Christianity and Islam in Spain, A.D. 756-1031 Part 10

[1] Murphy, "Hist. Mahom. Empire in Spain," p. 309.

[2] Yonge, p. 60.

[3] Conde, i. 239.

[4] "Omni Christi collegio."

[5] Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 35.

[6] See Elipandus and Alvar pa.s.sim. Alcuin, on the other hand, writes wonderfully good Latin.

Some sentences are so ungrammatical as to be scarcely intelligible.

Moreover, we find Samson[1] directly accusing Hostegesis, Bishop of Malaga, of not being able to write Latin; and similarly Jonas of Orleans (839) accusing Claudius, Bishop of Turin, who was himself a Spaniard, of the same defect.

The neglect of Latin was accompanied by an increasing indifference to the doctrinal basis of Christianity, educated Christians being led to devote their time, which might have been more profitably spent on their own Scriptures, to becoming acquainted with the Mohammedan religion, and even to unravelling the intricacies of the controversial theology which had grown up round, and overlaid, the original simplicity of the Koran.[2] The great Fathers of the Church were laid aside unread, and even the Prophets and Apostles, and the Gospel itself, found few to study them. While the higher cla.s.ses were indifferent to religion, the lower were sunk in poverty[3] and ignorance.[4] The inevitable result of this indifference, ignorance, and poverty, was a visible deterioration in the character of Spanish Christianity, of which there are only too many proofs.

[1] Samson, "Apol.," c. vii.

[2] Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 35--"Ac dum illorum sacramenta inquirimus, et philosophorum sectas scire non pro ipsorum convincendis erroribus sed pro elegantia leporis et locutione luculenter diserta. Quis rogo hodie solers in nostris fidelibus laicis invenitur, qui Scripturis sanctis intentus volumina quorumcunque Doctorum Latine conscripta respiciat? Quis Evangelico, quis Prophetico, quis Apostolico ustus tenetur amore? Nonne omnes iuvenes Christiani vultu decori, linguae diserti, habitu gestuque conspicui, Gentilicia eruditione praeclari, Arabico eloquio sublimati, volumina Chaldaeorum avidissime tractunt?"

[3] Florez, xix. 383, Charter of 993; see also "Dozy," iii. 31; and for the condition of Christians in the Free States, Buckle, "Hist. of Civiliz.," i. 443.

[4] Dozy (l.l.).

We find the abbot Samson distinctly accusing Hostegesis, Bishop of Malaga, of simony, a.s.serting that he sold the priesthood to low and unworthy people;[1] while Alvar charges Saul, Bishop of Cordova, with obtaining his bishopric by bribery.[2] Other irregularities imputed to Hostegesis were that he held his see from his twentieth year, contrary to the canons of the church, and that he beat priests, in order to extort money from them, till they died under his hands.

Besides the election to the priesthood, by unworthy means, of unworthy men, whose ignorance and impudence the congregation had to endure in silence,[3] many were informally ordained without vouchers for character being given, or the a.s.sent of their fellow-clergy and flocks being obtained.[4] Many churches presented the unseemly spectacle of two rival pastors, contrary to the ordinances received from the Fathers.[5]

Changes, too, were made in doctrine and ritual, for which no authority could be alleged, in contravention of established custom and the teaching of the Church. So far was this carried that Samson was accused by his opponents of being a heretic and an idolator because he permitted the marriage of cousins; dissented from the view that G.o.d was ever enclosed in the chambers of the Virgin's heart;[6] a.s.serted the omnipresence of G.o.d, even in idols and the Devil, and this in an actual, not a metaphysical, sense;[7] and denied that G.o.d sat upon an exalted throne above his creatures. From this it is clear that Hostegesis and those who thought with him[8] were infected with the anthropomorphite heresy.

[1] Samson, "Apol.," Bk. ii., Pref. sec. 2.

[2] See "Letter to Saul," sec. 3--"Poterant enim quovis a.s.serente canonice incohationis vestrae primordia comprobari, si quadringenti solidi non fuissent palam eunuchis vel aliis exsoluti." Dozy, ii. 140, adds that the money was guaranteed on the episcopal revenues, but this is a conjecture.

[3] Samson, "Apol.," ii. Pref. sec 5; Dozy, ii. 268.

[4] Alvar ad Saulum, sec. 3--"Sine testimonis, sine connibentia clericorum."

[5] _Ibid._

[6] Samson, "Apol.," ii. Pref. sec. 7 and iii.--"Cubiculum cordis Virginei." This appears to be a quotation from the Gothic liturgy.

[7] "Per substantiam, non per subtilitatem."--_Ibid._

[8] Roma.n.u.s and Sebastia.n.u.s, Samson, Pref, sec. 6.

Not only did many of the clergy hold heretical views, but their depravity was notorious. Hostegesis did not blush to spend the produce of the church t.i.thes and offerings, which he had with difficulty extorted from his flock,[1] in bribing the court officials and the king's sons, giving them feasts at which open and flagrant vice was indulged in.[2] The clergy were not above pretending illness in order to avoid paying the monthly tax to their Moslem rulers.[3] Some, even in the highest positions in the Church, denied their Saviour and apostatized to the Moslems; one of these renegades being Samuel, Bishop of Elvira, the uncle of Hostegesis' mother, who, with a pervert's zeal, persecuted the Church he had deserted, imprisoning the clergy, taxing his former flock, and even forcing some to embrace Islam.[4]

It is not surprising, therefore, that bishops and clergy were sometimes deposed. Samson, indeed, underwent this disgrace at the hands of a hostile faction under Hostegesis, on the ground of his pretended heresy; and, similarly, Valentius,[5] Bishop of Cordova, was deprived of his see because he was a supporter of Samson. But these instances reflect more discredit on the deposers than on their victims. Instances of deposition are not wanting, in the free states the North. Sisenandus, seventh Bishop of Compostella (940), was deposed by King Sancho for dissolute living, and malversation of Church moneys.[6] On the king's death he recovered his see, driving out his successor. Pelayo, another bishop of Compostella, suffered the same punishment.[7]

[1] The offering of one-third for the Church was refused to Hostegesis as being sacrilegious; so he proceeded to extort it, "suis codicibus inst.i.tutis."--Samson "Apol.," ii. Pref. sec. 2.

[2] _Ibid._ The state of the Church in the North was not much better. See Yonge, p. 86.

[3] Leovigild de habitu Clericorum. Dozy, ii. 110.

[4] Samson, Pref. ii. 4.

[5] Succeeded Saul in 861, and was deposed in 864.

[6] Mariana, viii. 5. He went over to the Moslems. Southey, "Chronicle of the Cid," p. 228. Yonge, p. 86.

[7] Mariana (1.1.).

When the kings of Castile gradually drove back the Moors, and when Alfonso took Toledo in 1085, his wife, Constance of Burgundy, and her spiritual adviser, a monk named Bernard, were horrified at the laxity in morals and doctrine of the Muzarabic Christians. Their addiction to poetry and natural science was regarded with suspicious aversion, and the pork-eating, circ.u.mcision, and, not least, the cleanly habits,[1]

contracted from an intercourse with Moslems, were looked upon as so many marks of the beast. In 1209 the Crusaders, who had swarmed to the wars in Spain, even wished to turn their pious arms against these poor Muzarabes, so scandalised were they at the un-Romish rites. Yet we are told that Alfonso the Great, when building and restoring churches in the territory newly wrested from the Moors, set up again the ordinances of the Goths, as formerly observed at Toledo.[2]

The free church in the North had itself been in great danger of extinction, when the armies of the great Almanzer (977-1002) swept yearly through the Christian kingdoms like some devastating tempest.[3]

Fifty-two victorious campaigns did that irresistible warrior lead against the infidels.[4] Barcelona, Pampluna, and Leon fell before his arms, and the sacred city of Compostella was sacked, and for a time left desolate, the bells of St James' shrine being carried off to Cordova to serve as lamps in the grand mosque. We are not, therefore, surprised to find that there were many bishops in the North who had lost their sees; and this was the case even before the tenth century, for a bishop named Sabaricus, being driven from his own see by the Arabs, was given that of Mindumetum by Alfonso III. in 867,[5] and twenty years later a bishop named Sebastian received the see of Auria in the same way.[6]

It is natural enough that the Moslems and the clergy of the Christian Church should be hostile to one another, but it is surprising to find--as we do find in some cases--the latter making common cause with the Arabs in ill-treating their fellow-countrymen and coreligionists.

Thus, as we have seen, Hostegesis, relying on the support of the secular arm,[7] beat and imprisoned the clergy for withholding from him the Church t.i.thes, dragging them through the city naked, with a crier crying before them:--"Such is the punishment of those who will not pay their t.i.thes to their bishop."[8] Bishops were even found to make episcopal visitations, getting the names of all their flock, as if with the intention of praying for them individually, and then to hand in their names to the civil power for the purpose of taxation.[9] Others obtained from the Arabs the privilege of farming the revenues derived from Christian taxation, and cruelly oppressed their coreligionists.[10]

[1] The Christians in the North were vulgarly supposed by the Arabs not to wash. See Conde, i. 203--"It is related of these people of Galicia ... that they live like savages or wild beasts, and never wash either their persons or their garments."

[2] "Chron. Albeld.," sec. 58--"Ordinem Gothorum sicuti Toleto fuerat statuit."

[3] "Chron. Silense," sec. 72--"Eadem tempestate in Hispania omnis divinus cultus periit."

[4] He was not defeated in his last battle, as is generally stated in histories.--See Al Makkari, ii. 197.

[5] Florez, "Esp. Sagr.," xviii. 312.

[6] _Ibid._, xvii. 244.

[7] "Praesidali manu fultus." Samson, ii. Pref. sec. 2.

[8] _Ibid._

[9] _Ibid._, and Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," iii. c. iv. sec. 5.

[10] Eul., 1.1.

These nefarious measures were backed up, even if they were not instigated, by Servandus, the Christian Count of Cordova. He was the son of a serf of the Church,[1] and married a cousin of Hostegesis.[2]

Instead of championing the cause of the Christians, as his position should have impelled him to do, he went so far in the opposite direction as to call them up before him, and try to shake their attachment to Christianity--a religion, nominally at least, his own also. Those who held firm he forced to pay increased taxes, and even levied blackmail on the churches. He did not scruple to drag forth the bodies of martyrs from under the altars of churches, and, showing them to the king, to remind him that it had been forbidden to Christians to bury their martyrs.[3]

Following up the hostile measures inst.i.tuted by Hostegesis against Samson and Valentius, he proceeded to accuse them of inciting the fanatics to revile Mohammed, urging that they should be tested with this dilemma. They should be asked whether what the revilers said were true or not. "If they answer, 'true,' let them be punished as well as the reviler; if 'false,' bid them slay the man themselves; refusing which, you will know that they have aided and abetted him to abuse your Prophet. In that case, give me permission, and I will slay the three myself."[4]

[1] Dozy, ii. 268.