SYNODAL
389
SYNOPTICS
Synods, National. — According to the recent canon
law, national councils are the deliberating assembhes
at which all the bishops of a nation are convoked by
the patriarch or primate (Cf. Bened. XIV, "De
Synodo", I, i), but, in order to include the ancient
national synods, it would be more correct to say a
legitimate assemblage of the episcopate of a nation,
the decisions of which are valid for an entire national
Church. For the classic definition is far from being
ap)ilicable to all the ancient national councils, as it is
difficult to apply to all recognized ooeumenical councils
the ijrcsent classic definition and conditions for such
councils.
Councils are commonly divided into general or oecu- menical, or particular; the latter are subdivided into national and provincial according as they assemble the bishops of a whole nation or of an ecclesiastical province. Finally come the a.ssemblies of the clergy of a diocese, which are called diocesan synods rather than councils. But writers point out that this classi- ficat ion is not and cannot be very exact, {"or instance, to what category belongs the Council of Aries of 314, at which Constantino in agreement with the ijope con- voked all the bishops, or at least a representation, of the whole episcopate of his empire at that time? So also if we agree with most authors iri regarding as national councils the assemblies of African bishops, it may be objected that Africa did not form a distinct nation in the Roman Empire. On the other hand there have been councils which, while they did not assemble all the bishops of a nation, may neverthe- less be regarded as real national synods ; such were the reform a-ssemblies held at the command of Charle- magne in 814 simultaneously at Aries, Reims, Mainz, Tours, and Ch&lons. Moreover, if in order to be nat ional a council must be presided over by a patriarch or jirimate, we must remove from the list of national councils nearly all the episcopal as.semblies of the prankish Kingdom and Empire, for they were con- voked at the command of kings and emperors, and the Frankish Church never had any patriarchal or pri- mal ial see whose bishop was qualified to convoke or preside over the entire national episcopate. Besides the term "national" was not very widespread in ancient times, it being the custom to speak rather of "universal" or "plenary" councils as in Africa or Spain, but this word was not used as synonymous with cecunienical. It meant plenary for all the provinces of Roman Africa or for the whole Visigothic Kingdom, in the same sense that the plenary Councils of Bal- timore were meetings of the episcopate of the United States.
This being understood, the canonical prescriptions regarding national councils are the same, proportion- ately speaking, as for general and provincial councils. To be legitimate their convocation must proceed from the authority having competent jurisdiction over the national church, either partiarch or primate (provided that these titles be not merely honorary). In de- fault of this authority the convocation should proceed from the Holy See, as was done for the recent national councils enumerated below. It was because the con- vocation was not competent that the "national coun- cir'of Parisof 1811 was not legitimate. To this con- vocation corresponds on the part of the bishops the c bligation to appear in person at the a.ssembly unle.ss they have a legitimate reason. But representation of a numerous episcopate will suffice, as was the case in Africa, according to canon ix of the Plenary Coun- cil of Milevis in 402. The presidency rightfully be- longs to the delegates of the Holy See, if there are any; if not, to the partiarch or primate, or to the oklest metropohtan, as wxs the custom in the Frankish king- doms. A national coimcil freely <lis(U.'ises the ecclesi- astical or mi.xed matters which have been the cause of the meeting; the decisions adopted become a law for the entire nation, but like those of provincial
councils, and with much more reason, they must first
be submitted to the approval of the Holy See.
No historical or canonical interest of any impor- tance determines which of the ancient councils held at Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople may be classed as national councils. Obviously, the presence and authority of the patriarchs of the various churches rendered this sort of meeting very easy. On several occasions the Patriarchs of Constantinople convoked the whole episcopate of the Byzantine Empire. But these councils have left no very distinct traces in the Greek canonical collections, whereas those of the Nes- torian Church of the Persian Empire consist chiefly of canons of the national councils held from 410 to 775 (cf. "Synodicon Orientale", ed. Chabot, 1903). In the West also there was an important series of national councils, the most noteworthy being the assemblies of the episcopate of Christian Africa under the presi- dency of the Bishop of Carthage, especially the twenty- one plenary councils held during the episcopate of Aurelius (393-427), which form almost the entire canonical collection of Africa. In like manner the Spanish canonical collection is chiefly comiiosed of the canons of the seventeen national councils which the episcopate of the Visigothic Kingdom liclil, nearly al- ways at Toledo, from .')Si) lo ti'.t 1. Hut while the Afri- can councils consisted wholly of bishops, the kings and nobles of the kingdom assisted at tho.se of Toledo, without, however, otherwise interfering in matters properly religious. The same was true of the Frank- ish national councils, where the episcopal assemblies were, as it were, duplicated by an assembly of nobles; occasionally, as at Mainz in 813, there was a third group, composed of abbots and monks. The list opens with three national councils which assembled the episcopate of the three kingdoms into which Gaul was divided at the beginning of the fifth century: Agde (506) for the Arian Visigothic Kingdom ; Orleans (511), for the Kingdom of the Franks; Epaone (517), for that of tlie Hurgundians. Most of the Frankish councils held uncler the Merovingians and Carlovingi- ans assembled the episcopate of one, sometimes of several kingdoms. The king often assisted thereat and the conciliar decisions bearing on discipline were the subject of royal ordinances or capitulars These double assembhes of bishops and comiles (counts) were the usual method in the Frankish kingdoms, and Tho- massin rightly regards them as the historical origin of parhaments. Theactsof thesemeetingshavenotbeen gathered into a uniform complete canonical collection.
In recent centuries Catholic national councils have been resumed in the East and the West at the instance of the popes and under the presidency of their legates. Without going into details, the most noteworthy of these were: the provincial or national councils of Mount Lebanon, for the Maronites, in 1736, confirmed by Benedict XIV; those of 1803 and 1S71 for the Al- banians; those of Zamosk 1720 and 1891 for the Ruthenians; that of 1841 for the Melchites; that of Sciarfa in the Lebanon (1888) for the Syrians; that of Cairo in 1898 for the Ojpts; that of Rome in 1911 for the Armenians; in America the three plenary Councils of Baltimore (1852, 1866, 1884), and the plenary rather than national council of Latin America in 1899.
Thomassin, Vetus ct nov. disc, part II, III. xliii .sq.; Bene- dict XIV, De Synodo dicecesana, I, i; Hefele. Hist, des conciles.
A. BOUDINHON.
Synodal Examiners. See Examiners, Synodal.
Synods, Mixed. See Councils, General, sub- title II.
Synoptics, the name given since Griesbach's time (about 1790) to the first three canonical Gospels. It is derived from the fact that these Gospels admit, — (lilTerently from the evangelical narrative of St. John, — of being arranged and harmonized section by sec- tion, so as to allow the eye to realize at a glance
