Egararense / Egara (Tarrasa)
Regional Council of the Visigothic Kingdom, 614
One of the so-called minor councils is the Council of Egara that met in that city in the province of Tarragona on 13 January in 614 during the third regnal year of King Sisebut. The meeting took place posthumously after Reccared’s reign, but it is relevant to that monarch for the following reason. The bishops in Egara appealed to a prior bishop’s petition to a constitution decreed in the Council of Huesca (598) in the thirteenth year of Reccared’s reign (see the Huesca/Oscense entry of this Lexikon). The text of the extant council is only one page long, the specific place in Egara where they met in the city is not given, and there are not the usual extended introductory remarks by the presiding bishop or king. Thirteen men attended, for the eleven bishops only their names without specifying their bishoprics were identified: Eusebius, Munius, Iohannes, Maximus, Emilia[nus], Rufinus, Ursus, Vincentius, Stefanus, Ponpedius, Sinthasius, Iustus, the presbyter Maximus, Vicar of Bishop Stefanus, and the Deacon Fructuosus, representative of Bishop Gomarelli. They reaffirmed the chastity of presbyters and minor clergy established in Huesca. The novelty here is that it focused on bishops who violated their own celibacy while expecting it of presbyters and minor clergy. Bishops were exhorted to be celibate, avoid backsliding, scandal, and to take the necessary precautions to fulfill it. The brief minutes concluded with an appeal to the Lord for aid and support on this delicate matter. The so-called minor councils offer a glimpse of the bishops’ pastoral agenda that they sought to promote after the Third Council of Toledo in the reign of King Reccared. At times they turned to the council of 589 as they looked to establish a canonical precedent.
----------
QQ: Vives/Marín Martínez/Martínez Díez, Concilios Visigóticos e Hispano-Romanos, 162; Weckwerth, Clavis Conciliorum Occidentalium, 207.
Lit.: Orlandis/Ramos-Lissón, Concilios de la España Romana y Visigoda, 243, 252-253.
Ferreiro, Alberto
Dezember 2024
Empfohlene Zitierweise:
Ferreiro, Alberto, Egararense / Egara (Tarrasa): Regional Council of the Visigothic Kingdom, 614, in: Lexikon der Konzilien [Online-Version], Dezember 2024; URL: http://www.konziliengeschichte.org/site/de/publikationen/lexikon/database/628.html
