of debates concerning matters that were affecting the western church as a whole. Either way, the canons of this synod represent a highwater mark of English influence on the Irish church in the early Middle Ages.
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QQ/Lit.: London, British Library, Add. MSS 4793, fol. 4r-v; 4788, fol. 139v-140v; Records of Convocation, ed. Bray, Vol. 16 (Ireland 1101-1690), 113-115.
Gerald Lewis Bray
Juni 2024
Empfohlene Zitierweise:
Bray, Gerald Lewis, “Ferns (Wexford); Provinzialkonzil (Prov. Dublin); 1240" in: Lexikon der Konzilien [Online-Version], Juni 2024;
URL: http://www.konziliengeschichte.org/site/de/publikationen/lexikon/database/4283.html