Council of Agde

Agde, COUNCIL OF, held in 506 at Agatha or Agde in Languedoc, under the presidency of St. Caesarius of Arles. It was attended by thirty-five bishops, and its forty-seven genuine canons deal with ecclesiastical discipline. One of its canons (the seventh), forbidding ecclesiastics to sell or alienate the property of the church whence they drew their living, seems to be the earliest indication of the later system of benefices. In general, its canons shed light on the moral conditions of the clergy and laity in southern France at the beginning of the transition from the Graeco-Roman social order to that of the new barbarian conquerors. They are also of some importance for the study of certain early ecclesiastical institutions.

THOMAS J. SHAHAN