Arausicanum / Orange
Provincial Council in Orange; 529
The provincial council of Orange assembled in Ostrogothic Provence in 529 under the supervision of the metropolitan bishop, Caesarius of Arles, with fourteen bishops in all in attendance, as well as seven viri inlustres and the praetorian prefect Petrus Marcellinus Felix Liberius. The council was timed so as to coincide with the dedication of a new basilica in Orange built by Liberius. The acts were signed on July 3rd. The Council of Orange was preceded by a synod at Valence (ca. 528), at which Bishop Iulianus of Vienne officiated over a condemnation of Caesarius’s Augustinian-influenced teachings on grace. Prior to convoking his own council in response, Caesarius solicited the support of Pope Felix IV, who responded with capitula that served as the basis for the acts approved at Orange.
Following a prefatory statement, the council acts proper include twenty-five canons and a Definitio fidei. The first eight canons – derived from the Capitula sancti Augustini –reject ostensible theological errors in defense of Caesarius’s own view of prevenient grace, while the subsequent seventeen are positive statements of faith that draw from Prosper of Aquitaine’s Sententiae ex Augustino delibatae. Due in part to local dissent, Caesarius subsequently sought papal support for the council’s theology, and in response received in January 531 an epistle of support from the new pope, Boniface II.
It often is assumed that Caesarius was personally responsible for the praefatio that accompanies Boniface’s epistle in the Collectio Sancti Mauri (Paris, BnF, lat. 1451), as well as for an additional florilegium of Sententiae sanctorum Patrumconsisting of seventeen chapters relevant to the council’s themes, and drawn from the writings of Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine. However, more recently it has been suggested that these attributions ought not to be treated as secure. The acts proper are included in over half-a-dozen early medieval Gallic canonical collections. The praefatio and florilegium are each found in single manuscripts, the latter one of Italian origin (Napolitanus Lat. 2).
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QQ: Maassen, Concilia aevi Merovingici, 44-54; de Clercq, Concilia Galliae, 53-76; Gaudemet / Basdevant-Gaudemet, Les canons des conciles mérovingiens, 152-185; J. P. Burns (ed.), Theological Anthropology, Philadelphia 1981, 109-128.
Lit: Hefele/Leclerq II/2, 1085-1108; Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen, vol. 1, 206; Pontal, Synoden im Merowingerreich,67-71; Halfond, The Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils, AD 511-768, 225; A. Malnory, Saint Césaire, évêque d'Arles: 503-543, Paris 1894, 143-154; G. Morin, Un travail inédit de Saint Césaire, Les ‘capitula sanctorum patrum’ sur la grâce et le libre arbitre, in: RBen 21 (1904) 225-239; D. M. Cappuyns, L’origine des ‘Capitula’ d’Orange, 529, in: RThAM 6 (1934) 121-142; J. T. O’Donnell, “Liberius the Patrician, in: Tr. 37 (1981) 31-72; W. Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles: The Making of a Christian Community in Late Antique Gaul, Cambridge 1994, 141-143; R. Weaver, Divine Grace and Human Agency: A Study of the Semi-Pelagian Controversy, Macon,Ga. 1996, 225-232; R. Mathisen, Caesarius of Arles, Prevenient Grace, and the Second Council of Orange, in: A. Y. Hwang / B. J. Matz / A. Casiday (eds.), Grace for Grace: The Debates After Augustine and Pelagius, Washington D.C. 2014, 208-234.
Gregory Halfond
März 2026
Empfohlene Zitierweise:
Halfond, Gregory, "Arausicanum / Orange: Provincial Council in Orange; 529", in: Lexikon der Konzilien [Online-Version], März 2026; URL: http://www.konziliengeschichte.org/site/de/publikationen/lexikon/database/665.html
