Recognition of the Royal Authority in the Ecclesiastical Visigoth Councils (6th- 8th Centuries)

ORLOWSKI, SABRINA SOLEDAD

Londres

Conferencia; Power and place in Later Roman and early medieval Europe: interdisciplinary perspectives on governance and civil organization; 2011

University College London, Institute of Archaeology

The issues on ecclesiastical matters (regulation of liturgical practices, discussions about dogma and doctrine) and canon law (sanctions on the behavior of priests and catechumens, imposition of punishment on those who exercised pagan practices) were dealt with in the Episcopal Councils. However, during the 6th and 7th centuries, these conclaves (especially those held in Toledo) started to play the role of general assemblies of the kingdom with the participation of the high clergy, priests and deacons, the king, members of the aristocracy and, occasionally, the royal committee, the fideles regis. P.C. Díaz Martínez claims that the king found the legitimation and protection that he needed to govern in the councils; in agreement with this author, this paper adds that the main reason for the convocation was searching for the recognition of the royal authority. The documents that form the compendium of the Ecclesiastical Visigothic Councils will be analyzed in order to prove the proposed hypothesis. To achieve the recognition of the aristocracy, the kings had to build solid alliances. The nature of these alliances was unstable, since the kingdom's magnates expected economic benefits in exchange for this recognition (translated into political support). However, owing to the general situation of the kingdom (food crisis, reduction of tax collection, weak subjection of workforce, wars), the kings controlled a limited volume of goods, and the immediate consequence was the uneven distribution among the members of the aristocracy. The delivery of goods affected the sector of the aristocracy dissenting with the king. By granting awards to some aristocrats and denying them to others, the distribution turned explosive and unstable, leading to struggles for the throne and the denial of the royal authority. The council minutes are constituted only by the resolutions adopted by the assembly after obtaining the unanimous support of those attending the meeting, as the notary transcribed the dicta and decrees, and not their full development, once they were passed, a process that could last for several days. Nevertheless, the minutes contained certain expressions revealing that the promulgated canons were discussed and deliberated by the entire council and that there were embroiled debates when dealing with vitally important matters concerning the kingdom in general. Therefore, if at certain times the kings had to endorse their decisions, and at other times they had to submit their authority to the will of the aristocrats gathered to deal with government affairs, their authority may be inferred to have been conditioned by the magnates at those moments, this being a factor that destabilized the royal power. On other occasions, the meeting was promoted by the highest leaders of the kingdom. The reasons, some with implicit signs about the royal political instability, were multiple, including: i. To seek legal recognition of the kingdom from the bishops and the Primates of the palace (mainly if the ascension to the throne had been irregular) as the council minutes confirmed the person in the throne: the headlines included the city and church where the celebration was performed, the date and year of the monarch?s reign, his name was always accompanied by adjectives of praise. ii. To agree on government?s actions, either already performed or future, that may demand aristocrat, episcopal and lay approval. iii. To condemn political enemies, especially after defeating a rebellion. iv. To establish links with some fraction of the aristocracy that had been condemned by some of the previous kings by amnesty and property restitution, so long as it does not affect the ruling king?s supporters. An approach to the functioning of Visigothic Councils makes it possible to conclude that the power of the kings of the Iberian Peninsula was not an absolute one, but conditioned by the correlation of the political forces of that time. The kings permanently needed both the lay and the ecclesiastic aristocracy to have their authority approved and to be granted the necessary support to govern.