Folia Theologica 17. (2006)
Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi: The importance of the councils of Toledo of the 6th-8th centuries in the Spanish and in the universal canonical discipline of the Church
230 SZ. A. SZUROMI rum to execute the legislative power of bishops;8 on the other hand, this type of council received also a high tribunal function from the Council of Toledo IV (633), not only for ecclesiastical cases, but also for numerous civil actions.9 The various conciliar canons regulated mostly the work of the ecclesiastical institutions, the administering of the sacraments and sacramentals, and moreover, they gave instruction on the relationship of the different clerical degrees. The description of duties and rights of bishops is a significant example of this kind of activity. The council - as was prescribed by the Council of Nicea I, in canons 4 and 610 - had the competence to elect the bishop, which had to happen with the presence of the metropolitan, the clergy and the faithful. The elected bishop needed the confirmation of the metropolitan and also of the other bishops of the province, and also the consent of the King (consensus), as we can read in canon 19 of the Council of Toledo IV.11 The Council of Toledo XII defined, that the archbishop of Toledo is au8 ORLANDIS, J., La Iglesia en Espana visigotica y Medieval, Pamplona 1976. 87. 9 New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV. 189-190. 10 Cone. Niceanum I (325) c. 4: Episcopum convenit maxime quidem ab omnibus qui sunt in provincia episcopis ordinari. Si autem hoc difficile fuerit, aut propter instantem necessitatem, aut propter itineris longitudinem, tribus tamen omnimodis in idipsum convenientibus, et absentibus quoque pari modo decernentibus, et per scripta consentientibus, tunc ordinatio celebratur. Firmitas autem eorum quae geruntur per unamquamque provinciam, metropolitano tribuatur episcopo. Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, Bologna 1973. 7; c. 6: Antiqua consuetudo servetur per Aegyptum, Lybiam, et Pentapolim, ita ut Alexandrinus episcopus horum omnium habeat potestatem. Quia et urbis Romae episcopo parilis mos est. Similiter autem et apud Antiochiam, caeterasque provincias, suis privilegia serventur Ecclesiis. Illud autem generaliter clarum est, quod si quis praeter sententiam metropolitani fuerit factus episcopus, hunc magna synodus definivit episcopu esse non oportet. Sin autem communi cunctorum decreto rationabili, et secundum ecclesiasticam regulam conprobato, duo aut tres, propter contentiones proprias, contradicunt, obtineat sententia plurimorum. Conciliorum, 8-9. 11 Cone. Toletanum IV (633) c. 19: (...) Sed nec ille deinceps sacerdos erit, quem nec clerus, nec populus propriae ciuitatis elegit, uel auctoritas metropolitani, uel conprouincialium sacerdotum assensus non exquisiuit. Quicumque ergo deinceps ad ordinem sacerdocii postulatus, et in his, que predicta sunt, exquisitus, in nullo horum deprehensus fuerit, et examinatus probabili uita atque doctrina exstiterit, tunc secundum sinodalia uel decretalia constituta cum omnium clericorum uel ciuium uoluntate ab uniuersis conprouincialibus episcopis, aut certe a tribus, in sacerdotem die dominico consecrabitur, conuenientibus ceteris, qui absentes sunt, suis litteris, et magis auctoritate uel
