German Councils

(Concilium Getrmanicum), i.e., councils celebrated in Germany, but at places unknown.

I. A.D. 743, probably, being the first of five said to have met under St. Boniface, by his biographer, but great obscurity hangs over their date, number, and canons, to say the least. In the preface to this council it is Carloman, mayor of the palace, who speaks, and its seven canons, besides running in his name, form the first of his capitularies. Certainly, the first of them, constituting Boniface archbishop over the bishops of his dominions, cannot have been decreed but by him. True, there is a letter from Boniface to pope Zachary, requesting leave for holding a synod of this kind, which was at once given; and in another, purporting to be from Boniface to archbishop Cuthbert, three sets of canons are quoted as having been decreed by the writer, of which these form the second. Still, even so, when and where were the other two sets passed?

II. A.D. 745, at Mayence possibly, where Aldebert and Clement were pronounced heretics, and Gervilion of Mayence deposed, to be succeeded by Boniface.

III. A.D. 747, at which the first four general councils were ordered to be received. Possibly the tenth of the letters of pope Zachary may relate to this.

IV. A.D. 759, at which Othmar, abbot of St. Gall, was unjustly condemned German Ebenezer Society, a body of Lutheran dissenters, who emigrated from Prussia to America some years ago, and settled near Buffalo, N.Y. They number somewhat more than one thousand souls, and hold their property in common. They are exceedingly careful as to religious observances, and very strict in keeping the Sabbath.