Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T11:29:12.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - The Catholic Visigothic kingdom

from PART II - THE SEVENTH CENTURY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Paul Fouracre
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Get access

Summary

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. This active political role was expressed principally through the series of national church councils in Toledo, the regal metropolis, initiated by that of 589. In these 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 Reccared, who had for years been associated with the throne: according to the chronicler John of Biclaro, the succession took place without difficulties. In 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.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abadal, Vinyals R. (1962–63), ‘Els concilis de Toledo’, in Homenaje a Johannes Vincke para el 11 de mayo de 1962, Madrid, I, repr. in Abadal, Vinyals (1969)Google Scholar
Barbero de Aguilera, A. (1987), ‘El conflicto de los Tres Capítulos y las iglesias hispánicas’, Studia Historica, Historia Medieval 5; repr. in Barbero de Aguilera, (1992)Google Scholar
Barbero, A. and Vigil, M. (1974), Sobre los orígenes sociales de la Reconquista, Barcelona
Barbero, A. and Vigil, M. (1978), La formación del feudalismo en la Península ibérica, Barcelona
Chronica Regum Visigothorum, ed. Zeumer, K., MGH Legum Sectio I, Leges Nationum Germanicarum, I, Leges Visigothorum, Hanover and Leipzig (1902)
Concilios Visigóticos e Hispano-Romanos, ed. Vives, J. (España Cristiana Textos 1), Barcelona and Madrid (1963)
García Gallo, A. (1942–43), ‘La territorialidad de la legislación visigoda’, Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español 14Google Scholar
García Gallo, A. (1974), ‘Consideración crítica de los estudios sobre la legislación y la costumbre visigodas’, Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español 4Google Scholar
García Moreno, L. A. (1974a), ‘Estudios sobre la organización administrativa del reino visigodo de Toledo’, Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español 44Google Scholar
García Moreno, L. A. (1989), Historia de España visigoda, Madrid
Glaser, E. (1913), Eduard Glaser’s Reise nach Marib, Vienna
Grierson, P. (1979), ‘Visigothic metrology’, Dark Age Numismatics 12Google Scholar
King, P. D. (1972), Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom, Cambridge
Loring García, M. I. and Fuentes Hinojo, P. (1998), ‘Esclavitud y servidumbre en el tránsito del mundo antiguo al medieval’, in Romanización y Reconquista en la Península ibérica: Nuevas perspectivas, SalamancaGoogle Scholar
Orlandis, J. (1977), Historia de Espańa: España visigoda (407–711), Madrid
Orlandis, J. and Ramos Lissón, D. (1986), Historia de los concilios de la España romana y visigoda, Pamplona
Pérez, Prendes (1991), ‘La monarquía. El poder político, el estado, el derecho’, in Zamora, J. M. Jover (ed.), Historia de España de Don Ramón Menéndez Pidal, III, 2: España visigoda, MadridGoogle Scholar
Pérez Sánchez, D. (1989), El ejército en la sociedad visigoda, Salamanca
Sánchez Albornoz, C. (1974), En torno a los orígenes del feudalismo, I, I: Fideles y gardingos en la monarquía visigoda: raices del vasallaje y del beneficio hispanos, Buenos Aires
Thompson, E. A. (1969), The Goths in Spain, Oxford
Vallejo Girvés, M. (1993), Bizancio y la España tardoantigua (ss. V–VIII): un capítulo de historia mediterránea, Alcalá de Henares
Vives, J. (1969), Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda, 2nd edn, Barcelona
Zeumer, K. (1944), Historia de la legislación visigoda, Barcelona

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×