The canons of a church council at Tours (north-west Gaul) in AD 461 record that it was held soon after a feast of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050), and invoke the saint to protect its rulings. Written in Latin in Tours.
E08124
Canonical and legal texts
Canons of the Church Council of Tours, AD 461:
Cum ad sacratissimam festiuitatem qua domni nostri Martini receptio celebratur, in ciuitate Turonorum beatissimi sacerdotes, quorum subscriptio subter adiecta est, conuenissent, necessario crediderunt ut, quia per longam incuriam in aliquo de rebus ecclesiasticae disciplinae regula fuisset uitiata, definitionem, quae cum patrum auctoritate concordat.
'When the most blessed bishops, whose subscriptions are added below, met in the city of Tours, for the most sacred festival at which the reception [receptio] of our lord Martin is celebrated, they believed it necessary, because through long neglect the rules of ecclesiastical discipline had slipped in some areas, that they, by issuing this present document, should establish boundaries which accord with the authority of the Fathers.'
A series of decrees are then listed and, just before the subscriptions, the 'intercession of the holy and most blessed bishop, Lord Martin' (sancti ac beatissimi sacerdotis domni Martini ... intercessio) is invoked in support of the canons.
There follow the subscriptions, headed by Perpetuus, bishop of Tours, and followed by six bishops from named sees – Le Mans, Bourges, Nantes, Châlons-en-Champagne, Rouen and Redon - and a 'bishop of the Bretons' (episcopus britannorum)'.
Text: Munier 1963.
Translation and summary: Bryan Ward-Perkins.
Saint’s feast
Activities accompanying CultMeetings and gatherings of the clergy
MiraclesMiracle at martyrdom and death
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Discussion
Although the opening sentence of these canons states that the bishops had assembled in Tours for the feast of Martin (two from as far away as Rouen and Châlons-en-Champagne), and only then decided to hold a council, this is surely putting the cart before the horse: it is much more likely, as Pietri argues (1983, 471-473), that Perpetuus, who was an influential figure in the later 5th c. Gallic church, had summoned a council, and had ensured that it coincided with a feast of Martin – the latter as part of his agenda of building up the status of his and Tours' patron saint.The council was held soon after 11 November, the feast of Martin's death and/or burial (for the precise date of the council, see Pietri 1983, 471, n. 168), so this was certainly the feast referred to here as that of the 'reception of Martin', although receptio is not normally used to describe a saint's entry into heaven. Päffgen (2011) has argued that the naming and identification of the feast is closely connected with Severinus of Cologne's miraculous hearing of angels singing at the moment of Martin's death and ascent into heaven, as recounted by Gregory of Tours in his Miracles of Martin (1.4; E08124).
Bibliography
Edition:Munier, C. (ed.), Concilia Galliae a. 314 - a. 506 (Corpus Christianorum, series latina 148. Turnhout: Brepols, 1963), 143-148.
Further reading:
Päffgen, B., "Der hl. Severin im Spiegel der frühen historischen Überlieferung," in J. Oepen et al. (eds), Der hl. Severin von Köln: Verehrung und Legende. Befunde und Forschungen zur Schreinöffnung von 1999 (Siegburg 2011), 441-534, at 467-74.
Pietri, L., La ville de Tours du IVe au VIe siècle: naissance d’une cité chrétienne (Collection de l’École française de Rome 69; Rome 1983).
Bryan Ward-Perkins
14/01/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Bryan Ward-Perkins, Cult of Saints, E08124 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08124