A confession of faith, which any Jew converting to Christianity within the Visigothic kingdom was obliged to subscribe to, includes the promise to observe Sundays and the feasts of the martyrs. Latin law of King Ervig issued in 680 in Spain and included in the codification known as the Lex Visigothorum.
E04220
Canonical and legal texts
Lex Visigothorum, Book XII, Chapter 3, § 14
Professio Iudeorum, quomodo unusquisque eorum ad fidem veniens indiculum professionis sue conscribere debeat.
'Profession of the Jews - how any of them coming to the faith should subscribe to a statement of their profession'
There follows the profession whereby a person rejects the Jewish religion and customs, confesses the Christian faith in the form of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed, promises never to return to the Jewish religion, to avoid the company of Jews, to live always in a Christian way, to share meals only with Christians, and to go frequently to church.
Sed et in festivitatibus dominicis sive etiam in martyrum festis, quas Christiane religionis pietas observandas decrevit, ita promitto eas ipsas festivitates devote suscipere et cum summo amore amplectere et in his ipsis diebus semper christianis honestissimis interesse, sicut honesta et pia christianorum consuetudo id facere vel suscipere consuevit.
'And I also promise to celebrate devoutly all Sundays and the feasts of the martyrs which the piety of Christian religion decreed to be observed, and I will accept them with the greatest love and on those days I will spend my time with good Christians as it is done and observed according to the good and pious custom of the Christians.'
Text: Zeumer 1902, 442-443.
Translation M. Szada.
Saint’s feast
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesJews
Source
The Lex Visigothorum (known also as the Liber iudiciorum, 'Book of judgements') is a codification of law first composed during the reign of King Leovigild (569-586) on the basis of the Code of King Euric, composed in the mid 5th century. However, all extant manuscripts, the earliest ones from the 9th century, represent either the revised version of the code from the reign of King Reccesvinth (649-672; redaction R in the edition of Zeumer), or its enlarged version from the reigns of Kings Ervig (680-687) and Ecgica (687-702; redaction E in the edition of Zeumer), or the so-called Vulgate redaction (V in the edition of Zeumer).The present law is one of 34 laws that are the original contribution of king Ervig to the codification revised during his reign. Of these, 28 concerned the Jews (Collins 2004, 236). See also E04219 and E4221.
Bibliography
Edition:Zeumer, K., Leges Visigothorum (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges nationum Germanicarum I; Hannover: Hahn, 1902).
Further reading:
Collins, R., Visigothic Spain, 409-711 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).
Marta Szada
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | martyres | Certain |
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Marta Szada, Cult of Saints, E04220 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04220