The love of freedom, as with all migratory races, was strong in the hearts of the Visigoths. Always obedient to the Church and to their king, they, nevertheless, stubbornly resisted every encroachment upon their ancient rights and liberties. The throne, originally elective, was not as far removed from the body of the people as it was in other nations; for any person of the pure blood of the Goths who had never entered the cloister, or been sentenced for some crime by a court, and who was eminent for great qualities or distinguished services, could aspire to the supreme power. At the time of the monarch’s accession, justice, honor, truth, piety, faith, and mercy, were diligently inculcated, to be ever observed as virtues most appropriate and becoming to the royal office. At the same time, fearful penalties were denounced against all princes who violated the coronation oath; and, during the ceremony, these penalties were repeated aloud by all persons present, both ecclesiastics and laymen. Subsequent to the seventh century, when Catholicism was adopted, the generous and noble spirit which had hitherto pervaded the councils of the kingdom, was supplanted by a fierce intolerance, and the king was obliged to bind himself to the relentless extirpation of heresy. The sovereign was treated with much less consideration under the Gothic system, than under those established by other peoples in ancient or in modern times. Regal supremacy, while necessarily invested with much importance in time of war, on the other hand, in time of peace had comparatively little significance. Not until the reign of Leovigild, in the latter part of the sixth century, did the Gothic kings assume the outward marks and insignia of royalty. They did not differ in dress or general appearance from their subjects, nor was a conspicuous place reserved for them in the assemblies of the people; all classes were entitled to address their sovereign with familiarity; and, still retaining in his manners and demeanor the traces of his barbaric origin, he seemed rather the elective magistrate of a republic (which to all intents and purposes he was) than the supreme ruler of a great and powerful nation. The right of primogeniture, derived from feudalism, and omitted from the Salic Law, was likewise unknown to the Goths. A monarch, in the same manner as a private individual, could only transmit to his heirs the personal property which he, in his turn, had acquired by his talents, or inherited from his ancestors. Like the chieftains of the Ostrogoths and other barbarians, who considered long, blond hair a badge of royal authority, he assumed the title of Flavius, from the Latin flavus, as indicative of this august and highly prized distinction.