Leovigild more or less ignored his son's transgression until 582 when he marched on Mérida and captured the city. It is difficult to determine whether this was because of Hermenegild's new found Catholicism or a coincidence. Nevertheless, Leovigild saw in Arianism Visigothic identity and any threat to this identity as a threat to Visigoth legitimacy to rule. He viewed Catholicism as the 'Roman' religion and Arianism as the Visigoth religion.E.A. Thompson, 105 Leovigild's response may have been primarily a reaction to Hermenegild and other Visigoth nobles who had, at one time or another, converted to Catholicism.E.A. Thompson, 106
