There have been several synods of Mâcon, provincial

church councils A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin word meani ...

held in the city of

Mâcon Mâcon (), historically anglicised as Mascon, is a city in east-central France. It is the prefecture of the department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Mâcon is home to near 34,000 residents, who are referred to in French as ...

, then the seat of a diocese. The second and third councils were both convoked by the Burgundian king

Guntram Saint Gontrand (c. 532 in Soissons – 28 March 592 in Chalon-sur-Saône), also called Gontran, Gontram, Guntram, Gunthram, Gunthchramn, and Guntramnus, was the king of the Kingdom of Orléans from AD 561 to AD 592. He was the third eldest and ...

. The third is associated with a legendary debate on women's souls.

First council

The first synod was held in 579.

Second council

The second council was held in 581 or 582. Unusually, one of the 19

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

s it produced addressed a specific individual – a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

named ''Agnes''. The 14th canon imposed a curfew against

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

s, banning them from the streets at all times between

Maundy Thursday Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday (also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, among other names) is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the ...

and

Easter Sunday Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the ''Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel P ...

. The 2nd canon prohibits Jews from talking to nuns. It has been suggested that this council may have drawn on the Sirmondian constitutions for some of its canons.

Third council

The third council was held in 585. Among the main subjects the council considered was the issue of

Tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

– for which the council formally legislated.

Legend of the debate on women's souls

Since the early modern period, there have apparently been claims that the council of 585 "denied that women have a soul". This tradition can be traced to one Johannes Leyser (1631–1685), a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

pastor from Hesse, who published a work in favour of

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

, ''Polygamia Triumphatrix'' in 1676 in which he wrote, in reference to the council of Macon, "Among the holy fathers there was one who insisted that women cannot, and should not, be called 'human beings' (viz. ''homines'' "men")." This information is apparently based on a story told by

St. Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...

in his ''The History of the Franks''. Gregory tells of a council (that may or may not, have been any of the synods at Mâcon) at which the meaning of the Latin word ''homo'' was discussed. This Latin word primarily means "human being" but also "adult male". Gregory writes the following in Latin, which is translated by Paul Halsall as: The claim that a Catholic council denied that "women are human" was taken up by

Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. A Huguenot, Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic in 1681 because of religious persecution in France. He is best known for his '' Histori ...

in his pamphlets against Catholicism, and Bayle's work was used in anti-Catholic works, the rephrasing of the linguistic questions (does Latin ''homines'' include females?) in terms of a question of women having a "soul" is apparently due to one M. Aime-Martin.; Michael Nolan, University College Dublin, DO WOMEN HAVE SOULS? The Story of Three Myths, New Black friars, Vol 74, No 876, November 199

/ref>

Fourth council

The fourth council (in 626 or 627) was convoked at the instigation of the monk Agrestius of Luxeuil over the

schism of the Three Chapters The Schism of the Three Chapters was a schism that affected Chalcedonian Christianity in Northern Italy lasting from 553 to 698 AD, although the area out of communion with Rome contracted throughout that time. It was part of a larger Three-Chapter ...

. It approved the

monastic rule A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practic ...

of Saint Columbanus.

Later councils

Other councils were held in Mâcon in 906 and 1286.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macon 581 582 585 6th century in Francia 6th-century church councils Saône-et-Loire Christian antisemitism in the Middle Ages Christianity and women Christianity in Francia