As time went on, and the Christians and Moslems mingled more closely together in political and social life, the Church no doubt suffered some deterioration.  Every interested motive was enlisted in favour of dropping as far as possible out of sight[1] those distinctive features of Christianity which might be calculated to give offence to the Moslems; of conforming to all those Mohammedan customs, which are not in the Bible expressly forbidden to a Christian;[2] and, generally, of emphasizing the points on which Christianity agrees with Mohammedanism, and ignoring those (far more important ones) in which they differ.  The Moslems had no such reason for dissembling their convictions, or modifying their tenets.  Consequently a spiritual paralysis was creeping upon the Church, which threatened in the course of time, if not checked, to destroy the very life of Christianity throughout the peninsula.  The case of Africa, from which Islam had extirpated Christianity, showed that this was no imaginary danger.  But Spain had this advantage over Africa:  it contained a free Christian community which had never passed under the Moslem yoke, where the fire of Christianity, in danger of being swept away by the devouring flames of Mohammedanism, might be nursed and cherished, till it could again blaze forth with its former brilliancy.

    [1] See below, p. 72, note 5.

    [2] E.g., circumcision.

Yet in Mohammedan Spain religious fervour was not wholly vanished:  it was still to be found among the clergy, and specially among the dwellers in convents.  Monks and nuns, severed from all worldly influences, in the silence of their cloisters, would read the lives of the Saints[1] of old, and meditate upon their glorious deeds, and the miracles which their faith had wrought.  They would brood over such texts as, “Ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for My sake;"[2] and, “Every one who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father, which is in Heaven;"[3] till they brought themselves to believe that it was their imperative duty to bring themselves before rulers and kings, and not only to confess Christ, but to revile Mohammed.

    [1] See Dozy, ii. 112.

    [2] St Mark xiii. 9.

    [3] St Matt. x. 32.

However, the reproach of fanatical self-destruction will not apply, as the apologists of their doings have not failed to point out, to the first two victims that suffered in this persecution.

Perfectus,[1] a priest of Cordova, who had been brought up in the school attached to the church of St Acislus, on going out one day to purchase some necessaries for domestic use, was stopped by some of the Moslems in the street, and asked to give his opinion of their Prophet.  What led them to make this strange request, we are not told,[2] but stated thus barely it certainly gives us the impression that it was intended to bring the priest into trouble.  For it was a well-known