Christianity and Islam in Spain, A.D. 756-1031 Part 4

[1] Eulogius, "Mem. Sanct.," ii., ch. i. secs. 1-4: Alvar, "Indic. Lum.," sec. 3.

[2] See, however, Appendix A, p. 158.

[3] Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 6. "Ecce enim lex publica pendet, et legalis iussa per omnem regnum eorum discurrit, ut, qui blasphematur, flagellatur, et qui percusserit occidatur."

Neander V., p. 464, note, points out that "blasphemaverit"

refers to cursing Moslems, not Mohammed. Eul., "Mem. Sanct.,"

Pref., sec. 5, "Irrefragibilis manet sententia, animadverti debere in eos qui talia de ipso non vcrentur profiteri." On hearing of Isaac's death the king published a reminder on this law.

[4] See p. 91.

[5] Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 3, calls it a timid answer.

[6] Matt. xxiv. 24.

[7] "Accensum ultionis furorem in corde ad perniciem eius reponunt." Eulogius, 1.1.

If this was so, the opportunity soon presented itself, and Perfectus, being abroad on an errand similar to the previous one, was met[1] by his former interrogators, who, on the charge of reviling Mohammed, and doing despite to their religion, dragged him before the Kadi. Being questioned, his courage at first failed him, and he withdrew his words.

He was then imprisoned to await further examination at the end of the month, which happened to be the Ramadhan or fast month. In prison the priest repented his weakness, and when brought again before the judge on the Mohammedan Easter, he recanted his recantation, adding, "I have cursed and do curse your prophet, a messenger not of G.o.d, but of Satan, a dealer in witchcraft, an adulterer, and a liar." He was immediately led off for execution, but before his death prophesied that of the King's minister, Nazar, within a year of his own. He was beheaded on April 18, 850.[2] The apologists, on insufficient evidence, describe the death of two Moslems, who were drowned the same day in the river, as a manifest judgement of Heaven for the murder of Perfectus.[3]

[1] "Dolo circ.u.mventum," says Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 4.

[2] Johannes Vasaeus places this persecution (by a manifest error) in 950, under Abdurrahman III., stating at the same time that some writers placed it in 850, but, as it appeared to him, wrongly: "Abdurrahman Halihatan rex Cordobae movit duodecimam persecutionem in Christianos."

[3] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct." ii., ch. i. sec. 5.

The example set by Perfectus did not bear fruit at once, but no doubt the evidence which it gave of the ease and comparative painlessness, with which a martyr's crown could be obtained, was not lost upon the brooding and zealous spirits living in solitary retreats and trying by a life of religious devotion to cut themselves off from the seductive pleasures of an active life.

The next victim, a little more than a year later, was a petty tradesman, named John,[1] who does not seem to have courted his own fate. He had aroused the animosity of his Moslem rivals by a habit which he had contracted of p.r.o.nouncing the name of the Prophet in his market transactions, taking his name, as they thought, in vain, and with a view to attracting buyers.[2] John, being taxed with this, with ill-timed pleasantry retorted, "Cursed be he who wishes to name your Prophet." He was haled before the Kadi, and, after receiving 400 stripes,[3] was thrown into prison. Subsequently he was taken thence and driven through the city riding backwards on an a.s.s, while a crier was sent before him through the Christian quarters, proclaiming: "Such shall be the punishment of those, that speak evil of the Prophet of G.o.d."

[1] Eugolius, "Mem. Sanct." i. sec. 9; and Alvar, Ind. Lum.

sec. 5.

[2] So Eulogius, 1. 1., and Dozy, ii., 129. Alvar's account (1.

1.) is not very intelligible: "Parvipendens nostrum prophetam, semper eius nomen in derisione frequentas, et mendacium tuum per iuramenta nostrae religionis, ut tibi videtur, falsa auribus te ignorantium Christianum esse semper confirmas."

[3] Or, according to Eulogius, 500.

So far we have had cases, where the charge of persecution, brought by the apologists of the martyrs against the Moslems, can be more or less sustained, but the next instance is of a different character. Isaac,[1]

a monk of Tabanos, and descended from n.o.ble and wealthy ancestors, was born in 824, and by his knowledge of Arabic, attained in early life to the position of an exceptor, or scribe,[2] but gave up his appointment at the age of twenty, in order to enter the monastery of Tabanos, which his uncle and aunt, Jeremiah and Elizabeth, had founded near Cordova.

[1] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. ch. ii. sec. 1, also Pref., secs. 2 ff. After his death Isaac was credited with having performed miracles from his earliest years. He was said to have spoken three times in his mother's womb (cp. a similar fable about Jesus in the Koran, c. iii. verse 40), and when a child, to have embraced, unhurt, a globe of fire from Heaven.

[2] Not, as Florez, a tax-gatherer.

Roused by the tale of Perfectus' death and John's sufferings, he voluntarily went before the Kadi, and, pretending to be an "enquirer,"

begged him to expound to him the doctrines of Islam. The Kadi, congratulating himself on the prospect of such a promising convert, gravely complied; when Isaac, answering him in fluent Arabic, said: "He has lied unto you--may the curse of Heaven consume him!--who full of all wickedness has led astray so many men, and doomed them with himself to the lowest deep of h.e.l.l. Filled with Satan, and practising Satanic arts, he hath given his followers a drink of deadly wine, and will without doubt expiate his guilt with everlasting d.a.m.nation." Hearing these, and other like _chaste_[1] utterances, the judge listened in a sort of stupor of rage and astonishment, feelings which even found vent in tears; till, his indignation pa.s.sing all control, he struck the monk in the face, who then said, "Dost thou strike that which is made in the image of G.o.d?"[2] The a.s.sessors of the Kadi also reproached him for striking a prisoner, their law being that one who is worthy of death should not suffer other indignities. The Kadi, having now recovered his self-command, gave his decision, that Isaac, whether drunk or mad, had committed a crime which, by an express law of Mohammed's, merited condign punishment. He was accordingly beheaded, and, his body being burnt, his ashes were cast into the river (June 3, 851). This was done to prevent the Christians from carrying off his body, and preserving it for the purpose of working miracles.[3]

Isaac's conduct and fate, Eulogius tells us, electrified the people, who were amazed at the _newness_ of the thing.[4] It was at this point that Eulogius himself began to shew his sympathy with these fanatical doings by encouraging and helping others to follow Isaac's example.

[1] Eulogius, "Mem. Sanct.," Pref., sec. 5, "_Ore pudico_ summisque reverentiae ausibus viribusque."

[2] Cp. Acts xxiii. 3.

[3] Eulog., "Lib. Apolog.," sec. 35, mentions a proposed edict of the authorities, visiting the seeker of relics with severer penalties.

[4] See Eulog., Letter to Alvar, apud Florez., xi. 290.

The number of misguided men and women that now came forward and threw their lives away is certainly remarkable, and seems to have struck the Moslems as perfectly unaccountable. The Arabs themselves were as brave men as the world has ever seen, and, by the very ordinances of their faith, were bound to adventure their lives for their religion in actual human conflict with infidel foes, yet they were unable to conceive how any man in his senses could willingly deprive himself of life in such a way as could do no service to the cause, religious or other, which he had at heart. They were quite unable to appreciate that intense antagonism towards the world and its perilous environment, which Christianity teaches; that spirit of renouncement of the vanities, nay, even of the duties of life, which prompted men and women to immure themselves in cloisters and retreats, far from all spheres of human usefulness. Life under these circ.u.mstances had naturally little to make it worth the living, and became all the more easy to relinquish, when death, in itself a thing to be desired, was further invested with the glories of martyrdom.

The example of Isaac was therefore followed within two days by a monk named Sanctius[1] or Sancho, who was executed on June 5th. Three days later were beheaded Peter, a priest of Ecija; Walabonsus, a deacon of Ilipa; Sabinia.n.u.s and Wistremundus, monks of St Zoilus; Habentius, a monk of St Christopher's Church at Cordova; while Jeremiah,[2] uncle of Isaac, was scourged to death. Their bodies were burned, and the ashes cast into the river.

Sisenandus of Badajos[3] found a similar fate on July 16th: four days subsequently Paul, a deacon of St Zoilus, gave himself up; and the same number of days later, Theodomir, a monk of Carmona: all of whom were beheaded.

[1] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. 3.

[2] _Ibid._, c. iv.

[3] After his martyrdom he procured the release from prison of Tiberias, priest of Beja! Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. vi.

CHAPTER IV.

FANATICISM OF THE MARTYRS.

The next candidates for martyrdom were two young and beautiful girls, whose history we learn from their patron, Eulogius, who seems to have regarded one of these maidens, Flora, with a Platonic love mingled with a sort of religious devotion.

Flora,[1] the daughter of a Moslem father and a Christian mother, was born at Cordova. She is said to have practised abstinence even in her cradle. At first she was brought up as a Moslem, and lived in conformity with that faith, until, being converted to Christianity about eight years before this time, and finding the intolerance of her father and her brother unbearable, she deserted her home. But when her brother, in his efforts to discover and reclaim her, persecuted many Christian families, whom he suspected of conniving at her escape, she voluntarily surrendered herself to him, saying, "Here am I whom you seek, and for whose sake you persecute the people of G.o.d. I am a Christian. Do your best to annul that confession: none of your torments will be able to overcome my faith." Her brother, after trying in vain, by alternate threats and blandishments, to bring her back from her error, finally dragged her before the Kadi; and he, hearing her brother's accusation, and her own confession, ordered her to be barbarously beaten, and then given up nearly dead to her brother. She managed, however, to recover, and escaped under angelic guidance.[2] Shortly afterwards, while praying in a church, she was found by Maria, sister of Walabonsus above-mentioned,[3] who had been martyred a few months previously.

Their father, being a Christian, converted his unbelieving wife. They came to live at Froniano, near Cordova, and their daughter was educated at the nunnery of Cuteclara, near the city, under the care of the abbess, Artemia. Brooding over her brother's martyrdom, and perhaps, as was so often the case, seeing his glorified spirit in a vision, she left the cloister, determining to follow in his saintly footsteps. While on her way to give herself up, she turned aside into a church to pray, and found Flora there.

[1] "Life of Flora and Maria," by Eulogius, secs. 3 ff.

[2] _Ibid._, sec. 8. "Agelico comitante meatu."

[3] "Life of Flora and Maria," sec. 11. Lane Poole, "Moors in Spain," says, "Sister of Isaac."

Together, then, did these devoted girls go forth[1] to curse Mohammed, of whom they probably knew next to nothing, and lose their own lives.

The judge, however, pitying their youth and beauty, merely imprisoned them. News of his sister's imprisonment being brought to Flora's brother, he induced the judge to make a further examination of her, and she was brought out of prison before the Kadi, who, pointing to her brother, asked her if she knew him. Flora answered that she did--as her brother according to the flesh. "How is it, then," asked the judge, "that he remains a good Moslem, while you have apostatized?" She answered that G.o.d had enlightened her; and, on professing herself ready to repeat her former denunciations of the Prophet, she was again remanded to prison. Here she and Maria are threatened with being thrown upon the streets as prost.i.tutes[2]--a punishment far worse than the easy death they had desired. This shakes their constancy; when they find an unexpected comforter in Eulogius himself, who is now imprisoned for being an encourager and inciter of defiance to the laws. It is strange that he should have been allowed to carry on in the prison itself the very work for which he had been imprisoned. The support of Eulogius enabled these tender maidens to stand firm through another examination, and the judge, proving too merciful, or too good a Moslem, to carry out the above-mentioned threat, they were led forth to die (November 24, 851). Before their death they had promised Eulogius to intercede before the throne of G.o.d for his release, which accordingly is brought to pa.s.s six days after their own execution.[3]

An interval of only a little more than a month elapsed before Gumesindus, a priest of the district called Campania, near Cordova, and Servus Dei, a monk, suffered death in the same way (January 13, 852).[4]

[1] Eulog. to Alvar, i. sec. 2; "Life of Flora and Maria," by Eulog., sec. 12.

[2] _Ibid._, sec. 13, and Eulog., "Doc. Mart.," sec. 4.

Eulogius tried to lessen the terror of this threat by pointing out that "non polluit mentem aliena corruptio, quam non foedat propria delectatis,"--a poor consolation, but the only one! He does not seem to have known--or surely he would have quoted it--the express injunction of the Koran (xxiv. verse 35):--"Compel not your maidservants to prost.i.tute themselves, if they be willing to live chastely ... but, if any shall compel them thereto, verily G.o.d will be gracious and merciful unto such women after their compulsion."

[3] Eulog., letter to Alvar, Florez, xi. 295. Fleury, v. 100.