Council of Tours

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In the medieval Roman Catholic church there were several Councils of Tours, that city being an old seat of Christianity, and considered fairly centrally located in France. Athenius, Bishop of Rennes, took part in the First Council of Tours in AD 461. At the Second, in 567, it was decreed that any cleric found in bed with his wife would be excommunicated for a year and reduced to the lay state; nor might monks sleep two to a bed.

A Council at Tours in 755 recommended that the calendar year begin at Easter.

A Council at Tours in 1055 was occasioned by controversy regarding the nature of the Eucharist. It was presided over by the papal legate Hildebrand, later Pope Gregory VII. Berengarius signed a profession of faith wherein he confessed that after consecration the bread and wine are truly the body and blood of Christ.

Subsequent councils reiterated and intensified the condemnation of the Cathars of southern France. A Council of Tours in 1163 under pope Alexander III ordering them to be deprived of their goods, which whetted northern French appetites for an Albigensian Crusade. The first uses of the expression "Albigenses" is said to be in connection with the council.

See also Berengarius of Tours.