Synod of Rome (721)

The Synod of Rome (721) (also known as the Council of Rome of 721) was a synod held in St. Peter’s Basilica under the authority of Pope Gregory II to establish canons to improve church discipline.

Background

On April 5, 721, Pope Gregory II opened a synod to deal with tightening up the rules of matrimony, and a number of minor offenses committed against the Church.[1] Present along with the Pope were nineteen Italian bishops, and three non-Italian bishops: Sindered of Toledo, Sedulius from Britain, and Fergustus Pictus from Scotland.[2] Also present were a number of Roman priests and deacons.

The seventeen canons of the synod

The synod drew up seventeen canons to improve church discipline.[3] These included a prohibition on marrying:

  • 1. The widow of a priest;
  • 2. Or a Deaconess;
  • 3. Or a nun;
  • 4. Or his spiritual Commater;
  • 5. The wife of his brother;
  • 6. Or his niece;
  • 7. His stepmother or daughter-in-law;
  • 8. His first cousin;
  • 9. Or a relation, or the wife of a relation.


It further placed anathemas on:

  • 10. A man marrying a widow;
  • 11. A man who ravishes a virgin to whom he was not betrothed, in order to take her as his wife, even if she were to consent;
  • 12. If a man is guilty of superstitious usages;
  • 13. Anyone who violates the earlier commands of the Apostolic Church in regard to the olive-yards belonging to it.


It mentioned specific anathemas against:

  • 14. Hadrian, who married the deaconess Epiphania;
  • 15. As well as Epiphania herself;
  • 16. And whoever helped her to marry.


Finally, the synod also anathematized:

  • 17. Any cleric who lets his hair grow.


The synod finished its deliberations on the same day it started.

gollark: Ħ this so much.
gollark: When it crashes, it just regexes the broken part.
gollark: Perhaps I don't either, and all my behavior is controlled by an inscrutable perl program with about 1000 lines of bizarre regexes.
gollark: Look, you may never know my *real* motivations.
gollark: Retroactively.

References
  • Hefele, Charles Joseph; Clark, William R. (trans.), A History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents, Vol. V (1896)
  • Mann, Horace K., The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. I: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule, Part 2, 657-795 (1903)

Notes
  1. Mann, pg. 166
  2. Hefele, pg. 257
  3. Hefele, pgs. 256-257
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