On the other hand, little information of value is to be gleaned from the Christian chroniclers. Those who have related the events of their times were all members of the persecuted faction. Both contemporary and subsequent writers were blinded by prejudice and actuated by every motive of sectarian bigotry to the perversion of the truth. Prolix in their enumeration of the sufferings of martyrs, their accounts of all other occurrences are remarkable for extreme meagreness of detail. No descriptions are given of the social relations of the dominant and subject races; no direct mention is ever made of the thousand incidents constantly transpiring in the intercourse of the two peoples, trivial in themselves, yet most important in forming a correct idea of the character, the aspirations, and the life of a nation. Such matters, so interesting to posterity as depicting the manners of a class during a period conspicuous in history, were too insignificant for the pen of the monkish annalist, and must now be gathered at random from the narratives of other events, in the elucidation of which they have been casually and undesignedly mentioned. The works of these ecclesiastical writers are filled with errors. They are, as usual, overloaded with absurd legends and spurious miracles. It is apparent, even from a superficial perusal, that not only the sufferings, but the virtues of the saints whose lives they describe are largely fictitious and often exaggerated. To such authorities, therefore, little credit can be given by the historian.
No people mentioned in history ever attained to a high rank in the scale of civilization whose policy was founded on the systematic repression of religious opinions. Theological intolerance is the most serious of obstacles to intellectual progress. Among the great nations of antiquity, freedom in religious matters was generally conceded as a matter of right. Where invasions of that right occurred, they may almost invariably be traced to interference with the established government. The intimate connection of political and religious institutions in those times will readily account for occasional examples of apparent persecution. The most eminent Athenian statesmen not infrequently performed the functions of priest in the ceremonial of public worship. The title of Pontifex Maximus was one of the most honorable and coveted of the dignities of the Republic of Rome, and under the Empire it conferred additional distinction upon the attributes and the exercise of imperial power. Under that wise and politic dispensation, the gods of foreign countries were admitted into the national pantheon on an equal footing with the domestic divinities, and none could claim an excessive and undue pre-eminence in the national system. It was not until the Christians profaned the altars, and excited mutiny in the army, that their privileges were curtailed and their religious ceremonies interrupted. The conditions formerly prevailing were then revolutionized. Indulgence was followed by persecution. Persecution disclosed and produced tens of thousands of proselytes. The experience of the Christian sect suggested the perpetuation in its religious constitution of the incomparable political system of the empire, a measure which in the end contributed so largely to its success, its discipline, and its permanence. In no country subject to the authority of the Papacy were the effects of these advantages of imperial organization more apparent than in the Spanish Peninsula.
During the era of Visigothic supremacy the influence of the Church was paramount in every department of the civil administration. Its councils regulated the succession, framed the laws, chose the sovereign. Its servants dictated every measure of national policy. Its sanction imparted a sacred character to the royal edicts. Eminent prelates, who even in trivial matters never permitted the pretensions of their order to be subordinated to the interests of the crown, constituted in reality the supreme power of the state. They negotiated treaties. They participated in campaigns. They imposed and collected taxes. In repeated contests with the nobility they generally emerged victorious. Their intellectual acquirements, superficial as they were, gave them a decided advantage over their illiterate and often brutal antagonists. The authority they obtained by superior knowledge, craft, and energy was in time confirmed by habit and strengthened by prescription. That authority, based upon public veneration and extending through countless generations, has often been shaken, but never abolished. The disastrous effects of its abuse are apparent in every period of Spanish history for more than a thousand years.
At the time of the Arab invasion, the Visigothic hierarchy was at the summit of its importance and power. Its former adherence to the Arian heresy had engendered within it a spirit of independence, which was not relinquished with the return of the Spanish Church to the orthodox communion. The facility with which an entire people at the command of the monarch renounced the faith of their ancestors for unfamiliar and hitherto reprobated doctrines is one of the most extraordinary events in the annals of Christianity. Such a peaceful revolution, involving the most sacred interests of a numerous sect, affords incontestable proof of the slight hold possessed in those times by any religious dogma upon the popular mind. With the acceptance of the Athanasian creed was necessarily included the acknowledgment of Papal supremacy. The Gothic prelates, however, were never obsequious vassals of the Holy See. The Pope soon found that while he might solicit, he could not compel their obedience. His fulminations did not excite the terror in Spain which they did in other countries of Catholic Europe. Where he was not able to command, he was forced to flatter, to recommend, to temporize. A compact and powerful body of ecclesiastics, in whose hands were the government of their country and the election of its king, were naturally loath to submit to the arrogant dictation of a foreign potentate, whom their predecessors had regarded as a heretic, and whose faith they had adopted rather from policy than from sincere conviction.
The Spanish Church under the Visigoths was eminently worthy of the attention and the favor of the Holy Father. Its organization was thorough; its wealth enormous; its priesthood numerous and superior to their contemporaries in learning and ability; its national influence unrivalled. Its temples, in a country whose public monuments had least experienced the destructive effects of barbarian violence, exhibited in their noble proportions and harmonious decoration the expiring efforts of classic taste and genius. The superb edifices of imperial power, visible on every side, had been at once the inspiration and the models of the ecclesiastical architect. The churches and cathedrals of the seventh and eighth centuries afforded the best examples of the ambition and opulence of the omnipotent hierarchy. Their plan was usually that of the basilica. Their walls were incrusted with precious marbles. Their floors were of mosaic. In the apse, where stood the altar, the skill of the artist exhausted itself in elaborate carvings, paintings, and sculpture. The sacred vessels were of solid gold and silver. Offerings of untold value, the tribute of grateful convalescents, were suspended before the shrine. The accession of each sovereign was marked by the donation of a magnificent votive crown to the Cathedral of Toledo. The pomp of worship in the Visigothic metropolis exceeded that of all others, excepting Constantinople and Rome. Its religious processions equalled in splendor those which awakened the pious enthusiasm of the devout in the metropolitan churches of those two famous capitals. The greatest deference was paid to the sacerdotal dignity. The congregation, when not kneeling, stood during the service. The women, always veiled, occupied galleries by themselves. No priesthood in Christendom was treated with more respect, enjoyed more extensive privileges, or lived in greater luxury than the Gothic clergy of Spain.
With the Arab occupation this imposing fabric of spiritual and temporal grandeur fell to the ground. The power of the hierarchy, formerly unlimited, vanished in the twinkling of an eye. Its sacred edifices were seized and devoted to the sacrilegious uses of the conqueror. The precious furniture of its altars was deposited in the treasury of the khalif. Its revenues were confiscated. Many of its members fell victims to the rage of oppressed and injured vassals. Thousands of others fled almost penniless to Christian lands. Monks were enslaved and condemned to the performance of the most arduous and exhausting labors. Multitudes of nuns passed from the solitude and meditation of the cloister to the revelry and delights of the seraglio. In view of the popular opinions and prejudices of the time, it is not singular that this sudden and tremendous revolution should have been universally attributed to the vengeance of God.
When the first shock of conquest had passed, the overpowering terror inspired by the presence of the invaders subsided. They proved to be something very different from the incarnate demons which a distorted imagination had painted them. They were found to be lenient, generous, humane. The law of Mohammed had specifically designated the privileges of victory and the rights of the vanquished. The latter were not slow to recognize and accept the advantages arising from a speedy and unreserved submission, and were thus enabled to participate in the benefits of the civilization, almost from the very beginning inaugurated by their rulers.
The civil organization of the Christians under Moslem domination differed little from that under which they had been governed by the princes of Visigothic blood. The amount of tribute which permitted the free exercise of religious worship, the jurisdiction of their own tribunals, and the terms conferring the preservation and enjoyment of their national customs were definitely fixed by law. Each bishopric was assessed at the sum of one hundred ounces of silver annually, monasteries at fifty, churches at twenty-five. Individuals were classified according to their rank and possessions. The rich paid forty-eight dirhems, or thirty-two dollars, per annum; the middle class, twenty-five dirhems; the laborer, twelve. From owners of land a tax upon its products of twenty per cent., called the Kharadj, was collected. Apostasy was rewarded by the remission of the former; the latter, however, was never abrogated. Women, children, cripples, beggars, and monks were exempt from all enforced contributions. Except in cases of obstinate resistance, private property was untouched. The wealth of the churches, except that of such as were expressly mentioned in treaties, was legitimate spoil. Under the rule of the Visigoths, the ownership of chattels was only conditional, and they could not be alienated; under the Moors, that ownership was absolute. The condition of the serfs that cultivated the royal demesnes—whose area was so vast that they embraced the fifth part of all confiscated territory—was greatly ameliorated. They still surrendered thirty-three per cent. of the crops, as under their former masters; but they were freed from the frequent and arbitrary impositions which often deprived them of the entire fruits of their labor. The conquest had caused the division of the extensive estates held by the privileged classes, and obtained by centuries of extortion and cruelty, into innumerable farms, a condition which facilitated cultivation and increased agricultural wealth. Many of these lands, formerly devoted to pasturage and to the sports of the nobility, were now improved, and under the skilful efforts of Moorish industry yielded immensely profitable returns.
Each Christian community was rigidly isolated from its Moslem neighbors. In the large cities, the quarter inhabited by the tributaries was walled, and at sunset the gates were closed. A count of their own selection, who was generally of noble blood, discharged the functions of governor and collected the taxes, of which he rendered an account to the Divan. The proceedings of the judicial tribunals were conducted by Christian magistrates under the forms of Visigothic law. All disputes between Christians were decided there, and criminals paid the penalty of their misdeeds as prescribed by the ancient statutes. No sentence of death, however, could be executed without the approval of the Moslem authorities. Suits in which a Mohammedan was a party, and prosecutions where he was either the participant in, or the victim of, a crime, were removed from the jurisdiction of the Christian courts. The Code of Islam prescribed certain regulations to be observed by all tributaries, and obedience to which was a consideration for the protection which the latter enjoyed. Blasphemy of the Prophet or of his religion, entrance into a mosque, and apostasy were capital offences. Upon these points the law was inexorable. Violation of the chastity of a Moslem woman was also punishable with death, a penalty which, however, might be averted by the offender embracing the Mohammedan faith. The repetition of the familiar formula of Islam, even in jest, carried with it a renunciation of all former creeds, and an assumption of the responsibilities of a believer which could never thereafter be relinquished. These laws, while apparently of a religious character, were, owing to the Moslem constitution which united the functions of both spiritual and temporal sovereignty, vitally necessary to the dignity and maintenance of government. Christian fanatics, blinded by prejudice and eager for martyrdom, regarded them as unreasonable and tyrannical restrictions, whose public violation was a duty which they owed to their sect; meritorious, not only as evincing contempt for a detested religion, but as affording opportunities for exhibitions of self-sacrifice, certain to elicit the praise of their companions, and likely to deserve the coveted honor of canonization. All, therefore, that was required of the Christians living under Moslem jurisdiction was that they should pay tribute regularly and obey the laws of the land.
To insure the protection to which they were entitled, and to secure them from insult and oppression, a special magistrate was appointed, under the khalifs, to watch over their interests and supervise their conduct. This official, whose title was that of katib, or secretary, was invested with extraordinary powers, and was usually a noble of distinguished rank as well as a personage of high consideration in the Divan.