Third Council of Orléans explained

The third council of national stature, or third Council of Orléans, was a synod of the Catholic bishops of France. It opened around 7 May 538 and was presided over by Loup, Archbishop of Lyon. It established mainly:

• Sunday as day of the Lord;
• prohibition of field work on Sundays;
• prohibition of clerics practicing usury;
• prohibition of the conjuring of priests, as a critic of their bishop (canon 24, recall of canon 18 of the Council of Chalcedon, 451).^[1]
• The bishop must redeem a Christian slave in the service of a Jew if he takes refuge in the church, while the constitutions of the Lower Roman Empire demanded to return them to their master, without further guarantees.^{[2] [3] [4]}

A conciliabule, of which we do not know the subject, took place in Orleans in 540.

Notes and References

1. Charles Mériaux. Les clercs ruraux et la hiérarchisation de la société carolingienne. Bilan et perspectives dans la province de Reims. Colloque Hiérarchie, ordre et mobilité dans l'Occident médiéval, à Auxerre, 27-29 novembre 2006. [PDF] online [archive], accessed 3 December 2006.
2. [Karl Josef von Hefele|Karl-Joseph von Hefele]
3. Michel Rouche et Brigitte Basdevant-Gaudemet, Baptême de Clovis, son écho à travers l'histoire : l'évêque, d'après la législation de quelques conciles mérovingiens, vol. 2, Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1997,, p. 479.
4. W. Parker et B. Blumenkranz, Les esclaves chrétiens des Juifs. Troisième concile d'Orléans (538), Archives juives de Paris, vol. 21, nos 1-2, 1985, p. 3-4