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Sens, Councils Of

Sens, Councils Of

Sens, Councils of

A number of councils were held at Sens. The first, about 600 or 601, in conformity with the instructions of St. Gregory the Great, especially advised warfare against simony. St. Columbanus refused to attend it because the question of the date of Easter, which was to be dealt with, was dividing Franks and Bretons. A series of councils, most of them concerned with the privileges of the Abbey of St. Pierre-le-Vif, were held in 657, 669 or 670, 846, 850, 852, 853, 862, 980, 986, 996, 1048, 1071, and 1080. The council of 1140, according to the terms of the letter issued by Archbishop Henri Sanglier, seems to have had no object but to impart solemnity to the exposition of the relics with which he enriched the cathedral; but the chief work of this council, which included representatives from the Provinces of Sens and Reims, and at which St. Bernard assisted, was the condemnation of Abelard’s doctrine. The latter having declared that he appealed from the council to Rome, the bishops of both provinces, in two letters to Innocent II, insisted that the condemnation be confirmed. Dr. Martin Deutsch has placed this council in 1141, but the Abbé Vacandard has proved by the letter from Peter the Venerable to Héloïse, by the “Continuatio Praemonstratensis”, the “Continuatio Valcellensis”, and the list of the priors of Clairvaux, that the date 1140, given by Baronius, is correct. The council of 1198 was concerned with the Manichaean sect of Poplicani spread throughout Nivernais, to which the dean of Nevers and the Abbot of St-Martin de Nevers were said to have belonged. After the council Innocent III charged his legate, Peter of Capua, and Eudes de Sully, Bishop of Paris, with an investigation. Councils were also held in 1216, 1224 (for the condemnation of a book by Scotus Eriugena), 1239, 1252, 1253, 1269, 1280, 1315, 1320, 1460, 1485; most of them for disciplinary measures

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GOUYER, Quelques mots sur la date et l’objet du premier concile de Sens in Bulletin de la societe archeologique de Sens (1877); DEUTSCH, Die Synode von Sens 1141 u. die Verurteilung Aballards, eine kirchengesch. Untersuchung (Berlin, 1880); VACANDARD, La date du concile de Sens 1140 in Revue des questions historiques, L (Paris, 1891), 235-45.

GEORGES GOYAU Transcribed by Joseph E. O’Connor

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIIICopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia

Sens, Councils Of

(Concilium Senonense). These councils were so called from being held in Sens, a town in the department of Yonne, France.

1. This council was held in 1140. Among those present were Louis VII, Samson of Rheims, and Henry of Sens. In this council St. Bernard charged Abelard (q.v.), who was present, with his errors, accusing him of making degrees in the Trinity, as Arius had done; of preferring free will to grace, with Pelagius; and of dividing Jesus Christ, with Nestorius. He produced extracts taken from his works, and called upon Abelard either to deny having written them, or to prove their truth, or to retract them. Abelard, instead of defending himself, appealed to Rome; whereupon the bishops present contented themselves with condemning his doctrine, passing no sentence upon him personally out of deference to Innocent II, to whom Samson and three of the bishops wrote, requesting his concurrence in their judgment. The pope condemned Abelard in the same year, and, in his answer to the letter of the bishops, declared that he concurred with them in the sentence they had passed, and that he had imposed perpetual silence upon Abelard. The latter published an apology, in which he confessed the sound Catholic faith, declared that he desisted from his appeal, and retracted all that he had written contrary to the truth. See Mansi, 10, 1018.

2. Held in 1199 by the legate Peter against the Poplicans (or Populicani), a sect of Manichaeans. Among others, the dean of Nevers, and Raynaldus, abbot of St. Martin, were charged with this heresy. The latter was deposed, being found guilty not only of this heresy, but also of those of the Stercoranists and Origenists. Both appealed from the decision of the council to the pope. See Mansi, 11, 3.

3. The third Council of Sens was held in May, 1320, by William de Melun, archbishop of Sens. Four statutes were published.

1. Enacts that the bishops should grant an indulgence of forty days to those persons who would fast on the vigil of the feast of the Holy Sacrament.

2. Directs that places in which clerks were forcibly detained should be laid under an interdict.

4. Condemns those priests who dressed themselves improperly, such as in red, green, yellow, or white boots, etc., and wore beards and long hair.

See Mansi, 11, 1860.

4. This council was held in 1485 by Tristan de Salazar, archbishop of Sens, in which the constitutions published by his predecessor, Louis, in a council held A.D. 1460, were confirmed. Among other matters treated of were the celebration of the holy office, the reform of the clergy and of the monks, the duties of laymen towards the Church, etc. It also enacted that canons shall be considered absent who are not present at noctern, before the end of the Venite; at the other hours before the first psalm, and at mass before the end of the last Kyrie. Most of these regulations were taken from the canons of Basle, Lateran and the Pragmatic. See Mansi, 13, 1721, App.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature