First Council of Lugo

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The First Council of Lugo, held in 569, was a Catholic meeting called by the Suevic king Theodemir to create more dioceses in his kingdom. The aim was to strengthen political control, because some areas of the Suevic realm were under bishoprics based in the Visigothic Kingdom.

The main surviving record is the Parochiale Suevorum. It is not the council’s minutes or its official laws, but a list of the new dioceses with an introduction to the document. There is debate about its authenticity: some early historians call it spurious, while many later scholars accept it, since many of the same dioceses appear at the Second Council of Braga in 572. Some manuscripts even name Theodemir’s successor, Miro, suggesting the introduction was added later.

Regardless of whether the record is fully authentic, the dioceses listed were created sometime between the First Council of Braga in 561 and the Second in 572.