Council of Hertford

council · 673 · Hertford

Theodore of Tarsus, the Greek archbishop of Canterbury, gathered bishops of the English kingdoms at Hertford and passed ten canons: diocesan boundaries, episcopal precedence, annual councils. The English church — Roman, Ionan and Frankish missions alike — began acting as one body. Haddan & Stubbs III. 118 give the day as 24 September 673, 'the first Council, properly so called, of the English Church', against the 672 often printed from Bede's regnal year.

The Council of Hertford was the first general council of the Anglo-Saxon Church. It was convened in Anglo-Saxon Herutford, most likely modern Hertford, in 672 by Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Venerable Bede is the historical source for this council, as he included its text in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Could the English kingdoms' separate missions act as one church? Theodore put diocesan boundaries, precedence and annual councils to them.

The first council of all the English — one church out of many missions.

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