Letter 25

A letter from the Visigothic court to Pope Honorius I [r.625-638] on questions of church relations and Iberian ecclesiastical autonomy. The Visigothic kingdom maintained largely independent church governance while acknowledging Roman primacy, and this letter navigates that careful balance — seeking papal approval for decisions made by the Spanish councils while asserting the competence of the Iberian bishops to govern their own affairs. The correspondence illustrates how the post-Roman western kingdoms related to Rome: respectful of its prestige but largely self-governing in practice.