Council of Hertford

673. A council of bishops summoned by Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury, to promote the reorganization of the English Church. Among its ten canons it reaffirmed the Roman calculation of Easter (canon 1), prohibited bishops intruding in the affairs of neighboring dioceses (2), forbade monks and clergymen from leaving their places without permission (4/5), provided for future episcopal synods twice a year (7-later amended to an annual meeting at Clovesho), established precedence of bishops according to dates of ordination (8), and recognized adultery as the only ground for divorce (10). It was the first occasion on which the English Church deliberated as a unity and has been called “the first constitutional measure of the English race” (Stubbs), representing a landmark in the development of the English constitution.