The people of the Peninsula, while apparently attached to the Arian heresy, evinced little steadfastness in faith with the appearance of orthodox Christianity. Confident in their power, and well aware that no monarch would venture to promulgate an edict menacing their supremacy, or, in any way, conflicting with the privileges of the Church, the priesthood did not require, as an essential condition of its validity, that every law should be confirmed by the voice of a council. Consequently many regulations were established by the sole authority of the king; and this privilege, at first merely a concession, came, in due time, to be considered and accepted as a royal prerogative. The appeal to the sovereign instead of to the pope, further strengthened the authority of the throne; but never, at any time, was the king permitted to forget to whom he owed his election and his title; and that the same power which had raised him to that exalted position could, at any time he violated his coronation oath, depose him, and reduce him again to the subordinate and comparatively obscure position, from which ecclesiastical favor, aided, perhaps, by his own talents and ability, had raised him. This circumstance, alone, shows the primitive state of society under the Visigothic domination; a state largely due to the simplicity of popular manners; the spirit of inherited traditions; the enjoyment of intellectual preëminence by a single class, in its turn, favorable to the overwhelming growth of sacerdotal power. The Visigoths were different from other barbarians, in that, in legislation and the management of their civil affairs, they manifested a sense of humanity, and a genuine philosophy, rarely to be found even among nations that are thoroughly civilized. They intermarried with the conquered race. Under their system all persons were equal before the law. The distinction between citizen and foreigner, as defined by the _Jus Civile_ and the _Jus Gentium_ of Roman jurisprudence, was repudiated. The punishment for crime was graded according to the wealth of the offender, rather than according to the rank and station of the party injured. Children of both sexes could inherit alike the property of their parents; a measure of undoubted justice, but in direct contravention of the laws governing the descent of property in most of the countries of modern Europe. The slave being merely a thing, an injury to him was rated according to his commercial value. His rights were, however, carefully guarded against the abuse and cruelty of his master. When emancipated, his freedom was either absolute, or burdened with certain restrictions by the terms of which he and his family forever owed loyalty and obedience to his former owner, and were, in turn, entitled to the advice and protection of the latter and his descendants.