Synod of Rome (721)

The Synod of Rome (721) (also known as the Council of Rome of 721) was a synod held in St. Peter’s Basilica under the authority of Pope Gregory II to establish canons to improve church discipline.

On April 5, 721, Pope Gregory II opened a synod to deal with tightening up the rules of matrimony, and a number of minor offenses committed against the Church.^[1] Present along with the Pope were nineteen Italian bishops, and three non-Italian bishops: Sindered of Toledo, Sedulius from Britain, and Fergustus Pictus from Scotland.^[2] Also present were a number of Roman priests and deacons.

The synod drew up seventeen canons to improve church discipline.^[3] These included a prohibition on marrying:

• 1. The widow of a priest;
• 2. Or a Deaconess;
• 3. Or a nun;
• 4. Or his spiritual Commater;
• 5. The wife of his brother;
• 6. Or his niece;
• 7. His stepmother or daughter-in-law;
• 8. His first cousin;
• 9. Or a relation, or the wife of a relation.

It further placed anathemas on:

• 10. A man marrying a widow;
• 11. A man who ravishes a virgin to whom he was not betrothed, in order to take her as his wife, even if she were to consent;
• 12. If a man is guilty of superstitious usages;
• 13. Anyone who violates the earlier commands of the Apostolic Church in regard to the olive-yards belonging to it.

It mentioned specific anathemas against:

• 14. Hadrian, who married the deaconess Epiphania;
• 15. As well as Epiphania herself;
• 16. And whoever helped her to marry.

Finally, the synod also anathematized:

• 17. Any cleric who lets his hair grow.

The synod finished its deliberations on the same day it started.

• Hefele, Charles Joseph; Clark, William R. (trans.), A History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents, Vol. V (1896)
• Mann, Horace K., The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. I: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule, Part 2, 657-795 (1903)