Wikipedia - Visigoths Article [English]
When the Visigoths took over Spain, Jews constituted a large and very ancient proportion of the population. Many were farmers, but they worked in a wide range of occupations, and were a major component of the urbanized population of the larger towns particularly of eastern Spain. During the period in which the Visigoths adhered to Arianism, the situation of the Jews seems to have remained relatively good. Previous Roman and Byzantine law determined their status, and it already sharply discriminated against them, but royal jurisdiction was in any case quite limited: local lords and populations related to Jews as they saw fit. We read of rabbis being asked by non-Jews to bless their fields, for example.[47] "Some Jews held ranking posts in the government or the army; others were recruited and organized for garrison service; still others continued to hold senatorial rank."[48] In general, then, they were well respected and well treated.
However, this changed with the conversion of Reccared I to Catholicism in 589. Catholic conversion across Visigothic society reduced much of the friction between their people and the native Spanish population.[49] One chief purpose of this conversion was to unify the realm under the Church, and one of the key complaints of the Church had long been that Jews had too much status, prosperity and influence. Local nobles relied on their Jewish and non-Jewish sectors of the population to enhance the local economy and the noble's independent power. Visigothic political structure had traditionally given extensive powers to local nobles (who even elected their kings), so the king was in many ways merely 'the first amongst equals,' and central authority was weak. The status of the Jews therefore impacted both symbolically and politically on local aristocrats. Almost immediately, therefore, King Reccared convened the first Council of Toledo to "regulate" relations between Christians and Jews. The discriminatory laws passed at this Council seem not to have been well nor universally enforced, however, as indicated by several more Councils of Toledo that were held in subsequent years that repeated these laws, and extended their stringency. These entered canon law and became legal precedents in other parts of Europe as well. The culmination of this process occurred under King Sisibut, in 613, with a decree ordering the forced conversion of all Jews in Spain. However, even this apparently achieved only partial success: similar decrees were repeated with increasing irritation and effect by later kings, as central power was consolidated. These laws either decreed the forcible baptism of the Jews or forbade circumcision, Jewish rites and observance of the Sabbath and festivals. Throughout the seventh century, Jews were flogged, executed, had their property confiscated, were subjected to ruinous taxes, forbidden to trade and, at times, dragged to the baptismal font. Many were obliged to accept Christianity but continued privately to observe the Jewish religion and practices.[50] The decree of 613 set off a century of torment for Spanish Jewry, which was only ended by the Muslim conquest.[51]
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