The Ninth
Council of Toledo
From the 5th century to the 7th century AD, about thirty synods, variously counted, were held at Toledo (''Concilia toletana'') in what would come to be part of Spain. The earliest, directed against Priscillianism, assembled in 400. The "thi ...
was a provincial
synod of bishops of
Carthaginiensis
Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispan ...
. It began on 2 November 655 under the
auspice
Augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed behavior of birds. When the individual, known as the augur, interpreted these signs, it is referred to as "taking the auspices". "Auspices" ( Latin ''aus ...
s of King
Reccesuinth. It ended on November 24 in the Church of Santa María.
It was attended by only sixteen or seventeen bishops, six abbots, two dignitaries, and four counts of the palace. The bishops
promulgated
Promulgation is the formal proclamation or the declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect.
After a new law ...
seventeen canons about the honesty of the clergy, the property of the church, and clerical celibacy. The council closed by scheduling another synod for 1 November 655, but the
Tenth Council of Toledo The Tenth Council of Toledo was summoned to meet in Toledo on 1 December 656 by King Reccesuinth of Hispania.
In November 655, the bishops of Carthaginiensis had held a provincial synod in Toledo, the Ninth Council of Toledo. They scheduled a sec ...
, a general council, was called first and the planned provincial synod never met.
The council authorised bishops to transfer up to a third of the income of any church in their diocese to any other church of their choosing. The council decided that if a cleric, from subdeacon to bishop, had a child by a woman, free or slave, that child became automatically a slave of the church in which his father served. No freed male or female