King Reccared’s Political Aspirations
The Third Council of Toledo is a decree composed of canons King Reccared had developed in 589 AD following his conversion from the Arian form of Christianity to Catholicism. He intended for the bishops that attended this council to implement, standardize, and enforce the principles set forth by the canons in order to unify the kingdom’s religious practice. Through the enforcement and widespread adoption of these canons and unification of the kingdom’s religious beliefs King Reccared aspired to gain greater political power with the help of persuasion, appeal, and fear.
King Reccared gathered the council seeking the bishops’ approval of the canons he wanted adopted throughout his kingdom. The bishops role …show more content…
Within the canons it is stated that failure to comply with these decrees will result in punishment such as “women being sold into slavery”, being held “a stranger from holy communion and the thresholds of the church”, being “condemned in accordance with severity of the ancient canons”, and “any [other] punishment available”, depending upon the canon broken (pg. 51). Those who did not abide by the canons were to be negatively depicted. They were to be viewed as “vulgar people” of an “unreligious custom” that pursued a life of “sacrilege of idolatry” and “dedicated themselves to unseemly songs and dances, injuring not only themselves, but also interfering with the offices of the religious” (pg. 51, 52). If one was to not “reject the errors of the pernicious heresy” they were not on the path to true faith. The child of one parent of the Christian faith and one of the Jewish faith were not to “be assigned any public business by virtue of which they might have power to punish christians”(pg. 50, 51). Therefore, not only would those who declined to accept the canons be viewed in a demeaning way, they would also, in certain circumstances, be denied rights, as would their children. The King created conditions in which it would be in the peoples best interest to adopt the King’s beliefs, giving him more power than he had previously
The Third Council of Toledo is a decree composed of canons King Reccared had developed in 589 AD following his conversion from the Arian form of Christianity to Catholicism. He intended for the bishops that attended this council to implement, standardize, and enforce the principles set forth by the canons in order to unify the kingdom’s religious practice. Through the enforcement and widespread adoption of these canons and unification of the kingdom’s religious beliefs King Reccared aspired to gain greater political power with the help of persuasion, appeal, and fear.
King Reccared gathered the council seeking the bishops’ approval of the canons he wanted adopted throughout his kingdom. The bishops role …show more content…
Within the canons it is stated that failure to comply with these decrees will result in punishment such as “women being sold into slavery”, being held “a stranger from holy communion and the thresholds of the church”, being “condemned in accordance with severity of the ancient canons”, and “any [other] punishment available”, depending upon the canon broken (pg. 51). Those who did not abide by the canons were to be negatively depicted. They were to be viewed as “vulgar people” of an “unreligious custom” that pursued a life of “sacrilege of idolatry” and “dedicated themselves to unseemly songs and dances, injuring not only themselves, but also interfering with the offices of the religious” (pg. 51, 52). If one was to not “reject the errors of the pernicious heresy” they were not on the path to true faith. The child of one parent of the Christian faith and one of the Jewish faith were not to “be assigned any public business by virtue of which they might have power to punish christians”(pg. 50, 51). Therefore, not only would those who declined to accept the canons be viewed in a demeaning way, they would also, in certain circumstances, be denied rights, as would their children. The King created conditions in which it would be in the peoples best interest to adopt the King’s beliefs, giving him more power than he had previously