The Business of Bishops: The Ecclesiastical Economy of Visigothic Iberia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Visigothic Iberia experienced significant economic transformations from the sixth through the early eighth centuries, during which churches played an increasing ideological and material role. This article investigates the role of churches as key landholders in Visigothic Iberia, with a focus on how their growing wealth was managed. It explores three aspects of the intertwined relationship between churches, the state and the economy. First, it reveals the ideological views of authors who accepted and promoted ideas concerning the correct use of a church’s wealth. Second, the article shows that churches, like secular landowners, slowly shifted from an economic system based on taxes to one based on landowning and rents. And third, it demonstrates that this shift to rent collection gave greater power to bishops, who were able to decide how to divide up revenues, which led to tensions over what was institutional church property and what was personal clerical property.