Julian of Toledo (642–690) was born in Toledo,

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hisp ...

. He was well educated at the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

school, was a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

and later

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

at Agali, a spiritual student of Saint Eugene II, and

archbishop of Toledo This is a list of Bishops and Archbishops of Toledo ( la, Archidioecesis Metropolitae Toletana).

. He was the first

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

to have primacy over the entire

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—a position he has been accused of securing by being complicit in 680 in the supposed poisoning of Wamba,

king of the Visigoths The Visigothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of the Goths ( la, Regnum Gothorum), was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states ...

Roger Collins regards this as being "quite unnecessarily Machiavellian"; see his ''Early Medieval Spain; Unity in Diversity, 400-1000'', 2nd ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995, pp. 77-78.—and he helped centralize the Iberian Church in Toledo. His elevation to the position of primate of the Visigothic church was a source of great unhappiness among the kingdom's clergy. And his views regarding the doctrine of the

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proved distressing to the

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. He presided over several councils and synods and revised the Mozarabic liturgy. A voluminous writer, his works include ''Prognostics'', a volume on death (and by far his most influential work); a history of King Wamba's war with ''

dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...

'' Paul in Septimania (a Sallustian work, and one of the few examples of historical writing from the late Visigothic kingdom); and a book on the future life (687). A lost work, apparently dedicated to King Erwig, dealt with the issue of Jews owning Christian slaves. He encouraged the Visigothic kings in

to deal harshly with the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. For example, in presiding over the

Twelfth Council of Toledo The Twelfth Council of Toledo, held in Toledo, Spain, was initiated on 9 January 681 by the Visigothic King Erwig, who was elected king in 680. One of its first actions was to release the population from the laws of Wamba and recognise Erwig, ana ...

, he induced King Erwig to pass severe anti-Jewish laws. At Erwig's request, in 686, he wrote ''De Comprobatione Aetatis Sextae Contra Judaeos'', a work dealing with messianic prophesies of the Bible in a way intended to convert the Jews. He died at Toledo in 690 of natural causes. Julian's memorial is held March 8. He is commemorated by way of a portrait in the cathedral of Toledo. JT's Cocktail Bar and Club in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

is named in his honour.

Sources

* Collins, Roger. "Julian of Toledo and the Education of Kings in Late Seventh-Century Spain." ''Law, Culture and Regionalism in Early Medieval Spain''. Variorum, 1992. pp. 1–22. . Revised version of "Julian of Toledo and the Royal Succession in Late Seventh Century Spain," ''Early Medieval Kingship'', edd. P. H. Sawyer and I. N. Wood. Leeds: School of History, University of Leeds, 1977.

Critical editions and translations

;Critical editions * J.N. Hillgarth, B. Bischoff, W. Levison (eds.), ''Iulianus Toletanus. Opera'', I. ''Prognosticon futuri saeculi libri tres. Apologeticum de tribus capitulis. De comprobatione sextae aetatis. Historia Wambae regis. Epistula ad Modoenum.'' (= Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina, 115), Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 1976 * J.C. Martín-Iglesias, V. Yarza Urquiola (eds.), ''Iulianus Toletanus, Felix Toletanus, Iulianus Toletanus (Ps.). Opera'', II. ''Elogium Ildefonsi, Vita Iuliani (auctore Felice Toletano), Antikeimena, Fragmenta, Ordo annorum mund'' (= Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina, 115A-B), Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2014 ;English translations *Julian of Toledo. ''Prognosticum futuri saeculi: Foreknowledge of the World to Come'', translated, edited and introduced by Sergio Stancati, OP, 2010 ( ACW 63).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toledo, Julian Of 642 births 690 deaths People from Toledo, Spain Archbishops of Toledo Spanish abbots Spanish Jews 7th-century bishops in the Visigothic Kingdom 7th-century Christian theologians 7th-century Latin writers 7th-century poets Sephardi Jews topics