589 synod in which Visigothic Spain entered the Catholic Church
The
Third
Council of Toledo
(589) marks the entry of
Visigothic Spain
into the
Catholic Church
, and is known for codifying the
filioque
clause into
Western Christianity
.
[1]
[2]
The council also enacted restrictions on
Jews
, and the conversion of the country to Catholic Christianity led to repeated conflict with the Jews.
[3]
Arian Goths
[
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]
In the 4th century, the bishop
Wulfila
(
c
310 – 383) invented a script for the
Gothic language
, translated the
Bible
into Gothic, and converted the Goths to
Arian
Christianity.
[4]
When the
Visigoths
traveled west, they encountered
Latin Christians
, for whom Arianism was anathema. The
Visigoths
held to their Arian beliefs and refused to join the
Catholic Church
.
Attempts to unify
[
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]
Prior to the Council in
Toledo
, King Reccared had convened informal assemblies of bishops to resolve the religious schism in his kingdom. At the second assembly both Arian and Catholic bishops presented their arguments, while Reccared pointed out that no Arian bishop had ever performed a healing miracle. The last assembly consisted of only Catholic bishops, where upon Reccared accepted the Catholic faith.
[5]
Bishop Leander and King Reccared
[
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]
The Council was organized by Bishop
Leander of Seville
,
[5]
who had worked tirelessly to convert the
Arian
Visigothic kings and had succeeded with
Reccared
. Abbot Eutropius had the chief day-to-day management of the council, according to the chronicler
John of Biclaro
. In the king's name, Leander brought together
bishops
and nobles in May of 589. However, King Reccared and Bishop Leander were only able to persuade eight Arian bishops to attend the council.
[5]
Council proceedings
[
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]
Opening
[
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]
The Council opened on May 4, with three days of
prayer
and
fasting
. Then, the public confession of King Reccared was read aloud by a
notary
. Its theological precision defining Trinitarian and Arian tenets, establishing Reccared's newly achieved
orthodoxy
, and its extensive quotation from
scripture
revealed that it was in fact
ghostwritten
for the
king
, doubtless by Leander.
Declarations
[
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]
In it, Reccared declared that
God
had inspired him to lead the
Goths
back to the true faith, from which they had been led astray by false teachers. (In fact they had been Christianized by the Arian
Ulfilas
, but Leander's theme was reconciliation.) He declared that not only the
Goths
but the
Suebi
, who by the fault of others had been led into
heresy
, had been brought back to the faith. These nations he dedicated to
God
by the hands of the bishops, whom he called on to complete the work. He then anathematized Arius and his doctrine, and declared his acceptance of the councils of
Nicaea
,
Constantinople
,
Ephesus
,
Chalcedon
and pronounced an anathema on all who returned to Arianism after being received into the Church by the
chrism
, or the laying on of hands; then followed the creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople and the definition of Chalcedon, and the tome concluded with the signatures of Reccared and Baddo his queen. This confession was received with a general acclamation.
One of the Catholic bishops then called on the assembled
bishops
,
clergy
, and
Gothic nobles
to declare publicly their renunciation of
Arianism
and their acceptance of
Catholicism
. They replied that although they had done so already when they had gone over with the king to the Church, they would comply.
Anathemas
[
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]
Then followed 23
anathemas
directed against Arius and his doctrines, succeeded by the creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople and the definition of Chalcedon, the whole being subscribed by 8 Arian bishops with their clergy, and by all the Gothic nobles. The bishops were Ugnas of
Barcelona
, Ubiligisclus of
Valencia
, Murila of
Palencia
, Sunnila of
Viseu
, Gardingus of
Tuy
, Bechila of
Lugo
, Argiovitus of
Oporto
, and Froisclus of
Tortosa
. The names of the eight are
Germanic
in origin. Four come from sees within the former kingdom of the Suebi, probably showing that
Leovigild
, after his conquest, had displaced the Catholic bishops by
Arians
.
Canons
[
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]
Reccared then instructed the council with his licence to draw up any requisite canons, particularly one directing the creed to be recited at Communion, so that henceforward no one could plead ignorance as an excuse for misbelief. Then followed 23 canons with a confirmatory edict of the king.
- The 1st confirmed the decrees of previous councils of the
Catholic Church
and
synodical letters
of the
popes
;
- the 2nd directed the recitation of the
creed of Constantinople
at
Holy Communion
, with the addition of the
Filioque clause
:
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum qui ex patre filioque procedit
("I believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and Son") which was never accepted in the Christian East and led to drawn-out
controversy
;
- the 5th forbade the converted
Arian
bishops
,
priests
, and
deacons
to live with their wives;
- the 7th directed that the
Scriptures
should be read at a bishop's table during
meals
;
- the 9th transferred
Arian churches
to the bishops of their dioceses;
- the 13th forbade
clerics
to proceed against other clerics before
lay
tribunals
;
- the 14th forbade
Jews
to have Christian wives,
concubines
, or
slaves
, ordered the children of such unions to be
baptized
, and disqualified Jews from any office in which they might have to punish Christians. Christian slaves whom they had circumcised, or made to share in their rites, were
ipso facto
freed;
- the 21st forbade civil authorities to lay burdens on
clerics
or the slaves of the church or
clergy
;
- the 22nd forbade wailing at
funerals
;
- the 23rd forbade celebrating the eves of
Saint's days
with dances and songs, characterized as "indecent".
The canons were subscribed first by the king, then by 5 of the 6
metropolitans
, of whom
Masona
signed first; 62 bishops signed in person, 6 by proxy. All those of
Tarraconensis
and
Septimania
appeared personally or by proxy; in other provinces several were missing.
Closing
[
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]
The proceedings closed with a triumphant
homily
by Leander on the conversion of the Goths, preserved by his brother
Isidore
as
Homilia de triumpho ecclesiae ob conversionem Gothorum
a homily upon the "triumph of the Church and the conversion of the Goths."
Effects of the council
[
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]
The proscriptions against Jews were soon followed by required conversions, which led to a wholesale flight of
Jews
from Visigothic
Spain
to
Ceuta
and technically Visigothic nearby territories in
North Africa
. There, a community of exiles and malcontents formed, that were later to provide useful alliance and information at the time of the
Moorish invasion
in 711.
The
filioque clause
spread through the Latin-literate West but not through the Greek-speaking East. The
Franks
adopted it, but its use caused controversy in the 9th century. Its use spread to Rome soon after 1000, and it contributed to the
Great Schism
(1054) between the
Eastern Orthodox
and
Catholics
.
[1]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Thompson, E. A. (1969)
The Goths in Spain
. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Synodus Toletana tertia
, minutes from the
Collectio Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis
(
Vat. lat.
1341)
See also
[
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]
- Argiovito
, one of the bishops who abjured Arianism in the Third Council of Toledo
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Filioque." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^
Siecienski, A. Edward (2010).
The Filioque: History of a Doctrinal Controversy
. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 68?69.
ISBN
978-0-19-537204-5
.
- ^
Durant, Will
. Age of Faith. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972
- ^
Herwig Wolfram,
History of the Goths
, (University of California Press, 1988), 75.
- ^
a
b
c
Rachel L. Stocking,
Bishops, Councils, and Consensus in the Visigothic Kingdom, 589?633
, (The University of Michigan Press, 2000), 60?61.
External links
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