Chintila

Isidore of Seville, celebrated for his outstanding charity to the poor, dies on April 4, 636, leaving a compilation of scriptural, theological, and encyclopedic writings, including Etymologiae (“Origins”), a compendium of classical knowledge, and Historia de Regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum (“History of the Reigns of the Goths, Vandals, and Suebi”).

The instability of this period can be attributed to the power struggle between the kings and the nobility.

Religious unification has strengthened the political power of the church, which it exercises through church councils at Toledo along with the nobles.

The fourth council, held during the brief reign of Sisinand in 633, excommunicates and exiles the king, replacing him with Chintila.

The church councils are now the most powerful institution in the Visigothic state; they assume the role of regulating the process of succession to the kingship by election of the king by Gothic noble 'senators' and the church officials.

They also decide to meet on a regular basis to discuss ecclesiastical and political matters affecting the Church.

Chintila is elected by a convention of bishops and nobles in accordance with the 75th canon of the Fourth Council of Toledo as ruler of the Visigoths after the death of king Sisenand.

With his election, nothing changes and instability reigns.

In the Fifth Council of Toledo, convened in the church of St. Leocadia, the bishops accept in a decree that only Gothic nobility (with military functions) may be king of the Visigothic Kingdom.

King Chintilla decrees at the Sixth Council of Toledo, held in 638, that only Catholics are permitted to live in Visigothic Spain.

Despite this ban, many Jews continue to live here.

Moreover, a decree is enacted whereby each successive King must swear to continue a policy of “not permitting the Jews of infringing this holy faith.”

Chintila never solves the many problems which plague his time in office and, as the chroniclers of the age tell us, this includes rebellions in Septimania and Gallaecia.

In the three years of his reign, he has permitted the bishops wide authority and they are the monarchs de facto, if not de jure.

He has dedicated his time to councils, the Fifth Council of Toledo in June 636 and the Sixth Council of Toledo in June 638.

These meetings covered many topics and legislated many new regulations.

The king has to be chosen from among the nobility; never a tonsurado (cleric), member of the servile classes (peasants), or foreigners.

They dictated the penalties for insurrection and determined that property acquired justly by the king could not be confiscated by his successor.

Finally, they decided the kings should die in peace, and declared their persons sacred, seeking to end the violence and regicides of the past.

Despite all this, another coup takes place: Chintila is deposed at the end of 639, and Tulga succeeds him.

Moreover, the councils have outlawed non-Catholics within the frontiers of the kingdom, which has resulted in many forced conversions.