Isidore of Seville, a Spanish churchman and …

Years: 600 - 600

Isidore of Seville, a Spanish churchman and encyclopedist, succeeds his older brother, Leander, as archbishop of Seville in 600.

The information for the rest of Reccared's reign is scanty.

John of Biclaro, Reccared's contemporary, ends his account with the Third Council of Toledo.

Isidore of Seville praises his peaceful government, clemency, and generosity: standard encomia.

He had returned various properties, even some privates ones, that had been confiscated by his father, and has founded many churches and monasteries.

Pope Gregory, writing to Reccared in August 599, extols him for embracing the true faith and inducing his people to do so, and notably for refusing the bribes offered by Jews to procure the repeal of a law against them.

He sends Reccared a piece of the True Cross, some fragments of the chains of St. Peter, and some hairs of St. John the Baptist.

Gregory is convinced that Reccared has refused bribes from the Jewish community, which is large, well-connected throughout the Mediterranean and powerful.

Reccared's laws provide that the offspring of a Christian and a Jew be baptized, which is of little moment to the Jewish community, as whether it is not born of a Jewish mother or is born of a Jewish woman outside her community, the child is not considered a Jew anyway.

Reccared eliminates the death penalty for Jews convicted of proselytizing among Christians and ignores Gregory's request that the trade in Christian slaves at Narbonne be forbidden to Jews.

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