50 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINthis be so, the distinctive type of Visigothic coin for the next half-
century, with the facing bust of the king on both the obverse and the
reverse, was the creation of Leovigild.^40 But, however much the king
may have achieved in all of these respects, when he died in 586 he
left one crucial problem unresolved for his successor to face: that of
the continuing division in the kingdom between the Arian and Catholic
creeds.
The religious distinction between Arian and Catholic had not been
an area of conflict during the reigns of most of Leovigild's predeces-
sors since the time of Euric, but with the effective political unification
of most of the peninsula achieved, the issue became more acute.
Religious uniformity became the prerequisite of the ideological unity
necessary to support a strong and centralised kingdom. There were
limits to what could be achieved in this direction by force alone.
Leovigild, with his hostility to Byzantium and its Frankish Catholic
allies, retained his adherence to the traditional Arianism of the Goths
and took active steps to promote this creed, although, with the excep-
tion of the newly created Lombard realm in Italy, Visigothic Spain
remained isolated as the only surviving Arian state. Leovigild first
offered gifts and then used threats, both without avail, to win over
Bishop Masona of Merida to Arianism.^41 He may well have tried the
same with other Catholic bishops, and in one case at least was clearly
successful. Bishop Vincent, of the important see of Zaragoza in the
Ebro valley, apostacised and became an active polemicist in the Arian
cause.^42 Although the chronology is far from clear it seems unlikely
that Leovigild began his Arian offensive before about 578, since the
first decade of his reign was devoted to virtually continuous cam-
paigning. It has been suggested that the exile of John of Biclar, which
may well have occurred around that year, was part of the king's anti-
Catholic measures, and that these were primarily directed against
Goths who had converted to Catholicism, breaking from the tradi-
tions oftheir race. However, it is equally possible that John was exiled
due to suspicions aroused by his long stay in Constantinople. The
first clearly dated event, and the one that might have initiated the
whole process, was the holding of an Arian synod at Toledo in 580,
recorded in John's Chronicle, at which a significant modification in
doctrine was proclaimed, whereby the equality and co-etemity of Father
and Son were conceded, whilst that of the Holy Spirit continued to
be denied.^43 This council also permitted the admission of renegade
Catholics into the Arian fold without the necessity of rebaptism. Both