[3] Dozy, ii. 45, quotes a passage from Pedraca, "Histor.
Eccles. of Granada" (1638), in which the author points out that
even in his day the "old Christians" of Central Spain were so
wholly ignorant of all Christian doctrines that they might be
expected to renounce Christianity with the utmost ease if again
subjected to the Moors.

[4] Samson, "Apolog.," ii. cc. 3, 5.

[5] Speaking of Omar, the second Khalif of that name, Isidore,
sec. 46, says, "Tanta ei sanctimonia ascribitur quanta nulli
unquam ex Arabum gente."

[6] Dozy, ii. p. 42.

On the whole the condition of the mass of the people, Christian or
renegade, was certainly preferable to their state before the
conquest.[1] Those serfs who remained Christian, if they worked on State
lands, payed one-third of the produce to the State; if on private lands,
four-fifths to their Arab owners.[2] The free Christians retained their
goods, and could even alienate their lands. They paid a graduated tax
varying from thirteen pounds to three guineas.[3] In all probability the
Christians under Moslem rule were not worse off than their
coreligionists in Galicia and Leon. A signal proof of this is afforded
by the fact that, in spite of the distracted state of the country, which
would seem to hold out a great hope of success, we hear of no attempts
at revolt on the part of the subjected Christians in the eighth century,
except at Beja, where the Christians seem to have been led away by the
ambition of an Arab chief.[4] They were even somewhat indifferent to the
cause of their coreligionists in the North, and the attempts which