[Edit] Visigothic religion

Capital from the Visigothic church of San Pedro de la Nave.

See also: Visigothic script

There was a religious gulf between the Visigoths, who had for a long time adhered to Arianism, and their Catholic subjects in Hispania. The Iberian Visigoths continued to be Arians until 589. For the role of Arianism in Visigothic kingship, see the entry for Liuvigild.

There were also deep sectarian splits among the Catholic population of the peninsula. The ascetic Priscillian of Avila was martyred by orthodox Catholic forces in 385, before the Visigothic period, and the persecution continued in subsequent generations as "Priscillianist" heretics were rooted out. At the very beginning of Leo I's pontificate, in the years 444-447, Turribius, bishop of Astorga in León, sent to Rome a memorandum warning that Priscillianism was by no means dead, reporting that it numbered even bishops among its supporters, and asking the aid of the Roman See. The distance was insurmountable in the 5th century.^[15] Nevertheless Leo intervened, by forwarding a set of propositions that each bishop was required to sign: all did. But if Priscillianist bishops hesitated to be barred from their sees, a passionately concerned segment of Christian communities in Iberia were disaffected from the more orthodox hierarchy and welcomed the tolerant Arian Visigoths. The Visigoths scorned to interfere among Catholics but were interested in decorum and public order.^[16]

The Arian Visigoths were also tolerant of Jews, a tradition that lingered in post-Visigothic Septimania, exemplified by the career of Ferreol, Bishop of Uzès (died 581).

In 589, King Reccared converted his people to Catholicism. With the Catholicization of the Visigothic kings, the Catholic bishops increased in power, until, at the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633, they took upon themselves the nobles' right to select a king from among the royal family. Visigothic persecution of Jews began after the conversion to Catholicism of the Visigothic king Reccared. In 633 the same synod of Catholic bishops that usurped the Visigothic nobles' right to confirm the election of a king declared that all Jews must be baptised.

In the eighth through eleventh centuries the muwallad clan of the Banū Qāsī claimed descent from the Visigothic Count Cassius.

[Edit] Visigothic culture

Belt buckle. Gilt and silvered bronze and glass paste, Visigothic Aquitaine, 6th century. Found in 1868 in the Visigothic necropolis of Tressan, Hérault, Languedoc (Musée national du Moyen Âge)

[Edit] Law

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The Visigothic Code of Law (forum judicum), which had been part of aristocratic oral tradition, was set in writing in the early 7th century— and survives in two separate codices preserved at the Escorial. It goes into more detail than a modern constitution commonly does and reveals a great deal about Visigothic social structure.

[edit] Art and architecture

Main article: Visigothic art and architecture

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[edit] Kings of the Visigoths

[edit] Terving kings

These kings and leaders, with the exception of Fritigern, and the possible exception of Alavivus, were pagans.

• Athanaric (369–381)

  • Rothesteus, sub-king

  • Winguric, sub-king

• Alavivus (c. 376), rebel against Valens

• Fritigern (c. 376–c. 380), rebel against Athanaric and Valens

[edit] Balti dynasty

These kings were Arians, but they tended to succeed their fathers or close relatives on the throne and thus constitute a dynasty.

• Alaric I (395–410)

• Athaulf (410–415)

• Sigeric (415)

• Wallia (415–419)

• Theodoric I (419–451)

• Thorismund (451–453)

• Theodoric II (453–466)

• Euric (466–484)

• Alaric II (484–507)

• Gesalec (507–511)

  • Theodoric the Great (511–526), regent

• Amalaric (526–531)