nd preserved in a cloister of
the cathedral may still be seen the "Consecration Stone" which reads:
that the Church of Santa Maria,--built probably on the foundation of
the older church,--was consecrated under "King Recared the Catholic,
587 A.D." It also tells of the councils of the Spanish Church held
there--at one of which councils was the famous canon which decreed
that all future Kings must swear they would show no mercy to "that
accursed people"--meaning the Jews. It was these very Jews who had
brought commercial success and created the enormous wealth of the
city, from which it was now the duty of the pious Visigoth Kings to
harry and hunt them as if they were frightened deer.

The Visigoth monarchy, although in many cases hereditary, was in fact
elective. And the student of Spanish history will not find an orderly
royal succession as in England and France. Disputes regarding the
succession were not infrequent, and sometimes there will occur an
interval with apparently no king at all, followed by another period
when there are two--one ruling in the north and another in the south.
"The King is dead--long live the King!" might do for France, but not
for Spain.

During one of these periods of uncertainty, in the latter half of the
seventh century, it is said that Leo, a holy man (afterward Pope),
was told in a dream that the man who must wear the crown was then
a laborer, living in the west, and that his name was Wamba. They
traveled in search of this man almost to the borders of Portugal, and
there they found the future candidate for the throne plowing in the
field. The messengers, bowing before the plowman, informed him that he
had been selected as King of Spain.

Wamba laughed, and said, "Yes, I shall be King of Spain when my pole
puts forth leaves."

Instantly the bare pole began to bud, and in a few moments was covered
with verdure!

In vain did Wamba protest. What could a poor man do in the face of
such a miracle, and with a Spanish Duke pressing a poniard against his
breast, and telling him to choose on the instant between a throne and
a tomb!

The unhappy Wamba suffered himself to be borne in triumph to Toledo,
and there to be crowned. And a very wise and excellent King did
he make. He seemed fully equal to the difficult demands of his
new position. A rebellion, fomented by an ambitious Duke Paul,
who gathered about his standard all the banished Jews, was a very
formidable affair. But Wamba put it d