[7] Jordanes[y] extends the reign of Torismond to more than three years; the authority of the bishop Idatius[i], who was a contemporary, is to be preferred. From the same prelate the death of the king appears not to have been wholly unprovoked: he had probably meditated as much towards his brothers, who seem to have acted from self-defence. “Thorismo rex Gothorum spirans hostilia in Theodorico et Frederico patribus jugulatur,” are the meagre words of Idiatus. Of this catastrophe Jordanes[y] gives a different account.
[8] [This has been called a “fifth century crusade” and “the first religious war of Europe.”]
[9] [The single combat between Alaric and Clovis, the miraculous fall of the walls of Angoulême, and other circumstances related by Gregory of Tours[n] render his authority in these wars of little weight in any case, unless supported by other testimony, as that of Procopius[o] and St. Isidore.[p] Burke[j] calls this battle “the foundation of the Frankish Kingdom of France and the origin of the Gothic Kingdom of Spain.”]
[10] See Mariana[q] and above all, Masdeu,[r] who base their defence on the praises bestowed on the princess by her contemporaries, as Gregory of Tours,[n] and on the silence of contemporary writers as to the crimes reported to have been committed by her. Both charity and chivalry would induce us to take part with the Spanish historians in favour of a lady, did they not attempt to conceal her real frailties (of crimes she was probably guiltless), and raise a weak, in some respects an imprudent woman into a saint. That she was undeserving the severe censures of Baronius[x] is more than probable; but we must agree with Montesquieu[f] that the queen, daughter, sister, and mother of so many kings would never have been permitted to sustain the torments she did, had she not forfeited, in some way or other, the favour of a whole nation.
[11] Ermenigild was not canonised until the pontificate of Sixtus V, towards the close of the sixteenth century. One of his bones is preserved as a holy relic in the church of Saragossa.
[12] Morales,[u] fell, he says, into the water at Port St. Martin, enveloped in his cloak. As he could not swim, he called on God and “his glorious saint” for his soul’s salvation, being hopeless of bodily safety. He had sunk twice, when a sailor from an adjoining vessel stretched out a pole on which he laid hold, and was thereby extricated from death. On measuring the pole afterwards, he found it so short that it could not reach the water! No doubt the saint had lengthened it, and when its service was done, permitted it to regain its natural dimension. He assures us that he could enumerate many mercies vouchsafed to him “through the intercession of this holy prince.” In honour of his patron this author has a poem in Latin hexameters, equal in extent to a book of the Æneid.
[13] [Yet Burke[j] says, “If Recared is called the first of the Catholics, Leuvigild may fairly be styled the last of the Visigoths in Spain.”]
[14] [Among modern historians few feel any doubt of the guilt of Ervigius or Erwig. Among those who believe he administered the sleeping draught may be named Mariana,[q] Ferreras,[aa] Hume,[d] and Burke.[j] But the caution expressed above by Dunham[g] and by Masdeu[r] should modify the certainty of opinion.]
[15] [Dunham[g] says the “brother,” but he is generally called the nephew.]
[16] [The unending torments the Jews endured in Spain are described in detail in the work of Amador de los Ríos.[bb]]