Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/129

 chap, xxxvii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 101 His son and successor, Recared, the first Catholic king of conversion Spain, had imbibed the faith of his unfortunate brother, which and the he supported with more prudence and success. Instead of of Spain, revolting against his father, Recared patiently expected the hour of his death. Instead of condemning his memory, he piously supposed that the dying monarch had abjured the errors of Arianism and recommended to his son the conversion of the Gothic nation. To accomplish that salutary end, Recared convened an assembly of the Arian clergy and nobles, declared himself a Catholic, and exhorted them to imitate the example of their prince. The laborious interpretation of doubtful texts, or the curious pursuit of metaphysical arguments, would have excited an endless controversy ; and the monarch discreetly proposed to his illiterate audience two substantial and visible arguments, the testimony of Earth and of Heaven. The Earth had submitted to the Nicene synod : the Romans, the Bar- barians, and the inhabitants of Spain, unanimously professed the same orthodox creed ; and the Visigoths resisted, almost alone, the consent of the Christian world. A superstitious age was prepared to reverence, as the testimony of Heaven, the preternatural cures, which were performed by the skill or virtue of the Catholic clergy ; the baptismal fonts of Osset in Baetica, 133 which were spontaneously replenished each year on the vigil of Easter ; m and the miraculous shrine of St. Martin of Tours, which had already converted the Suevic prince and people of Gallicia. 135 The Catholic king encountered some difficulties on this important change of the national religion. A conspiracy, secretly fomented by the queen-dowager, was formed against his life; and two counts excited a dangerous revolt in the Narbonnese Gaul. But Recared disarmed the conspirators, 133 Osset, or Julia Constantia, was opposite to Seville, on the northern side of the Bffitis (Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 3) ; and the authentic reference of Gregory of Tours (Hist. Francor. 1. vi. c. 43, p. 288) deserves more credit than the name of Lusitania (de Gloria Martyr, c. 24) which has been eagerly embraced by the vain and superstitious Portuguese (Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, torn. ii. p. 166). 134 This miracle was skilfully performed. An Arian king sealed the doors, and dug a deep trench round the church, without being able to intercept the Easter supply of baptismal water. 135 Ferreras (torn. ii. p. 168-175, a.d. 550) has illustrated the difficulties which regard the time and circumstances of the conversion of the Suevi. They had been recently united by Leovigild to the Gothic monarchy of Spain. [F. Gorres, Kirche und Staat im spanischen Suevenreiehe, in Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Theologie, 36, 2, 1893, p. 542 sqq.]