The old Spanish chroniclers represent the fall of the Gothic kingdom as the direct vengeance of Heaven for the sins of successive kings;[2] but on the heads of the clergy, even more than of the king, rests the guilt of their iniquitous and suicidal policy towards the Arians[3] and the Jews. The treachery of Julian,[4] whatever its cause, opened a way for the Arabs into the country by betraying into their hands Ceuta, the key of the Straits. Success in their first serious battle was secured to them by the opportune desertion from the enemy's ranks of the disaffected political party under the sons of the late king Witiza,[5] and an archbishop Oppas, who afterwards apostatized; while the rapid subjugation of the whole country was aided and assured by the hosts of ill-used slaves who flocked to the Saracen standards, and by the Jews[6] who hailed the Arabs as fellow-Shemites and deliverers from the hated yoke of the uncircumcised Goths. [1] Al Makkari, vol. i. p. 297. (De Gayangos' translation). [2] "Chron. Sil.," sec. 17, "recesserat ab Hispania manus Domini ob inveteratam regum malitiam." See above, p. 7, note 2. [3] Arianism lingered on till the middle of the eighth century at least, since Rodrigo of Toledo, iii., sec. 3, says of Alfonso I., that he "extirpavit haeresin Arianam." [4] For Julian, or, more correctly, Ilyan, see De Gayangos' note to Al Makkari, i. p. 537, etc. [5] Called Ghittishah by the Arabs. For the Witizan party see "Sebast. Salan," sec. 7; "Chron. Sil.," sec. 15. The daughter of Witiza married a noble Arab. The descendants of the King, under the name Witizani, were known in Spain till the end of the eighth century at least. See Letter of Beatus and Etherius to Elipandus, sec. 61; "Multi hodie ab ipso rege sumunt nomen _Witizani_, etiam pauperes." See also Al Makkari, ii. 14. [6] The Jews garrisoned the taken towns (Al Makkari, i. pp. 280, 282, and De Gayangos' note, p. 531). Even as late as 852 we find the Jews betraying Barcelona to the Moors, who slew nearly all the Christians.