Note 10 — Chapter V · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIANS OF SPAIN.

But certainly as time went on, matters do not seem to have mended themselves; and when Christian bishops took part in the revels of the Muhammadan court, when episcopal sees were put up to auction and persons suspected to be atheists appointed as shepherds of the faithful, and these in their turn bestowed the office of the priesthood on low and unworthy persons,10 we may well suppose that it was not only in the province of Elvira11 that Christians turned from a religion, the corrupt lives of whose ministers had brought it into discredit,12 and sought a more congenial atmosphere for the moral and spiritual life in the pale of Islam.