THE VISIGOTHIC MONARCHY
507–712
Origin and Character of the Goths--Their Invasion of
the Peninsula--Power of the Clergy--Ecclesiastical
Councils--The Jews--The Visigothic Code--Profound
Wisdom of Its Enactments--Provisions against
Fraud and Injustice--Severe Penalties--Its
Definition of the Law--Condition of the Mechanical
Arts--Architecture--Byzantine Influence--Manufactures--Votive
Crowns--Agriculture--Literature--Medicine--Slave
Labor--Imitation of Roman Customs--Parallel between the Goths
and the Arabs--Coincidence of Sentiments and Habits--Causes of
National Decline--Permanent Influence of the Gothic Polity.
Among the countless hordes of barbarians who in the third and fourth
centuries overran the provinces of the Roman Empire, and insulted the
majesty of the sovereigns of the East, none were so pre-eminently
distinguished for valor, loyalty, generosity, and chastity as the
Goths. From the third century, when the luxurious tastes of Rome
impelled adventurous traders to penetrate to the shores of the Baltic
in search of amber, to the establishment of an independent monarchy in
Italy by Theodoric in the fifth, their name was familiar to Europe--now
suggestive of a bulwark of the tottering throne of Byzantium, and
again, as a synonym of murder, pillage, and devastation. Of towering
stature and fierce aspect, their forms were cast in the gigantic
proportions which pagan mythology loved to attribute to its gods
and heroes. Their habitations were situated in the depths of gloomy
forests, on the banks of deep and rapid streams, or were surrounded
by marshes, over whose treacherous and yielding surface a winding
pathway usually led to a remote and well defended stronghold. Like all
people whose intellectual development had scarcely begun, they believed
implicitly in omens, auguries, signs, and dreams; their religious
ideas were vague and ill defined; and neither history nor tradition
has preserved for us the appellation or attributes of a single Gothic
divinity. At their banquets, defiled by drunken orgies, and not
infrequently the scenes of violence and even homicide, were celebrated,
in uncouth ballads, the exploits of the famous warriors of the nation.
Their very name, indicative of the superiority which their prowess
never failed to exact, signified The Nobly Born. Without literature,
save a fragmentary translation of the Bible, without government, save
the dominion of some chieftain who, covetous of renown, temporarily
enjoyed the precarious title of sovereign, eager for change, the most
reckless of gamesters, the most pitiless of conquerors, destruction
was with them a passion, and war an amusement. In common with other
barbarians, with whom the ignorance and fears of the age have
confounded them, they claimed and exercised, to the utmost, the
privileges of individual dignity and personal freedom. An arbitrary
classification, dependent upon a fortuitous geographical distribution,
had divided this people into Ostrogoths and Visigoths, according to
their relative location upon the eastern and western banks of the
river Borysthenes. The pressure from the north, which had dispersed
the tribes of the forests of Germany and Pannonia over the European
provinces of the Roman Empire, had induced the Visigoths, by necessity
or choice, to seek a home in Gaul, which country they occupied in
common with the Vandals, the Suevi, the Alani, and other more obscure,
but not less formidable, barbarians; and scarcely had the division of
the empire between Arcadius and Honorius been effected in the first
years of the fifth century, when the inhabitants of Spain, either
through treason or from the negligence of the garrisons stationed in
the passes of the Pyrenees, were overwhelmed by a deluge of savage
marauders.
For four hundred years, the beautiful, the rich, the fertile and
densely populated Peninsula had enjoyed the inestimable blessings
of peace. With the defeat and death of the sons of Pompey, the last
vestige of civil war and intestine discord had disappeared from its
borders. Its fields were cultivated with assiduous care; its seaports
were thronged with the shipping of the Mediterranean; the manufacturing
interests of its inland cities were diversified and important. Its
people, who had inherited from Rome and Carthage that love of pleasure
which was at once their boast and their disgrace, with Epicurean
unconcern, lived only for the present, in the participation of all the
luxury which boundless wealth and national prosperity could bestow.
Upon this earthly paradise--with its splendid cities, its sumptuous
villas, its majestic souvenirs of Roman greatness, its traditions of
heroic achievement and maritime adventure; where Hannibal had gained
his boyhood’s laurels, and Cæsar, moved by the sight of Alexander’s
statue, had first aspired to the dominion of the world--now descended
the brutal and licentious plunderers of the North. The excesses
perpetrated by them in other provinces of the empire were trivial when
compared with the havoc they committed in Iberia. No considerations
of public policy, no sentiments of mercy, interposed to mitigate the
calamities which befell the smiling plains of the Anas, the Iberus,
and the Bætis. Such of the inhabitants as were fortunate enough to
find an asylum behind the walls of fortified cities, soon paid for
their temporary security with the pangs of famine. The growing crops,
delivered to the torch, left to-day a blackened waste where only
yesterday had been every promise of an abundant harvest. A smoky pall,
appropriate symbol of destruction, overhung the sites of prosperous
hamlets and marble villas, where a few smouldering embers alone
indicated the former abode of taste and opulence. Heaps of corpses,
denied the rites of sepulture, covered the land, which was infested
with incredible numbers of wolves and birds of prey, attracted from
every side to their loathsome and inexhaustible repast. A feeling of
utter despair fell upon the survivors; the instincts of humanity and
the feelings of nature were suspended or destroyed; men murdered their
families and then committed suicide; women devoured their offspring;
exposure, want, suffering, and anxiety produced their inevitable
consequences; and the crowning misfortune, the pestilence, daily
claimed its victims by thousands. The savage masters of the country,
satiated with rapine and mutually jealous of power, now began to
quarrel with each other. In the contests which ensued, almost from
the first, the superior organization and martial genius of the Goths
acquired for them the acknowledged supremacy over their adversaries--a
supremacy which soon became coextensive with the Peninsula and laid
the foundations of an extensive kingdom. Early in the fifth century
the extermination, expulsion, or absorption by intermarriage, of the
various tribes, and the emigration of the Vandals, in a body, to
Africa, gave the control of the entire country, with the exception of
a few seaports still tributary to Constantinople, to the Visigoths. In
political organization, in nomenclature, in the construction and in the
application of the maxims of jurisprudence, in the election of their
rulers, in the punishment of criminals, in the regulation of their
amusements, they observed the traditions and honored the observances
of their old homes on the Vistula and the Baltic. The accident of
conversion, a matter of indifference to the majority of the nation,
and one, in this instance, partially dependent upon policy, had made
them Arians, and consequently heretics. The Gothic Church, in its
independence of the See of Rome, while it honored the Supreme Pontiff,
and recognized, to a certain extent, the religious supremacy of the
Papacy, presented an anomaly in the Christian world. The monarch chosen
for his wisdom or his bravery had not as yet assumed the exterior
insignia of royalty, and the laws held him to a strict accountability
for the lives and property of his subjects, but in ecclesiastical
affairs his authority was undisputed and supreme. He convoked at his
pleasure and presided over the national councils--assemblies originally
composed entirely of the clergy, and in which, at all times, the
theocratical element largely preponderated; he published encyclical
letters; he possessed the power of revising the decrees of councils
before their adoption and promulgation; and his wishes and suggestions
were received with a respect surpassing that usually accorded by his
haughty vassals to the majesty of the throne. The clergy were in fact
absolutely dependent upon the sovereign; their immunities were subject
to his will or his caprice; and, far from enjoying the exemption they
obtained in after times by reason of their sacred office and superior
sanctity, they were liable to taxation, and amenable to punishment for
the violation of the laws as strictly as were the laity. Not only were
these restrictions imposed upon them, but the interests of the secular
portion of the community were carefully guarded against the possible
encroachments of ecclesiastical tyranny; the judges were particularly
enjoined to scrutinize the conduct of the priesthood; and instances
were by no means rare where heavy fines were imposed upon them for
acts of injustice and for the oppression of their parishioners.
From the decision of every bishop and metropolitan an appeal lay to
the throne, a privilege conceded. to the meanest peasant; the king
could suspend or abrogate the rules of ecclesiastical discipline; no
canon was valid without his sanction; and he assumed the rights of
nominating, and of translating from one see to another, the greatest
prelates of the Church. But as assemblies of men who possess a monopoly
of the learning and worldly wisdom of a nation, conscious of mental
superiority and incited by motives of ambition, are never satisfied
with acting in a subordinate capacity; the ecclesiastical councils of
Spain almost imperceptibly, but none the less surely, began to encroach
upon the royal prerogative, and, assisted by the weakness or gratitude
of princes whose titles had been assured by their confirmation, aimed
at the seizure of absolute power. By the institution of the rite of
anointing, which imparted a sacred character to the monarch, and
invested in them an implied control over his coronation--a rite first
used in Spain and not adopted in France till the reign of Pepin, in
the eighth century; by the framing of laws favorable to their order,
and whose essential provisions were carefully disguised under the
specious name of enactments for the public welfare; by a command of a
majority of the votes which elected the sovereign; and lastly, by the
conversion of the whole nation to the doctrines of the orthodox faith;
the Gothic clergy advanced unswervingly towards the establishment of
their claim to political supremacy. The Third Council of Toledo was
the first of these important convocations in which questions relating
to the settlement of the constitution of the Gothic monarchy were
debated and settled. From this time until the meeting of the Eighth
Council in 653, the palatines did not participate in the deliberations
of these assemblies, which now began to assume the appearance of
legislative bodies, in which the aims of exclusive ecclesiastical
representation were already clearly disclosed by the partiality and
exemptions which characterized the canons treating of the rights and
privileges of the priesthood. After the middle of the seventh century,
although the nobles were admitted as members of the national councils
and took part in their discussions, the influence of the clergy became
paramount, and the duties of the nobility were confined to a passive
assent to, and registration of, their edicts. A separate tribunal
for the final adjudication of all disputed points of doctrine which
might incidentally arise in the ordinary administration of justice was
granted to ecclesiastics; the latter were prohibited from engaging
in commerce, which the poverty of the Church had formerly rendered
necessary; it became customary to select bishops for the negotiation
of treaties, and for the direction of military embassies which were
invested with the all-important powers of peace and war; the councils
occasionally claimed jurisdiction over secular causes--an unwarranted
assumption of power which the indifference or bigotry of the sovereign
usually failed to resent; and the intolerant character of the canons
treating of heresy indicate, but too plainly, the growing spirit of
persecution--the germ of future inquisitorial atrocities.
But, notwithstanding the acceptance of Catholicism, and the consequent
advance towards the enjoyment of absolute independence, the Church
was hampered by many serious restrictions. Bishops, clerks, and monks
remained subordinate to the secular arm and responsible to the courts
of the realm; they could not, with impunity, disregard their processes,
still less defy their authority; and the commission of crime rendered
them liable to heavy fines and long terms of imprisonment; although,
like the nobility, they could not be subjected to the punishments
inflicted upon the lower orders, such as scourging and branding--the
latter being considered especially infamous. The immunity which
subsequently attached to the character of the clergy as non-combatants
was not known to the founders of the Gothic monarchy. When a city
was besieged or the country threatened with invasion, every subject,
regardless of his profession, was obliged to serve in the army, and
no ecclesiastic could plead his sacred office in bar of military
duty to his sovereign, under penalty of confiscation and exile; the
tonsure was regarded as of peculiar significance and sanctity, and any
one whose locks had once been shorn, or who had assumed the clerical
habit, was henceforth excluded, as a rule, from all military and
civil employments, and consecrated for life to the service of the
cloister; a law which, when abused by fraud or ignorance, was more
than once productive of important results, and even of changes in
the royal succession. Upon the whole, however, the influence of the
Church in those days of intellectual darkness was highly beneficial.
Its monopoly of the scanty wisdom of the time was often employed for
the protection of the oppressed, for the alleviation of suffering, for
the frustration of tyranny, for the consolation of death. The bishop
stood as a guard between the helpless peasant and the unjust judge;
his mediation with the throne, in cases of flagrant injury, was not
optional but mandatory; and his official conduct was subject to the
constant supervision, and was liable to the censure, of the magistrate.
The ambition and political aspirations of the clergy, joined to their
insatiable greed of dominion, which increased with each successive
encroachment upon the civil power, with the daily accumulation of
wealth, and the acquisition of extensive estates by gift, extortion,
bequest, or purchase, disclosed themselves in time in their legitimate
consequence, religious intolerance. The Arian Church in Spain never
disgraced its rule by persecution for differences of opinion. With
the acceptance of the orthodox belief in the sixth century, however,
the spirit of vindictive malevolence,--which has always animated and
directed the genius of Catholicism when in the ascendant, at once
infected the counsels of the ecclesiastical tribunals, and indirectly,
through their influence and example, the decisions of the courts
of law. The coronation oath rendered obligatory the expulsion of
all heretics without consideration of birth, position, or previous
service to the state. The Jews, in whom were vested the most important
offices, and who possessed the bulk of the wealth of the kingdom,
were banished, imprisoned, plundered, or burnt; and while it is true
that the severity of the laws against this sect defeated, erelong,
the object of their enactment, even their partial enforcement was
the cause of great and wide-spread suffering. With the consciousness
of power came the increase of pomp and the desire for prohibited
enjoyments and indulgence in carnal pleasures wholly inconsistent with
the observance of the vows of poverty and chastity as well as contrary
to the rules of ecclesiastical discipline. The canons enacted from
time to time by the councils, and whose provisions were designed to
impose restraints upon the irregular conduct of the clergy, show, more
conclusively than the pages of any chronicle, the lax morality and
deplorable condition of the religious society of that age. Stringent
regulations were adopted against the acceptance of bribes as the price
of exemption from persecution--especially referring to the Jews--a
proof that the zealous protestations of the clerical order could
not withstand the pecuniary arguments of the astute Hebrew; while
the censures fulminated against priests and monks who abused the
privileges of the confessional, or violated nature in the commission
of revolting crimes, indicate the secret and universal corruption
which had already begun to pollute the sacred offices of the Church
and impair the usefulness of its ministers. The Eighteenth Council
of Toledo, at the dictation of King Witiza, whose profligate conduct
and contempt for religion had aroused the horror of Christendom and
provoked the anathemas of the Pope, had, with unexampled servility,
passed laws authorizing the marriage of ecclesiastics, the institution
of polygamy, and the practice of promiscuous concubinage. Under
these conditions of sacerdotal degradation, sanctioned by custom
and established by law, the influence of the Church was everywhere
diminished; the faith of men in the existing religion was weakened; and
the public mind was insensibly prepared for the new revelation which,
appealing to the strongest passions of the human breast, stripped of
metaphysical distinctions, and inculcating moral precepts such as the
most skeptical and dissolute must applaud, was soon to be published to
the discontented and priest-ridden subjects of the Gothic empire. The
ill-defined powers of the Crown and the Mitre, at first reciprocally
dependent, led eventually to a clashing of interests and a struggle
for precedence between the royal and the sacerdotal authority,
in which the clergy, though their aspirations were occasionally
checked by some monarch of stern and decided character, in the end
invariably obtained the advantage. The dependence of the sovereign
upon the priesthood was never lost sight of. No occasion which might
remind him of the obligation he owed to the order whose suffrages
had conferred, and might, with equal facility, resume possession of
his crown, was suffered to pass unimproved. The anointing with holy
oil, which symbolized the right of divine consecration, had already
forged another link in the chain which bound the king to the Church.
The anathemas denounced upon a prince for failure to execute the
laws against heretics, far exceeded in virulence those to which any
subject was liable. At one time, the wishes of the sovereign were
anticipated by the subserviency of the prelates; at another, his
prerogative was invaded and his commands disobeyed with an arrogance
worthy of the imperious spirit of Julius II. or of Gregory the Great.
The populace, through ignorance, prejudice, and habit, blindly devoted
to the sacerdotal order, furnished a formidable body of auxiliaries,
ever ready to hearken to the appeals of their ghostly advisers, a
force which the dignity and assurance of the haughtiest ruler could
not with impunity disregard. The turbulent and illiterate nobility,
although the king was selected from their number by the voices of the
assembled bishops--in which ceremony the concurrence of the palatines
was admitted, in reality, only through courtesy--possessed, in the
practical application of the precepts of the Gothic constitution,
scarcely the shadow, still less the substance, of power. The council
was the embodiment and representative of the intellect and the
collective wisdom of the nation. Its canons were, for the most part,
framed in strict accordance with the principles of equity, and the
deliberations and conclusions of its sessions were often characterized
by a breadth of understanding and a degree of impartiality which
clearly indicated that its members were not deficient in the knowledge
and requirements of enlightened statesmanship. The results of their
labors are contained in the Gothic Code, a body of laws remarkable in
many respects, when we consider the general illiteracy and ignorance
of the age in which it was compiled, and its transcendent importance
as the prototype of the systems of jurisprudence which now regulate
the civil and criminal procedure of the courts of Europe and America.
In the extraordinary minuteness of its details, in its thorough and
comprehensive treatment of the manifold transactions of daily life,
and in its provisions for almost every contingency which could arise
in the administration of the sovereigns under whose auspices it was
framed, this extraordinary work presents the modern legislator with
a subject eminently worthy of his attention and study. The contact
with races which had long enjoyed the blessings of civilization, and
the development of the intellectual faculties consequent upon the
experience obtained in frequent expeditions and protracted campaigns,
imperceptibly modified the ancient laws of the Goths; the very essence
of which was, from the first, and long continued to be, the assertion
of the principle of personal liberty. Rome, whose toleration of the
religious prejudices and customs of the nations subjected to her
dominion--so long as they did not conflict with her interests or
contravene her authority--was one great secret of her power, had, in
accordance with that policy, indulged the Iberians in the use of their
own laws, and only those who enjoyed the privileges of citizenship
could be summoned before the tribunal of the imperial magistrate.
The incursions of the barbarians had abolished every restraint, and
transformed the previous quiet and peaceful condition of the Peninsula
into a state of anarchy. There was then no law but the will of the
chieftain, who was inclined to encourage, rather than to repress, the
excesses of a brutalized soldiery. All records and muniments of title
had disappeared; boundaries had ceased to exist; the tenure of lands
was entirely dependent upon the numerical strength of the claimants;
and when the fields of one district were exhausted, the discontented
settlers sought a new residence in another locality, whose wealth had
excited their avarice, and the inferior military resources of whose
occupants rendered the retention of their possessions uncertain. The
cessation of hostilities was always accompanied with the plunder and
impoverishment of the vanquished; no treaty was valid, because no moral
obligation, or superior power by which it could be enforced, existed;
every vice was committed with impunity; every grudge was satisfied with
all the abuse of unrestricted license; the caprice of the military
commander had supplanted the precedents of the prætor, and the sword
had become the only acknowledged arbiter of every controversy.
During the reign of Euric, in the year 479, was codified and published
the first book of Gothic law, the basis of the subsequent complex
and exhaustive system of jurisprudence which increased in size, and
gathered reverence and authority with the reign of each succeeding
sovereign. It was known as the Forum Judicum, or the Book of Judges,
and consisted mainly of a compilation of the rules applicable to the
various customs and ordeals, which had been approved by time and
experience as beneficial in the administration of the government of
the Gothic nation, combined with such maxims of Roman law as had
gradually been absorbed through frequent association with the courts
and magistrates of the empire. The new rights and duties arising from
the acceptance by the Goths of the orthodox belief in the latter half
of the sixth century, necessitated a revision of the existing laws
and the formulation of another code of far more extensive scope than
the one which already existed. By certain provisions of the former
the constitution of the Iberian church was definitely established and
the predominance of the clergy in secular matters assured; measures
of portentous significance, whose evil effects upon the intelligence
and prosperity of the Spanish people are discernible even in our day.
From the date of its adoption and promulgation, the inhabitants of the
Peninsula were, without exception, declared subject to its statutes.
From this time dates the absolute supremacy of the Church in the
Peninsula. The hold which it then obtained upon temporal affairs it
has never relaxed. The awful consequences of that supremacy upon all
classes and conditions of men owing allegiance to the Spanish crown are
familiar to every reader of history.
The Visigothic Code exhibited, in the restrictions it imposed upon
the royal prerogative, that spirit of jealous independence always
conspicuous in the character of the German warrior, and which had been
preserved through many centuries by the importance that distinguished
the privileged orders under an elective monarchy. The king, who, at
first, had been liable to censure and judgment by his subjects, was
informed, when invested with his office, that even its dignity could
not exempt him from the obligation to observe the law, a principle
of justice and equality which he shared with every resident in his
dominions. The authority of the turbulent and illiterate nobles, who,
with all the arrogance of power, did not hesitate to threaten and
insult the creature of their choice, was curbed in time by the potent
yet gentle influence of the clergy, whose learning and talents at
first swayed, and finally absolutely controlled, the deliberations of
the National Councils. The high rank of the prelates, their superior
accomplishments in an age of universal ignorance, and their claims as
members of an independent hierarchy, which even the Supreme Pontiff
himself scarcely ventured to contradict, in the end communicated
to the Visigothic constitution all the worst characteristics of an
irresponsible and intolerant theocracy.
The Forum Judicum consists of twelve books, which not only define the
rights of the different classes of society, but prescribe at length,
and in copious detail, the mode of procedure to be followed in the
various tribunals. Every precaution which ingenuity could devise was
adopted to insure the fidelity, the honesty, and the impartiality of
the magistrate, whether of the civil or the ecclesiastical order. It
was the duty of the judge to observe and report upon the decisions
of the bishop and the priest, while, on the other hand, the higher
clergy possessed, under certain contingencies, the power of examining
causes and rendering judgment when the proper official had refused or
neglected to exercise his judicial functions, and the interests of
either of the parties litigant were exposed to injury in consequence.
The courts were open from dawn to dark, and the period of vacation
and the hours of rest were strictly regulated by law. The trial of
causes could not be delayed except for valid reasons; the speedy
rendition of judgment was compulsory; the procrastination, injustice,
or corruption of the judge was punished by a fine amounting to
double the loss incurred, and when the circumstances were peculiarly
aggravating his property was confiscated and he was publicly sold as
a slave. No person, however indigent, was debarred, for that reason,
from the benefits of justice, and a fund was set apart in every town
for the support of impecunious litigants, which was disbursed by the
municipal government with the approval of the bishop. An appeal from
the decisions of the inferior tribunals was granted as a matter of
unquestionable right, and the slightest suspicion of interference by
the throne in the proceedings rendered them invalid and worthless. The
ceremonies relating to the administration of the law were characterized
by great simplicity, and the pleadings were divested of unnecessary
verbiage. The highest reverence for the officers of the crown was
inculcated and enforced; and a resort to litigation was persistently
discouraged by public opinion, excepting where it was imperatively
demanded by the interests of justice. In the rules of evidence, as well
as in their application, traces of the deeply rooted superstitions
of the Teutonic barbarians still remained. The ordeals of fire and
water were not infrequently adopted. The wager of battle could not
be refused, without ignominy; and the oaths of compurgators were, at
times, invoked to restore the lustre of some tarnished escutcheon, or
to remove the stain attaching to a suspected violation of female honor.
Torture was allowed, but excessive severity in its application was
prohibited, and, in case of death or permanent injury resulting from
its abuse, the judge was liable to forfeiture both of his possessions
and his liberty. In determining the competency of testimony, an unwise
and unjust discrimination was made against the poor, through the
unwarrantable presumption of temptation to bribery, and this exclusion
also applied to Jews--even though apostates--as well as to their
descendants, and to slaves. The crime of perjury was mentioned with
horror; its commission was deemed worthy of the severest punishment;
and the false witness, visited with public execration, was condemned
to life-long servitude. In general, the criminal code of the Visigoths
was conspicuous for the moderation with which it treated offenders
against the public peace. The penalty of death was rarely inflicted,
and was confined to cases of arson, rape, and murder. A regular
schedule of minor crimes and their punishments existed; the severity
of the latter depending upon the social rank and political importance
of the individual. In flagrant instances of malicious prosecution,
bribery of public officers, or abuse of political power, the culprit
became the slave of the injured party, with the sole limitation to his
resentment, that the life of his former oppressor should be spared.
Rebellion was punished by banishment; infanticide by blinding; and the
counterfeiter, or the forger of a royal edict, suffered the loss of
the right hand. When the atrocious nature of an offence against morals
demanded a penalty of corresponding infamy, the head of the criminal
was shaved and branded, marking him for life as a social outcast, to
be forever an object of public abhorrence. Scourging was the penalty
of most universal application, and even a freeman, however exalted
his station, was not exempt from its infliction, if he ventured to
provoke the vengeance of retributive justice, and was not possessed of
the stated fine which was the legal equivalent of the lash. The right
of asylum, a privilege whose importance as a salutary check upon the
passions of a fierce and tyrannical nobility, in an age of violence,
is with difficulty appreciated in modern times, was recognized by the
Gothic constitution; and no suppliant, who had sought protection at the
foot of the altar, could be removed without the consent of the proper
ecclesiastical authority. In the provisions which define the civil
relations of society, the Forum Judicum recalls to every one conversant
with the Commentaries of Blackstone, the familiar maxims and precedents
of the Common Law of England. The different grades of relationship,
and the rights of inheritance in the ascending and descending lines,
were treated of exhaustively in the books of the Visigothic Code. In
the protection of the interests of children its sections displayed a
paternal and anxious care. No child could be disinherited unless it had
been guilty of some aggravated act of violence towards its parent. In
all questions relating to the descent of property, no preference was
accorded to sex, and the female remained on the same footing as the
male. A minor of ten years could, without restriction, dispose of his
or her possessions by will. Guardians were appointed by the courts, who
were required to observe the conditions of their trust, and to render
accounts of the funds which passed through their hands; and the power
of appointing a guardian _ad litem_ was frequently exercised,
where the affairs of a minor necessitated the institution or the
defence of a suit at law. The boundless control of the father over the
child, which formed so prominent a feature in the domestic regulations
of Rome, was repugnant to the independent spirit of the Goths; the
parental duties and responsibilities were expressly defined; the son
who resided with his father was entitled to two-thirds of his earnings;
and the courts exercised unremitting and vigilant supervision over
the persons and estates of minors and orphans. A reminiscence of the
ancient custom of marriage by purchase survived in the price paid by
the bridegroom to the relatives of the bride; all clandestine alliances
were considered invalid; a woman could sue, and be sued, without
joining with her husband; and no responsibility attached to either for
the illegal acts of the other. Integrity of descent and purity of blood
were preserved by laws of exceptional severity; a free-born female who
abandoned her person to, or even contracted marriage with, a slave was
scourged and burnt with her unfortunate paramour or spouse. A wife
who had incurred the guilt of adultery was delivered over absolutely
to the tender mercies of the injured husband. This offence, which
evoked ordinarily the strongest denunciation from the descendants of
the cold and sluggish barbarians of the Baltic, was, however, in an
ecclesiastic rather reprobated as an amiable weakness than condemned
as a crime; an indulgence to be attributed partly to the predominant
and sympathetic caste of the legislature, and partly to an appreciation
of the opportunities and temptations which beset the father-confessor,
who, after conviction, was immured in some comfortable monastery until
he professed penitence and received absolution.
The conditions of vassalage and serfdom, as understood and practised
elsewhere in Europe, and especially in Germany, were foreign to
the polity of the Visigoths. Feudalism, with its mutual rights and
obligations as subsequently known to Europe, strictly speaking, did not
exist. The relations affecting the status of lord and vassal were, to
some extent, borrowed from the Roman system and modelled upon those of
patron and client. The sections relating to the conditions of servitude
were minute and voluminous. The master had generally unrestricted power
over the life of his slave. He who aided the escape of the latter was
legally responsible for his value. Recognizing the peculiar facilities
for criminal intercourse, and the corresponding difficulty of its
detection, the law sentenced the servile adulterer to the stake. While
the most liberal encouragement was given to the manumission of slaves,
the numbers of this unfortunate class were constantly increasing,
by the capture of prisoners of war, by the degradation of dishonest
officials, by the submission of debtors, and by the conviction of
criminals. Every slave belonged to a certain rank, and castigation
for petty delinquencies, as well as punishment for serious crimes,
was inflicted with more or less rigor, according to the cause of his
servitude, his industrial ability, and the social condition of his
owner, whether he was born, purchased, or condemned; whether he was
a skilful artisan or mechanic, or an ordinary laborer; or whether he
was the property of the Crown, of the Church, or of an individual.
The influence of the Visigoths did much to lighten the burdens of
slavery; the bloody spectacles of the gladiatorial contests possessed
no allurements for a nation not degraded by cowardice and cruelty; the
treatment of bondmen was, in some localities, so softened and modified
that scarcely more than the name of hereditary servitude existed; and
in cases of intolerable oppression, where the slave took refuge in the
sanctuary, the master could be compelled to dispose of him to some one
more actuated by feelings of kindness and pity.
The precepts of the Forum Judicum which relate to bailments, to
strays, to trespass, to accessories before and after the fact, to the
obstruction of highways, to malicious mischief, to the attestation
of documents, and to contracts made under duress, are substantially
the same as those set forth in our law-books of to-day. A statute of
limitations, which recognized a period varying from thirty to fifty
years, beyond which even some criminal prosecutions could not be
instituted, was in force. The legislation pertaining to agriculture,
irrigation, and the boundaries of land was particularly complete and
exhaustive. Security was obtained by bonds and pledges; inventories
were required of guardians; and the culprit who was guilty of slander
was not only responsible in damages for his intemperate language, but
was also often liable to corporeal punishment; as, for instance, if
he called another a “Saracen,” or even insinuated that he had been
circumcised, he might consider himself fortunate if he did not receive
fifty lashes at the hands of the common executioner.
Considering the general condition of society, the antecedents of a
nation whose energies had hitherto been directed to the overthrow of
every institution which secured the perpetuity of peace and order,
the previous slender opportunities of its authors, and the limited
educational facilities at their command, the Code of the Visigoths
presents us with a system of legislation of extraordinary interest
and value. So remarkable is this body of jurisprudence in the wisdom,
foresight, humanity, and knowledge of mankind which characterize its
leading maxims, that they almost seem to have been suggested by divine
inspiration. Its first statutes appeared when the comprehensive
system of Justinian, which had enlisted the talents and exhausted the
erudition of the most accomplished jurists of the Eastern Empire, was
nearly perfected. It borrowed but little, however, from the learning
of Tribonian and the laborious ingenuity of his seventeen coadjutors.
The eternal principles of justice, it is true, are equally the basis
of both of these collections; but their construction and the methods
of their application, under similar conditions, are widely different;
and the superiority, upon the whole, is largely on the side of the
so-called barbarian. In the majority of instances, excepting where
ecclesiastical ambition and monastic prejudice perverted the ends of
legislation, the laws of the Visigoths were uniformly framed for the
protection of the weak, the relief of the oppressed, and the general
welfare of society. Unlike the practice of more civilized nations in
comparatively recent times, the judicature of the former confined
its penalties to the personality of the offender, and imposed no
disabilities, either by forfeiture or attainder, upon his innocent
relatives and descendants. It restrained the tyranny of the monarch;
it defined with conciseness and accuracy the rights of the subject;
it accorded unprecedented concessions to the widow and the orphan;
it respected the unfortunate and helpless condition of the slave. It
prohibited encroachments upon personal liberty, and declared the sale
of a freeman to be equivalent in atrocity to the crime of homicide.
In almost every provision which did not conflict with the claims of
the priesthood, it hearkened to the voice of mercy and humanity. By
the constant menace and certain infliction of civil degradation,
confiscation, and perpetual servitude, it secured the fidelity of
the judges and fiscal officers of the state. It accepted the great
principle of the Salic law, and, with worldly prudence, forbade the
election of a female sovereign. But, when the theocratic influence
which pervaded every branch of the Gothic constitution comes to be
examined, its effect upon contemporaneous legislation is seen to be
pernicious and deplorable. The power of the clergy was irresponsible,
ubiquitous, and thoroughly despotic. It dictated the proceedings of
every assembly. It whispered suggestions of questionable morality
in the ears of the monarch. When thwarted in its unholy aims, its
vengeance was implacable. The abuse of the convenient and formidable
weapon of excommunication had not reached the extreme which it
subsequently attained, yet the all but omnipotent hand of the
priesthood was already able to invade the privacy of domestic life,
to interfere with the sensitive and delicate mechanism of commerce,
to violate the rights of property, to desecrate the sacred precincts
of the grave. Ecclesiastical intolerance dictated the passage of
ex-post-facto laws, a measure whose monstrous injustice is patent
to every unprejudiced mind. The disability imposed upon the Hebrew
race, and the savage spirit of the canons enacted for its oppression,
point significantly to the prospective horrors of the inquisitorial
tribunals. The practice of sorcery and magic--so dreaded in an age
of intellectual inferiority, and especially offensive to the Church,
which tolerated no wonder-workers outside of its own pale--was severely
reprobated, and punished with excessive severity. The ends of the
clergy, when not obtainable by the arts of controversy, were secured
by other means not unfamiliar to the intriguing courtiers of mediæval
Europe; its propositions were advanced with caution and debated with
consummate skill; and its arguments were either insinuated with more
than Jesuitical adroitness, or urged with all the energy of sacerdotal
zeal.
In its respectable antiquity; in the sublime morality inculcated by
its precepts; in the obligations incurred by every nation which has
drawn upon its accumulated stores of wisdom; in its freedom from the
dishonorable expedients of legal chicanery; in the simplicity of its
procedure; in the certainty and celerity required by the practice of
the tribunals where its authority was acknowledged; in the inflexible
impartiality with which it invested the decisions of those tribunals;
in its well-founded title to public confidence; the Visigothic Code
is without parallel in the annals of jurisprudence. But great as are
its claims upon the gratitude and reverence of the jurist and the
legislator, they are scarcely comparable to the indebtedness imposed
upon the historian. The meagre information to be gleaned from the works
of native chroniclers is, in great measure, thoroughly unreliable.
The literature of the age, scanty in itself, consists mainly of the
recital of ecclesiastical fables, the martyrdom of legendary saints,
the discovery of spurious relics, the averting of calamities by
invocation and miracle, and trivial incidents in the lives of holy
men and women, whose preternatural gifts the indulgent credulity of
their biographers has handed down to the contempt and ridicule of
posterity. The pages destined for such records were too precious to be
defiled by the accounts of wars and insurrections and the interesting
descriptions of mediæval society. The diligence of the compilers of
the Forum Judicum has, however, largely supplied the deficiencies
of the monkish annalists. In their various civil and prohibitory
enactments, they have unconsciously delineated the follies, the vices,
the superstitions, and the crimes of the age. The penalties imposed
for the violation of statutes denote infallibly the barbarian origin
of those who formulated them. The law of retaliation--tolerated only
among the lowest races of men--occurs repeatedly among the provisions
of the Visigothic Code. The deterrent effect of criminal legislation
was almost always subordinated to considerations of vengeance. The
magistrate was regarded as the vindicator of wrong, rather than the
calm representative of judicial dignity and the impartial interpreter
of the laws. Scalping, maiming, blinding, scourging, branding,
emasculation, were punishments prescribed without discrimination, for
offences varying widely in the nature and degree of misconduct and
criminality. The period of transition which separated the barbaric
rudeness of Adolphus and the effeminate luxury of Roderick is
traceable, step by step, in the progressive legislation of centuries.
The rise and consolidation of ecclesiastical power; the limitation
of the royal prerogative; the decline of the insolent pretensions of
the nobility; the elevation of the peasant from the position of a
beast of burden to a self-respecting being, who, however steeped in
ignorance he might be, was always sure of an impartial hearing before
the magistrate; are there related with all the fidelity and minuteness
of a chronicle. There too are depicted the sources of that inspiration
which animated and sustained the sinking hopes of the founders of the
Spanish monarchy, from its organization as a little principality in the
Asturias, down through the turbulent era of Moorish domination, until
it attained the summit of greatness as the dictator of Europe and the
arbiter of Christendom. These are the general characteristics of that
incomparable monument of jurisprudence whose noble conceptions of the
ends of legislation are best expressed in its own concise and energetic
language:
“The law is the rival of divinity, the messenger of justice, and the
guide of life. It dominates all classes of the state, and all ages
of humanity, male and female, the young and the old, the wise and
the ignorant, the noble and the peasant. It is not designed for the
promotion of private aims, but to shelter and protect the general
interests of all. It must adjust itself to time and place, according
to the condition of affairs and the customs of the realm, and confine
itself to exact and equitable rules so as not to lay snares for any
citizen.”
Lost in the confusion attending the Conquest, the Forum Judicum was
carefully preserved by the Moors for the benefit of future generations;
and, recovered when the Moslem capital was taken by St. Ferdinand, it
was subsequently translated into Castilian.
Among the nations composing the heterogeneous population of Spain, the
most important in intelligence, wealth, commercial activity, and talent
for administration, in ancient times, were the Jews. Classed with the
first colonists of the Peninsula, the earliest mention of Iberia by
the Greek and Roman historians represents the Jewish population as
already rich and prosperous. If we consider their intimate relations,
kindred interests, alliances by marriage, and common inclination for
traffic, with their Tyrian neighbors, it is not improbable that the
settlement of the Hebrew in Bætica was coincident with that of the
Phœnicians. The first National Council that assembled at Illiberis in
325--the same year in which were determined the principles of orthodox
Christianity as set forth in the Nicene creed--inaugurated the long and
bloody persecution which finally culminated in the wholesale expulsion
of the unfortunate race by Philip V. By the canons of this council,
the blessings of the rabbi, to which the husbandman seemed to attach
a virtue and an importance equal if not superior to those presumed
to attend the benediction of the priest, and which custom from time
immemorial had invoked upon the growing crops, was declared an offence
against religion, punishable by summary expulsion from the Church.
The morose spirit of ecclesiastical bigotry did not hesitate to
violate the rites of hospitality and cast a shadow over the amenities
of social life. With an exquisite refinement of malice, it pronounced
subject to excommunication all who, even in cases of charity or under
circumstances of the most urgent necessity, shared their food with
a Jew. The passive submission of the entire race to the barbarian
invader procured, however, for its members, in many instances, a
degree of consideration not enjoyed by their Christian neighbors. With
their natural talents for business, their capacity for intrigue, and,
above all, their superior knowledge of mankind, they were not long in
securing the confidence of the conquerors. Under the Arian sovereigns,
their religious opinions remained for generations unquestioned, and
their worship unmolested. But hardly had the nation renounced its
ancient communion, before the disturbing spirit of the new hierarchy
began to assert itself. The edict of Sisebut, in 612, published the
decrees of the Third Council of Toledo which had been drawn up for
the pious purpose of “eradicating the perfidy of the Jews,” whose
general prosperity and political power had aroused the apprehensions
of the priesthood. From this era until the accession of Roderick in
709, the legislation of the councils relating to the Jews presents the
extremes of brutal harshness and occasional liberal indulgence. In all
these enactments, however, the offensive qualities of injustice and
malevolence largely preponderated. The aggressiveness of Catholicism
demanded instant and uncompromising submission to its creed. What
was at first attempted by the imposition of civil disabilities was
soon after exacted by degrading insults, by torture, by slavery,
and by death. Such was the unrelenting ferocity of this persecution
that it awakened at times the indignation even of a semi-barbarous
and fanatical age. But despite continuous and systematic repression,
this maligned and down-trodden race prospered; the forbearance of
royal and ecclesiastical inquisitors was purchased, and the clamors
of furious zealots were silenced by opportune contributions to the
monastic orders; for the services of the most capable diplomatists
and financiers of the time could not be dispensed with in a society
where even a large portion of those who devised measures for their
oppression could neither read nor write. The superiority of the Jews
was also indicated by the prices they commanded when their liberty
had been forfeited by law. While slaves of other nationalities ranked
as “bestias de cuatro pies,” and were purchasable upon the same terms
as a horse or an ox, the Jew was worth a thousand crowns. The great
possessions of the Gothic nobles, which the universal illiteracy of
the latter made them incompetent to manage, rendered the shrewd and
accomplished Hebrew a necessary steward. He enjoyed the confidence
of the monarch. He administered the royal revenues, always with
discernment and in most instances with fidelity. His advice was eagerly
solicited in exigencies of national importance, and in the crooked arts
of diplomacy he proved more than a match for the ablest negotiators
of the age. His wealth, his political and social influence, which he
preserved in defiance of civil disabilities and ecclesiastical malice,
his scholastic attainments, the elegance of his manners when contrasted
with Teutonic rudeness; all of these qualities ingratiated him into
the favor of the palatines, by whom he was often treated with the
consideration deserved by a friend, rather than with the abhorrence due
to an outcast.
The political organization and legal privileges which the Jews
possessed in the early days of the Visigothic monarchy magnified
their importance, increased their wealth, and fostered their spirit
of exclusiveness. The latter feeling was also strengthened by the
policy of separation which it was deemed expedient to adopt, during
the Middle Ages, in Christian communities, towards the Hebrew race.
For a considerable period of the Gothic dominion, the Jews were
confined to a certain quarter of every city and village, over which
magistrates of their own blood exercised both civil and criminal
functions, unrestricted, save in questions that affected the national
faith or where personal injury had been inflicted upon a Christian. The
jurisdiction of each provincial assembly was rigidly subordinated to
the supreme authority of the central synagogue. The territory beyond
the limits of the town--which was often entirely Jewish--was subject to
the control of a governor who was responsible only to the sovereign.
At one time the Jews controlled the most important landed interests of
the kingdom. The prejudice attaching to payments for the use of money
did not deter the Hebrew banker from the practice of usury, although
the legal rate of thirty-three per cent. certainly offered sufficient
inducements to abstain from the violation of the law which he either
secretly evaded or openly defied.
The activity displayed by the Jews of the Peninsula in every department
of science, literature, government, commerce, agriculture, and finance
was incessant and indefatigable. No contemporaneous people could boast,
in proportion to their numbers, so many men of genius and erudition.
Their influence was so extensive that it was acknowledged alike in the
hovel of the peasant and in the council chamber of the king. Their
powerful individuality survived the cruel impositions which repressed
their enterprise, but could not damp their ardor; and the patriotism
which attached them to a country in which they were only tolerated as
exiles, was sufficient to induce their descendants to heartily aid,
by every means in their power, the famous princes and warriors whose
capacity and resolution supported, amidst continuous disaster and
defeat, the doubtful fortunes of the struggling monarchy of Castile.
In their application to the mechanical arts, and in their development
of architecture, the Visigoths disclosed rather an imitative faculty
than a spirit of marked originality. What is known to us as the Gothic
style owes nothing to that nation to which popular belief has ascribed
its invention, and, in fact, was not introduced into Spain until
the thirteenth century. The name has been arbitrarily given it to
distinguish the pointed arch--its principal characteristic--from the
rounded one peculiar to the edifices of Rome. The rude and primitive
structures of the German forests, constructed of logs, stained with
mud, and designed solely for purposes of shelter and defence, could
neither suggest nor transmit traditions of architectural elegance and
beauty. The sight of the noble memorials of Roman genius which had
escaped the destructive impulses of the predatory barbarian, erelong
inspired the uncouth conqueror with the spirit of emulation. In the
Iberian Peninsula these vast and splendid structures abounded. The
walls which once encompassed the seats of its proconsul; the fanes
from whence had arisen the incense to its gods; the colonnades which
adorned its capitals; the aqueducts rising to prodigious heights,
and surmounting difficulties which would have perplexed any engineer
save a Roman, were worthy of one of the richest provinces of the
empire. From such models the Visigothic architect, wholly destitute of
experience, yet animated by the desire of imitating an excellence which
had awakened his admiration, designed the palace and the basilica.
The wealth which, from the earliest times, Spain has lavished upon
her children, furnished the means, while the religious spirit which
pervaded every class of society afforded the incentive, for public
display and private munificence. An innumerable body of slaves and
dependents, available at a moment’s notice, facilitated the rapid
construction of edifices of the largest proportions. Churches grand in
dimensions and barbaric in decoration were erected by priests, abbots,
and private individuals, whose generosity was commensurate with their
devotion. Before the shrines of these temples were deposited vases,
reliquaries, diptychs, crosses, of precious materials and curiously
intricate patterns. The religious enthusiasm of the Gothic princes,
mingled perhaps with a certain share of worldly ambition, impelled them
to a generous rivalry, and nourished in the bosom of each the desire
to surpass his predecessor in liberality to the Church. Hence the
various temples were, under each successive reign, enriched with royal
gifts of inestimable value and ostentatious magnificence. Sacramental
tables of gold studded with emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires, whose
wondrous beauty and richness Saracen tradition has transmitted to
posterity, with monstrances and ciboria of ingenious design and
encrusted with jewels, formed a portion of the pious donations of
the sovereigns of the Goths. The influence of the arts and taste
of Byzantium, communicated through the channels of commerce, the
interchange of civilities, and the frequent intercourse between the
courts of Constantinople and Toledo, appears in the mural ornamentation
of the temples and in the vessels of their shrines, as well as in
the habitations, utensils, and trinkets of the people. Geometric
forms and floral designs--afterwards so popular among the Moors, who
unquestionably derived them largely from this source--were almost
exclusively employed by the Gothic goldsmiths and architects. Vines,
leaves, buds, and quatrefoils enter into almost every combination
in great variety and with charming effect. The churches were dimly
lighted by means of marble slabs pierced with intersecting cruciform
apertures, which increased the mystery and awe of the interior, devices
which are visible to-day in places of worship as widely separated and
of as originally diverse character as the chapels of the Asturias
and the Mosque of Cordova. As soon as the rage and hatred inspired
by the resistance of their enemies--and which was wreaked upon the
edifices of the latter with hardly less vindictiveness than upon
the ranks of their legions--had been allayed, a desire to profit by
the skill and experience of their Roman subjects became paramount;
new structures of simple design and enduring materials arose in the
cities; the ancient monuments were spared; and the superior state of
preservation which distinguishes the Roman remains in the Peninsula
affords incontrovertible evidence of the enlightened appreciation of
the Visigoths.
In the encouragement of the useful and elegant arts, the Visigoths
displayed an enterprising spirit considerably in advance of the other
branches of the great Teutonic nation. Manufactures of clothing, glass,
armor, weapons, thread, and jewelry are known to have existed in their
dominions. But it is in the fabrication of church furniture, votive
offerings, and utensils designed for the service of the altar, that
the labors of their artisans are best known to us. In the province
of Guarrazar, a few miles from Toledo, was accidentally discovered,
in the middle of the last century, a deposit of objects which had
evidently been hastily buried by the priests on the approach of the
Saracen invader. It was composed of a number of votive crowns--some
of which were inscribed with the names of the donors--sceptres,
censers, crosses, candlesticks, lamps, chains, girdles. All of these
were of gold enriched with precious stones. The ignorance, fear, and
avarice of the peasants who discovered this treasure resulted in the
dispersion and loss of the most precious portion of it; but the crowns
were saved, and are now in the Hotel de Cluny at Paris, and the Royal
Armory at Madrid. These articles enable us to form an excellent idea
of the condition of the arts at the beginning of the eighth century.
The accounts given by Christian and Arab historians of the Visigothic
kings, and of the enormous booty obtained by the Moors, had, until this
discovery was made, been ridiculed by critics as exaggerations, due
to the national vanity of both conquered and conqueror. From even a
cursory examination of these objects--unique in the world--can readily
be detected the taste and style of the Byzantine, whose influence over
the artistic traditions of the Peninsula, far from disappearing with
the Gothic dynasty, was exhibited in some of the most magnificent
creations of the Moslem domination. The clumsy but massive patterns
of the crowns show that the value of the materials was taken into
consideration, quite as much as the labor that was expended upon them.
From their ornamentation is revealed a not inconsiderable familiarity
with the art of the enameller. Some of the settings are of polished
silicates, inserted, probably by way of contrast, at intervals in lines
of uncut gems. The accuracy with which they are adjusted and their
points united is indicative of long practice and extraordinary skill. A
separate intaglio belonging to the same treasure discloses a hitherto
unsuspected degree of perfection in the glyptic art. The carving of
stones as hard as the jacinth gives us a still further acquaintance
with the skill of the Gothic lapidary, and the delicacy of the filigree
borders is of almost equal excellence with the best work of modern
Italy.
While the manufactures of Gothic Spain were due to the talents and
industry of slaves, its commerce was monopolized by foreigners. The
genius of the barbarian, fearless in adventure upon land but too
indolent for application to mercantile employments, instinctively
shrank from the perils and the hardships incident to protracted
navigation of the seas. In agriculture, however, great progress was
made. Pastoral occupations had been largely superseded by the tillage
of the soil. The character of the various enactments relating to real
property shows the importance with which that branch of the law was
already invested, and the attention its occupancy and its tenures had
received from the legislative power. In literature the Visigoths could
boast of few productions of merit, and what we designate by the name
of science was to them totally unknown. But a single name, that of
San Isidoro of Seville, one, however, famous in every department of
knowledge--historian, polemic, commentator, theologian, and saint--has
emerged from the chaos of literary obscurity which enveloped the life
of Visigothic times. His acquirements were prodigious for the age.
The oracle of ecclesiastical councils, his writings were perhaps more
voluminous than those of any other author that Spain has ever produced,
and they are still regarded by Catholic divines as authoritative in
settling controverted points of doctrine.
The practice of medicine--in addition to being subordinated to the
irresponsible intervention of the priesthood, whose imposture reaped
a profitable harvest by the working of spurious miracles and by
the application of relics--was hampered by the prejudices of the
ignorant, and by the absurd restrictions imposed by the jealousy of
an ecclesiastical legislature. No matter how pressing the necessity,
a physician was not permitted to attend a free woman unless her male
relatives were present. If great weakness resulted from his treatment
he could be heavily fined, and in case death ensued he was abandoned
to the vengeance of the family of his patient. The law, however,
as a partial compensation for the inconveniences to which he was
subjected, exempted him from imprisonment for all crimes save that
of murder. A limited knowledge of anatomy and some, acquaintance
with the fundamental principles of surgery were possessed by these
practitioners, as is disclosed by their successful operations for
cataract. Their compensation was regulated by statute, and was,
besides, subject to special agreement; but, in case the patient was not
cured, no fee could be collected, and the physician was liable, at all
times, to prosecution for flagrant acts of malpractice.
The empire of the Visigoths, during the period of its greatest
prosperity, extended from the valleys of the Loire and the Garonne
to the Mediterranean. The surrender of a portion of this territory
to Clovis consolidated the power of both the kingdoms of France and
Spain, by adopting for their common boundary the natural rampart of the
Pyrenees. The tastes and traditions of the Teutonic nation, heretofore
averse to sedentary occupations, and considering all labor, and
especially the cultivation of the soil, as degrading to the character
of a freeman, caused such employment to be abandoned to the former
subjects of the Roman Empire; nor was it until several centuries had
elapsed, and the advantages resulting from industrious tillage had
been demonstrated, that this prejudice was in some degree removed. At
all times during the sway of the Visigoths, every species of manual
labor was largely performed by slaves. The institution of colleges
of artificers--a custom inherited from the most polished nation of
antiquity--had been adopted by the barbarian conquerors, and the
slaves composing these bodies, where the talents of the father were
transmitted to the son, were naturally ranked among the most valuable
of personal possessions. Large numbers of these artisans were the
property of the Crown and of the Church, being respectively under the
control of the Royal Treasurer and the Bishop, and the unique specimens
of the goldsmith’s skill which the fortunate discovery at Guarrazar has
preserved for us, reveal to what proficiency in the mechanical arts
these accomplished bondmen had attained.
The greatest luxury and pomp were indulged in by the Visigothic nation,
a people which the world still calls barbarian. Their palaces were
encrusted with precious marbles. The furniture of their apartments
was of the most expensive character. The garments of the nobility
were of silken fabrics embroidered with gold. The ladies of the court
used for their ablutions basins of silver, and admired their beauty
in exquisitely chased mirrors set with jewels. The horses of the
royal household were covered with harnesses and trappings blazing
with the precious metals. A hundred wagons laden with baggage and all
the paraphernalia of boundless extravagance followed in the train of
the monarch. Such was the lavish expenditure of even the middle and
lower classes, that it became necessary to enact a law prohibiting
the bestowal of a dowry of more than one-tenth of the property of a
bridegroom upon the bride.
Not only did the Visigoths strive to imitate their Roman subjects in
the style and finish of their edifices, but in every public employment,
in every department of art and labor, was the potent influence of the
subjugated people visible. The organization of the various corps and
divisions of the army was modelled after that of the legion. The most
popular amusements were, with the exception of gladiatorial combats,
identical with those which had excited to frenzied enthusiasm the
vast audiences of Rome and Constantinople in the circus and the
amphitheatre. The dress of the citizen, the armor of the soldier,
were Roman; the ornaments of the ladies, the insignia of royalty, the
decorations of the churches, were Byzantine. The language in common
use was a barbarous and bastard Latin. The fusion of hostile races,
the amalgamation of the conqueror and the conquered, that political
problem which has taxed the skill of the wisest statesmen, was almost
brought to a successful solution by the broad statesmanship of the
Visigothic sovereigns. The adoption and enforcement of a uniform and
well-conceived body of laws did much to accomplish this end. But the
acceptance of orthodox Christianity as the recognized form of national
faith, and the legalizing of intermarriage between the different
peoples of the Peninsula, by their tendency to remove the formidable
barriers raised by caste, which had hitherto isolated the various
classes of society, did far more to promote the union of the discordant
elements of society. The Basques--constant types of the primitive
Iberian--alone, among the multifarious tribes which acknowledged the
supremacy of the court of Toledo, have preserved their nationality,
and have obstinately refused to surrender those distinctive racial
peculiarities that have made them for centuries the subject of the
entertaining speculations of the ethnologist.
In some respects a striking parallel, in others a decided contrast
existed between Goth and Arab, representatives of the Aryan and Semitic
branches of the human family, who crossed swords in Europe for the
first time in history, on the plains of the Spanish Peninsula. Between
these two great ethnographical divisions, a spirit of irreconcilable
enmity has always prevailed. No fusion between them has ever been
effected. Where one has obtained ascendency in any part of the world,
the other has either preserved its special traits or gradually become
extinct. Considerations of political expediency, the claims of divine
revelation, the benefits of trade, the ultimate prospect of national
union and social equality, have not been sufficient to counteract
the influence of an antagonism which anticipates all human records
in its antiquity. The customs of nomadic peoples are proverbially
persistent; their occupation frequently survives the change of
residence, the accidents of migration, and the influence of new and
radically different associations. Both the Goths and the Arabs placed
their principal dependence upon their flocks and herds, but neither
ever hesitated to exchange the crook of the shepherd for the spear
of the robber. The love of war and violence was the predominating
characteristic of both. They had a common admiration for courage as
the greatest of virtues; a common appreciation of the noble qualities
of personal liberty, of private honor, of generous hospitality. Their
habits were slothful, their existence precarious. Their jealousy of
power forbade their acknowledgment of royal authority. They considered
all industrial employments as beneath the dignity of manhood.
Their worship was tainted with the most objectionable features of
idolatry,--the adoration of stones, the practice of fetichism, the
horrors of human sacrifice. Alike were they drunkards and desperate
gamesters, who eagerly placed their liberty at stake, whose revels
resounded with brawling, and whose disputes were settled with the
sword. They recognized no permanent ownership in the soil, possessed
little portable wealth, were ignorant of the arts and without the
knowledge of letters. Like all barbarians, they believed disease
and insanity to be caused by demoniacal possession. With both, love
of poetry was a passion, and the personality of the bard the object
of almost idolatrous reverence. Such were the traits common to two
nations, separated by a distance of eighteen hundred miles, ignorant of
each other’s existence, and living under entirely dissimilar climatic
conditions. The atmosphere of the Baltic was perpetually cold and
damp, that of Arabia dry and torrid almost beyond endurance. Eastern
Europe was covered with dense forests, traversed by noble rivers, and
dotted with impassable swamps. In the Desert nothing was so rare as a
tree or rivulet. The physical conformation of the Goth and the Arab
respectively was controlled by his environment to an even greater
degree than was the mental constitution of either. The former was
of giant stature and strength, and of fair complexion; the latter
slender. nervous, and swarthy. With the Goth, female chastity was held
in the highest esteem; with the Arab, it was the subject of caustic
epigram, of jest, and of satire. The Goth, a monogamist, knew nothing
of the pleasures of gallantry; the polygamous Arab placed indulgence
in them second only to the excitement of battle. The Goths were among
the first and most devout proselytes of Christianity; the Arabs have
ever obstinately refused to acknowledge the divinity of Christ or the
superior authority of the Gospel.
That invincible prowess which, nurtured by poverty and an abstemious
life, was displayed with equal distinction and success amidst the
forests of Europe and on the sandy plains of Africa, was the potent
weapon which obtained for each of these great nations supremacy over
their adversaries; an advantage which, through internal dissension,
sectarian prejudice, and social corruption, was eventually lost; but
not until the moral and physical peculiarities of both had impressed
themselves upon their contemporaries, so deeply as to insure their
transmission, with but little modification, to subsequent ages.
The spirit of the Visigoths was, almost from the first, decidedly
progressive. This general tendency towards improvement, and a desire
for the blessings of civilization, stimulated commercial activity,
increased domestic happiness, and opened a field for the development of
art, the advancement of science, the strict administration of justice,
and the consequent decrease of brutality and crime. The wisdom of
the Gothic polity and the equity of its laws afford a pleasing and
instructive example of the capacity of a people to raise itself unaided
from barbarism--a people which, in addition to the romantic interest
attaching to its history, is entitled to the grateful remembrance
of mankind for the beneficent influence it has exerted upon the
political institutions and the social order of Europe; as well as for
the creation of a judicial system whose merits and whose principles,
confirmed by the experience of centuries, are still acknowledged by the
most august tribunals of the civilized world.