Synod of Agde

SYNOD OF AGDE (Concilium Agathense.)--With the permission of the West Goth Alaric II. thirty-five bishops of southern Gaul assembled in person or sent deputies to Agde on the 11th of September 506. Caesarius, bishop of Arles, presided.  The forty seven genuine canons of the synod deal with discipline, church life, the alienation of ecclesiastical property and the treatment of Jews.  While favouring sacerdotal celibacy the council laid rather rigid restrictions on monasticism.  It commanded that the laity communicate at Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide.  The canons of Agde are based in part on earlier Gallic, African and Spanish legislation; and some of them were re-enacted by later councils, and found their way into collections such as the Hispana, Pseudo-Isidore and Gratian.

See Mansi viii. 319 ff.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, 2nd edition, ii. 649 ff. (English translation, iv.  76 ff.); Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, i. 242.