Folia Theologica 17. (2006)

Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi: The importance of the councils of Toledo of the 6th-8th centuries in the Spanish and in the universal canonical discipline of the Church

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SZ. A. SZUROMI

were provincial, and consequently, the metropolitan was the one who convoked the other bishops, who were able to execute their episcopal power together. In the earlier times, the authority of the council depended on the number of bishops who were present there, as is proved by contemporary written records. This peculiarity has given special emphasis for the pluri - provincial councils (cf. Council of Seleucia [359]; Council of Arles [314]; or the Council of Rimini [359]), and also for the general councils (cf. Council of Nicea [325]; Council of Constantinople I [381]; Council of Ephesus [431]; Council of Chalcedon [451]). The councils which were arranged in Rome received a distinguished place among the others from very early times. Besides Rome the most affected territories were Gaul and »Hispania«.2 The canons of the Councils of Toledo belong to this fundamental disciplinary material.3

I. The Councils of Toledo and the Church in »Hispania«

Conciliar activity became quite frequent in the Early Middle Ages, when new nations had just appeared, starting to stabilize their customary way of living. In this case we have to emphasize those councils whose were convoked from the time of King Athanagild (554) until 711 in Toledo as a centre of the Visigoth Kingdom. The number of these councils is eighteen. The political, sociological circumstances were consolidated in this epoch in the Iberian peninsula, organized by the Roman Law (cf. Lex Romana Visigothorum), and also by the canon law. Around the middle of the 6th century, the Arian Visigoth population advanced toward the South, escaping from the Frankish invasion, which arrived across the Pyrenees. After this time, there occured the conversion of King Leovigild (568-586). His successor, Recared I (586-601), supported that common council for Catholic and Arian bishops which was convoked in Toledo for 589 (i. e. Council of Toledo III). When the

2 SZUROMI, Sz.A., Egyházi intézménytörténet (Bibliotheca Instituti Postgradualis Iuris Canonici Universitatis Catholicae de Petro Pázmány nominatae 1/5), Budapest 2003. 31-35, 62.

3 GAUDEMET, J., Les sources du droit de l'Eglise en Occident du IIe au VIIe siècle, Paris 1985. 149-150.