Stone Monuments were objects of veneration—certainly in France, and, by implication, in England—down to the times of Charlemagne and Alfred, at least.
One often-quoted decree of a Council, held at Nantes, exhorts "Bishops and their servants to dig up, and remove, and hide in places where they cannot be found, those stones which in remote and woody places are still worshipped, and where vows are still made."[1] Unfortunately the date of this Council is not certain; but Richard places it in 658, which is probably at least nearly correct.[2] This, however, is of comparatively little consequence, as in 452 a Council at Arles decreed that "if, in any diocese, any infidel either lighted torches or worshipped Trees, Fountains, or Stones, or neglected to destroy them, he should be found guilty of sacrilege;"[3] and about a century later (567), a Council at Tours exhorts the clergy to excommunicate those who, at certain Stones or Trees or Fountains, perpetrate things contrary to the ordinances of the Church.[4]
Still another century further on (681), a Council held at Toledo admonishes those who worship Idols or venerate Stones, those who light torches or worship Fountains or Trees, that they are sacrificing to the devil, and subject themselves to various penalties, &c.[5] Another Council held in the same city, in the year 692, enumerates almost in the same words the various heresies which were condemned by the preceding Council.[6] A Council at Rouen, about the same time, denounces all who offer vows to Trees or Fountains
- ↑ Summo decertare debent studio episcopi et eorum ministri ut—Lapides quoque, quos in ruiuosis locis et silvestribus, demonum ludificatiouibus decepti venerantur ubi et vota vovent et deferunt, funditus effodiantur, atque in tali loco projiciantur ubi nunquam a cultoribus suis inveniri possint et omnibus annunciatur quantum scelus est ido-latria.—Labbeum, t. ix. 474.
- ↑ Richard, 'Analyse des Conciles,' i. 646.
- ↑ Si in alicujus episcopi territorio infideles, aut faculas accendunt, aut arbores, fontes vel Saxa venerentur si hoc eruere neglexerit, saerilegii reum se esset cognoscat.—Labb., iv. 1013.
- ↑ Contestamur illam solicitudinem tam pastores quam presbyteros, gerere ut quemeunque in hac fatuitate persistere viderint, vel ad nescio quas petras aut arbores vel fontes, designata loca gentilium perpetrare, quæ ad ecclesiæ rationem non pertinent eos ab ecclesia sancta auctoritate repellant.—Baluz, i. 518.
- ↑ Cultores idolorum, veneratores Lapidum, accensores facularum excolentes sacra foutium vel arborum admonemus, &c.—Baluz, vi. 1234.
- ↑ Illi diversis suadelis decepti cultores idolorum efficiuntur, veneratores Lapidum, accensores facularum, excolentes sacra fontium vel arborum, &c.—Baluz, vi. 1337.
