excluded the death-penalty. The Twelfth Council of Toledo accepted them in full.
By the use of similar methods, Erwig induced this Council — summoned within three months of his consecration — not only to sanction his usurpation and accept the false pretext that Wamba had become a monk of his own free will and had charged the metropolitan of Toledo to anoint him (Erwig) as his successor, but also to defame the memory of Wamba, to forbid his restoration, and to proclaim the person of Erwig and his family sacred and inviolable (Council XIII, Canon IV). Erwig was so desirous of ingratiating himself with the dangerous elements of the nation that he pardoned, not only those who had been punished in Wamba's time for their share in the rebellion of Paulus, but also all those who had been branded as traitors during the reign of Chintila, restoring to them the property, titles, and civil rights which they had forfeited (Council XIII). The second canon of the same Council continued this policy; it laid down rules for the protection of the nobles, officials of the palace, and free-born men, in their suits, so as to prevent the arbitrary degradation and confiscation of property which the kings were wont to order. But this was not the first time that the Visigothic legislation dealt with this point, and established guarantees of this nature. In 682, Erwig, by means of these laws and others, made a revised edition of the Liber Judiciorum or Judicum.[1]
Before Erwig died in 687, he named as his successor Egica, a relation of Wamba and his own son-in-law; and in November of that year Egica was duly elected king. Notwithstanding the oath which he had taken in the presence of Erwig to protect the family of his predecessor, he at once divorced his wife Cixilona, degraded Erwig's other relations, and punished the nobles who had taken the most prominent part in the conspiracy which deprived Wamba of the throne; on the other hand he favoured the partisans of Wamba, whom Erwig had persecuted. This behaviour naturally led to another rebellion of the unruly section of the Visigothic nobles. In the fifth year of Egica's reign,
- ↑ If we are to judge by the issue of the pretentious edict, which is preserved in Law I. Lib. I. tit. 2 of the Forum Judicum , this revised edition was made in order to recast all earlier legislation, and the new laws in order to prevent "the numerous lawsuits and varied interpretations, opposition to the enforcement of the law, and the want of decision and stability in the judgment of the court." In place of all this it was intended to "substitute clearness for uncertainty, utility for harmfulness, mercy for the death-penalty, and to abolish the obscurities, and supply the deficiencies of the law." But, in reality, very little of this was accomplished, for the essential part of the new edition of the Liber rests on that of Receswinth, with the exception of a few amendments of earlier laws, and the addition of some new ones, amongst others those referring to the Jews (tit. 3 of Lib. XII), and one bearing on military service (9th, 2nd, Lib. IX). Of the Code of Erwig, three copies have been preserved. These date from the ninth and tenth centuries, the most important being that of the Paris MS. 4418.
