Toletum III / Toledo III
National Council of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, 589
It is consensus opinion among historians and theologians that the Third Council of Toledo of 589 is one the most important not only for the entire Visigothic era but even the ensuing peninsular Middle Ages. This explains why in 1989 a major international congress met in Toledo to celebrate its 1400 anniversary. Major scholars from many countries gathered to present their papers, they were published later in 1991 in what the most significant collection of essays on its immediate influence and beyond [cited below].
The council was convened by King Reccared (586-601) in the fourth year of his reign on 8 May 627 [Era]. Attendance was quite impressive with representation from all of Hispania including the territories in Gallia under Visigothic rule. Sixty-two bishops attended along with 8 Arian bishops who renounced the heresy, an unspecified number of Arian presbyters and deacons, and 5 Arian prominent men who also converted. In addition, 5 minor clergy: 2 archpresbyters, 1 deacon, 2 archdeacons were present. It is also said that the nobility of the Goths signed in support of the council. Attached to the council text is the impressive sermon titled, Homelia in laude Ecclesiae, that Leander of Seville preached. What is not certain is whether he preached in situ or after it was over. It is a masterful reflection on the theological meaning of the council and how it fit in the designs of divine Providence. The Vives edition also has attached a letter from Reccared to Pope Gregory the Great informing him of the conversion and his fidelity to Rome. The first and most important concern was Arianism, to that end 23 anathemas were issued condemning fundamental Arian beliefs while affirming orthodoxy and the Ecumenical Councils that had met up to that time. The council text also includes the Creeds of Nicaea/Constantinople, and Chalcedon, wherein at the end Reccared approved the anathemas and creeds with his signature, his wife Queen Bado did the same – Ego Baddo gloriosa regina hanc fidem, quam credidi et suscepi, mea manu de toto carde subscribsi. This is the only council in the whole of Visigothic Hispania where the name of the queen and her participation was recognized. At the end on the minutes there is an Edict of Reccared with 23 brief reaffirmations – excerpta – of the Catholic faith. Prior to the Edict there are another 23 disciplinary canons that engaged a broad array of subjects, too many to highlight in this brief overview. At the end the first to sign among the signatories was King Reccared who dominated the council from beginning to end through four discourses, two delivered personally by him, one through a notary, and the last one in the form of a proclamation. It is agreed by scholars that Leander of Seville, who led him to his conversion, most assuredly aided him in writing the discourses. Five Metropolitan bishops attended the council: Masona, Metropolitan of Mérida is first on the list, Eufemius, Metropolitan of Toledo signed second, Leander, Metropolitan of Seville was fourth even though he had the most prominent role before, during, and after the council. Two other Metropolitans signed: Micetius of Narbonne and Pantardus of Braga. At the outset three days of fasting were proclaimed at the commencement of the council. A notary read to all present the profession of faith that Reccared had prepared beforehand where he expressed his full adherence to the Catholic faith – Susceptum est autem ah omnibus Dei sacerdotibus offerente rege sacrosanctae fidei tomum, et pronunciante notario clara voce recensitum est ita. It was also claimed by Reccared that the Sueves had been brought back out of heresy to the Catholic faith, such boasting was without foundation as noted below.
A brief retelling of the events leading up to this historic council of immense importance is instructive. In the aftermath of the Germanic Invasion of Hispania, eventually there were only two kingdoms. The Sueves in Gallaecia and the Visigothic occupying the rest of the peninsula, except for the coastal Byzantine territories, that were soon reconquered. The Visigoths entered Hispania already converted to Arianism; the Sueves, however, after a series of conversions from paganism to Arianism converted permanently to the Catholic faith in the 550s. It was Martin of Braga who was mainly responsible for that final conversion. The Sueves and Visigoths were political enemies and as the latter aspired to full hegemony of Hispania, tensions grew incrementally. The religious divide of the Arian-Catholic division between Catholic Sueves and Catholic Hispano-Roman majority against the minority Arian Visigoths ruling in Toledo reached its apogee under King Leovigild. He was an ardent Arian determined to bring the whole of Hispania to Arianism. Leovigild installed a few Arian bishops in Gallaecia after he conquered the Suevic kingdom in 585 but notably not in Braga, the center of political and ecclesial authority. The few Arian bishops from Gallaecia renounced their heresy at Toledo in 589. Leovigild from his conquest of Gallaecia in 585 to his death in 586 scarcely had time for a full conversion of the former kingdom, other than a superficial ‘official’ conversion. In the midst of these events, Leovigild’s son Hermenegild, moreover, older brother of Reccared, converted to the Catholic faith and led a rebellion against his father. Hermenegild attempted to recruit the Byzantines to overthrow Leovigild, the effort came to nothing. Hermenegild died at the hands of some of Leovigild’s men in 586. John of Biclar and Isidore of Seville were not sympathetic, they described Hermenegild as a ‘usurper’ or ‘tyrant’ notwithstanding being Catholic. Pope Gregory the Great, however, hailed him a martyr in the Dialogues, Hermenegild was later canonized a saint. Leovigild’s son Reccared at this juncture was still an Arian. Suddenly in 586 Leovigild died and Reccared became the new king. Behind the scenes Leander of Seville, who converted Hermenegild, set about to convert his brother. In 587 Reccared became Catholic privately after he convened a closed meeting of Arian and Catholic bishops to a debate who had the true faith so he could decide which to choose. Gregory of Tours recorded that the argument that swayed Reccared to reject Arianism was the fact Arians, unlike Catholics, could not work miracles. It was most likely Leander of Seville who encouraged Reccared to make a public profession of faith in the presence of the nobles, Catholic and Arian clergy, and the people at a formal council in Toledo. Reccared formally abjured publicly Arianism and called upon the attending Arian bishops and nobles to do likewise and profess the Nicaean / Constantinopolitan Creed. After 589 there were sporadic revolts against Reccared, the most notable in the Narbonne led by an Arian Bishop Athaloc; it was never at any time a serious threat to the king, however. The future Visigothic kings and Church right up to the Muslim Invasion never relapsed to Arianism.
Of the three sets of canons that were promulgated at this council, only Canon 14 was directed at Jews, they were not a central concern here to the bishops or Reccared. It was reprised in the excerpta with the same number 14. It ruled that Jews could not have Christian wives or concubines; any children born of them had to be baptized. Any circumcised Christians were to return to the faith and placed at liberty without paying any money. Additionally, they could not buy Christian slaves or hold any public office. In the initial 23 canons against Arianism, Canons 11 and 19-23 the bishops upheld the authority of the Ecumenical Councils, it was repeated in Canon 1 of the 23 excerpta, that reprised the previous canons. Among the excerpta Canon 2 reminded all that the Creed was to be recited by the people in Church. Canon 5, that converted Arian clergy could not live with their wives or any Catholic clergy with unrelated women. Canon 9 that Arian churches with all of its goods now belonged the Catholic bishops. These were all proclaimed in the initial disciplinary 23 canons bearing the same number with more elaboration.
Two decisions were made in Toledo that had significant impact on the Visigothic liturgy that extended far beyond the Visigothic period and Hispania. These and other aspects of the council reveal borrowing from the Byzantine liturgy. These orientalizing influences had been afoot in earnest beforehand and would continue after 589. King Reccared did not hide his desire to bring the liturgy in conformity with how it was practiced in Constantinople; the decision was not done on a whim. In imitation of the Eastern Church, it was decreed that henceforth the Creed was to be recited every Sunday in Hispania, Gallia, and Gallaecia according to the form of the Oriental Church – ut per omnes ecclesias Spaniae, Galliae vel Gallaeciae secundum formam orientalium ecclesiarum [Vives, Concilios 125]. In time this became standard practice in all of the Church in the West, beginning here in Hispania in the sixth century. That was not controversial, what did become so was the introduction of the double procession (Filioque) into the Creed that contributed in the long run to the Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
There has been some discussion on the question of whether it was in Toledo III (589) where the double procession (Filioque) was appended to the Constantinopolitan Creed that was professed and appears in the council text of the Vives edition – ex Patre et Filio procedentem, [Vives, Concilios 114]. Detractors maintain that it is a later interpolation as in Toledo I (400). The main objection is based on the manuscript evidence that supporters of the interpolation believe is unassailable. This position is present in the edition of the Hispana of the Visigothic councils; the Vives edition preserves it as authentic. There is also, however, in the anti-Arian Canon 3 at Toledo where the bishops decreed a second time that anyone who did not profess the double procession was anathema – Quiquumque Spiritum Sanctum non credet aut non crediderit a Patre et Filio procedere, eumque non dixerit coaeternum esse Patri et Filio et quoessentialem, anathema sit, III, [Vives, Concilios 118]. Some scholars maintain that the double procession was first introduced instead at the Eighth Council of Toledo (653) that met in the fifth year of Reccesvinth on 16 December 653, Era 691. The king embraced, venerated, and expressed love for the apostolic tradition established by the Council of Nicaea, and defined by the holy Fathers in Constantinople. The bishops reminded all present that the Ecumenical Councils uprooted the insane heresy of Arius among others. This was followed by a verbatim profession of the Creed, the same one proclaimed with one unanimous voice in Holy Mass. The formula ex Patre et Filio procedentemwas used, instead of the Filioque expression, it took time for the latter formula to become the norm in Visigothic Hispania. The admonition to profess this at Mass echoed what Reccared had already decreed in 589. The council was reaffirming what had been accomplished in 589 by Reccared; Arianism was not longer a heresy to be confronted. The historical and theological milieu of Toledo VIII did not necessitate any special invocation for the first time of the double procession; at Toledo III the bishops had every reason to use it, above all to counter Arian trinitarianism. Lastly, Leander’s Homelia in laude Ecclesiae was a fitting capstone preached by the most influential cleric before, during, and after the council of 589 that left an indelible mark on the Church.
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QQ: Vives/Marín Martínez/Martínez Díez, Concilios Visigóticos e Hispano-Romanos, 107-145; Hispana edition is in: Martínez Diez/Rodríguez, La Colección Canónica, V: Hispana, 49-159; Weckwerth, Clavis Conciliorum Occidentalium 200-202.
Lit.: Orlandis/Ramos-Lissón, Concilios de la España Romana y Visigoda, 197-226; Centenario del Concilio III de Toledo 589-1989, Toledo 1991; U. Domínguez del Val, Leandro de Sevilla y su lucha contra el Arrianismo, Madrid, 1981 (= BVHM 2. Ser. 12); A. Ferreiro, The Theology and Typology of the Third Council of Toledo (589), in: AHC 40 (2008) 61-84; Id., Secundum quod sancta synodus: Advancing the Mission of the Church through Conciliar Legislation after the Third Council of Toledo (589), in: AHC 44 (2012) 27-46; Id., Sanctissimus idem princeps sic venerandum concilium ad loquitur dicens: King Reccared’s Discourses at the Third Council of Toledo (589), in: AHC 46 (2014) 27-52; Id., Quia pax et caritas facta est: Unity and Peace in Leander’s Homily at the Third Council of Toledo (589), in: AHC 48 (2016/17) 87-108; Id., The Reception and Diffusion of the Creed and the Filioque Before and After the Third Council of Toledo (589) in Hispania, in: AHC 54 (2024) (forthcoming).
Alberto Ferreiro
Januar 2025
Empfohlene Zitierweise:
Ferreiro, Alberto, "Toletum / Toledo III: National Council of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, 589", in: Lexikon der Konzilien [Online-Version], Januar 2025; URL: http://www.konziliengeschichte.org/site/de/publikationen/lexikon/database/4300.html
