I suppose that the abbots in the section of the list following the signatures of the bishops are the superiors of the monastery (for comparison see signatures of the Eleventh Council of Toledo in AD 675 AD in which present abbots are identified by their monastery), but abbates in the section of signatures of deputies of absent bishops are members of the diocesan clergy (see Canon 11 of the Council of Mérida in AD 666 [821] that puts them between presbyters and deacons). We do not know whether they had a presbyterial ordination, but see Canon 3 of the Eleventh Council of Toledo in AD 675 [857] that mentions abbates celebrating Divine Office and mass. It is possible that abbas was a title of a cleric in charge of a basilica (cf. the study of "abbots of the basilicas" in 6th-century Gaul by Pietri 1983). Bishko 1941 acknowledges the difference between abbots present at the council in their own right and those who are representatives of bishops. He assumes, however, that both these groups belonged to the monastic milieu; he proposes that bishops from distant dioceses were asking the abbots of monasteries from Toledo and its close proximity to represent them at the council, but there is no decisive argument backing his claim. It is, however, accepted by Orlandis 1986. For other cases of abbates representing absent bishops see [541], [1027], [1026], [1380].