By Professor Timothy Reuter, University of Southampton
We are unusually well-informed about the council of Rheims, because we have a lengthy account of it including its canons written by a contemporary, Anselm, a monk of Saint-Rémi, Rheims, who set the events of the council in the context of the dedication of the new church of Saint-Rémi, for which Leo had travelled to Rheims.
Anselm’s account lays great stress on the public nature of the proceedings: almost like a modern tribunal of enquiry, the assembled bishops were invited to state publicly and on oath that they had not behaved simoniacally. Some could deny this with a clear conscience, others had more difficulties. Note, though, that the bishops who confessed and submitted was treated leniently, whereas the one who fled and so refused to submit to papal judgement was deposed: in the end, it was a balancing act between the need to avoid subverting episcopal authority and the need to uphold papal authority. Alexander II and Gregory VII would behave in much the same way.
The council was the first major one held by Leo, and it is reasonable to suppose that the canons of the council reflected his priorities. Although canons 2, 4 and 5 (and perhaps 1) deal with simony, it is worth noting that none of the canons is about clerical marriage.