I.
TIMELINE
A. The origins of
christianism
A. JUDAISM
The Origins of Judaism.
1800 BC Arrival of the Israelites to Judea.
1700 Emigration
to Egypt.
1372-1350 Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton).
Religious reform.
1250 The
Israelites flee to Egypt, led by Moses.
1029-974 David,
King of the Hebrews.
First Temple: The writing of the Bible begins
(Old Testament) (10th – 13th centuries BC)
973-935 Rule
of Solomon. Construction of the Temple of Solomon:
Period of the First Temple
973-936 Scission
of Jewish territory into the kingdoms of Israel and
Judah.
Age of the Prophets (8th to 6th centuries BC)
722 The kingdom of Israel is
conquered by the Assyrians.
586 Nebuchadnezzar
takes Jerusalem. Start of captivity in
Babylon. End of the kingdom of Judah.
Second Temple: beginning of the Talmudic Era –
Mishnaic Stage - (6th century BC – 1st century AD)
539
Cyrus the Great
destroys Babylon. The Israelites return
to Jerusalem.
320 The
diadochus Ptolemy, governor of Egypt, conquers Jerusalem.
167 Beginning
of Hellenistic domination. Persecutions
(Antiochus IV).
165 Revolt
of Judah Maccabee.
160 Start
of the reign of the Maccabees.
142 Judea,
autonomous territory.
63 BC Pompey
conquers Jerusalem. Judea, a Roman
province.
74 AD Conquest of Masada by
the Romans. End of the Jewish resistance
(Third
Temple [74-135]).
The Diaspora (135-1948)
135 After
another rebellion by the Jewish, the Emperor Hadrian orders
the definitive
destruction of the Temple of Solomon. Thus begins the
Diaspora, to last 1813
years, until the foundation of the State of Israel in
1948.
End of the Talmudic period :
4th
century Palestinian
or Jerusalem Talmud
6th
century Babylonian
Talmud (“Babli”).
B. CHRISTIANITY
The origins (1st century )
7 BC Birth
in Bethlehem (Palestine) of Jesus during the Principate of Augustus. (27 BC - 14
AD).
26 AD Crucifixion
of Jesus during the principate of Tiberius (14-37).
Circa 33 AD St.
Peter elected bishop of Rome, according to tradition.
Writing of the New Testament (second half of
the 1st century) :
54-68 Emperor Nero. First
persecutions of the Christians.
64
(h.) Martyrdom
of St. Peter.
66
(h.) Death
of St. Mark the Evangelist.
67 (h.) 67 Decapitation of St.
Paul
74 End
of the Jewish era of the Second Temple.
100 (h.) Death
of St. John the Evangelist.
135 Destruction
of the Third Temple. Initiation of the Jewish Diaspora.
The spread of Christianity (2nd – 3rd
centuries)
The apologists
165 Death
of St. Justin (born 100).
208 Death
of St. Irenaeus (born 130).
240 Death
of Tertullian (born 160).
258 Death
of St. Cyprian (born 210).
270 Death
of St. Gregory the Wonderworker (born 215).
The last persecutions
270-275 The
Emperor Aurelian attempts to impose a new official religion.
284-305 Emperor
Diocletian. Last persecution of the
Christians.
The official establishment of Christianity (4th
century) IV)
311 The Edict of Toleration by Galerius recognizes
Christianity.
313 Promulgation of the Edict of Milan by Constantine
and Licinius. Possible celebration of the Council of Elvira (old Iliberis near
Granada, Spain).
314 Council
of Arles.
325 Council of Nicaea, First Ecumenical Council.
Circa 345 Birth
of St. Jerome (419), translator into Latin of the Old Testament, or Jewish
Bible.
354 (h.) Birth of St. Augustine.
361-363 Julian
(the Apostate), emperor. Last attempt to
restore the ancient pagan rites.
380 Edict of Thessalonica through which Theodosius
(379-395) decrees the
official status of
Christianity.
381 Ecumenical
Council of Constantinople.
392 The
Edict of Constantinople prohibits all pagan practices. Christianity is the only religion tolerated.
431 Ecumenical
Council of Ephesus.
451 Ecumenical
Council of Chalcedon.
B. THE GERMANIC KINGDOMS
(4th-7th centuries)
First wave: the Visigoths (378-382)
378 The Visigoths defeat Emperor
Valens at Adrianople.
382 Theodosius signs a first foedus with the
Visigoths. They may settle in the
Empire if they pledge
to defend it.
The second wave: the Suebi, Vandals
and Alani (406-425)
406 The
Suevi, Vandals and Alani cross the Rhine, defeating the federated
troops defending the
Empire’s border.
407 The
Romans abandon the British Isles.
410 24 August Alaric I sacks Rome.
414 Ataulf’s
marriage to Placidia.
416 Second
foedus between Rome and the Visigoths, signed this time between
Honorius and Valia.
425 Signing
of the third foedus between Theodoric and Aetius.
Third wave: Franks, Burgundians,
Alamanni, Angles and Saxons (434-451)
434 Attila
(+ 453) becomes leader of the Huns.
436 Aetius'
victory over the Burgundians. Rome,
however, cannot prevent the
Burgundians from permanently settling in the
Rhone Valley, nor keep the
Angles and Saxons out of Great Britain, nor
the Franks from Gaul.
451 Attila is defeated at the Battle of the Catalonian Fields
(Chalons, northern France).
The Hun leader fights alongside a
series of Germanic tribes paying homage to him
(Ostrogoths, Burgundians, Gepids,
Heruli and Thuringians, etc.). Fighting
against
the Huns was the Roman general
Flavius Aetius, supported by Rome’s Germanic
allies (Visigoths, Franks, and
Alani).
453 Death of Attila.
454 Assassination
of Aetius.
455 Capture of Rome by the Vandals. The emperor takes refuge in Ravenna.
463 The
Burgundians settle in the Rhone Valley.
The early Germanic kingdoms: the
Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse and the Frankish kingdom (451-507)
466 Euric
(+ 484) becomes the King of the Visigoths.
476 Following
the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus by Odoacer, King of the
Heruli, the Visigothic kingdom of Tolosa,
having arisen in 416 with Valia, becomes
the largest Germanic kingdom in
the West.
481 Clovis
(+511), of the Merovingian clan, becomes King of the Franks.
486 The
Franks, led by Clovis, defeat the Gallo-Romans, led by Afranius, at
Soissons.
The last Germanic invasions: the
Ostrogoths and Lombards occupy Italy (493-568)
493 The
Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great (+526) creates a powerful Germanic
kingdom in Italy.
496 Clovis converts to Catholicism. Soon after he defeats the Alamanni at
Tolbiac.
500 The
Burgundians are defeated by the Franks.
507 Clovis annihilates the Visigoths at Vouillé (Campus
Vogladensis) in
southern France. Death of the Visigoth’s King Alaric II.
511 Death
of Clovis.
516 The
Burgundian King Sigismund converts to Christianity.
526 Death
of the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great.
550 Rechiar, King of the Suebi, converts to Christianity through the
influence
of St. Martin of Dumium.
552 The
Byzantine troops sent by Justinian (527-565) fail to conquer the entire
Italian Peninsula after a
brutal war.
568 The Lombards, led by King Alboin, invade Italy when
pressured by the
Avars. They soon drive the Byzantines out of
northern Italy (Po Valley, which
comes to be called “Lombardy”).
The Visigothic kingdom of Toledo and
the Muslim expansion (573-711)
573 Leovigild (573-586) ascends to the Visigothic throne. He is
considered the founder
of the Kingdom of Toledo, which would
last until 711.
585 Authari,
King of the Lombards, converts to Catholicism.
589 Reccared I renounces Arianism.
622 Muhammad
flees from Mecca and takes refuge in Medina (Hijra).
631 The
Byzantines are expelled from the Iberian Peninsula by Suintila.
632 Muhammad dies in Medina.
642 The
Muslims manage to conquer Alexandria.
647 The
Byzantines are defeated by the Muslims at Sbeitla. However, Emperor
Constant II
buys the Muslims’ withdrawal from North Africa.
655 The
Byzantine fleet is defeated by the Muslims at Lycia.
676 After
four years the Arabs lift their siege of Constantinople. The caliph
Ahmed-ben-Moavia signs a 30-year peace.
695 The
Muslims conquer Carthage (Tunisia) and manage to permanently drive
the Byzantines out of the
Maghreb.
709 The
Visigoths lose Ceuta to the Moors.
711 The Visigoths’ King Roderic is defeated by the
Muslims.
Christianity and the Germanic
peoples (5th and 6th centuries)
325 Council of Nicaea.
Condemnation of Aryanism.
380 The Edict of Thessalonica, issued by Theodosius
(379-395), decrees the
official nature of
Christianity.
383 Death
of Ulfilas (born in 311).
392 The
Edict of Constantinople prohibits all pagan practices. Christianity, the
only religion tolerated.
431 St.
Patrick begins the evangelization of Ireland.
496 Baptism
of the Frankish king Clovis by St. Remigius.
516 The
Burgundian King Sigismund converts to Christianity.
529 Foundation
of the first monastery in the West.
Monte Cassino (Italy) of the
Benedictine Order (St.
Benedict of Nursia [480-547]).
550 Rechiar,
King of the Suebi, converts to Christianity, thanks to the influence
of St. Martin of Dumium.
585 Authari,
King of the Lombards, converts to Catholicism.
589 The Visigoth King Reccared I renounces Arianism.
590-604 Pope
Gregory the Great significantly bolsters the authority of the Church of
Rome over all of Christendom.
II SOME WORDS
Akhenaton
Solomon
Torah
Talmud
Diaspora
Saint Paul
Edict of Milan
Council of Elvira
Apostate
Edict of
Thessalonica
Church
Orthodox
Catholic
Caesaropapism
Foedus
Odoacer
Nation
König
Mallus
Auctoritas vs potestas
Euric
Kingdom of Toulouse
Leovigild
Kingdom of Toledo
Dukes
Liber Iudiciorum
Councils of Toledo
Arianism
Ulfilas
Reccared I
St.
Benedict of Nursia
Priscillian
heresy
Protofeudalization
III QUESTIONS
a) The
origins of Christianity
1. Church and state in the western tradition
2. The origins of Judaism: from Moses to king
Solomon
3. The origins of Christianism: from Jesus
(Christ) to St. Paul
4. Christianity and the Roman empire: from
persecutions to officiality
5. Christianity’s political dimension: a state
within the state
6. From Christian churches to Catholic church.
b) The
Germanic kingdoms
7. Diversity vs unity
8. The origin of European nations
9. Roman monarchy vs German Royalty
10. The
gradual assimilation of the Roman imperial tradition by the Germanic kingdoms
11. The structural
weakness of the Germanic kingdoms: patrimonial possession, inheritance and
protofeudalism
12. Christianity
and the Germanic peoples: the Church and the preservation of the Roman “state”
tradition
c) The Visigothic kingdom
13. ¿How and when did the Visigoths came to Spain? ¿Where did the y settle?
14. From
Toulouse to Toledo.
15. ¿How
was Visigothic Kingship: Roman, Theocratical, Aristocratical?
16. ¿What
means the statement that the Kingdom of Toledo developed a new pattern of regional and local overlordship?
17. ¿What
Law was applied in the Kingdom of Toledo?
18. ¿Was
the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo a Unitarian state? Think about the type of
population, the social structure, the political institutions.
IV TEXTS:
1st text: the ten commandments (Deuteronomy 5: 1-32)
“5. Moses summoned all Israel and said:
Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 It was not with our ancestors[a] that the Lord made this covenant, but
with us,with all of us who are alive here today. 4 The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. 5 (At that time I stood between the Lord and you to declare to
you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:
6 “I
am the Lord your God, who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery.
7 “You shall have no other gods before me.
8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form
of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You
shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous
God, punishing the children for the sin of the parentsto the third and fourth
generation of those who hate me, 10 but
showing love to a thousand generations of those
who love me and keep my commandments.
11 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone
guiltless who misuses his name.
12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your
God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but
the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you
shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or
female servant, nor your ox, your
donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so
that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 15 Remember
that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you
out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm.Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded
you, so that you may live long and that it may go well
with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
17 “You shall not murder.
18 “You shall not commit adultery.
19 “You shall not steal.
20 “You shall not give false testimony against your
neighbor.
21 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall
not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female
servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
22 These
are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain
from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.
23 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while
the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your
elders came to me. 24 And
you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a
person can live even if God speaks with them. 25 But
now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we
hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. 26 For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living
God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 27 Go
near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever
the Lord our God tells you. We
will listen and obey.”
28 The Lord heard you when you spoke to me, and the Lordsaid
to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was
good. 29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it
might go well with them and their children forever!
30 “Go, tell them to return to their tents. 31 But
you stay herewith me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws
you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”
32 So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded
you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33 Walk
in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong
your days in the land that you will possess”
2nd text:
Judaism as the basis of political and legal structure of Jewish society
“Judaism is not only a religion, as
it features a political and a legal dimension as well. This is why the famed
Torah contains legal aspects in addition to religious ones. Concretely, in its
first five books (the Pentateuch), the most important for the Jews, it contains
rules aimed at allowing early Hebrew society to become the Kingdom of Israel
after its flight from Egypt . The best-known law is that of the Ten
Commandments, said to have been given by Yahweh to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus
20:3-17 and Deuteronomy 5:7-21), but this is not the only one appearing in the
Biblical text. Also worthy of mention is
the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22-25, 33), which is a genuine codification
of laws and customs, featuring religious norms (condemning false gods and
regulating celebrations and clerical statutes), social norms (regulations of
slavery) and penal ones (the death penalty for cases of murder; punishments for
beatings or injuries, robbery, rape; the indemnification of damages, etc.).
The social, political and legal dimension
of the Bible was crucial, as it allowed the Jews to survive as a people for 18
centuries, without a homeland, dispersed throughout the world. Despite the
"Diaspora" the Jewish people were able to maintain their religion and
their law, even without a fixed territory. The Jews constitute a unique
illustration in history of how religion can become the basis upon which a
society is structured and the source of its law”
3d text: Had not been
for Saint Paul
“Ironically, it was an enemy of the
Christians who would assure the new religion’s triumph. Namely, Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee, who in
his youth had been one of the most zealous persecutors of the new “sect.” But Saul, suddenly, converted to
Christianity (The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 9), and, to the dismay of his
former allies, decided to spread the teachings of Christ among non-Jews
(“Gentiles”). To this end Paul organized
and paid visits to various communities of Christians, and later sent them letters:
the famous Epistles of St. Paul . Coming
from a lettered person and a former Pharisee, Paul 's writings had an enormous
impact. Thanks to the “apostle of the Gentiles” Christianity spread rapidly
among non-Jews, the vast majority of the Empire’s inhabitants . Had it not been
for Paul, Christianity would not have become one of history’s major
religions.
It is worthy of note that Paul,
despite being of Jewish origin and being educated as a Pharisee, was legally a
Roman citizen. It was this that
bolstered his influence amongst the Gentiles. In fact, when he was arrested as
a subversive by the Roman authorities he appealed to Rome, as was his right,
and was, therefore, not crucified like St. Peter, but beheaded by order of Nero
in 67 AD”.
4th text: From
Christianity to Church
“Official recognition by Rome of
Christianity had far-reaching implications for it, as it took on a political
dimension which it originally lacked.
The church (ekklesia in Greek,
meaning “assembly”) as the meeting of all the faithful, went from being a mere
abstraction to a strong and thoroughly structured political and administrative
organization, extending territorially throughout the Empire, featuring parishes
and patriarchates, overseen by dioceses presided over by bishops, in what
amounted to a veritable state within a state, with its own governing bodies,
bishops gathered in councils, and its own law determined by council-issued
ecclesiastical accords (canons). The
emergence of churches called for a class of people devoting all of their time
to ministerial activities”.
5th text. Catholicism
Following the Council of Elvira (early 4th century)
the records indicate that councils were held with increasing frequency. In
these early councils the bishops not only resolved organizational issues, but
began to define the dogmatic features which would eventually come to define
official Christian doctrine in an effort to advance the unity of the
Church. The churches continued to retain
their autonomy, but above them the idea of a universal church was crystallizing, whose members
embraced a single body of beliefs (Hanzon, 1989).
The universality of the Church required, however,
choosing the correct interpretation of the Scriptures which, once adopted by
all the bishops, were to be maintained as the only valid ones for all churches.
Fundamental to the orthodox consensus (Pelikan 1975, 333) was the affirmation
of the authority of tradition believed “everywhere, always, by all” (Ubique,
Semper, Ab Omnibus) . This approach entailed
condemning views which deviated or diverged from those approved by the
councils. Thus emerged the concept of heresy – from the Greek hairesis (choice)
– to designate all those doctrines that were rejected by the gatherings of
bishops. In this way a whole series of beliefs were dismissed and condemned,
among them those of the Arians, the Pelagians, the Pneumatomachi, the
Monothelites, the Nestorians, the Monophysites, the Donatists and the
Priscillianists. Thus was constituted a
body of interpretations of the Scriptures established as “orthodox” – (from the
Greek words orthos (straight) and doxa (opinion).
All this work involving the unification of dogma was
also possible because, during the 4th century, there appeared a number of
remarkable Christian authors and thinkers producing writings of great
importance (Young, 1989). This second generation of Christian intellectuals
came to be called the “Fathers of the Church” to differentiate them from the
“Apologists” who had preceded them.
While the latter arose primarily in the West, the Fathers of the Church
were more numerous in the Eastern area of the Empire (Greek Patrology) though
there were also important Fathers in the Western sphere as well (Latin
Patrology) .
The orthodox interpretation of Scripture led to a
progressive universalization of Christianity.
Thus did the Christian churches unify, forming a single entity, the
Catholic Church (from the Greek katholikós, meaning “universal” or “general;”
the preposition katha meaning “on” or “downwards” while the adjective holós
means “whole” or “complete.”).
6th text:
Caesaropapism.
“The recognition of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire
would give rise to the problem of relations between the civil and
ecclesiastical powers (Caesaropapism), as the emperors were loath to tolerate
the existence of an independent power over a strictly spiritual domain. It may
be said that following the Edict of Milan (313) the emperors acted to intervene
in the ecclesiastical sphere, even in regards to strictly doctrinal matters, in
order to strengthen their political positions”.
7th text: The origins of European nations
“It is significant that most of these kingdoms
adopted the name of the Germanic people which settled the territory. And that each one of these peoples formed a
“nation”, a term then used to designate all its individuals. So the territory
of the old Western Roman Empire was now occupied by the Visigothic,
Ostrogothic, Frankish, Burgundian or Lombardian nations. Every Germanic nation
tended therefore to have its own “national” law.
Over the course of the Middle
Ages these national denominations ended up designating either kingdoms or
regions. In the early 13th century the kingdom of the Franks would end up
becoming the kingdom of France. The Alamanni
ended up giving their name to what in Spanish is Alemania, in Portuguese
Alemanha, in French Allemagne, etc.
(Germany). England is so named as it was the “land of the Angles.” Burgundy, meanwhile, is the region where the
Burgundians settled; Bavaria, the land of the Bavarians; and Lombardy, the land
of the Lombards. The names of other regions in Europe, however, retained
evidence of their Roman heritage, probably because they were settled by
multiple peoples: this was true
of Spain (originally Hispania, España in Spanish) settled by the
Romans, Byzantines, Suevi and Visigoths before the Muslim takeover in the 8th
century; and with Italy (Italia),
occupied by the Romans, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines and the Lombards. In both cases the geographical denominations
prevailed.
It is true that two
communities initially existed in all these kingdoms: the dominant Germanic
minority and the remaining population, of Roman origin. These two “nations,” however, melded into one
people over time. For example, in the
case of Visigothic Spain the merging of these two communities had taken place
by the middle of the 7th century.
Eventually the Germanic kingdoms tended to become genuine territorial states in which Germans and
Romans ended up forming a single body of citizens.
Following the Germanic
invasions the term “nation,” thus, made
its appearance in the West’s political and legal vocabulary. The term “nation”
would continue to be used during the Middle Ages, though with another meaning.
Specifically, in Europe’s medieval universities, which were made up of
“nations,” a term which designated a group of students from the same region or
province who spoke the same language. It is significant that the term “nation”
would also be used to refer to the areas settled by merchants from the same
region or kingdom, who did business in the Europe’s different trading squares;
that is, associations of “foreign” merchants whose function was to defend the
interests of their “nationals.”
It should be noted that the
meaning of the term “nation” was originally quite different, as after the
outbreak of the American and French Revolutions, in 1776 and 1789, respectively
a “nation” came to be understood as a “body of citizens whose collective
sovereignty constituted them into a state which was their political
expression,” as subsequently observed by John Stuart Mill in 1861 and Ernest
Renan in 1882. This meaning of the term
would persist after the end of the First World War, when U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson argued at Versailles that the new European order should be based on a
strict respect for the “principle of nationalities.” This posture led to the appearance of new
states and sparked a resurgence of nationalism, which led directly to World War
II. Currently the terms “nation” and
“nationalism” are proving contentious in states where there are separatist
movements, such as in Quebec (Canada); in Belgium, where the state is on the
verge of disappearing due to the irreconcilable division of the Flemish and the
Walloons; and, to a lesser extent, in Spain’s Autonomous Communities of
Catalonia and the Basque Country, where there exist regional autonomy parties
which, to varying degree, endorse independence. Or, more recently, in Scotland where First Minister Alex Salmond intends to
ask voters if Scotland should become an independent country, in the line of the
two former devolution referendums of 1979 and 1997”.
8th text: Germanic
kings vs Roman emperors
“The
Germanic peoples had no tradition of politically structured societies. Only
during wars did soldiers designate a temporary military commander (Heerkönige), elected to lead their
people or tribe’s army during a campaign. Unlike the Romans, however, the
Germanic peoples did not feature “monarchy,” that is, the sustained possession
of power by one individual. In this case, therefore, kingship and monarchy were
not synonymous. The Germanic word to designate the king was könig, coming from the verb könen
(to be able to). The Germanic king was
“he who can,” that is, he who is empowered to act. He was held to be kind of priest or magician
who interceded before supernatural powers.
Though king was thought to be favored by the gods, he was to be elected
by the assembly (concilium). The
electio in this sense has a
declaratory role, as it served to confirm a pre-existing state of affairs. It served to designate he who, through his
personal qualities, imposed himself on the community (auctoritas versus potestas).
The
Germanic king, thus, was no dominus
with absolute power over a territory and its inhabitants. He stood at the head
of a people who elected him, but after his appointment power still resided in
the community. Traditionally the most
important decisions were made by the assembly of all the free men (mallus). Over time, however, between the assembly
of free men and the king, a group of eminent members of the community came to
intercede (nobiles, magnates). They
were the equivalent of the old companions of the emperor (comes), comprising the comitatum
(Gefolgschaft in German). They swore allegiance to the king, in return
for which they obtained a substantial portion of the spoils from military
campaigns”
9th text:
From German to Roman political and legal tradition
“If
in the field of succession the Germanic kings gradually moved away from the
Roman imperial tradition, in the legislative and jurisdictional fields they
moved closer to it. They not only began to legislate, but appointed judges.
Originally the law for the Germans had been the custom of each people,
clarified by the assembly of warriors when there was a conflict. The same assembly was the entity which judged
cases and issued verdicts. Thus, law was
not created ex novo. Rather, the
unwritten tradition was simply concretized when necessary.
From
the time when the Germanic kingdoms emerged, however, monarchs strove to
monopolize the legislative function by following the example of the emperors of
the Dominate. Submission to the traditional or customary law of each people,
inspired by the practices of past Germanic kings, gave way in many cases to
monarchs gradually enacting laws. In
some cases they consolidated this new power to create law with the support of
the Church, as happened, for example, at the councils of Toledo in the
Visigothic kingdom, which approved the laws proposed by the kings”.
10th text: Christianity
and the new Germanic peoples
“One of the reasons Germanic
kings had problems consolidating their power was that, from the beginning, they
had to deal with local churches representing the whole of the predominantly
Roman population. This conflict would be resolved in favor of ecclesiastical
power after the kings converted to Catholicism. At this juncture the Church
came to support royalty in exchange for the kings’ endorsement and defense of
this religious organization, profoundly influenced by the Roman political and
legal model”.
11th text: The Church and the “Romanization” of the Germanic kingdoms
“The
influence of the church on the government and the legal organization of the new
kingdoms was crucial because it served to sustain the Roman model of
government. Moreover, it can be said that the Church encouraged its
continuation by imposing its political ideology on the Germanic kings who
converted to Catholicism.
The
clearest and most relevant case is that of Visigothic Spain, where after the
conversion of Reccared (589) the Church clearly imposed itself on the civil
authority. Of special note in this regard was the role played by the councils
of Toledo, mixed assemblies in which the members of the Visigothic nobility
served together with the bishops, and which adopted rules essential to the
organization of the kingdom. For
example, at the Fourth Council of Toledo (633) an elective procedure to
designate the king was approved, having the important consequence that the
nominee was anointed by the Church, a ceremony that made him a sacred and
inviolable individual, with the corollary that, by becoming a Christian king,
he was made subject to the Church’s authority.
It is in this significant sense that Canon 9 of the 16th Council of
Toledo (693) regarded kings as “vicars of God.”
12th text: Christian
Spain
Christianity
spread through Roman Hispania during the second
and third centuries. There, as elsewhere, it was a predominantly urban religion. Large portions of the
countryside remained for a long time almost untouched, as did most of Cantabria
and almost all the Basque region. By the beginning
of the fourth century, however, Hispania apparently had a Christian
minority at least as large proportionately as that of the empire as a
whole--upwards of l0 percent. After the official recognition of the church
early in the fourth century, its following greatly increased, until almost the
entire peninsula had become Christian.
The pattern of Hispanic church organization
was similar to that of most other parts of the empire: bishoprics became
coterminous with the urban-centered civitas units and archepiscopal sees were
established in provincial capitals. Theologically the Hispanic church was
orthodox Catholic, though the Priscillian
heresy of the late fourth century originated in Galicia (the northwestern
corner of the peninsula) and Donatism was temporarily widespread in the fifth
century. Yet the orthodox Hispano-Catholic church became increasingly strong
and well organized, and provided spiritual and cultural leadership and identity
which a faltering imperial government could no longer offer.
13th text: The Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo
13.1 Arrival
of Visigoths
The
dissolution of Roman authority and its replacement by that of a Visigothic
monarchy was a long, slow process. There was
no sudden Visigothic invasion or conquest. The small host of the Visigothic
ruler Ataulf that crossed the Pyrenees into Hispania in 415 acted as a federated army of the feeble Roman
state, charged with expelling Vandal invaders from southern Hispania and
subduing the Germanic Suevi who had dominated the northwestern quarter of the
peninsula for several years. From their principal base in southwestern France, Visigothic bands slowly began to extend
their control over the more lightly inhabited central plateau of the peninsula,
sometimes acting in the name of the emperor, sometimes merely advancing their
own interests. The imperial government had broken down and the Hispanic
population lacked the civil or military means to defend itself.
The main body of Visigoths did not enter
the peninsula until the reign of Alaric
II (484-507), and then largely as a result of military pressure from the
Franks to the north. They may have numbered no more than 300,000 in a peninsula
with 4,000,000 inhabitants. The Visigoths were superior to the Hispani only in
the application of armed force; economically, socially, and culturally the
Hispanic population was in most regions far more advanced.
Though
before their entry into the peninsula the Visigoths were culturally more
Romanized than any other Germanic group, they were an essentially pastoral people, unlike the Ostrogoths
and Suevi, whose societies were agrarian. The Visigoths settled in greatest
numbers in the more sparsely populated,
largely pastoral north-central area of the peninsula, and were thereby isolated from the main social and
economic centers of the Hispanic population.
13.2 Visigothic Kingdom
13.2.1 From
Toulouse to Toledo
The
Visigothic monarchy as an independent state was first proclaimed by Euric in southwestern France in 476,
after the deposition of the last emperor in Rome by the Ostrogoths. The
political center of the monarchy was not moved to the peninsula, however, until
the reign of Athanagild (551-567),
when a new capital was established at the town of Toledo in the central plateau, moving the axis of Hispanic life
from the coastal regions for the first time. Visigothic authority was slowly
expanded throughout the entire peninsula with the conquest of the Suevi during
the reign of Leovigild (568-586) and
the expulsion of Byzantine forces from their last remaining toehold in the
southeast by Swinthila (621-631).
13.2.2 Visigothic
Kingship
Like other
post-Roman rulers in different parts of the former empire, the Visigothic kings
of Hispania considered themselves the heirs
of Rome and adopted Roman insignia and symbols of authority. They viewed
themselves as successors, rather than destroyers or even replacers, of the
empire. The Visigothic monarchy accepted
the Roman theory of the state as a public
power resting upon essentially absolute authority, though the official
conversion to Catholicism that occurred during the reign of Leovigild accepted
a modification of royal sovereignty by the religious and ethical tutelage of the church.
13.2.3 An
Hispanic church politically decisive
It has
sometimes been maintained that under the Visigothic monarchy a mode of theocracy developed that thereafter
characterized Hispanic religion and government. Such a notion is considerably
exaggerated. Even during the Arian period of the Visigothic monarchy, when a
great theological gulf existed between the rulers and organized Christianity,
the Hispanic bishops proved
themselves to be obedient to legally established authority. They rarely
hesitated to uphold the power of the state in the secular realm, even to the
extent of supporting one Arian king against his rebellious (but orthodox
Catholic) son. When finally the monarchy accepted Catholicism in 589, it was made clear that this
conversion was not forced upon the state by the church but was freely decided
upon by the monarchy to promote its own interests. The church lost a
significant measure of independence by recognizing the right of the crown to
appoint the members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The king became the nominal head of church councils and took a formal
responsibility to see that church affairs were properly run. The subsequent Councils of Toledo were organized along
more or less Byzantine lines as mixed
assemblies of high ecclesiastical and state officials, with the clerics
responsible for church affairs and the secular officials bearing primary responsibility
for state legislation.
Thus rather
than theocracy there developed a church-state
symbiosis in which the power of the crown was uppermost but in which the
church played a major role in trying to stabilize public institutions and
authority. After the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633. approval by the councils was required to legalize succession to the nonhereditary Visigothic throne,
anathematize usurpers, and ratify amnesties. Church leaders were increasingly
employed by the crown in administration because they were the primary source of
educated, technically competent, and trustworthy personnel. Yet the crown did
not intervene in the theological affairs of the church; religious councils were
presided over by an archbishop, not the king. The Christian church became the
only cohesive institution in Visigothic Hispania.
The early Hispanic church reached its cultural
height during the era of Isidore of
Seville (first third of the seventh century), shining briefly as the
brightest center of learning in western Europe. For the common people it
provided the only identity and hope which they knew during this period. Hispanic monasteries played a special
role, becoming quite numerous, and the most active force in raising spiritual
standards, expanding the influence of the church, and providing a spiritual
leadership for the church.
Toward the
end of the Visigothic period the church
had become a major property holder, with almost every parish and monastery
of note possessing lands or rights that provided it with income. The church had
achieved a special legal status,
developing a code of canon law and special tribunals for the clergy and their
affairs. The Hispanic church thus came to constitute a fairly well ordered
state of its own within the poorly structured Visigothic political framework. By
the fifth century there had developed a distinctively
Hispanic church, whose individual religious culture was most evident in the
use of the special Hispanic rite (futur
Mozarabic rite) in its services until the eleventh century.
Yet despite
its outwardly imposing strength, the Hispanic church failed to incorporate all
the population of the peninsula within its following even as late as the
seventh century. The peoples of the northern hills remained vague in their
religious identification, while the Basques were almost untouched by
Christianity. Even among the more densely inhabited southern and eastern
districts, conversion of much of the rural population remained nominal at best.
Hispanic Christianity was still to a considerable degree an urban religion, and tended to become
weaker the farther one moved from the principal centers of population.
13.2.4 Territorial
organization
The
Visigothic monarchy remained an elective institution, each new king nominally chosen or ratified by the aristocracy.
The crown was assisted in decisions and administration by an aula regia or royal council, but until
the next to the last generation of Visigothic rule broad assemblies of notables
were called to ratify important decisions, a last residue of the earlier tribal
assemblies of the Germanic peoples. Administratively,
the Visigothic monarchy relied on much of Roman usage and employed Hispanic
personnel in local administration. By the sixth century, however, the Roman
administrative system had fallen into such decay that it could not be revived,
and in place of the old provincial system there evolved a new pattern of regional and local overlordship based upon regional dukes (duces) and heads of smaller
districts or territoria called counts (comes). The new ducal administrative
regions tended to coincide with the old Roman provinces, and the territoria of
the counts with the old civitas units. The old
municipal system also fell into desuetude and was slowly replaced by a
pattern of royal administration and
local overlords nominally ratified by the crown.
13.2.5 The
Law
Roman law had to be relied upon in
administering the affairs of the social and economic infrastructure, and over a
period of two centuries there evolved a slow fusion of Visigothic custom and Roman common law. The general trend
was away from the Roman system of explicit private property toward more
communal, reciprocal, usufructural relations in the ownership and use of
property. The Hispano-Visigothic modus vivendi found codified expression in the
promulgation of the Liber ludiciorum
(later commonly known in Castilian as the Fuero Juzgo) in 654. This fusion of aspects of Visigothic
personal codes with Latin civil and property law superseded several less complete
codifications and provided an organized code on which to base property rights
and civil administration for the Visigothic aristocracy and, to some extent,
the Hispanic common people.
13.2.6 Social
structure: protofeudalization
The
Visigothic monarchy never developed a cohesive polity. Visigothic aristocrats and military leaders deemed themselves part
of a personal power association with the crown and resisted extension of
control. Royal succession remained
elective, and the entire history of the monarchy was one of revolt and
assassination. If the Visigothic
aristocracy was unable to develop a unified, viable political system, it was
nevertheless itself the beginning of the historic Hispanic master class. At the top of Hispano-Visigothic society there
emerged an elite of some two hundred
leading aristocratic families
associated with the court and a broader aristocratic class of perhaps ten
thousand people who held possession of most of the best land. Under the
Visigoths, the aristocracy did not form a closed caste but were steadily
recruited from below on the strength of personal achievement or royal favor.
Over a period of a century or more there occurred a partial fusion of the original Visigothic warrior aristocracy and
the socioeconomic elite of Hispanic
society.
In this
Visigothic caste the military
aristocracy of the peninsula had its roots, creating a style and a
psychology of the warrior nobleman
that provided the dominant leadership for
Hispanic society for more than a thousand years; this psychology ultimately
managed to superimpose its values and attitudes on much of the society as a
whole. Yet the success of the aristocratic ethos was a consequence of the experience of medieval Hispania, not of the rule
of the Visigothic oligarchy, which largely proved an historic failure.
The weakness of monarchy and the strength of
the noble class (magnates) enabled the early development of a process of protofeudalization that expanded more
rapidly in Visigothic Hispania than in Merovingian France. Decentralization was unavoidable, and power became a matter of
personal relationship and example. The chief lieutenants of the crown were
rewarded for their services by salaries or stipendia in the form of
overlordship of land or temporary assignment of income from land held in precarium, that is, on a nominally
revocable basis. This system was actually first used by the church to support
local establishments, and by the seventh
century was widely employed by the crown and also by the magnates (the high aristocracy) to pay
their chief supporters and military retainers. The process of
protofeudalization inevitably carried with it a splintering of juridical and economic sovereignty that further
weakened political unity.
In the
seventh century the caste relationship between the ruling group and much of the
peasantry was little better than that of master
to serf. A large proportion of the peasantry
had been reduced to a kind of serfdom, and as the economy declined,
economic exactions very likely increased. Evidence indicates that many Hispanic
serfs and even many free peasants did not consider the protection and
leadership they received worth the service demanded of them. During the last
Visigothic century there were a number of peasant revolts and urban riots in
protest against economic conditions.
Most of the
Hispanic population remained juridically free, but the process of commendatio continued, as peasants pledged parts of
their land or services to local overlords for security, and the class of enserfed coloni grew larger. Yet there
were still a number of relatively autonomous
local rural communities that preserved their legal identity.
13.2.7 Romans,
Germans and others
Even at its
height, Roman rule had been unable to eliminate the strong regional and ethnic
differences that divided the peninsula, and these became more pronounced again
under the Visigoths. Fusion between the
Visigothic elite and the Hispani population was never complete. The
northwestern corner of the peninsula, ruled for two hundred years by the Suevi monarchy, remained a distinctive,
not thoroughly assimilated region. The southwestern tip of France, known as Septimania, remained under Visigothic
rule and tended to link northeastern Hispania with France. The sophisticated
eastern coastal region had long been interconnected with the commerce and
culture of the Italian peninsula, while the equally sophisticated towns of the
south were closely associated with northwest
Africa and with Byzantine commerce. In the far north, Asturians and Cantabrians were at best only partly assimilated, and
the Basques remained almost entirely apart. Finally, there was a significant Jewish minority in the southern and
eastern towns that played a major role in manufacturing and commerce. Subjected
to attempted conversion and sporadic persecution by the Visigothic crown in the
seventh century, Hispanic Jews were a politically disaffected and potentially
rebellious element in the major towns.
