136 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINwide-ranging and savage anti:Jewish legislation were Reccesuinth and
Ervig, who were most dependent on the good will of the Church at
the outset of their reigns. Reccesuinth was faced by rebellion and
bitter criticism of his father's regime as well as demands for reform,
whilst Ervig owed his throne entirely to the strict enforcement of
canon law that had incapacitated his predecessor. Both kings con-
ceded to restrictions on their royal authority in the opening councils
of their reigns and both produced law codes within a year of their
accession. On the other hand, those monarchs, such as Chindasuinth
or Wamba, most censured by the Church after their deaths, are not
associated with legislation against the Jews.
Kings were not the only members of Romano-Visigothic society
who were not uniformly hostile to the Jewish communities in their
midst. Lay nobles are known to have patronised them. Bishop Aurasius
of Toledo (c. 603-615) denounced the Gothic noble Froga for his
support of the Jews.^83 This episode probably occurred during the
reign of Witteric, himself implicitly criticised by Sisebut for his leni-
ency towards the Jews. Even bishops were possibly not averse to pro-
tecting their local Jewish communities from the full rigour of laws
that they themselves periodically enacted in their councils. It is likely
that the Jews who suffered most were those of Toledo.
Petitions made by the Toledan Jews to some of the kings have
survived and provide one of the few additional sources available to
supplement the laws and conciliar acts. The earliest of these 'profes-
sions' comes from the reign of Chintila, and was signed by the con-
verted Jews of Toledo in the Basilica of St Leocadia on 1 December
638.^84 In it they formally renounced their previous beliefs and
the rites of the Jewish faith. They also promised to surrender their
'apocryphal books'. It is not possible, unfortunately, to be certain
what is implied by this term. Does it refer to the Mishnah or other
post-Biblical Hebrew texts, or to actual apocrypha of the Jewish
Biblical tradition such as IV Esdras or Baruch? The signatories of the
document bind themselves to expel from their number and stone to
death any who subsequently broke with these undertakings.
The declaration of the Toledan Jews made to Reccesuinth on 1
March 654 was very similar.^85 In it those members of the Jewish com-
munity in the capital who had converted to Christianity promised
that they would not associate with the other unconverted Jews, that
they would use Christian marriage customs and not observe the
Passover, Sabbath or any other Jewish festival, and that they would