Council of Naplouse, held by the Authority of Garamond, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to reform the Morals of the Christians of Palestine, in the Presence of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, in the year of our Lord 1120, in the Pontificate of Calixtus II.
This is the manner in which William of Tyre, book xii. of the Holy War, chap. xiii. relates summarily the cause and the acts of the council.
The same year, that is to say the year 1120 of the incarnation of the Word, the kingdom of Jerusalem being tormented, on account of its sins, with many troubles, and in addition to the calamities inflicted by their enemies, a multitude of locusts and gnawing rats destroying the harvests to such a degree that it was feared bread would be wanting; the seigneur Garamond, patriarch of Jerusalem, a man religious and fearing God; the king Baldwin, the prelates of the churches, and the great men of the kingdom, repaired to Naplouse, a small city of Samaria, and held a public assembly and a general court. In a sermon addressed to the people, it was said, that as it appeared plain that it was the sins of the people which had provoked the Lord, it was necessary to deliberate in common upon the means of correcting and repressing excesses, in order that, returning to a better life, and worthily satisfying for their remitted sins, the people might render themselves acceptable to Him who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live. Terrified, then, by the menacing signs of Heaven, by frequent earthquakes, by successive defeats, by the pangs of famine, by perfidious and daily attacks of their enemies; seeking to win back the Lord by works of piety, they have, to restore and preserve discipline in morals, decreed twenty-five acts, which shall have the force of laws. If any one be desirous of reading them, they will be easily found in the archives of many churches.
Present at this council, Garamond, patriarch of Jerusalem; the logician Baldwin, second king of the Latins; Ekmar, archbishop of Cæsarea; Bernard, bishop of Nazareth; the bishop of Liddes; Gildon, abbot elect of St. Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat; Peter, abbot of Mount Tabor; Achard, prior of Mount Sion; Payen, chancellor of the king; Eustace Granier; William de Buret; Batisan, constable of Jaffa; and many others of the two orders, of whom we forget the number and the names.
“The synod,” says Baronius, “towards the end of 1120 succeeded in effecting such a reformation in morals, that by the mercy of Heaven, in the following year, 1121, the leader of the Turks, coming against Antioch with considerable strength, was struck with apoplexy and died.”
Chap. 1.—As it is necessary that things which commence by God should finish in him and by him, with the intention of beginning this holy council and terminating it by the Lord, I, Baldwin, second king of the Latins at Jerusalem, opening this holy assembly by God, I render and I grant, as I have ordered, to the holy Church of Jerusalem, and to the patriarch here present, Garamond, as well as to his successors, the tenths of all my revenues, as far as concerns the extent of this diocese; that is to say, the tenths of my revenues of Jerusalem, Naplouse, and Ptolemaïs, which is further called Accon. They are the benefits of my royal munificence, in order that the patriarch, charged with the duty of praying the Lord for the welfare of the state, may have wherewithal to subsist on. And if, one day, in consequence of the progress of the Christian religion, he, or one of his successors, should ordain a bishop in one of these cities, he may dispose of the tenths as well for the king as for the Church.
Chap. 2.—I, Bohemond, in the presence of the members of this council, with the consent of the personages of the assembly and of my barons, who will do the same by their tenths, according to the extent of their ecclesiastical powers, I make restitution of the tenths, as I have said; and agreeing with them as to the injustice with which they and I have retained them, I ask pardon.
Chap. 3.—I, Patriarch Garamond, on the part of the all-powerful God, by my power and that of all the bishops and brethren here present, I absolve you upon the said restitution of the tenths, and I accept charitably with them the tenths you acknowledge to owe to God, to me, and to your other bishops, according to the extent of the benefices of the brethren present or absent.
Chap. 4.—If any one fears being ill-treated by his wife, let him go and find him whom he suspects, and let him forbid him, before legal witnesses, entrance to his house and all colloquy with his wife. If, after this prohibition, he or any one of his friends should find them in colloquy in his house or elsewhere, let the man, without any cutting off of his members, be submitted to the justice of the Church; and if he purges himself by ardent fire, let him be dismissed unpunished. But when he shall have undergone some disgrace for being surprised in colloquy, let him be dismissed unpunished and without vengeance for having violated the prohibition.