The First Catholic King of Spain

It was the boast of the Roman Caesars that for four centuries Spain was in a state of perfect tranquillity; she was one of the brightest jewels in the Imperial crown. Augustus, Emperor of Rome, took up his residence in Spain for two years (25-26 B. C.). He gave the people wise laws, and established military colonies for their protection. The Christian religion took an early hold upon the people of the Peninsula, which was due, they still believe, to the preaching of St. James. In 414 A. D. the great Gothic wave burst upon Spain. The Goths were not pagans; they had been converted to Arianism. Between the Romans, whom they conquered, and the Goths there was, therefore, a religious difference that kept them distinct peoples. When the Visigothic King, Recaredo (died 601), appeared before a Council of the Church at Toledo, presented his abjuration of Arianism, announced his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith, and had been anointed with holy oil by the Metropolitan of Toledo, then came his proclamation, received with great joy, "that the Roman Catholic religion was to be henceforth the religion of the Kingdom of Spain." All tribal elements were now united in one political and religious whole; Suevi, Gauls, Hispano-Romans and conquering Goths became "Christians." Thus, the consolidation of the Gothic Kingdom of Spain was accomplished. "The Christians," as opposed to the Arab-Moors, included the various nationalities united at least by creed. Great was the rejoicing in Rome and throughout the Latin Church when word came that Arianism had been banished from Spain, and that the "Catholic faith" had been proclaimed the national religion. Pope Gregory the Great was ready to sing his Nunc Dimittis, and, as a mark of his high favor, he sent to Recaredo numerous sacred relics, addressing him as "His Majesty, the First Catholic King of Spain." And so the origin of the title attached to the kings of Spain, his "Catholic Majesty," does not imply that he is holier than other monarchs, but that he is successor of Recaredo, who, without bloodshed, converted a whole kingdom to the "Catholic faith."