Around 582, King Leovigild summoned Bishop Masona of Mérida to his court at Toledo. After trying unsuccessfully to get him to embrace Arianism, he demanded that Masona hand over the precious tunic of Saint Eulalia of Mérida to him, so that it could be kept in an Arian basilica in Toledo. But the bishop refused to hand over the relic, which he had concealed by wrapping it around his stomach, under his clothes. Suddenly, the clear sky resounded with God's thunder, causing Leovigild to fall from his throne onto the ground. Enraged, the king sentenced Masona to exile and ordered that he leave on an untamed horse, in the hope of seeing the holy bishop fall ‘and give him a great spectacle.’ But Masona mounted the horse with ease, which the Lord had made ‘like a gentle lamb’ for him and he rode off into exile without suffering any mishap.

This confrontation between the Arian Visigothic king and the most powerful Hispanic bishop of the time can be read, in a rather traditional fashion, as a conflict between the church and the state, or between the spiritual and secular powers, or otherwise between ‘centre and periphery’. Yet, there are still more ways to understand the story and to frame the conflict between Masona and Leovigild without confronting ‘church and state’ or ‘centre and periphery’.