--- title: Of the Ancient Inhabitants of Spain.—of the Misrule of Wit… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · full text with trees description: Of the Ancient Inhabitants of Spain.—of the Misrule of Witiza the Wicked., «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Spain, or Iberia, as it was called in ancient days, has been a country harassed fr --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Legends of the conquest of Spain](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/) / Of the Ancient Inhabitants of Spain.—o… # Of the Ancient Inhabitants of Spain.—of the Misrule of Witiza the Wicked. Of the Ancient Inhabitants of Spain.—of the Misrule of Witiza the Wicked. of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving: the whole text, 50 sentences and 1427 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. Spain, or Iberia, as it was called in ancient days, has been a country harassed from the earliest times by the invader.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") The Celts, the Greeks, the Phœnicians, the Carthaginians, by turns, or simultaneously, infringed its territories; drove the native Iberians from their rightful homes, and established colonies and founded cities in the land.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") It subsequently fell into the all-grasping power of Rome, remaining for some time a subjugated province; and when that gigantic empire crumbled into pieces, the Suevi, the Alani, and the Vandals, those barbarians of the north, overran and ravaged this devoted country, and portioned out the soil among them.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") Their sway was not of long duration.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") In the fifth century the Goths, who were then the allies of Rome, undertook the reconquest of Iberia, and succeeded, after a desperate struggle of three years’ duration.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") They drove before them the barbarous hordes, their predecessors; intermarried and incorporated themselves with the original inhabitants; and founded a powerful and splendid empire, comprising the Iberian peninsula, the ancient Narbonnaise, afterwards called Gallia Gotica, or Gothic Gaul, and a part of the African coast called Tingitania.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") A new nation was, in a manner, produced by this mixture of the Goths and Iberians.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Sprung from a union of warrior races, reared and nurtured amidst the din of arms, the Gothic Spaniards, if they may so be termed, were a warlike, unquiet, yet high-minded and heroic people.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") Their simple and abstemious habits, their contempt for toil and suffering, and their love of daring enterprise, fitted them for a soldier’s life.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") So addicted were they to war that, when they had no external foes to contend with, they fought with one another; and, when engaged in battle, says an old chronicler, the very thunders and lightnings of heaven could not separate them.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") \[2\][11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") For two centuries and a half the Gothic power remained unshaken, and the sceptre was wielded by twenty-five successive kings.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") The crown was elective, in a council of palatines, composed of the bishops and nobles: who, while they swore allegiance to the newly-made sovereign, bound him by a reciprocal oath to be faithful to his trust.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Their choice was made from among the people, subject only to one condition, that the king should be of pure Gothic blood.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") But though the crown was elective in principle, it gradually became hereditary from usage, and the power of the sovereign grew to be almost absolute.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") The king was commander-in-chief of the armies; the whole patronage of the kingdom was in his hands; he summoned and dissolved the national councils; he made and revoked laws according to his pleasure; and, having ecclesiastical supremacy, he exercised a sway even over the consciences of his subjects.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") The Goths, at the time of their inroad, were stout adherents to the Arian doctrines; but after a time they embraced the Catholic faith, which was maintained by the native Spaniards free from many of the gross superstitions of the church at Rome; and this unity of faith contributed more than any thing else to blend and harmonise the two races into one.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") The bishops and other clergy were exemplary in their lives, and aided to promote the influence of the laws and maintain the authority of the state.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") The fruits of regular and secure government were manifest in the advancement of agriculture, commerce, and the peaceful arts, and in the increase of wealth, luxury, and refinement; but there was a gradual decline of the simple, hardy, and warlike habits that had distinguished the nation in its semi-barbarous days.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Such was the state of Spain when, in the year of Redemption 701, Witiza was elected to the Gothic throne.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") The beginning of his reign gave promise of happy days to Spain.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") He redressed grievances, moderated the tributes of his subjects, and conducted himself with mingled mildness and energy in the administration of the laws.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") In a little while, however, he threw off the mask, and showed himself in his true nature, cruel and luxurious.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Two of his relatives, sons of a preceding king, awakened his jealousy for the security of his throne.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") One of them, named Favila, duke of Cantabria, he put to death, and would have inflicted the same fate upon his son Pelayo, but that the youth was beyond his reach, being preserved by Providence for the future salvation of Spain.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") The other object of his suspicion was Theodofredo, who lived retired from court.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") The violence of Witiza reached him even in his retirement.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") His eyes were put out, and he was immured within a castle at Cordova.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Roderick, the youthful son of Theodofredo, escaped to Italy, where he received protection from the Romans.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Witiza, now considering himself secure upon the throne, gave the reins to his licentious passions; and soon, by his tyranny and sensuality, acquired the appellation of Witiza the Wicked.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Despising the old Gothic continence, and yielding to the example of the sect of Mahomet, which suited his lascivious temperament, he indulged in a plurality of wives and concubines, encouraging his subjects to do the same.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Nay, he even sought to gain the sanction of the church to his excesses; promulgating a law by which the clergy were released from their vows of celibacy, and permitted to marry and to entertain paramours.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") The sovereign pontiff Constantine threatened to depose and excommunicate him, unless he abrogated this licentious law; but Witiza set him at defiance, threatening, like his Gothic predecessor Alaric, to assail the eternal city with his troops, and make spoil of her accumulated treasures.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") \[3\] “We will adorn our damsels,” said he, “with the jewels of Rome, and replenish our coffers from the mint of St. Peter.”[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") “Since the church of Toledo will not yield itself to our will,” said Witiza, “it shall have two husbands.”[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") He was a priest after his own heart, and seconded him in all his profligate abuses.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") “We will suffer no foreign ecclesiastic with triple crown,” said he, “to domineer over our dominions.”[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") The kingdom at this time enjoyed external peace, but there were symptoms of internal discontent.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") Witiza took the alarm; he remembered the ancient turbulence of the nation, and its proneness to internal feuds.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") He disarmed the people also, and converted the weapons of war into the implements of peace.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") While thus the ancient martial fire of the nation was extinguished, its morals likewise were corrupted.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") 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.”[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/1/) - next →: [The Rise of Don Roderick.—his Government.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/3/) - ↑ back to [Legends of the conquest of Spain](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/)