Chapter 7 St. Braulio of Zaragoza’s Letter 21 to Pope Honorius i Regarding Lapsed Baptized Jews
The epistolary exchange between Braulio of Zaragoza (d. 651) of Zaragoza (d. 651) and Pope Honorius i (625–638) has been the object of several studies.1 The majority, however, have used the letter primarily as a source for exploring the wider question regarding the social and legal status of Jews in Visigothic His- pania. Not surprisingly, the letter goes virtually unmentioned in Honorius i scholarship which instead focuses on his role in the Three Chapters controver- sy.2 Since we do not have in hand the pope’s original missive to the bishops in Hispania, the response from Braulio on behalf of the bishops gathered at the Sixth Council of Toledo (638) whom he represented is of great importance. By means of his letter we can reconstruct well the main objections that Honorius i voiced regarding the Jewish policy of some bishops of Hispania. Much ink has been, and continues to be, devoted to the broader question of the Jews and there appears to be no full consensus on numerous questions. In particular, to what extent were anti-Jewish laws promulgated by the Visigothic kings en- forced? This article does not intend to delve into or pretend to have resolved these questions. A brief historiographical overview of modern commentators of the letter is set forth below. My main focus, however, is to look more closely at what this letter reveals to us about the following issues: the ecclesiology be- tween the See of Rome, Braulio and the bishops whom he represented, and the apparent disagreement among the bishops of Hispania over policy regarding lapsed Jews. To accomplish this goal, I will analyze the letter section by section, including a consideration of the scriptural-typological language that was em- ployed by Braulio in response to the pope, a task never undertaken before with this epistle. First, let us begin with a brief biographical sketch of Honorius i and Brau- lio.3 Honorius i was a wealthy aristocrat who was son of the consul Petronius.
1 This study was previously published in Sacris Erudiri 49 (2009), 75–95; it has been only slight- ly adapted for this monograph. 2 For the most current studies of Jews in Visigothic Spain, consult L.A. García Moreno, Los judíos de la España Antigua. Del primer encuentro al primer repudio, Madrid, 1993, and González Salinero, Las conversiones forzosas de los judíos en el reino Visigodo. 3 For Honorius I, consult Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, pp. 70–71. For Braulio, R. Collins, “Braulio,” Encyclopedia of Medieval Iberia, London, 2002, pp. 182–83. For his Letters, see the
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi:10.1163/9789004423770_009
In some respects, he took Pope Gregory i as his model when he transformed his mansion into a monastery. His pontificate, unlike Gregory I’s, was plagued with several damaging controversies that marred his reputation. The Three Chap- ters controversy deteriorated into an embarrassment for his pontificate to the point that he was posthumously anathemized at the Sixth General Council of Constantinople iii (680–681), which condemned Monothelitism. Although he has had his defenders regarding this rather unsavory dispute, an agenda that is not relevant here, the controversy has dominated commentary about his pon- tificate. For this reason, Braulio’s letter has received at most brief incidental comments in scholarship about his pontificate, with the exception of special- ists looking into Jewish policy in Visigothic Hispania. Braulio, on the other hand, enjoyed an impeccable reputation both in his lifetime and posthumously. In 631 he succeeded his brother John to the See of Zaragoza. He had extensive correspondence—much no longer extant—with several Visigothic kings, such as Chindaswinth. He also urged his good friend and fellow bishop Isidore of Seville to complete his magnus opus, the Etymolo- giae. Braulio was personally influential in several key Visigothic councils that convened in Toledo in 633, 636, and 638. It is at the last one that the bishops asked Braulio to draft a formal letter of response to the hostile missive from Honorius i, who had reproached the episcopate for allegedly being too lax with baptized Jews who had relapsed into their Jewish faith. Braulio in his Letter, 21 respectfully but very strongly rejected this charge on the alleged conduct of the episcopate. In addition, Braulio expressed serious objections to the pope’s pro- posals on how to remedy the Jewish policy in Hispania based on information the pontiff received from anonymous clerics. Braulio was laid to rest in the church of Nuestra Señora Merced del Pilar, his tomb was rediscovered in 1290. He authored the Vita Aemiliani, and we have 44 of his letters. He was recog- nized by Ildephonsus of Toledo in his De viris illustribus as one of the greatest luminaries of his time.4
1 Modern Historiography
Luis García Moreno and Raúl González Salinero have been the most produc- tive contemporary scholars to deal with Jews in Visigothic Hispania. Their
editions L. Riesco Terrero, Ed. Epistolario de San Braulio. Introducción, edición crítica y traduc- ción (Anales de la Universidad Hispalense, 31), Sevilla, 1975, and J. Madoz, Epistolario de San Braulio de Zaragoza, Madrid, 1941. For an English edition, see C.W. Barlow, Braulio of Sara- gossa and Fructuosus of Braga (Iberian Fathers, 2. Fathers of the Church, 63), Washington, 1969, pp. 51–56. For his letters see, Jaffé, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, pp. 223–26. 4 Codoñer Merino, El “De Viris Illustribus” de Ildefonso de Toledo, p. 131 = PL 96: 203–04.