130 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINforbidden from holding public offices. The aim of these rulings, as
with the earlier ones of Alaric II, was to prevent Jews from having any
powers over Christians, either in their family, their household or in
the business of state. To what extent Jews had previously been em-
ployed in public office is unknown, but the restrictions on slave-
owning, if fully enforced, may well have proved particularly hard, for
it was necessary, because of the requirements of Jewish religion, for
the servants and slaves in aJewish household to have been practition-
ers of Judaism. However, the number of Jews of such classes was
probably small and therefore the purchase of Christians or others,
prepared to convert to Judaism, would have been a necessity.
Reccared's immediate successors did not add to his laws relating
to the Jews, and indeed were later accused of having relaxed them.
With Sisebut (611/12-620), however, there came a renewal of activ-
ity, culminating in a royal decree ordering allJews to accept Christian
baptism.^72 This was probably never fully implemented, as the actual
enforcement of this and other laws was by no means as easy as their
promulgation. The spirit of this one was clearly out of step with the
feelings of the Church at that time, and Sisebut's misguided enthu-
siasm was posthumously deprecated at IV Toledo in 633. However,
his initiative had created serious practical problems which the coun-
cil had to resolve. For there now existed a body of former Jews who
had been converted to Christianity against their will. Some of them
practised their imposed new faith outwardly, without believing in it,
whilst others openly lapsed back into Judaism in defiance of their
enforced baptism. Therefore the council decreed in a series of can-
ons, that those forcibly converted during Sisebut's reign should not
be permitted to return to their former religion because they had
partaken of Christian sacraments. As for those who had already
apostatized, they were to have their children removed from them,
doubtless to be brought up as Christians, their slaves were to be
liberated, and being, it was held, forsworn, they were deprived of the
right to give evidence at law. This last ruling will have left them
incapable of initiating litigation and vulnerable to legal attack by
others.^73 So the long-term effects of Sisebut's activity was to drive
some Jews into Christianity and to further weaken the status and legal
standing of others. IV Toledo went on to reiterate at greater length
the inhibitions placed on the Jews by III Toledo. VI Toledo of 636
also confirmed those decrees, in even more grandiloquent terms,
speaking of the ardent desire of the new king, Chintila (636-639),