4;‘. M,

. looked good on paper.

people were prosperous, educated, refined, progressive, and

free; a civilization which compares very favorably with the

civilization of the ancient.Greeks. A ‘ Now, that civilization which was built upon science and

reason was deliberately destroyed, and in’ the destruction

of that great civilization was laid the origins of the num- erous dreadful evils from which the Spanish people have suffered throughout the intervening centuries until our day. Some account of the destruction of that civilization is, therefore, an essential part of the background of present- day conditions in Spain.

I shall have to say, in this connection, something re-

S garding the Church, not because I dislike the Church, but because without a knowledge of what the Church has done

in Spain and to the people of Spain it is quite impossible to understand Spain's tragic story. As a matter of fact, it must be said of Spain, as it may be said of perhaps no other country in the modern world, that the history of the country is very largely the history of the Church.

The Spaniards had always resented the presence of the Moorish conquerors in their country. And as the Moors, during their centuries of civilized life, gradually became less and less militaristic, whilst the Spaniards, hoping to some day reconquer their soil, were becoming more and more militaristic, the time came when the Spaniardswere able to win back theircountry from the Moors piece by

y piece. r

Even then, however, it must be understood that the cities of Granada, which were the last to fall into the hands of the Spaniards, as well as the citiesof the other provinces held by the Moors, did not surrender to the Spaniards by reason of the Spanish force of arms; they surrendered, rather, because of their dire hunger; for the Spaniards gave to the flames the crops and orchards in the communities surrounding the great cities, and burned down the villages and the small towns in order that the larger cities might be starved. And only when the Moors found themselves face to face “with starvation did they accept terms of surrender. ,

Still, they did not yield until King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had solemnly promised them that if they would surrender they would be allowed to retain their property, their schools, their mosques, their religion, their customs, their laws, their Mohammedan judges, and that no new taxes would be imposed upon them. The royal promise

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