The results, both immediate and remote, of this crime against civilization thus proved fatal to Spain. Its principal sources of subsistence removed, the kingdom was desolated by famine. It became necessary to extend public aid to many noble families, once affluent, but now impoverished by the suicidal course of the crown. Popular sentiment, exasperated by distress, denounced in unsparing terms the authors of the national calamity. The Archbishop of Valencia, unable to endure the daily reproaches to which he was subjected, and overcome by the sufferings for which he was responsible, died of remorse. Silence and gloom occupied vast tracts formerly covered by exuberant vegetation. In the place of the farmer and the mechanic appeared the brigand and the outlaw. Deprived of protection, the open country was abandoned; the peasantry sought the security of fortified places, and all occupations whose pursuit implied exposure to the danger of violence were necessarily suspended. The conditions controlling every rank of society which were established in the Peninsula by the blind and savage prejudices of the seventeenth century are largely prevalent to-day. A dreadful retribution has followed a tragedy whose example happily no other nation has ventured to imitate; and which, from the hour of its occurrence, has afflicted with every misfortune to the last generation the people responsible for its hideous atrocities. CHAPTER XXVII GENERAL CONDITION OF EUROPE FROM THE VIII. TO THE XVI. CENTURY 700–1500 Effects of Barbarian Supremacy on the Nations of Europe--Rise of the Papal Power--Character of the Popes--Their Vices and Crimes--The Interdict--Corrupt Practices of Prelates and Degradation of the Papacy--Institution of the Monastic Orders--Their Great Influence--Their Final Degeneracy--Wealth of the Religious Houses--The Byzantine System--Its Characteristics--Power of the Eunuchs--Splendor of Constantinople--Destruction of Learning--Debased Condition of the Greeks--The People of Western Europe--Tyranny of Caste and its Effects--Feudal Oppression--Life of the Noble--His Amusements--The Serf and his Degradation--His Hopeless Existence--Treatment of the Jews--Prevalence of Epidemics--Religious Festivals--General Ignorance--Scarcity and Value of Books--Persecution of Learning--The Empire of the Church--Its Extraordinary Vitality.