TOULOUSE, tü"lüz': Important town of southern France, and seat of a number of synods. The ancient Tolosa, it was the sacred capital of the Tectosages; was taken by the Romans 106 B.C.; was the capital of the Visigoths, 419-507; came under the power of the Franks, 507, but later regained its independence; was a county of hereditary princes, 778-1271, enjoying prosperity up to the Albigensian wars, after which it was united to France, 1271; it came under the influence of the Inquisition, and later became notorious for intolerance, in gross contrast to its earlier attitude. Its university, founded in 1229, is, after that of Paris, the oldest in France. It is also the seat of an archbishopric. At the suggestion of Louis, a synod was convened in Toulouse, 829, but the decrees are lost. One was held in 883 to adjust the complaint which Jews had made to Charles the Fat of being abused by clergy and laity. One in 1056, summoned by Pope Victor II., consisted of eighteen bishops, and passed thirteen canons forbidding simony, insisting upon the rule of celibacy, and placing the age of ordination to priests' orders at thirty, and to deacons' orders at twenty-five. The synod of 1118 was concerned with the inception of a crusade against the Moors in Spain. The synod of 1119, which Pope Calixtus II. presided over in person, reiterated the laws against simony, confirmed the right of the bishops to tithes, and in three of the ten canons teachers of false doctrine were anathematized. The synod of 1160, at which the kings of France and England, 100 bishops and abbots, and legates of Pope Alexander III. and his rival, Victor III., were present, declared Alexander pope, and pronounced excommunication upon Victor. The synod of 1219 forbade the conferment of offices upon the Cathari (see NEW MANICHEANS, II.), and forbade all work upon church festival days which were mentioned by name.

The synod of 1229, in the pontificate of Gregory IX., is important. It obligated archbishops and bishops, or priests, and two or three laymen, to bind themselves by oath to search out heretics, and bring them to punishment. A heretic's house was to be destroyed. Penitent heretics were to be obliged to wear a cross on their right and left side, and might not receive an office until the pope or his legate should attest the purity of their faith. All men of fourteen years and over, and all women of twelve years and over, were to be required to deny all connection with heresy and heretics. This oath was to be repeated every two years. Laymen were also forbidden the possession of the Old and the New Testament; and the suppression of vernacular translations was especially commended. In 1590 a synod under Archbishop Francis II. of Joyeuse declared the Tridentine decrees binding, and took up various subjects, such as relics, the consecration of churches, oratories, and the administration of hospitals. As late as 1850 a provincial synod was held under the presidency of Archbishop d'Astros, which declared against the tendencies of modern thought, indifferentism, and socialism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. R. Vincent, In the Shadow of the Pyrenees, pp 211-232, New York, 1883; J. de Labondès, L'Église Saint Étienne, Toulouse, 1890; L. Ariste and L. Braud, Hist. populaire de Toulouse, ib. 1898; L. V. Delisle, La Prétendue Célébration d'un concile à Toulouse en 1160, Paris, 1902; Hefele> Conciliengeschichte, vols., iv. - v. passim.