Library › Latin: Law › Synodus Gerundensis
This text records the canons of a synod of bishops and abbots held at Girona in 1078, presided over by Amatus as legate of the Roman church on behalf of Pope Gregory VII. The opening states that only a few of the many decrees are recorded so they are not forgotten. The canons that follow forbid clergy serving at the altar to live with women, under pain of losing their rank; prohibit bishops from promoting clerics or selling church offices for money; forbid clerics to grow beards or long hair or to wear coloured military dress; and address marriage within forbidden degrees, concubinage, usury and tithes.
The Girona synod is a clear example of how the Gregorian reform programme against clerical marriage and simony was carried into Catalonia by papal legates. Its brief, practical canons show what reformers thought most urgent in local church life. It is a useful source for historians of canon law, of the reform papacy and of the church in the Spanish March. The specific mention of tithes formerly cultivated by Jews also gives a glimpse of local economic arrangements.
About this edition. The Latin text comes from Corpus Corporum, the Latin text repository of the University of Zurich (edition: Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 155, Parisiis 1854), reused with attribution for non-commercial purposes (CC BY-NC-SA). Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.