Dagobert I orders the baptism or expulsion of the Jews of the kingdom (Fredegar); the Fourth Council of Toledo forbids forcing baptism but retains already baptized children

The chronicle known as that of Frédégaire reports that Dagobert, at the request of Emperor Heraclius, ordered that all the Jews of his Frankish kingdom receive baptism or leave the country. The order is the first of such scope in Gaul; it is unknown to what extent it was carried out, and the chronicle alone mentions it.

In Spain, the fourth Council of Toledo, presided over by Isidore of Seville, examined the same question in the wake of the forced baptisms imposed by King Sisebut. The Fathers held that no one should be compelled to the faith — but decided at the same time that those forcibly baptized, having received it, could not renounce it, and that their descendants would be taken from them to be raised in monasteries or among Christians.

This contradiction, between the refusal of compulsion and the maintenance of its effects, governed all Visigothic legislation until the Arab conquest, and resurfaced with each mass conversion in medieval Europe.