DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47347#0027
THE SPANISH SUCCESSION.
11
during the last century of elective royalty (the 6th and
7th centuries), the throne was less frequently vacant in con-
sequence of rebellions and murders. We are authorised to
attribute this progress of the national civilisation to the
introduction of Christianity \ which succeeded, through the
efforts of the clergy, in softening more and more the savage
manners of the Goths, and introducing more order in the
royal election.
Through the influence of religion, the bishops became
the legislators of the Goths. The former stormy assem-
blies of the people were superseded by the councils of
Toledo1 2, and the monarchy which heretofore had rested
on the warlike element alone, received, through the sanc-
tion of the Church, religious consecration, the first basis of
divine right3. After the fourth council of Toledo, all who
should revolt against the king solemnly acknowledged by
the clergy were threatened with excommunication, and it
was settled that, after the death of a king, the election of
his successor should be made by the bishops and the gran-
dees of the kingdom, and that the king should be chosen
1 All the good and great things done by the Church during these centuries,
for the civilization of the Germanic nations, and the consolidation of the respect
due to the governments to which it gave its sanction, have frequently been
misrepresented and attacked. The reader need but turn, among other works, to
Spittler^s Grundriss der Gescliichte der Cliristlichen Kirche. Gottingen, 1782,
p. 97; G. Biener’s Versuch uber das Staats-Kriegs-und Lehnreclit des West-
goth. Reiches in Spanien ; and Zepernik’s Sammlung auserles. Abliand. aus
dem Lehnr. vol. iv. p. 209.
2 The influence of the Catholic clergy on the government in Spain com-
mences with the third council of Toledo, in which king Recaredo caused Arian-
ism to be abolished. See Aschbach’s Geschiclite der Westgothen, p. 228. 230.
3 It is generally admitted, that Wamba was the first king anointed and
crowned (672) at Toledo, by the metropolitan chapter of that city. According
to Isidore, Chron. Gothor. it appears, nevertheless, that Recaredo, the first king
who embraced Catholicism, (see the preceding note,) had previously caused
himself to be solemnly crowned.
11
during the last century of elective royalty (the 6th and
7th centuries), the throne was less frequently vacant in con-
sequence of rebellions and murders. We are authorised to
attribute this progress of the national civilisation to the
introduction of Christianity \ which succeeded, through the
efforts of the clergy, in softening more and more the savage
manners of the Goths, and introducing more order in the
royal election.
Through the influence of religion, the bishops became
the legislators of the Goths. The former stormy assem-
blies of the people were superseded by the councils of
Toledo1 2, and the monarchy which heretofore had rested
on the warlike element alone, received, through the sanc-
tion of the Church, religious consecration, the first basis of
divine right3. After the fourth council of Toledo, all who
should revolt against the king solemnly acknowledged by
the clergy were threatened with excommunication, and it
was settled that, after the death of a king, the election of
his successor should be made by the bishops and the gran-
dees of the kingdom, and that the king should be chosen
1 All the good and great things done by the Church during these centuries,
for the civilization of the Germanic nations, and the consolidation of the respect
due to the governments to which it gave its sanction, have frequently been
misrepresented and attacked. The reader need but turn, among other works, to
Spittler^s Grundriss der Gescliichte der Cliristlichen Kirche. Gottingen, 1782,
p. 97; G. Biener’s Versuch uber das Staats-Kriegs-und Lehnreclit des West-
goth. Reiches in Spanien ; and Zepernik’s Sammlung auserles. Abliand. aus
dem Lehnr. vol. iv. p. 209.
2 The influence of the Catholic clergy on the government in Spain com-
mences with the third council of Toledo, in which king Recaredo caused Arian-
ism to be abolished. See Aschbach’s Geschiclite der Westgothen, p. 228. 230.
3 It is generally admitted, that Wamba was the first king anointed and
crowned (672) at Toledo, by the metropolitan chapter of that city. According
to Isidore, Chron. Gothor. it appears, nevertheless, that Recaredo, the first king
who embraced Catholicism, (see the preceding note,) had previously caused
himself to be solemnly crowned.