usly espoused the party of Hermenegild
He invited the orthodox Barbarians, the Seuvi, and the Franks, to the
destruction of his native land; he solicited the dangerous aid of the
Romans, who possessed Africa, and a part of the Spanish coast; and
his holy ambassador, the archbishop Leander, effectually negotiated in
person with the Byzantine court. But the hopes of the Catholics were
crushed by the active diligence of the monarch who commanded the troops
and treasures of Spain; and the guilty Hermenegild, after his vain
attempts to resist or to escape, was compelled to surrender himself into
the hands of an incensed father. Leovigild was still mindful of that
sacred character; and the rebel, despoiled of the regal ornaments, was
still permitted, in a decent exile, to profess the Catholic religion.
His repeated and unsuccessful treasons at length provoked the
indignation of the Gothic king; and the sentence of death, which he
pronounced with apparent reluctance, was privately executed in the tower
of Seville. The inflexible constancy with which he refused to accept the
Arian communion, as the price of his safety, may excuse the honors that
have been paid to the memory of St. Hermenegild. His wife and infant son
were detained by the Romans in ignominious captivity; and this domestic
misfortune tarnished the glories of Leovigild, and imbittered the last
moments of his life.

His son and successor, Recared, the first Catholic king of Spain, had
imbibed the faith of his unfortunate brother, which he supported with
more prudence and success. Instead of 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 Barbarians, and the
inhabitants of Spain, unanimously professed the same orthodox creed;
and the Visigoths