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The Hispano-Visigothic Church Triumphant: Religion and Conversion in Isidore’S Histories

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The Hispano-Visigothic Church Triumphant: Religion and Conversion in Isidore’S Histories CHAPTER FIVE THE HISPANO-VISIGOTHIC CHURCH TRIUMPHANT: RELIGION AND CONVERSION IN ISIDORE’S HISTORIES In the era 447 [409 CE], in the fijifteenth year of the emperor Arcadius, with Radagaisus dead, Alaric, his partner in the kingship, a Christian in name but a heretic by profession, grieving that so many Goths had been killed by the Romans, did battle against the Romans to avenge his people’s blood. Laying siege to Rome, he burst in with a highly destructive attack. Thus the City, vic- tor over all peoples, succumbed, vanquished by the victories of the Goths; subjected and captive, it served them. But the Goths were conspicuous for the mercy they showed in Rome. They had previously sworn an oath that if they managed to enter the city, they would not send any Romans found in churches back out into the devastation of the city. Indeed, after this vow, when they stormed the city, everyone who fled to the dwellings of the saints was spared of death or captivity. Even those who were outside of the churches of the martyrs, who uttered the names of Christ and the saints, were spared by the Goths with similar mercy.1 Isidore’s report of the sack of Rome by the Visigoths, which actually took place in 410, goes on to recount how Alaric, the Visigothic King, offfered protection to a consecrated virgin who had concealed gold and silver vases that she was safeguarding for the sanctuary of Saint Peter. According to Isidore, Alaric made his soldiers escort the virgin and her vases back to the sanctuary because the king ‘was waging war against the Romans, not against the Apostles.’2 This anecdote illustrates nicely the key argument of the previous chap- ter, that Isidore was determined to demonstrate the military and political superiority of the Visigothic monarchy over the Roman Empire through a carefully constructed series of historical examples. The Visigothic sack of Rome can serve equally well to exemplify the central point of this chapter: Visigothic predominance extended beyond politics and into the sphere of religion. Even when the Visigoths adhered to Arianism, as they did then Rome was sacked, they honoured those who shared their Christian faith, even those who were not Arians. Conversely, according to Isidore, even 1 Isidore, History of the Goths, second redaction, 15, Wolf trans. (1999), pp. 86–87. 2 Isidore, History of the Goths, second redaction, 16, Wolf trans. (1999), p. 87. 192 chapter five when the Romans were Christian and belonged to the orthodox Nicene party, they supported heretics and undermined the workings of the church. In creating this strand of his universal history Isidore aimed to replace the Roman Empire with the Visigothic monarchy as the principle protector and propagator of Christianity in Spain. Separating the church from the Roman state was a complex ideological and intellectual manoeuvre for Isidore because, since the writings of Eusebius, Christian historians had attempted to tie the Roman Empire and the Christian church together. This had formed part of their effforts to dem- onstrate the providential unfolding of God’s plan for mankind. Fortunately, Isidore had at his disposal a ready-made discourse on which to base his assault on Roman religious pre-eminence. Accusations of heresy had been used for a long time as a way of defijining diffference and marking bounda- ries between competing Christian groups and between Christians and other religions.3 Isidore redeployed the discourse of heresy so that instead of dividing heretical from orthodox Christians or Christians from outsiders it became a marker of diffference between groups that were defijined in ethnic, geo- graphical and political terms. According to Isidore, the Hispano-Visigothic people of Spain were now the carriers of orthodoxy, while the Romans, par- ticularly the Eastern Romans, were heretics. Orthodox status resulted in God favouring the Visigoths while adherence to heresy brought failure and punishment on the Romans.4 For Isidore, narratives of orthodoxy and her- esy were thus powerful discursive media for propagating messages about the Visigoths and their enemies. We should not suppose that religious nar- ratives were subordinated to political expediency, in Isidore’s historical writings sacred and secular events were closely inter-connected.5 Religion and politics were inextricably linked. It has long been known that Isidore’s History of the Goths and Chronicle developed an image of the contemporary Visigoths and their kings as reli- giously outstanding defenders of the Nicene faith.6 Hillgarth described Isidore’s ‘vision of history’ as depicting the Visigoths as the people chosen by God to succeed Rome.7 Martín argued along similar lines when he stated 3 The seminal work in this area is Boyarin (2004). 4 Wood (forthcoming, 2012). 5 Isidore, On the Catholic faith against the Jews, 1.5.1–11; Bassett (1976), 281–282. Cf. the similar attitude of Orosius and Eusebius, Rohrbacher (2002), 139, 142–143, 185–186; Lacroix (1965), 144–149; Wallace-Hadrill (1960), 174–175. 6 Váquez de Parga (1961); Teillet (1984); Cazier (1994). 7 Hillgarth (1985), 27..
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