Council of Oxford (1222) - clamping down on clerical concubines
OXFORD (1222). Held on the 11th of June, by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal legate, who presided. This was a council of all England, and fifty canons were published in conformity with those of the Council of Lateran of 1215.
1. Excommunicates generally all who encroach upon the rights of the Church, disturb the public peace, &c.
2. Directs that bishops shall retain about them wise and charitable almoners, and attend to the petitions of the poor; that they shall also at times themselves hear and make confessions; that they shall reside at their cathedrals, &c., &c.
3. Forbids bishops, archdeacons, and deans to take anything for collations or institutions to benefices.
6. Orders the celebration of the nocturnal and diurnal office, and of all the sacraments, especially those of baptism and of the altar.
7. Forbids priests to say mass more than once in the same day, except at Christmas and Easter, and when there was a corpse to be buried.
10. Orders curates to preach often, and to attend to the sick.
11. Directs that the ornaments and vessels of the Church be properly kept, and that in every church there shall be a silver chalice and a clean white linen cloth for the altar; also that old corporals be burnt, &c.
12. Forbids any one to resign his benefice, retaining the vicarage, to prevent suspicion of unlawful bargain.
13. Forbids to divide benefices in order to provide for several persons.
15. Orders churches not worth more than five marks a year, to be given to none but such as will reside and minister in them.
16. Assigns to the perpetual vicar a stipend not less than five marks, except in Wales, “where vicars are content with less, by reason of the poverty of the churches.” Orders that the diocesan shall decide whether the parson or vicar shall bear the charges of the Church.
17. Orders that in large parishes there shall be two or three priests.
18. Directs that the bishop shall make the person presented to a living take an oath that he has neither given nor promised anything to the patron.
19. Provides that in each archdeaconry confessors shall be appointed for the rural-deans and others of the clergy who may be unwilling to confess to the bishop.
20. Takes from the rural-deans the cognisance of matrimonial causes.
21. Forbids, under anathema, to harbour thieves, &c.
22 and 23. Relate to archidiaconal visitations. Forbid those dignitaries to burden the clergy whom they visit with many horses, to invite strangers to the procurations provided for them, and to extort procurations without reasonable cause.
24. Forbids to let out to farm archdeaconries, deaneries, &c.
25. Orders the archdeacons to take care in their visitations that the canon of the mass be correct, that the priest can rightly pronounce the words of the canon and of baptism, that laymen be taught how to baptise rightly in case of necessity, and that the host, chrism, and holy oil be kept under lock and key, &c.
26. Forbids bishops, archdeacons, and their officers to pass sentence without first giving the canonical monitions.
27. Forbids to exact any fee for burials and the administration of the holy sacraments.
30. Orders ecclesiastics to wear decent habits with close copes, to observe the tonsure, to keep their hair cut short, and to abstain from immoderate eating and drinking.
31. Forbids clergymen in holy orders publicly to keep concubines.
34. Forbids the clergy to spend their ecclesiastical revenues in building houses, on lay fees for their sons, nephews, or concubines.
36. Forbids the nuns to wears veils of silk, to use pins of silver and gold, and to wear girdles worked and embroidered, and long trains.
41. Forbids to give to a person already provided with a benefice, having cure of souls, any revenue out of another church.
42 and 43. Order monks to live in common, and forbid them to receive any one into their community under eighteen years of age.
44. Orders monks to give away to the poor what remains of their repasts.
45. Forbids monks to make wills.
47. Forbids monks and canons regular to eat and drink save at the appointed hours; permits them to quench their thirst in the refectory, but not to indulge.
http://www.ecatholic2000.com/councils2/untitled-18.shtml .
