Although almost every member of the governing group in the Ottoman Empire had been born a Christian, it was absolutely necessary for his advancement that he should profess the Moslem faith. A keen contemporary observer knew of only one Christian who had been entrusted with great power. Alvise Gritti was allowed to hold special command in Hungary, but this appointment was made outside the system, as a personal affair of the grand vizier Ibrahim, without the concurrence of the sultan.[157] Various Christians were employed in such matters as the superintendence of ship-building and cannon-founding;[158] but this was a purely commercial relationship, and such a man had no place in the _cursus honorum_. The fundamental rule, open to the few exceptions previously described, was very simple. Every member of the Ruling Institution must have been born a Christian and must have become a Mohammedan. A number of questions arise at once. Why were none but sons of Christians admitted? Why was conversion essential to promotion? What was the process of accomplishing conversion? How thorough was the conversion? Why were the sons of most of the converts, and the grandsons of practically all, carefully pushed out of the system? The first of these questions might be answered in terms of policy of state; but since, in all Moslem thinking, church, state, and society form one undivided whole, such an answer would be inadequate. Conversion to Mohammedanism meant much more than an inward change and an outward association for religious purposes with a new group of worshippers. It meant the adoption of a new law for the whole of life, beginning with the religious and ethical, but including as equally essential portions the regulation of all social, commercial, military, and political relationships.[159] It meant admission to a new social system, naturalization in a new nation, an entire separation from the old life in all its aspects and a complete incorporation with the new. Expansion of membership was always a cardinal principle of Mohammedanism; and the expansion was to be not merely by the aid of the sword, but far more by peaceful means. The sword took the land and sometimes the body of the unbeliever; but his soul was to be won by the benefits of the system, first religious, then social, financial, and political.[160] Every nation that has reached eminence has believed firmly that its general system was immensely the superior of every other in the world, and no nations have been more thoroughly convinced of this than those of Moslem faith. Accordingly, their desire to convert the unbeliever was founded primarily on benevolence. Closely connected with this motive was a burning interest in the grandeur of Islam as a militant, expanding system; and subordinate thereto was a purpose to increase the wealth, numbers, and power of the state. THE OTTOMAN ATTITUDE