much discussion also at Constantinople, and they were
condemned by several of the popes.

Of a wholly different kind was the heresy originating in the East, and
probably revived through the controversy of the Three Chapters, which
came into prominence in the eighth century in Spain. It has been
thought that the exigencies of anti-Muhammadan controversy had
something to do with the importance which the question now assumed.
The Spanish Church had a long record, in the Councils of Toledo, of
orthodox and {73} strenuous adherence to the Christian faith; but it
showed also a strongly nationalistic spirit, and it was natural that
much should be developed, through antagonism to Muhammadanism and Arian
influences, which would fall into danger of extreme reaction on the one
side or of unwise concession on the other. "Spanish Christianity," it
has been said in a phrase which has become classical, "was a perpetual
crusade." In Spain the Christian contest against sin and unbelief
became more often, or more constantly, than elsewhere an actual
physical struggle against those who distorted or denied the faith of
the Church and those who trampled it under foot. This is, of course,
most true of the ages which followed the Moorish invasions, of the long
strife between Christians and Moors, of the times and the thoughts
which gave birth to the immortal literature of the peninsula, to
Calderon and Cervantes, to Lope de Vega and S. Teresa of Jesus. But it
is also true, though in a less degree, of the earlier times--of those
which extended from the introduction of Christianity--from the
missionary visit, it may be, of S. Paul himself--down to the
destruction of the monarchy of the Wisigoths in 711. Spain was in 589
won to Catholicism by the conversion of its king Reccared. But this
was the end of a long and critical period, for from the acceptance of
Arianism by Remismond in 466 the country was under the rule of princes
who were pledged to that error.

The Wisigoths identified their heresy with their nationality. The
general decadence of the Empire spread to Spain. The social system was
in a state of dissolution. The canons of the Councils show a {74}
picture of life which is appalling in its corruption, but at the same
time are evidence of the earnest efforts of the Church for amendment.
[Sidenote: The conversion of Spain.] They show how Christianity had
penetrated into the country districts, and how eager were the bishops
of