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Cambridge Histories Online http://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/histories/ The New Cambridge Medieval History Edited by Paul Fouracre Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362917 Online ISBN: 9781139053938 Hardback ISBN: 9780521362917 Paperback ISBN: 9781107449060 Chapter 13 - The Catholic Visigothic kingdom pp. 346-370 Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362917.015 Cambridge University Press chapter 13 THE CATHOLIC VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM A. Barbero and M. I. Loring With the abandonment of Arianism at the Third Council of Toledo in 589, there began a new phase in the evolution of the Visigothic kingdom. Religious unification facilitated the definitive rapprochement of the Gothic nobility and upper classes of Roman origin, and allowed the Catholic church, the principal repository of the old Roman culture, to acquire a growing prominence in the political life of the kingdom.1 This active political role was expressed principally through the series of national church councils in Toledo, the regal metropolis, initiated by that of 589.Inthese the church seemed to play the role of arbiter between the royal power and the high nobility, although a close reading of the conciliar acts reveals its tendency to act in solidarity with the secular nobility. Kings, on the other hand, only exceptionally made use of the councils in order to assert their authority and were generally obliged to negotiate in the face of the powerful secular nobility and church, this being one of the main causes of the weakness of centralised authority. Religious unification also made way for a progressive interpenetration of the spiritual and temporal spheres at every level of Visigothic life and society, in which the former shaped the whole dominant ideological structure. religious unification In the spring of 586 King Leovigild (568–586) was succeeded by his son Rec- cared, who had for years been associated with the throne: according to the chronicler John of Biclaro, the succession took place without difficulties.2 In 1 For the first steps in this direction, see Barbero and Loring, chapter 7 above. 2 The early years of Reccared’s reign are well known thanks to the Chronicon of John of Biclaro, which covers up to 590 and includes the acts of the Third Council of Toledo. Additional sources are Gregory, Hist., which ends in 591, the Historia Gothorum of Isidore of Seville, the correspondence of Pope Gregory the Great, and the Vita Patrum Emaritensium´ ,ahagiographic work on the bishops of the metropolitan see of Merida´ from 500 to 600. 346 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Downloaded from Cambridge Histories Online by IP 150.214.205.85 on Wed Jul 09 18:35:49 BST 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362917.015 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2014 The Catholic Visigothic kingdom 347 the first year of his reign the new king sought an alliance with Gosuintha, his father’s widow, whom he adopted as his mother, and tried to broker a peace with the Frankish king, although Guntramn of Burgundy continued to maintain the bellicose tension along the Narbonensis frontier, which had been a feature of Leovigild’s reign. Simultaneously, he abandoned Arianism and converted to the Catholic faith, a decision proclaimed before an assembly of Arian clergy whom he urged to follow his example, and which, apart from any personal motives, was intended to complete the political achievements of his father by ensuring the support of the nobility of Roman origin and the Catholic church. The new religious orientation of the monarch, whilst in pursuit of the same objectives as his father, represented an about-turn in policy from the advocacy of religious union within the Arian creed, and it was not long before it pro- duced conspiracies and revolt: one led by the Arian bishop of Merida,´ Sunna, who counted on the support of various notable Visigoths, another, perhaps more serious, headed by the queen Gosuintha and the bishop Uldida, and a third directed by Athalocus, the Arian bishop of Narbonne. To the instability created by these revolts was added a Frankish offensive on Narbonne. After his conversion, Reccared had sent new embassies to the Frankish kings, communi- cating to them the change. He managed to conclude a treaty with Childebert of Austrasia, which included the marriage of Reccared to Childebert’s sister Clodosinda, granddaughter of the queen Gosuintha. However Guntramn of Burgundy refused to seal a peace and invaded Septimania in 589. The attack, which probably coincided with the pro-Arian revolt, was crushingly repelled by the dux of Lusitania, Claudius, who had repelled several Frankish incursions over a long period. The proposed marriage of Reccared and Clodosinda never took place since the monarch appears to have been married that same year to Bada, whose name suggests Visigothic origin. It was a marriage that responded to the new play of alliances established with the Gothic nobility and aimed at suffocating the revolts. Control over the internal situation and containment of the Frankish threat allowed Reccared to conclude his policy of religious unification, to which end he convened a great Synod in Toledo, which began sitting on 8 May 589.3 According to the acts of the council, sixty-three bishops participated, and an unspecified number of other clergy, abbots and Visigothic nobles. Presiding over the assembly were Leander, bishop of Seville, who had resided at Constantinople and was consequently familiar with the imperial conciliar 3 The main sources for its study are the acts of the council and information from John of Biclaro. The acts of this and other councils of the Visigothic church are in Concilios Visigoticos´ , ed. Vives (1963); a detailed study of this council in Orlandis and Ramos Lisson´ (1986), pp. 197–226; and also Orlandis (1991) and Abadal (1962–3). Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Downloaded from Cambridge Histories Online by IP 150.214.205.85 on Wed Jul 09 18:35:49 BST 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362917.015 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2014 348 a. barbero and m. i. loring tradition, and Eutropius, abbot of the monastery of Servitanum. The sessions were opened by Reccared himself, who presented the assembly with a written profession of faith. In it he expounded the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, condemned and anathematised Arius, and made adherence to the doctrine established by the first four ecumenical Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon obligatory. It was signed by both himself and Queen Bada. The royal intervention complete, the assembly rose, acclaiming God and the king. Later, eight bishops and an indeterminate number of clerics and Gothic dignitaries signed another profession of faith, in which Arianism was solemnly abjured. Then the assembly occupied itself with questions of clerical discipline and organisation, which were expressed in twenty-three canons. The acts included the royal edict confirming these regulations and raising them to the status of civil law, the subscriptions of the bishops present headed by that of the monarch himself, and finally a homily by Leander of Seville summarising what had taken place. During the proceedings only eight bishops abjured Arianism. The paucity of this number, together with the feeble showing of pro-Arian revolts put down prior to the council, seems to indicate that many had already followed the example of the king, who was baptised in 587, and that by the opening of the council Catholicism had already made considerable inroads. Although in 590 Reccared had to confront a further revolt led by Argimund, a dux provinciae and member of the cubiculum,John of Biclaro, who is the source of this information, does not link it to a pro-Arian reaction and in what followed there is nothing to suggest the survival of any Arian groups. The relative ease with which the Nicene creed was accepted is explained as much by the advanced stage of the acculturation between the Gothic nobility and the Roman world as by the strengthening of a monarchy which, despite its differences from Byzantium, represented itself as heir to the Empire. In this respect it is necessary to point out that when signing the acts of the council, Reccared adopted the name Flavius, the family name of the emperors of the Constantinian dynasty, which all Visigothic kings used from then on. In this way, the monarch presented himself as the political successor to the Roman, and especially to the Christian Roman, emperors. Likewise, John of Biclaro compared the Visigothic king to Constantine and Marcian, at whose instigation the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon had been held, and con- sidered the Third Council of Toledo as successor to the grand synods of the Roman Empire. But both John of Biclaro and the acts of the Third Council rejected the canons of the Second Council of Constantinople convoked in 553 by Justinian. This council had taken decisions opposed by most of the western churches, among them those of Hispania, whose ecclesiastics would Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Downloaded from Cambridge Histories Online by IP 150.214.205.85 on Wed Jul 09 18:35:49 BST 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362917.015 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2014 The Catholic Visigothic kingdom 349 be some of its fiercest opponents.4 The independent attitude of Hispanic prelates to the religious policy of the Eastern Empire doubtless facilitated the Visigothic monarch’s acceptance of Nicaean Catholicism, his definitive renunciation of Arianism, and the presentation of himself as a champion of orthodoxy. From the Third Council of Toledo onwards, the state, as much as Visigothic society, existed within parameters characterised by an interpenetration of the spiritual and temporal at all levels of life.
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