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Elites and Baptism: Religious ‘Strategies of Distinction’ in Visigothic Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Jamie Wood
Jamie Wood*
Affiliation:
Classics and Ancient History, University of Manchester
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Extract

The political connotations of godparenthood and baptismal sponsorship in creating both vertical and horizontal bonds between individuals and groups in early medieval Europe have long been recognized. What follows offers a case study of sixth- and early seventh-century Visigothic Spain, asking whether the baptismal process could also serve to bring elite and popular together. Elites sought to mobilize those lower down the scale than themselves in opposition to other elites at the same time as having constantly to negotiate the elite position from which they gained their authority. In sixth-century Spain the definition and redefinition of baptismal practice in church council legislation by both Catholics and Arians was an important method for achieving this dual aim of distinction and control.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 42: Elite and Popular Religion , 2006 , pp. 3 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2006

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References

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42 Hispana, 117–19: canons XI and XII legislate for penitents, emphasizing the role of the bishop in determining entry into and exclusion from the community. The Placitum presented to Recceswinth (649–672) by the Jews of Toledo affirms their belief in the Catholic faith. They agree not to associate with any unbaptized Jews, Leges Visigothorum, XII.2.17, ed. K. Zeumer, MGH. Leges nationum Germanicarum 1 (Hannover, 1902), 425. Some bishops continued to favour Jews in the seventh century, suggesting that the episcopal elite itself was not unified, Drews, Wolfram, ‘Jews as Pagans? Polemical Definitions of Identity in Visigothic Spain’, Early Medieval Europe 11.3 (2002), 189–207.Google Scholar

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45 Hispana, 183–4, 189–93, 216, 206–11: those who have fallen into heresy, have been baptized into heresy or rebaptized are excluded from entering the episcopacy.

46 It should be noted that the four councils examined here are not the only Visigothic councils to legislate on baptismal practice.