Concilium Germanicum - Decisions and Outcome

Decisions and Outcome

Participation in the Concilium was restricted to Boniface's supporters, and among those invited were the bishops of Carloman's Austrasia. As well as Boniface (who, as archbishop, presided over the synod) the bishops of Cologne, Strasbourg, and Büraburg were present, as was a chorbishop named Willibald and a bishop named Dadan (who was possibly from Erfurt or an auxiliary bishop from Utrecht). Absent were the bishops from Utrecht, Metz, Verdun, Speyer, and Liège. Boniface's main opponents, Milo, bishop of Reims, and Gewilip, bishop of Mainz, failed to appear.

Strengthened by the absence of his enemies, Boniface succeeded in having stricter guidelines adopted, but the effort to re-appropriate church property was thwarted by bishops and nobility alike.

The measures adopted at the Concilium included:

• Archbishops and bishops with a fixed see were to be appointed to replace the noble laypersons who had received dioceses under Charles Martel;
• Bishops were required to visit their parishes, with the aid of auxiliary bishops;
• Clergy were required to appear annually before the bishop to give a reckoning of their personal and official activities;
• On Maundy Thursday, bishops were to consecrate oil (chrism) during a special mass, with which all the parishes in their diocese were to be supplied;
• Clergy were not allowed to carry weapons, and were forbidden to hunt;
• The Rule of Saint Benedict became mandatory for all monasteries.

Many of the Concilium's measures were geared toward a stricter organization of the Frankish church, and to enforce such organization annual synods were called for, as well as real bishops and archbishops and the enforcement of canon law.

Church historian Matthias Schuler, commenting on Boniface's failure to have church property returned to the church, proposes that the time was not yet ripe for Carloman to re-appropriate those properties, which had often been handed (by way of church offices) to various noblemen by his father, Charles Martel, to appease them and strengthen their loyalty. Re-appropriation would have led to widespread anger and distaste for the reform movement. A (partial) redress of the situation was decided on in the next of Boniface's Frankish synods, that of Estinnes, 1 March 743. Whereas Gunther Wolf judged that the Concilium was the high point in Boniface's long career, other scholars such as Matthias Schuler place that high point in 747, Boniface's Frankish synod.