a reciprocal oath to God and his
people, that he would faithfully execute this important trust. The real
or imaginary faults of his administration were subject to the control of
a powerful aristocracy; and the bishops and palatines were guarded by
a fundamental privilege, that they should not be degraded, imprisoned,
tortured, nor punished with death, exile, or confiscation, unless by the
free and public judgment of their peers. [124]

[Footnote 123: Such are the complaints of St. Boniface, the apostle of
Germany, and the reformer of Gaul, (in tom. iv. p. 94.) The fourscore
years, which he deplores, of license and corruption, would seem to
insinuate that the Barbarians were admitted into the clergy about the
year 660.]

[Footnote 124: The acts of the councils of Toledo are still the most
authentic records of the church and constitution of Spain. The following
passages are particularly important, (iii. 17, 18; iv. 75; v. 2, 3, 4,
5, 8; vi. 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18; vii. 1; xiii. 2 3 6.) I have found
Mascou (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, xv. 29, and Annotations, xxvi.
and xxxiii.) and Ferreras (Hist. Generale de l'Espagne, tom. ii.) very
useful and accurate guides.]

One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and ratified the
code of laws which had been compiled by a succession of Gothic kings,
from the fierce Euric, to the devout Egica. As long as the Visigoths
themselves were satisfied with the rude customs of their ancestors, they
indulged their subjects of Aquitain and Spain in the enjoyment of the
Roman law. Their gradual improvement in arts, in policy, and at length
in religion, encouraged them to imitate, and to supersede, these foreign
institutions; and to compose a code of civil and criminal jurisprudence,
for the use of a great and united people. The same obligations, and
the same privileges, were communicated to the nations of the Spanish
monarchy; and the conquerors, insensibly renouncing the Teutonic idiom,
submitted to the restraints of equity, and exalted the Romans to
the participation of freedom. The merit of this impartial policy was
enhanced by the situation of Spain under the reign of the Visigoths.
The provincials were long separated from their Arian masters by the
irreconcilable difference of religion. After the conversion of Recared
had removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the coasts, both of the
Ocean and Mediterranean, were still possessed by the Eastern emperors;
who secretly exci