Eleventh Council of Toledo

The Eleventh Council of Toledo convened first on 7 November 675 attended by seventeen bishops and two deacons representing the sees of Segovia and Ergávica (also Ercávica or Arcávica) as well as five abbots.

The council dealt mostly with religious matters, primarily ecclesiastical disciplinary reform. It also ordered the celebration of annual synods in all the provinces as they had theretofore been in Carthaginiensis alone. These synods would be held at the order of the king on a date determined by him and the metropolitan.

The singing of the Psalms was standardised in all the provinces and sanctions were placed on bishops who had relations with noblewomen.

The council tried to curb simony by making bishops swear an oath that they had neither paid nor promised to pay for their see before their consecration. If the oath was ignored, the consecration could not take place. Those guilty of simony were exiled for two years, but could retain their sees. This last provision probably signifies that simony was becoming less common already.

Sources

• Thompson, E. A. (1969) The Goths in Spain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Concilium Toletanum undecimum, minutes from the Collectio Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis (Vat. lat. 1341)