Paranoia: Jews, Visigoths, and Christians in Seventh CenturySpain

Emily Hummel

Europe in the Middle Ages I

Dr Bruce O’Brien

8 December, 2013

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Jewish people, here and throughout this paper referring

to both religious and ethnic Jews, have lived on the Iberian

Peninsula since at least the 1st century CE, although there

are mentions in the letter of Paul to the Romans in the

Bible that they were there even before the beginning of the

Common Era.1 Whenever they arrived, by the time the Visigoth

king Reccared converted to Christianity in 589, the Jews

were a well-established minority in Spain. The Visigoths and

the Catholic Church, which had unparalleled influence on the

Visigothic kings, were highly suspicious of the Jews and

paranoid about their fabricated desire to takeover the

government and subvert the Christians. The Jews were never

numerous enough to even attempt a coup, but there is endless

legislation throughout the Visigothic reign that attempts to

outlaw Judaism, which eventually leads to a legal

1 “But now, with no further place for me in these regions, I desire, as I have for many years, to come to see you (Romans) when I go to Spain.” “So, when I have completed this [work in Jerusalem], and havedelivered to them what has been collected, I will set out by way of you to Spain; and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.” Romans 15:23, 15: 28-29 (New Revised Standard Version). This letter was probably written circa 60 CE.According to the Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV, sorting out the tensions between the Catholics and the “Christian Jews” would have inhibited his abilities to travel on to Spain, so it is not likely he ever made it.

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annihilation of the Jews entirely. The Visigoths were

paranoid about Jews in their kingdom because of their

relatively unstable government, the influence of the

Catholic Church on their policies, and rumours of Jewish

coups in other kingdoms.

In the fourth century, and continuing to the fall of

the Roman Empire and the conversion of Reccared, Judaism was

considered a “relegio licita,” or permitted religion. This means

that although Jews were distinctly not Christians, they were

not as low in the socio-religious hierarchy as heretics or

pagans. This began to change with the laws of Justinian I in

the Byzantine world, which extended the meaning of the word

“heretic” to include everyone who was outside the church. 2

The earliest Visigothic legislation against the Jews was the

Breviary of Alaric II, an abbreviated version of the

Theodosian Code, which formed the basis of all Roman law in

southern Europe, including the Visigothic Code, for the next

few centuries.3 The main issues in the Breviary were anything

2 Wolfram Drews, “Jews as pagans? Polemical definitions of identity in Visigothic Spain,” Early Medieval Europe II, no. 3 (2002): 193.

3 William Kenneth Boyd, The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code (1905), pp. 12, 110, https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticaled00boyd

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to do with daily Jewish life: intermarriage, the holding of

public office, the conversion of Christians to Judaism

(which was punishable by death), and Jewish ownership of

Christian slaves; “positions of authority which they [the

Jews] could employ harm against Christians.”4 The Visigothic

monarchy made very few changes to the old Roman laws and

many of these laws would simply be repeated, unmodified,

throughout the Visigothic creeds.

In 589, Reccared converted from Arian Christianity to

Catholicism; the official decree of the change of faith was

made at III Toledo in that same year. The Toledo Councils

were convened by authority of the king and their members

were intended to be representative of the general

population. However, their attendees were either nobles

chosen by the king, or bishops chosen by the king and the

Church who held most of the power. Even though the councils

were presided over by secular authority, the laws they

passed were called “canons,” meaning that they were

(accessed December 8, 2013).4 Roger Collins, Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400-1000 (New York:

St. Martin’s Press, 1995), 129.

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ultimately taken as Church doctrine.5 Much of III Toledo was

a reinforcement of earlier laws: Jews were outlawed from

holding public office, they could not take Christian wives

or mistresses, and they could not have Christian slaves.6

In 613, Sisebut became king of Spain and enacted the

most severe anti-Semitic laws of the period. He ruled that

all Jews must accept Christian baptism (which was

subsequently repealed at IV Toledo in 633) and that those

forcibly converted should not be allowed to return to

Judaism because they had already partaken in Christian

sacraments. Jews who had already converted back to Judaism

were to have their children taken away, slaves liberated,

and were thenceforth “deprived of the right to give evidence

at law.”7 Bernard Bachrach has argued that one of the main

reasons Sisebut was so anti-Semitic was that it was his

attempt to impress Heraclius, leader of the Byzantines.8

5 Norman Roth, Jews, Visigoths and Muslims in Medieval Spain: Cooperation and Conflict (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1994), 30-34.

6 Kenneth R. Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), 48.

7 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 130.8 Bernard S. Bachrach, “A Reassessment of Visigothic Jewish

Policy, 589-711,” The American Historical Review 78, no. 1 (1973): 17.

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This position is not substantiated well by sources, and

there is a four-year gap between Sisebut’s ascent to power

and his agreement with the Byzantines. The more likely

argument is that Sisebut wanted to better align himself with

the Catholic Church. Isidore of Seville was a good friend

with Sisebut, even dedicating one of his books to the king,

and it is likely his anti-Jewish beliefs influenced the

king’s to some degree.9

In 633, IV Toledo reiterated III Toledo and preserved

the new forced faith, which only increased the intensity

previous regulations.10 Interestingly, Isidore of Seville

repealed the forced baptism law of Sisebut, but also stated

that children of Jews that turned back to Judaism after

conversion should be taken from their parents.11 Even with

all the legislation trying to stamp out the Jews, it would

have been almost impossible for them to have been carried

out, and the fact that with every Council there are new

anti-Semitic laws suggests that the laws were not enforced

9 Roth, Jews, Visigoths, and Muslims, 13.10 Stow, Alienated Minority, 48.11 Stow, Alienated Minority, 50-51.

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to their full extent, or there would not have been a Jewish

population to legislate against.

From 621 to 653, after Sisebut’s reign, pronouncements

“seem designed to keep kings from lessening the disabilities

of the Jews, rather than increasing them.”12 Until the early

650s, all legislation dealt with the legal and social

standing of the Jews, not their religious beliefs. King

Chintila in 636 passed a law that forbade all non-Catholics

from living in Spain and incited all non-baptised Jews as

criminals.13 VI Toledo of 638 declared that kings must swear

to not allow Jews to violate the Catholic faith, under any

circumstances, and that any king who did would be considered

“anathema Maranatha,” or excommunicated in the most serious

fashion possible.14 These laws were not new, but simply

repeating the ideas of the kings before them. In the 640s,

Chindasuinth declared circumcision a capital offense and

Christians convicted of participating in Jewish rites would

12 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 131.13 Stow, Alienated Minority, 50.14 Olivia Remie Constable, trans. Jeremy duQ. Adams, “Canon III,

VI Toledo, 638,” In Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), 21-22.

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be subjected to the death penalty. He specified that the

death be inflicted slowly and painfully.15

In 654, Reccesuinth began to pass decrees outlawing all

Jewish practices, particularly celebration of Passover,

marriage, circumcision (again), and obeying customary

dietary laws. He also reiterated that Jews could not take

legal action against Christians or give evidence against

them in court. IX Toledo, in 654, declared that all

unbaptized Jews must spend both Christian and Jewish

holidays and feast days in the presence of a bishop so they

can be observed practicing the “proper” Christian ones.

There is surviving documentation of a declaration of faith

by newly converted Jews to Reccesuinth in 654. In it, a

group of Jews from Toledo promises to “freely and

voluntarily… observe no Jewish customs or rites whatever,

and will not assosciate with… any unbaptized Jews.” They

continue to promise to not observe holy days or dietary

laws, and promise that if they should turn back on this vow,

“… should Your Majesty graciously grant such culprit his

15 Stow, Alienated Minority, 50.

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life, he shall at once be deprived of his freedom, so that

Your Majesty may deliver him to be a slave…”16

There is another petition from 654 in which other Jews

of Toledo swear the same things, but as punishment declare

that they will expel, stone to death, or burn to death

anyone who breaks their promise.17 This petition is

interesting because it shows that Jews were able to assign

their own punishments and that some individual Jewish

communities were at least semi-autonomous; they were

minimally able to have their own leadership and some sort of

judicial independence.18

In 680, Ervig came to power. In that same year he

reissued Reccesuinth’s laws from Book XII of the Visigothic

Code and added new and harsher regulations to them. Book XII

banned Sabbath observance and all other Jewish rites, said

Jews could not work on Sundays or Christian feast days, 16 “Memorial of the Jews Presented To The King, 654 CE,” Jewish

History Sourcebook, Fordham University, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-visigothic1.asp. (accessed December 8, 2013).

17 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 136.18 “Professions of Faith extracted from Jews on Baptism,” Medieval

Sourcebook: Fordham University, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/jewish-oaths.asp. (accessed December 8, 2013).

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could not read works that weren’t previously approved by

Christians, and could not defend the Jewish faith in any

circumstance.19 In more extreme and far-reaching impacts,

Jews were required to report to all local bishops wherever

they travelled and were to deposit written confessionals of

“misdeeds” with their bishops, although there is no evidence

of follow up on these confessionals.20 Anyone over the age

of ten who broke these laws was subject to one hundred

lashings, “decalvating,” which can be translated as either

scalping or shaving, and monetary fines.21 A copy of Book

XII, Title III was given to all Jews by their local bishops

and they were required to have it on them at all times, and

were even asked to read it aloud at various occasions.

At XII Toledo in 681, these laws were reconfirmed under

Julian of Toledo. Julian and King Ervig were close friends

outside of the Church and politics, to the point where

19 “Lex Visigothorum, Book XII, Title III, sections I-XI,” trans. ande. S. P. Scott, 1905, The Library of Iberian Resources Online, http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/visigoths.htm. (accessed December 8, 2013).

20 “Lex Visigothourm,” sections XIV-XV.21 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 133.

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Julian’s book On the Proof of the Sixth Age, was dedicated to

Ervig.22

Egica, king of the Visigoths from 687-702, passed a law in

693 freeing all Jews who had converted to Christianity

freely and without rescinding their conversion from the

taxes they had to pay as Jews; but the taxes on unconverted

Jews were to increase enough to make up the difference.23

This says a few things: one, that there was still a large

Jewish population in Spain up until the Arab invasion in 711

and two, that both the state and the Church were giving

monetary incentives to convert to Catholicism.

Proclaimed in the Tome of Egica and reaffirmed at XVII

Toledo in 694, all Jews were to become slaves of the state.

They were to give up all their property and become property

of the state, to be given to whomever the king chose. If the

Jew had slaves, those slaves were to be made free, and some

were to be given to their former masters. Even in their new

status, the Jews were still expected to pay their special

22 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 133.23 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 133. Roth, Jews, Visigoths, and Muslims, 33.

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taxes.24 These laws were promulgated by Egica himself and

simply ratified by the Council; this marks one of the last

pieces of anti-Semitic legislation to be given before the

Arabic invasion.

The primary themes of Visigothic anti-Semitism

prevailed throughout all the years of their control. At

first, the legislation was meant to disenfranchise the Jews.

They were not allowed to be in any position of power over a

Christian, and were generally not supposed to be autonomous.

As the period progressed, especially after the reign of

Reccesuinth, the legislation turned religious and focused

more on the erasure of the Jews as a religion and an entire

people. The main question is: why?

In 607, the Parthians captured Palestine with the

supposed assistance of the Jews. When Heraclius retook the

region in 629, Christians living in Jerusalem accused the

Jews of helping the Parthians, and called for Heraclius to

enact governmental revenge. He did, by outlawing Judaism in

its entirety and forcing the conversion of all Jews to

24 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 134.

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Christianity. This legislation stayed in place from 634 with

the beginning of the Arab invasion until the success of that

conquest in 638.25 The tolerance of the Arabs became a

concern towards the later part of the period. The Visigoths

viewed the Arabs as in league with the Jews, especially

after the actions of the Parthians, and as the Arabs drew

nearer to Iberian borders, the tensions between the

Visigoths and the Jews grew.26

This tension resounded around the Mediterranean, and

eventually reached the Iberian Peninsula, probably during

the reign of Chindasuinth. There was also a culture of

rumours in the southern European countries, particularly

during the reign of Egica, but also prior to him, that the

Jews were staging coups and upending other Christian

governments.27 As such, there was widespread persecution

throughout Byzantium, Merovingian Gaul, and Lombard Italy.

This might also explain why Egica forbade Jews from overseas

trade: so they couldn’t get in contact with their “fellow

25 Stow, Alienated Minority, 28.26 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 140.27 Roth, Jews, Visigoths, and Muslims, 34.

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European conspirators.”28 None of these rumours had any

weight behind them, and some were more than likely rumours

the king himself spread down to the Council of Toledo in the

first place, but the legislation was heavily influenced by

their conspiracy theories of a united Jewish front that was

waiting to take over Visigothic rule. 29

When the Visigoths initially took over, they invaded a

land with people who considered themselves ethnically and

culturally Roman or Hispani. The Visigoths were Arian Goths:

Christians, but not Catholics, and certainly not Romans. The

Jews considered themselves Roman, and under the Roman law

that governed Spain until the Councils, they were considered

Romans.30 This distinction made them religious outsiders and

ethnic outsiders twice over: with their Jewish ethnic

identity and their Roman one. From the beginning of the

Visigothic period, the Jews were an “other” people and this

“otherness” only intensified with the conversion of the

Visigoths from Arianism to Catholicism.

28 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 140.29 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 134.30 Stow, Alienated Minority, 48.

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The largest debate in the origins of Visigothic anti-

Semitism is the influence of the Church on the kings and

attempting to figure out which institution had the most

power and sway. From the beginning of Visigothic control of

Spain in the sixth century, there were parallel efforts by

ecclesiastical and secular rulers to “supress… Judaizing

innovation amongst Christians.”31 Judaizing was apparently a

frequent and serious problem: in 590, bishop Vincent of

Ibiza, in a letter to Licirianus of Cartagena, said that

there was a “divine” document circulating around imploring

Christians to participate in even stricter Lord’s Day

practices, which bore great similarity to Jewish Sabbath

practices.32 He declared that this was Judaizing and

forgery. Judaizing was then incorporated into laws against

the Jews. The Church in this case had a direct impact on

secular law.

Reccesuinth was in power because of the Church and was

dependent on their support for his reign. He also came in

31 Judaizing: to make Jewish; here, meaning to introduce Jewish ideas into Christian practice. (New Oxford American Dictionary)

32 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 138.

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after the tumultuous reign of his father, amidst cries for

rebellion and reform. Ervig was also dependent on the

Church, even though he was preceded by someone who was

incapacitated by strict canon law.33 Both of these kings are

known for their anti-Semitic legislation. Wamba (r. 672-680)

and Chindasuinth were censured by the Church and not reliant

on it; they are not known for their anti-Semitic

legislation.34 In fact, Wamba didn’t pass any new anti-

Semitic legislation and may have even relaxed the laws

already in place.35 This implies that the main source of

anti-Semitism is the Church, rather than the rulers

themselves. However, it could also mean the king was simply

better at ignoring the demands of the Church or the Church

was not as strong during his reign.

With many of the laws, it was royal, not religious

interest, which took control. Legislation often had nothing

to do with conversion and everything to do with subjugating

the Jewish people and keeping them out of regular Visigothic33 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 136.34 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 136.35 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 132. Indeed, Wamba is hardly

mentioned in any of the sources I have outside of this one.

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life. Many times anti-Semitism resulted in monetary gain for

the government. Oftentimes the possessions of the Jews were

given to the royal fisc and were used for royal finances and

patronages. The crown also occasionally gained wealth in

slaves, who would often be enslaved for the rest of their

lives.

It’s possible that many of the anti-Semitic laws were

never even followed. The vast majority of sources that

remain today are Christian in origin. There are a few

tablets left in Hebrew, but these are inaccessible without

knowledge of Hebrew or Old Spanish; the documents remaining

are very biased towards the Church and government. The

language barrier, for one, especially with the Jewish

community, would have been a massive challenge. The laws

were all in Latin, and most of the lay people of Spain could

not read Latin. The Jewish communities might have had the

vernacular language, but it is very possible they spoke

Hebrew in their own communities and did not have the

vernacular, much less Latin. Anti-Semitic legislation was

also constantly reinstated, each time with harsher

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punishments for those who failed to enforce the regulations.

This implies that it is not even the disobedience of the

Jews; the bishops in charge of carrying out the laws were

not following them. There are theories that Jews may have

avoided or alleviated the laws by paying off their local

bishops or by other methods. Bishops sometimes also

protected their Jewish communities from the full rigor of

the laws. As mentioned before, there were varying levels of

enforcement between kings. Some increased enforcement and

made the laws more severe, whereas some left them as they

were, and perhaps even lessened them (as may have been the

case with Wamba). Lay nobles were sometimes known to

patronise the Jews. In a letter from Aurasius of Toledo to

Froga, a noble, he denounces him for his monetary support of

the Jews.36

There is no evidence of widespread lay hostility or

attacks towards the Jews. It is highly unlikely there was a

culture of anti-Semitism in Visigothic Spain, and it would

seem logical that if that culture did exist, the laws would

36 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 136.

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have been followed more closely and frequently. Visigothic

anti-Semitism, then, finds its source in the government and

the Church. Many Visigoth rulers believed that only a

kingdom fully united in Catholicism would be acceptable to

God, and saw the existence of the Jews in their empire as a

sign of spiritual unhealthiness.37 This theme of spiritual

unity and unhealthiness combined with a general movement

within the Church towards penitence creates an

ecclesiastical paranoia that stems from penetential guilt,

and a need for something to place the blame on. Combined

with the rumours from around Europe, the Jews interactions

with the Parthians, and the imminent arrival of the Arabs,

and the Jews were a perfect target for the religious and

administrative paranoia of the Visigoths.

37 Collins, Early Medieval Spain, 139.

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Works Cited

Bachrach, Bernard S. “A Reassessment of Visigothic Jewish Policy.” The American Historical Review 78, no. 1 (1973): 11-34.

Boyd, William K. The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code. New York: Columbia University Press, 1905.

Collins, Roger. Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400-1000. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.

Constable, Olivia Remie. Medieval Iberia: Readingss from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.

Drews, Wolfram. “Jews as pagans? Polemical definitions of identity in Visigothic Spain.” Early Medieval Europe II, no. 3 (2002): 189-207.

Roth, Normal. Jews, Visigoths and Muslims in Medieval Spain: Cooperation and Conflict. Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J Brill, 1994.

Stow, Kenneth R. Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Scott, S.P, ed. and trans. The Visigothic Code Book XII.1-3. Boston: Boston Book Company, 1910. Also available online at http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/visigoths.htm (accessed November 5, 2013).

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