The Council of Lugo was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

synod called by the

Suevi The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names ...

c king Theodemir in 569 in order to increase the number of dioceses within his kingdom. One possible reason for this restructuring was that some of the territory of the Suevic Kingdom was under the jurisdiction of

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

rics whose seats were in the

Visigothic Kingdom The Visigothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of the Goths ( la, Regnum Gothorum), was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to ...

, and this was an attempt to consolidate the kingdom politically. The extant record for the council is known as the '' Parochiale Suevorum''; it is not the minutes or the canons agreed upon in the

council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

, but a list of the new dioceses along with an introduction to the document. There is a question as to whether or not this document is authentic: certain earlier historians have declared the entire document to be spurious, while some more recent scholars have accepted the full document, since many of the new dioceses are represented in the

Second Council of Braga The Second Council of Braga, held in 572, presided over by Martin of Braga, was held to increase the number of bishops in Galaecia. Twelve bishops assisted at this council, and ten decrees were promulgated: (1) that the bishops should in their vis ...

of 572. It has also been proposed that the list of dioceses is correct, but that the introduction was added at a later date – some manuscripts even list the king who called the council as Miro, Theodemir's successor.David, 66-67. Regardless of the authenticity of the Council, the dioceses listed were created at some point between the

First Council of Braga In the First Council of Braga of 561, eight bishops took part, and twenty-two decrees were promulgated. In a number of canons, the council took aim directly at doctrines of Priscillianism. Those decrees included the following: that in the service ...

in 561 and the Second.

Notes

Sources

*Barlow, Claude W., ed. ''Martini Episcopi Bracarensis opera omnia''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950. *David, Pierre. ''Études historiques sur la Galice et le Portugal du VIe au XIIe siècle''. Lisbon: Livraria Portugália Editora, 1947. *''Itineraria et alia geographia.'' Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 175. Turnholt: Brepols, 1965. *Thompson, E. A. "The Conversion of the Spanish Suevi to Catholicism." ''Visigothic Spain: New Approaches''. Edited by Edward James. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980. Kingdom of the Suebi 6th-century church councils 569 6th century in Hispania

Lugo Lugo (, ; la, Lucus Augusti) is a city in northwestern Spain in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 98,025 in 2018, making it the fourth most populous city in Ga ...

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