Council of Vannes

The Council of Vannes, also known as the Council of Veneticum,[1] was a Christian provincial council in the year 465. Perpetuus of Tours presided.[2]

Bishops in attendance included Nunechius, bishop of Nantes;[3] Athenius, bishop of Rennes;[4] and Albinus and Liberalis, possibly from Quimper and Aleth.[2][4] The council elected Padarn as bishop of Vannes.[2]

## Legislation

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The council, which continued discussion of topics from the 461 Council of Tours, passed a total of sixteen canons.[5] It regulated monastic and clerical life,[4][5] passing the earliest known legislation on cenobitic monasticism in Western Christianity.[6]

The canons passed by the council called for ecclesiastical law and order and for separate ecclesiastical courts.[4] Clerics were banned from attending secular courts, attending wedding parties with music or dancing, missing morning hymns, or becoming intoxicated.[5] In addition, the council banned the use of the Sortes Sanctorum, a form of Christian divination.[4]

Clerics were also banned from sharing meals with Jews.[7] The council argued that since Jews refused to eat Christian food, eating Jewish food would position the clerics as inferior to Jews. This ban set an early precedent for an ongoing tradition of bans on interfaith dining.[3]

Among the laity, the council reiterated the existing ban on murderers receiving the Eucharist.[4] It also excommunicated men who remarried after a secular divorce, unless they could prove that their wife had committed adultery.[8]

## References

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1. ^ Cloutier, David M.; Koerpel, Robert C. (27 July 2021). Journal of Moral Theology, Volume 10, Issue 2: Continuity, Change, and Development. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 51\. ISBN 978-1-6667-3296-2.
2. ^ a b c Haddan, Art West (1873). Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland (in Latin). Clarendon. p. 73. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
3. ^ a b Gathagan, Laura L.; North, William (15 October 2015). The Haskins Society Journal 26: 2014. Studies in Medieval History. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-1-78327-071-2.
4. ^ a b c d e f Moore, Michael Edward (7 November 2011). A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship, 300-850. CUA Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-0-8132-1877-9.
5. ^ a b c Johnston, Sarah Iles; Struck, Peter T. (1 July 2005). Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination. BRILL. p. 114\. ISBN 978-90-474-0796-6.
6. ^ Grimlaicus (1 April 2011). Andrew, Thornton (ed.). Rule for Solitaries. Liturgical Press. p. 4\. ISBN 978-0-87907-830-0.
7. ^ The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Funk and Wagnalls. 1912. p. 442.
8. ^ Watkins, Oscar Daniel (1895). Holy Matrimony: A Treatise on the Divine Laws of Marriage. Rivington, Percival. pp. 383–384. ISBN 978-0-7222-1788-7.