A CHURCH TRIUMPHANT 69those of Eugenius II, Ildefonsus and Julian, the great seventh-century
bishops of Toledo, the existence of whose letters is confirmed by
contemporary accounts, have disappeared without trace, save for a
few dedicatory epistles prefixed to some of their writings. However, it
is not the survival of his letters alone that gives the firm impression
of Braulio's personality - those of Isidore show how unrevealing Late
Antique letters can be -but it is the prolixity and warmth that comes
out in the literary style of everything that he wrote that gives the
reader so firm an assurance of the writer's essential amiability.
Braulio, like his master Isidore, was a member of virtually a clerical
dynasty, something that was not uncommon in the western Church at
this time. His father Gregory was a bishop, possibly of Osma. It was
quite permissable canonically at this period for a bishop to have
children, as there was no formal ban on married clergy, and, as in
fifth century Gaul, it was possible for a man of high social rank to
abandon secular life and marriage in middle life to take up an ascetic
or clerical career. Various of the Spanish councils did come increas-
ingly to advocate the creation of a purely celibate clergy and certainly
a married cleric was expected to lead a totally chaste life after he had
been ordained. Braulio's elder brother John was Bishop of Zaragoza,
the foremost see in the Ebro valley, from 619 until his death in 631.
His predecessor Maximus was compiler of a brief work of history,
which, as has been previously mentioned, is now entirely lost and may
not be identified with the so-called Chronicle of Zaragoza, the original
version of which may have been a source for the bishop's missing
work.24 Braulio succeeded John at Zaragoza, holding the see until his
death in 651. Another brother, Fronimian, became abbot of St
Aemilian's monastery in the Rioja, as is known from Braulio's dedi-
catory introduction to the Life of the saint that he wrote. The bishop
is also said to have had two sisters, Pomponia, an abbess, and BasilIa,
who married and was widowed. Both of these appear as correspond-
ents in Braulio's letter collection, but as there is no evidence there,
or in any other contemporary source, the suggestion of a family
relationship may well be unsound.
Braulio's career prior to his episcopate is somewhat vague. He cer-
tainly passed some time with Isidore in Seville, as the latter refers to
it in a letter. Subsequently he became an archdeacon. Most reason-
ably this may be assumed to be in Zaragoza, and it has been sug-
gested that this may have .occured in 619/620 upon his brother's
promotion to the episcopate in that city. During this time, at Bishop