until the promulgation of the Lex Visigothorum, within half a century of the final destruction of the Monarchy in Spain.1

If the Breviarium is due to Alaric, and the Antiqua to Reccared, the Lex Visigothorum was mainly the work of Chindaswinth, who put an end at length to the conflict of laws which still existed in his dominions by a fusion of the Roman and the Visigothic systems of Jurisprudence, and the publication of the legal unity of the two nations who dwelt on the soil of Spain. The use of the Breviarium of Alaric was abolished, and the Lex Visigothorum, containing a large infusion of the Roman elements into the old Gothic code, was pronounced the only code of laws for the united population of Spain. But Chindaswinth, vigorous and clear-sighted as he was, lived too late in the history of his race. Within little over half a century, the Visigoth had ceased to rule in the Peninsula, and the Lex Visigothorum had given place to the simpler legislation of the Koran.

Recceswinth, who was associated by his father with him in the administration of the kingdom, succeeded him at his death, and devoted a great part of his attention during his peaceful reign of over twenty years to the promulgation and maintenance of his laws. But Recceswinth was but a poor successor3 to the bold and masterful Chindaswinth; and the best that can be said of him, perhaps, is that he gave practical effect to his father's Declaration of Legislative Union, by his celebrated Decree permitting the lawful marriage of the Roman with the Visigoth in Spain.

Saint Ildefonso, who was raised to the Metropolitan throne of Toledo in 658, was probably more powerful, and is certainly more famous than any of his royal contemporaries. For not only did Ildefonso, the most distinguished of the pupils of Isidore, rule over Spain for ten years, after the

1 It is sometimes referred to as the Breviarium Anianium, from the name of the Latin secretary who prepared it.

2 A brief account of some of the more salient features of their laws and of those who administered them will be found in the APPENDIX, The Laws of the Visigoths, printed at the end of the present volume. For the few lines that I have added to the present chapter upon the preparation and promulgation of the Code, I have consulted Montesquieu, Espirit des lois, lib. xxviii.; Daroud-Oghlou, Histoire de la Legislation des anciens Germains (Berlin, 1845), tom. i., pp. 1-216; Savigny, Geschichte des romischen Rechts, vol. ii.; Dahn, Könige der Germanen, vol. vi., and Westgothische Studien, and finally a most interesting article in the English Historical Review, vol. ii., pp. 212-234, by Mr. Hodgkin, to which I am indebted for many valuable suggestions about the Visigothic period generally.

3 Recceswinth was devout if not moral, licet flagitiosus, tamen bene monitus. Isidore of Beja, c. 15.

manner of his episcopal predecessors, but he is said to have enjoyed the more extraordinary favour of a personal visit from the Blessed Virgin ;1 and he is still venerated, second only in honour to Saint James of Compostella, amongst the patron saints of Spain.

A legend, says Dunham, received with the fullest assurance of faith, not by the vulgar, but by the most learned and critical, not by the stupid Garibay and the credulous Morales, but by the sceptical Ferreras and the able Masdeu. Dunham, i., 219. The story may be found in the fullest detail in Morales, tom. iii., folio 158, et seq.

That Ildefonso should have written a Treatise De Virginitate S. Maria was only becoming; and his De viris illustribus, a continuation of the work of Isidore, is of considerable interest and value.

CHAPTER IX.

CHURCH AND STATE.

(A.D. 672-701).

I.-Wamba.

ON the death of Recceswinth in September, 672, the choice of the nobles fell upon one of their number, a Goth of gentle, but not of princely birth, well advanced in years, renowned for his prudence, his faithfulness, his military skill-Wamba, though not the greatest, yet perhaps the best known of all the Visigothic kings who reigned in the Peninsula. When the result of the free election was conveyed to Wamba, he declined the honour, and long withstood the entreaties of his electors; and it is said that nothing but threats of personal violence induced him to waive his objections to wear a crown.

The Gothic nobility, "who had acquired the execrable habit of killing their kings," seem to have been equally ready to adopt heroic measures with those who refused to reign! But as soon as Wamba was fairly crowned at Toledo-no ecclesiastical council was summoned to affirm his election by his peers he showed that he bore not in vain the sword with which he had been so forcibly girt.

Gothic Gaul, or Septimania,1 the only territory beyond the geographical limits of Spain that at all times acknowledged the rule of the Visigothic kings, was the weak spot in their dominion. The tribes that inhabited the mountains of Cantabria indeed were ever unsubdued; but they were not to be feared at any great distance from their own boundaries. They were, no doubt, a thorn in the side of every ruler of Spain, but they constituted no danger to the Monarchy. But the rich and fertile province of Septimania had all Europe as a possible depredator-or as a possible ally-and was ever specially coveted by the neighbouring kings of Frankish Gaul. The original seat of the Visigothic Government had been left far away from the new centre of gravity, by the change of royal residence from Toulouse to Toledo, and was separated

1 The old colony of the Septimani or Soldiers of the Seventh Legion. See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, iv., 542.

after the victory of Clovis from the great bulk of the Visigothic dominion to the south of the scientific frontier of the Pyrenees; and it is a truly remarkable fact that amid the wars and politics of the sixth and seventh centuries, this favoured land of rich cities, of broad rivers, of fertile fields, with its Roman citizens and its imperial traditions-this Naboth's vineyard of the Gaul-should have remained for three turbulent centuries ever subject to the Visigothic kings at distant Toledo.

Almost as soon as Wamba was crowned, he received the news that one Hilderic, governor of Nismes, had been proclaimed king of the Goths by Gunhild, bishop of Magalona. This northern pretender was supported by a large number of the Jews, who had fled from Spain to avoid persecution, and to whose detestable race and religion, Bishop Gunhild shewed himself, no doubt, for the time, exceedingly lenient. But the position of the rebels was soon both strengthened and complicated by the arrival of a certain Paul, a Roman Dux, or military leader, most probably from Africa, who had been entrusted by Wamba with the leadership of the army dispatched against Hilderic in the north. For Paul, instead of overthrowing the rebels, persuaded them to join him in a still larger rebellion; and far from compelling Hilderic to acknowledge Wamba, he compelled him to acknowledge Paul as king of the Visigoths.

He who will not, says the proverb, sends; he who will, goes. And it was high time for Wamba to make his appearance in person in Gothic Gaul. But Wamba was at the moment engaged in the time-honoured practise of chastising the Cantabrians. Upon this occasion, the chastisement, if not sharp was certainly short, for it is said to have been accomplished in seven days; and then Wamba marched northwest through Calahorra and Huesca and Barcelona, upon the strong city of Gerona, which yielded immediately on his approach. No success could have been more complete. Within a few days of his arrival on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, most of the Septimanian cities had opened their gates, and acknowledged Wamba as their rightful sovereign.

The combination of the ex-king Hilderic, the rebel bishop, the unhappy Israelites, and pretender Paul from Africa, was probably not popular. Narbonne held out for a few days, but the town was taken by storm, while a large body of troops moved on to lay siege to Nismes, where the rebels lay, strongly fortified. Paul made a stout defence, but the arrival of Wamba himself, with his troops fresh from their success at

1 Quem quer, vae : quem nao quer, manda-Portuguese proverb.

Narbonne, rendered any further resistance hopeless. The garrison despaired, and the city walls were carried by assault. In the celebrated arena of Nismes, still one of the most interesting and most perfect of Roman remains in southern Gaul, Paul made his last stand. A bishop-not Gunhildbut one Argabad, at length interceded for the rebels, and Wamba was sufficiently generous to spare the lives of the vanquished. The province was quickly pacified; for the rebellion had been personal rather than popular; and though we may be sure the Jews received the very fullest measure of punishment for their adhesion to the losing side, Wamba displayed on the whole a noble clemency; and returned in triumph to Toledo, carrying in his train Paul, who, with shaven head and a leathern crown, set in mockery on his brow,1 was doomed to a life-long religious seclusion in expiation of his treachery and his defeat. Thenceforward for seven years Wamba reigned in peace, and ruled wisely and well. So wisely, indeed, and so fortunately that this brief space of time has been ever known to succeeding generations of Spaniards as the days of good king Wamba.

Among the many measures undertaken by the king for the defence of his kingdom was the fortification of the city of Toledo,2 and the preparation and equipment of a fleet in the noble harbour of Carthagena. But in spite of all his efforts and even of his early successes in the field, Wamba found his degenerate Visigothic subjects sadly averse from a military service, and his celebrated law De his qui ad bellum non vadunt is a record not only of the vigour of the sovereign, but of the extraordinary change that two centuries had wrought among his subjects. In case of a hostile invasion, every bishop, duke or count, every Commander,3 Vicarius, or Gardingus within one hundred miles of the scene of action was ordered by this law to hasten to the spot with all his followers, slaves, it would seem, as well as free dependents. Failing to render prompt obedience, the great ecclesiastic was to be banished the realm, and his revenues were to be liable to the payment of such a fine as the king might think fit to impose; while the layman, whether a noble or freeman of lower degree, was to lose whatever dignity he possessed, and be reduced to the condition of

1 He apparently suffered the customary punishment of Decalvation or scalping. See APPENDIX on the Laws of the Visigoths.

2 The ornamental stones and marble decoration of the Roman circus in the neighbourhood are said to have been used by Wamba-a true Goth-in the construction of his new city wall. Mariana, lib. vi., 6.

bashi.

3 Thinfaths

Colonel, commander of a thousand; just as the Turkish Bin

4 Vicarius = Lieutenant-Colonel, or Vice-Colonel. 5 Palatine noble.