Some of the clergy opposed themselves to the innovating spirit of the monarch, and endeavoured, from the pulpits, to rally the people to the pure doctrines of their faith; but they were deposed from their sacred office, and banished as seditious mischief-makers. The church of Toledo continued refractory; the archbishop Sindaredo, it is true, was disposed to accommodate himself to the corruptions of the times, but the prebendaries battled intrepidly against the new laws of the monarch, and stood manfully in defence of their vows of chastity. “Since the church of Toledo will not yield itself to our will,” said Witiza, “it shall have two husbands.” So saying, he appointed his own brother Oppas, at that time Archbishop of Seville, to take a seat with Sindaredo in the episcopal chair of Toledo, and made him Primate of Spain. He was a priest after his own heart, and seconded him in all his profligate abuses. It was in vain the denunciations of the church were fulminated from the chair of St. Peter; Witiza threw off all allegiance to the Roman pontiff, threatening with pain of death those who should obey the papal mandates. “We will suffer no foreign ecclesiastic with triple crown,” said he, “to domineer over our dominions.” The Jews had been banished from the country during the preceding reign, but Witiza permitted them to return, and even bestowed upon their synagogues privileges of which he had despoiled the churches. The children of Israel, ever since the time when they borrowed the jewels of gold and the jewels of silver from their neighbours, on preparing for their memorable flight out of Egypt, have been curious dealers in gold and silver and precious stones: on this occasion, therefore, they were enabled, it is said, to repay the monarch for his protection by bags of money, and caskets of sparkling gems, the rich product of their oriental commerce. The kingdom at this time enjoyed external peace, but there were symptoms of internal discontent. Witiza took the alarm; he remembered the ancient turbulence of the nation, and its proneness to internal feuds. Issuing secret orders, therefore, in all directions, he dismantled most of the cities, and demolished the castles and fortresses that might serve as rallying points for the factious. He disarmed the people also, and converted the weapons of war into the implements of peace. It seemed, in fact, as if the millennium were dawning upon the land; for the sword was beaten into a ploughshare, and the spear into a pruning hook. While thus the ancient martial fire of the nation was extinguished, its morals likewise were corrupted. The altars were abandoned, the churches closed, wide disorder and sensuality prevailed throughout the land; so that, according to the old chroniclers, within the compass of a few short years, “Witiza the Wicked taught all Spain to sin.” CHAPTER II. THE RISE OF DON RODERICK.—HIS GOVERNMENT.