70 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINJohn's request, he began preparations for writing his Life of Saint
Aemilian, but he stopped and did not resume work on it until his own
episcopate, when he completed it for their brother Fronimian.^25 All
three brothers were deeply devoted to the recently developed cult of
Aemilian (ob. c. 580), with Bishop John dedicating a basilica to him
in Zaragoza. This suggests that the family originated in the area of
Aemilian's activities, in the Rioja, and the growth of the cult must
have owed much to their impetus.
Mter the death of Braulio in 651, Toledo emerged as the dominant
intellectual centre of the kingdom, and it was there in the urbs regia,
the royal city, rather than in Seville or Zaragoza, that the traditions
of Isidore were to be perpetuated. Links of master and pupil were
clearly of the greatest importance in the Spanish Church during the
seventh century. Braulio had commemorated Isidore, and in the sec-
ond half of the century successive bishops of Toledo did the same for
their predecessors and teachers. Ildefonsus wrote a continuation of
Isidore's On Famous Men, concentrating on the recent masters of the
Spanish Church, Julian added a section to this on Ildefonsus himself,
and finally Felix (693-700) did likewise for Julian, his own teacher.
This tradition, the extending of the On Famous Men, demonstrated
the intellectual pedigree of the Toledan Church.^26
Bishoprics had been created, from the fourth century onwards, in
most of the major centres of population, and they were divided under
the authority of metropolitan bishops (in Spain not called archbishops
until the twelfth century), into ecclesiastical provinces that coincided
exactly with those of the Roman civil administration. The principal
cities - Tarragona, Cartagena, Seville and Merida - all became the
sites of the metropolitanates. However, this pattern was disturbed by
the rise to prominence of Toledo as the centre of royal government,
and at the same time the loss of Cartagena to the Byzantines.
The bishops of Toledo appear to have pressed for a special recog-
nition of their see from the early sixth century onwards, but it was
only raised to primacy in the province of Carthaginiensis in 610,
when Cartagena was consequently downgraded. The acts of the synod,
held under King Gundemar, at which this decision was taken are, in
the manuscripts of the Spanish Councils, appended to the proceed-
ings of XII Toledo of 681.^27 The same twelfth Council gave 'Toledo
pre-eminence over the whole Church in Spain, allowing its metro-
politan to consecrate bishops to sees in any of the other ecclesiastical
provinces of the kingdom, with royal consent.