Adoptionism was about Spanish autonomy, not Islamic influence

Evidence

There has been much speculation on the supposed Islamic influences on the socalled heresy of adoptionism in eighth-century Spain. Historians have been too quick to accept at face value the accusations of Islamic influence leveled by the enemies (notably Alcuin) of the adoptionist Spanish churchmen. The main issues in fact seem to have been Spanish efforts to assert their traditional independence against papal hegemony, as McWilliam shows (J. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1606

Categorization

• QUESTION: The adoptionist controversy reads remarkably like a proto-nationalist church asserting independence against papal authority — worth chasing whether similar heresy accusations (Nestorianism, etc.) mask political struggles.