trine of the "procession of the Holy Spirit," the form in which the socalled Nicene creed came to be used in the West, and the source of much dispute between the East and the West in the ninth century and ever since.

I. From the Speech of Reccared at the Opening of the Council.

I judge that you are not ignorant, most reverend priests [i. e., bishops] that I have called you into our presence for the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline; and because in time past the existence of heresy prevented throughout the entire Catholic Church the transaction of synodical business. God, who has been pleased by our action to remove the obstacle of the same heresy, warns us to set in order the ecclesiastical laws concerning church matters. Therefore let it be a matter of jɔy and gladness to you that the canonical order is being brought back to the lines of the times of our fathers, in the sight of God and to our glory.

II. From the Statement of Faith.

There is present here all the famous nation of the Goths, esteemed for their real bravery by nearly all nations, who, however, by the error of their teachers have been separated from the faith and unity of the Catholic Church; but now, agreeing as a whole with me in my assent to the faith, participate in the communion of that Church which receives in its maternal bosom a multitude of different nations and nourishes them with the breasts of charity. Concerning her the prophet foretelling said: "My house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations." For not only does the conversion of the Goths add to the amount of our reward, but also an infinite multitude of the people of the Suevi, whom under the protection of Heaven we have subjected to our kingdom, led away into heresy by the fault of an alien,1 we have endeavored to recall to the source of truth. Therefore, most holy Fathers, I offer as by your hands to the eternal God,

1 In 465, under the influence of the Visigoths, the Suevi, formerly Catholic, had embraced Arianism.

as a holy and pleasing offering, these most noble nations, who have been attached by us to the Lord's possessions. For it will be to me in the day of the retribution of the just an unfading crown and joy if these peoples, who now by our planning have returned to the unity of the Church, remain founded and established in the same. For as by the divine determination it has been a matter of our care to bring these peoples to the unity of the Church of Christ, so it is a matter of your teaching to instruct them in the Catholic dogmas, by which they may be instructed in the full knowledge of the truth, that they may know how to reject totally the errors of pernicious heresy, to remain in charity in the ways of the true faith, and to embrace with fervent desire the communion of the Catholic Church. . . . As it is of benefit to us to profess with the mouth what we believe in the heart . . . therefore I anathematize Arius with all his doctrines . . so I hold in honor, to the praise and honor and glory of God, the faith of the holy Council of Nicæa. . . . I embrace and hold the faith of the one hundred and fifty Fathers assembled at Constantinople. . . . I believe the faith of the first Council of Ephesus likewise with all the Catholic Church I

...

reverently receive the faith of the Council of Chalcedon. To this my confession I have added the holy constitutions [i. e., confessions of faith] of the above-mentioned councils, and I have subscribed with complete singleness of heart to the divine testimony.

Here follows the faith of Nicæa, the so-called creed of Constantinople, with the words relating to the Holy Ghost, ex Patre et Filio procedentem (proceeding from the Father and the Son); the actual form filioque does not here occur.

III. From the Anathemas, Hahn, § 178.

3. Whosoever does not believe in the Holy Ghost and will not believe that He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and will not say that He is co-essential with the Father and the Son, let him be anathema.

Canon 1. After the damnation of the heresy of Arius and the exposition of the Catholic faith, this holy council ordered that, because in the midst of many heretics and heathen throughout the churches of Spain, the canonical order has been necessarily neglected (for while liberty of transgressing abounded, and the desirable discipline was denied, and every one fostered excesses of heresy in the protection and continuation of evil times, a strict discipline was far off, but now the peace of the Church has been restored by the mercy of Christ), everything which by the authority of early canons may be forbidden is forbidden, discipline arising again, and everything is required which they order done. Let the constitutions of all the councils remain in their force, likewise all the synodical letters of the holy Roman prelates. Henceforth let no one aspire unworthily to ecclesiastical promotions and honors against the canons. Let nothing be done which the holy Fathers, filled with the Spirit of God, decreed should not be done. And let those who presume to violate the laws be restrained by the severity of the earlier canons.

Canon 2. Out of reverence for the most holy faith and to strengthen the weak minds of men, acting upon the advice of the most pious and glorious King Reccared1 the synod has ordered that throughout the churches of Spain, Gaul, and Gallicia, the symbol of the faith be recited according to the form of the Oriental churches, the symbol of the Council of Constantinople, that is, of the one hundred and fifty bishops;

1"Let all the churches of Spain and Gallicia observe this rule, that at every time of offering of the sacrifice and before the communion of the body and blood of Christ, according to the custom of the Oriental parts, all should repeat together with a clear voice the most sacred symbol of the faith, that first the people may speak the faith which they hold, and they may bring hearts purified by faith to the reception of the body and blood of Christ. For so long as this constitution be perpetually observed in the Church of God, the entire belief of the faithful will be confirmed, and the false faith of the infidels be confuted, in order that one may be very easily inclined to believe what one hears very often repeated, neither shall any one excuse himself from all blame by pleading ignorance of the faith, when he knows from the mouth of all what the Catholic Church holds and believes." (From the Speech of Reccared, cf. Mansi, loc. cit.)

and before the Lord's prayer is said, let it be pronounced to the people in a clear voice, by which also the true faith may have a manifest testimony, and the hearts of the people may approach to the reception of the body and blood of Christ with hearts purified by faith.

898. THE STATE CHURCH IN THE GERMANIC KINGDOMS

So long as the Germanic rulers remained Arian, the Catholic Church in their kingdoms was left for the most part alone or hindered in its synodical activity. But as the kingdoms became Catholic on the conversion of their kings, the rulers were necessarily brought into close official relations with the Church and its administration; and they exercised a strict control over the ecclesiastical councils and the episcopal elections. The Merovingians, on their conversion from paganism, at once became Catholics, and they consequently assumed this control immediately. With the extension of the Frankish kingdom, the authority of the king in ecclesiastical affairs was likewise extended. In Spain the Visigoths were Arians until 589. On the conversion of the nation at that date, the king at once assumed an extensive ecclesiastical authority (for Reccared's confirmation of the Third Synod of Toledo, 589, see Bruns, I, 393), and in the development of the system the councils of Toledo became at once the parliaments of the entire nation, now united through its common faith and the synods of the Church. This system was cut short by the Moslem invasion of 711, and the development of the Church and its relation to the State is to be studied in the Frankish kingdom in which from this time the ecclesiastical development of Western Europe is to be traced. The best evidence for the legal state of the Church under the Germanic rulers is chiefly in the acts of councils.

But there was also in the Catholic Church in the Germanic kingdoms a strong monastic spirit which was by no means willing to see the Church become an "establishment." This

fitted in poorly with the condition of the State Church. It is illustrated by the career of St. Columbanus.

(a) Council of Orleans, A. D. 511, Synodical Letter. Bruns, II, 160.

Extract

The king summons the council and approves its findings. from the synodical letter in which the canons are sent to Chlodowech.

To their Lord, the Son of the Catholic Church, Chlodowech, the most glorious king, all the priests1 whom you have commanded to come to the council.

Because your great care for the glorious faith so moves you to reverence for the Catholic religion that from love of the priesthood you have commanded the bishops to be gathered together into one that they might treat of necessary things, according to the proposals of your will and the titles [i. e., topics] which you have given, we reply by determining those things which seem good to us; so that if those things which we have decreed prove to be right in your judgment, the approval of so great a king and lord might by a greater authority cause the determinations of so many bishops to be observed more strictly.

(b) Council of Orleans, A. D. 549, Canons. Bruns, II, 211.

Canons regarding Episcopal elections. The first instance in canonical legislation in the West recognizing the necessity of royal consent to the election of a bishop. For the relation of the Pope to metropolitans, see in § 99 the Epistle of Gregory the Great to Vigilius of Arles.

Canon 10. That it shall be lawful for no one to obtain the episcopate by payment or bargaining, but with the permission of the king, according to the choice of the clergy and the people, as it is written in the ancient canons, let him be consecrated by the metropolitan or by him whom he sends in his place, together with the bishops of the province. That if

1 Here, as very often, the bishops attending a council are spoken of as priests. The term 'priest" had not become identified with "presbyter." The bishop was a sacerdos or priest. The presbyter was also a sacerdos.