THE CONQUERED CHRISTIANS. 321 



sion of his sins ; at a time when three or four hundred 

 parchment scrolls were considered a magnificent endow- 

 ment for the richest monastery: when scarcely a priest 

 in England could translate Latin into his mother 

 tongue ; and when even in Italy a monk who had 

 picked up a smattering of mathematics was looked 

 upon as a magician, here was a country in which every 

 child was taught to read and write ; in which every 

 town possessed a public library; in which book collect- 

 ing was a mania; in which cotton and afterwards linen- 

 paper was manufactured in enormous quantities ; in 

 which ladies earned distinction as poets and gram- 

 marians, and in which even the blind were often 

 scholars ; in which men of science were making chemi- 

 cal experiments, using astrolabes in the observatory, 

 inventing flying machines, studying the astronomy and 

 algebra of Hindostan. 



When the Goths conquered Spain they were re- 

 conquered by the clergy, who established or revived the 

 Roman Law. But to that excellent code they added 

 some special enactments relating to pagans, heretics, and 

 Jews. With nations as with individuals, the child is 

 often the father of the man ; intolerance, which ruined 

 the Spain of Philip, was also its vice in the Gothic days. 

 On the other hand, the prosperity of Spain beneath 

 the Arabs was owing to the tolerant spirit of that 

 people. Never was a conquered nation so mercifully 

 treated. The Christians were allowed by the Arab laws 

 free exercise of their religion. They were employed 

 at court ; they held office ; they served in the army. 

 The caliph had a body-guard of twelve thousand men, 

 picked troops, splendidly equipped ; and a third of 

 these were Christians. But there were some ecclesi- 

 astics who taught their congregations that it was sinful 

 x 



