72 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINsupport for the kings. However, the status of the city as royal resid-
ence was not of itself enough. That the Lombard kings made Pavia
their centre of government did not significantly affect the ecclesias-
tical standing of that city. The previous obscurity of Toledo may have
made it a more acceptable focus of authority for the Spanish Church
than one of the older rival metropolitanates, but much of the respon-
sibility must rest with the activities of a remarkable series of bishops,
true heirs of Isidore.
The Isidoran connection came to Toledo in the person of Bishop
Eugenius II (646-57). Like all of these men, his family antecedents
are unknown, but in early life he was a member of the Toledan
clergy. He moved to Zaragoza, apparently out of a personal devotion
to St Vincent, that city's patron martyr, at whose basilica he gave
himself up to an ascetic life. However, he seems soon to have been
drawn back into the ranks of the clergy, becoming archdeacon of the
city and the closest friend of Braulio, its bishop. As is clear from one
of his letters, Braulio clearly intended Eugenius to succeed him, but
in 646 he was recalled to Toledo on the specific order of King
Chindasuinth, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Eugenius I
(636-646) .31 Some letters of entreaty from Braulio to the king asking
that Eugenius be allowed to remain at Zaragoza, are to be found in
his collection, together with the definitive royal rejection of his plea.
As a result, Eugenius went to take up his new post in the capital and
Braulio came in due course to be succeeded by the former priest
Taio (651-post 656), with whom, as we also learn from the letters, he
had not always been on the best of terms. This Taio had previously
been sent to Rome by King Chindasuinth, to find and bring back
copies of works by Gregory the Great that were not then known in
Spain, or at least in Toledo. He also, doubtless as the result of this
trip, produced a corpus of sententiae or extracts, all drawn from the
various writings of Gregory, thus providing a useful abridged edition
of an author, the influence of whose work on the Spanish Church at
this time cannot be minimised. However, of Taio's episcopate noth-
ing is known, and really with the death of Braulio, as far as the
evidence goes, Zaragoza, like Seville before it, disappears from the
intellectual map of Visigothic Spain.^32
Eugenius II of Toledo, disciple of Braulio and thus heir to Isidore,
was himself the teacher of his eventual successor Julian (680-690).
He is best known for his poetic works, the largest corpus of attributed
verse to have survived from the Visigothic period. At the instigation