Enslaved Christians, Jewish owners in Visigothic hagiography, theology and law

Abstract

The Iberian Passio Mantii is a rare case of a late antique martyrdom account in which the protagonist, Mantius, is described as the Christian slave of Jewish owners who persecute him to death for not converting to Judaism. This unusual hagiographical text chimes with extensive legislation produced in Visigothic Iberia on the very question of Jewish ownership of Christian slaves. Placing these sources together and exploring their theological background allows us first to understand better the changes Visigothic legislators made to a long legal tradition of prohibiting both the conversion and ownership of Christian slaves by Jews. But it also allows us to go beyond the assumption that the sources reflect an active social practice and ask whether interest in Jews exercising power over Christians was part of the development of a discourse of Jewish danger that was itself fundamental to the elaboration of more clearly defined religious identities in the seventh century.