An Unreliable Witness?

Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium and Religious Conflict in Visigothic Spain

Abstract

Amongst the many achievements of Peter Brown may be included the ways in which he has taught us to understand and value the testimony of the Saints Lives and other hagiographic texts of Late Antiquity that often seemed baffling to scholars of earlier generations. On the other hand, sa small number of these hagiographic texts can appear so transparently historical in the nature and details of their content, as not to seem in need of such careful interpretation. In the western Mediterranean the Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium is an outstanding example of such a work, that has been used to throw light on a range of topics, from medicine to architecture, beyond the confines of the events in later sixth century Mérida that it describes, and largely without raising any questions as to the reliability of its narrative. However, when this can be compared with that provided by other, more clearly contemporary historiographical sources, its account usually proves to be erroneous or misleading. This article reopens questions long thought closed, or which have been ignored, as to the origins, nature and purpose of the work, so as to enable the strengths and weaknesses of its evidence be better understood.