These prerogatives, dangerous to religious liberty and liable to abuse even in the hands of an orthodox sovereign, were transmitted, in all their force, to the Arabian khalifs, as the lords of the lost heritage of the Visigothic kings. The principle upon which such authority could pass to the head of a hostile sect, whose sworn purpose was the annihilation of the very religion which he was presumed, by virtue of his office, in duty bound to protect, has not been, and never can be, explained by any considerations of honor, consistency, or equity. It was practically a flagrant usurpation of privileges for which the Moslem sovereign could not allege even a shadow of right. It was not conferred by conquest. It could not be accounted for under the color of a legal fiction. Supremacy in ecclesiastical government, where the practice of public worship was guaranteed by treaty, and the clergy purchased by tribute the management of their affairs and the enforcement of discipline, certainly was not implied by the fact that it had been enjoyed by the ruling prince of the vanquished faith. Its peaceful exercise for centuries--for its validity does not seem to have been questioned in the writings of even the most bigoted ecclesiastics--is one of the most singular problems of religious history. The consequences of this anomalous condition were, as may readily be conjectured, fatal to the dignity and order of the Catholic hierarchy. The khalif was, to all intents and purposes, the spiritual head of two hostile religions,--one of which it was his duty, as well as his inclination, to exalt; the other of which he was prompted by the prejudices of race, inheritance, and belief to destroy. There were few Hispano-Arab monarchs who did not contribute their share to the degradation of Christianity. The highest offices of the Church were put up at auction. The orthodoxy and fitness of the candidate were never considered; his qualifications were ignored; and his success was dependent upon the amount he was willing to disburse for the coveted dignity. In this scandalous traffic the women of the harems and the eunuchs were the recognized agents of the purchaser. There was no secrecy about these transactions. The practice of simony was so universal that even the greatest offenders made no attempt to conceal it. A profligate canon, named Saul, entered into a written obligation to pay these corrupt intermediaries four hundred ounces of silver for the bishopric of Cordova. Some of those raised to the richest sees of the Peninsula were heretics or infidels. It was not unusual for a prelate, even during Holy Week, to abandon the service of the altar and indulge in the most shameless excesses of drunkenness and debauchery. The ordinances of the Church were interpreted by men ignorant of the first rudiments of ecclesiastical law. Priests, whose atheism was notorious, administered the sacraments with mock humility and imparted hypocritical consolation to the devout.