56 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINrequirement of reordination. The most fascinating canon is the
second one, which lays down regulations concerning what is to be
done with relics found in Arian churches. They were to be taken to
the bishop and tested as to their validity by being put into a fire. This
is an interesting and unusual example of relics being subjected to
ordeal. Anyone found concealing such relics, a natural enough temp-
tation in the circumstances, would be excommunicated.
At the level of the local priests and deacons the transition of the
kingdom from Arianism to Catholicism may have had little practical
effect and was clearly made as easy as was compatible with correct
canonical observance. Some formerly cherished relics may have per-
ished in the flames, but as there were no cults of peculiarly Arian
saints the effects on popular devotion were probably slight. In this
way no real realignments of spiritual allegiances were called for.
However, there were some for whom the changes threatened a real
eclipse of their political fortunes. These were the Arian bishops who,
for whatever reasons, were not prepared to compromise, together
with those Gothic nobles who had supported them during Leovigild's
reign and might now expect to see a transfer of royal favour to their
Catholic rivals. Reccared's conversion made some form of political
upheaval unavoidable, for, however willing to compromise the new
regime might be, the polarisation of local societies into opposing
factions that Leovigild had encouraged meant that a change in the
direction of royal support would completely alter the previous bal-
ance of power. Scores remained to be settled and inevitably the sup-
porters of the new king and his religious affiliation would expect the
balance of local power to be redressed in their favour. For their
formerly dominant rivals one option was rebellion. This occurred in
Merida even before the holding of III Toledo. There are two comple-
mentary accounts of this, one in the Lives of the Fathers of Merida and
the other in John of Biclar's Chronicle. In 587 or 588 Bishop Sunna,
together with a group of Arian Gothic counts, including the future
king Witteric (603-610), hatched a conspiracy involving both the
murder of Bishop Masona and the setting up of a certain Seggo as
king. The plot was betrayed by Witteric and the conspirators seized
by Claudius, the dux, or provincial military commander of Lusitania.
Sunna ended by being exiled to Mauretania, whilst Seggo had his
hands cut off, rendering him militarily incapable and therefore in-
eligible for the royal office, and was banished to Galicia. Witteric
survived to have Reccared's son King Liuva II (601-603) deposed,