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Christianity and Islam in Spain (756-1031) by Charles Reginald Haines
page 16 of 246 (06%)
and subsequently orthodox.

[1] See Milman, "Latin Christianity," vol. iii. p. 60.

[2] Dozy, ii. 44, quotes in support of this the second canon of
the Sixteenth Council of Toledo.

[3] Mason, a bishop of Merida, was said to have baptized a
Pagan as late as this.

[4] Dunham's "Hist. of Spain," vol. i. p. 210.

The Government, which began with being of a thoroughly military
character, gradually tended to become a theocracy--a result due in great
measure to the institution of national councils, which were called by
the king, and attended by all the chief ecclesiastics of the realm. Many
of the nobles and high dignitaries of the State also took part in these
assemblies, though they might not vote on purely ecclesiastical matters.
These councils, of which there were nineteen in all (seventeen held at
Toledo, the Gothic capital, and two elsewhere), gradually assumed the
power of ratifying the election of the king, and of dictating his
religious policy. Thus by the Sixth Council of Toledo (canon three) it
was enacted that all kings should swear "not to suffer the exercise of
any other religion than the Catholic, and to vigorously enforce the law
against all dissentients, especially against that accursed people the
Jews." The fact of the monarchy becoming elective[1] no doubt
contributed a good deal to throwing the power into the hands of the
clergy.

Dr Dunham remarks that these councils tended to make the bishops
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