THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW ORDER 31and Catholics in the Visigothic kingdom seems at this time to have
been limited, and as a result, conflict was limited too. On the Catho-
lic side it became possible, when stability had been re-established in
Gaul and Spain by Euric, once again to contemplate the holding of
large-scale Church councils. Thus the bishops of the sees in Visigothic
territory north of the Pyrenees were able to meet in council at Agde
in 506, where a plan was drawn up for the holding of regular councils
thereafter, at which the Spanish bishops would also be present.^45
These would have been plenary and truly 'national' councils of the
Visigothic kingdom, of the kind later to be held in Toledo in the
seventh century. The Council of Agde, important also for its discipli-
nary canons, thus promised something of a new development for the
Catholic Church under Visigothic rule, and perhaps something of a
speedier resolution of the religious differences that divided Romans
and Goths. However, this was not to be. In 507 the ambitious Frank-
ish king Clovis invaded the Visigothic kingdom, and in the ensuing
battle at Vouille Alaric II was killed. In the aftermath, all the Visigothic
possessions in Gaul, excepting only the region of 'Septimania' around
Narbonne, fell into Frankish or Burgundian hands, and it was to take
the monarchy almost half a century to recover from the effects. In
view of what had already been achieved by the Visigothic kings, and
what their laws and the Council of Agde gave promise of, their defeat
by the Franks may justly be termed a disaster, from which the Visigothic
monarchy at least was to take several generations to recover.