The Second Council of Seville (or Seville II) was a

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...

of the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

Baetica Hispania Baetica, often abbreviated Baetica, was one of three Roman provinces created in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) in 27 BC. Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Tarraconensis. Baetica remained one of ...

held in 619. It took place in the

metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

under the Archbishop

Isidore Isidore ( ; also spelled Isador, Isadore and Isidor) is a masculine given name. The name is derived from the Greek name ''Isídōros'' (Ἰσίδωρος, latinized ''Isidorus'') and can literally be translated to 'gift of Isis'. The name has survi ...

. It was the first synod in Baetica since 592. It came shortly after a military campaign by the King

Sisebut Sisebut (; ; also ''Sisebuth'', ''Sisebur'', ''Sisebod'' or ''Sigebut''; 565 – February 621) was Visigothic Kingdom, King of the Visigoths and ruler of Hispania, Gallaecia, and Septimania from 612 until his death in 621. His rule was marked ...

reincorporated a large part of Baetica into the

Visigothic kingdom The Visigothic Kingdom, Visigothic Spain or Kingdom of the Goths () was a Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic people ...

. This territory had previously been part of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

province of

Spania Spania () was a Roman province, province of the Eastern Roman Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was established by the List of Byzantine emperors, Emperor Justinian I in an effort to res ...

. Its reincorporation would allow the bishop of Málaga to attend the synod.Rachel Stocking, ''Bishops, Councils, and Consensus in the Visigothic Kingdom, 589–633'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), pp. 129–32. The Second Council of Seville dealt solely with ecclesiastical and theological matters—diocesan rights, noncanonical ordinations, unjust clerical depositions, territorial jurisdictional disputes—and laid out procedures, often based on Roman vulgar law, for resolving them. Many canons were devoted to refuting a certain Gregory, described as a

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

bishop of the ''

Acephali In church history, the term ' (from Ancient Greek: ', "headless", singular ' from ', "without", and ', "head") has been applied to several sects that supposedly had no leader. E. Cobham Brewer wrote, in ''Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', th ...

'' (literally, "headless"), which in context means those who denied the Three Chapters (i.e., headings).Jamie Wood, ''The Politics of Identity in Visigothic Spain: Religion and Power in the Histories of Isidore of Seville'' (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 43 and 216. Gregory attended the synod in person.Judith Herrin, ''The Formation of Christendom'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987), p. 241. The council did not address the laity of Baetica, nor the Visigothic state, although two royal officials were in attendance: Sisiclus, the director of public affairs (''rector rerum publicarum''), and Suanila, the director of fiscal affairs (''rector rerum fiscalium''). The canons of the Second Council of Seville were copied into the '' Hispana'', a great collection of Iberian and African conciliar records, later in the seventh century. A Third Council of Seville (or Seville III) appears to have met around 624, but its canons were subsequently suppressed.Stocking, ''Bishops'', p. 16 and n.

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