Christianity and Islam in Spain, A.D. 756-1031 Part 9

[11] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," iii. c. iv.

In one of his works on this subject, Eulogius expresses a fear lest the intervention of the martyrs should bring disaster on the Church in Spain, just as the intervention of Moses in Egypt did much at first to aggravate the hards.h.i.+ps of the Israelites.[1] He ought not, therefore, to have been surprised, when such a result actually did follow; nor ought he to complain that now the Moslems would only let the Christians observe their religion in such a way as they chose to dictate; and that the Christians were subjected to all sorts of taxes and exactions.[2]

These combined measures of repression, taken by the King and the Bishop of Seville, soon produced their effect. The extreme party were broken up, some escaping to quieter regions, others hiding, and only venturing abroad in disguise and at night--not, as Eulogius is careful to add, from fear of death, but because the high prize of martyrdom is not reserved for the unworthy many, but for the worthy few.[3]

[1] _Ibid._, ii. c. xvi.

[2] Eulog., "Doc. Mart.," sec. 18--"_Nunc_ pro suo libito tantummodo exercere nos sinentes Christianismum ... _nunc_ public.u.m imponentes censum, _nunc_ rebus nos abdicantes detrimentis atterunt rerum."

[3] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. sec. 14--"Quia indigni sumus martyrio, quod quibusdam et non omnibus datum est."

Some even apostatized,[1] while many of those who had applauded the proceedings of the martyrs, now called them indiscreet, and blamed them for indulging in a selfish desire to desert the suffering Church for an early mansion in the skies.[2] Others, in order to retain posts under Government, or to court favour with the King, dissembled their religion, taking care not to pray, or make the sign of the cross in public.[3]

Eulogius himself was singled out at the meeting of the King's Council by one of the royal secretaries, Gomez, son of Antonian, son of Julian,[4]

as the ringleader of the new seditious movement. This man was a very worldly-minded Christian,[5] and was, no doubt, at this time, in fear of losing his lucrative office at Court, which he had obtained by his remarkable knowledge of Arabic. He did, in fact, lose his post with all the other Christian officers of the Court, but regained it by becoming a Moslem;[6] and such was the ardour of the new proselyte that he was called "the dove of the mosque."[7]

The result of this council was, as we have seen, hostile to the party of which Eulogius and Saul were the chiefs, but the former writer, mentioning the actual decree that was pa.s.sed, pretends that it was merely a blind to deceive the king, and spoken figuratively; and he acknowledges that such hypocrisy was unworthy of the prelates and officers a.s.sembled.[8] Is it not more reasonable to suppose that Eulogius and his supporters voted for it--as they seem to have done--with a mental reservation, while their opponents honestly considered such a step necessary?

[1] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. xv. 1--"Fidem praevaricantur, abdicant religionem, Crucifixum detestantur."

[2] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. ii. sec. 6. Also in his letter to Alvar sending the "Mem. Sanct.," he says, very few remained firm to their principles.

[3] Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 9--"c.u.m palam coram ethnicis orationem non faciunt, signo crucis oscitantes frontem non muniunt ... Christianos contra fidei suae socios pro regis gratia, pro vendibilibus muneribus et defensione gentilicia praeliantes." Elsewhere he says: "Nullus invenitur qui iuxta iussum Domini tonantis aetherii super montes Babiloniae, caligosasque turres crucis fidei attollat vexillum, sacrificium Deo offerens vespertinum."

[4] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," iii. c. iv. sec. 5: Alvar, "Ind.

Lum.," sec. 18. See above, p. 51.

[5] Ibn al Kuttiya--apud Dozy, ii. 137.

[6] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," iii. c. ii.

[7] Dozy, ii. 137.

[8] Eul., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. xv., sec. 3--"Aliquid commentaremur, quod ipsius tyranni ac populorum serperet aures." The "praemissum pontificate decretum" he calls "allegorice editum."

CHAPTER VI.

THE MUZARABES.

The death of Eulogius was a signal for the cessation of the dubious martyrdoms which had for some years become so common, though the spirit, which prompted the self-deluded victims, was by no means stifled either in Spain or the adjoining countries.[1] Yet the measures taken to put down the mania for death succeeded in preventing any fresh outbreak for some time.

Under the weak government of Abdallah (888-912) the Christians, determining to lose their lives to better purpose than at the hands of the executioner, rose in revolt, as will be related hereafter, in several parts of Spain. After the battle of Aguilar, or Polei, in 891, between the Arab and Spanish factions, 1000 of the defeated Christians were given the choice of Islam or death, and all, save one, chose the latter alternative.[2]

During the long reign of Abdurrahman III. (912-961) there were a few isolated cases of martyrdom, which may as well be mentioned now. After the great battle in the Vale of Rushes,[3] where Abdurrahman defeated the kings of Navarre and Leon, one of the two fighting bishops, who were taken prisoners on that occasion, gave, as a hostage for his own release, a youth of fourteen, named Pelagius. The king, it is said, smitten with his beauty, wished to work his abominable will upon the boy, but his advances being rejected with disdain, the unhappy youth was put to death with great barbarity, refusing to save his life by apostasy.[4] A different version of the story is given by a Saxon nun of Gaudersheim, named Hroswitha, who wrote a poem on the subject fifty years later. She tells us that the king tried to kiss Pelagius, who thereupon struck him in the face, and was in consequence put to death by decapitation (June 26, 925).[5]

[1] See "Life of Argentea," secs. 3, 5.

[2] Dozy, ii. 287.

[3] Val du Junqueras, 920 A.D.

[4] Johannes Vasaeus ex Commentariis Resendi. Romey, iv. 257, disbelieves this version of the story. Perhaps Al Makk., ii.

154, is referring to the same Pelagius when he mentions the king's liking for a handsome Christian page.

[5] Sampiro, secs. 26-28.

In the death of Argentea (Ap. 28, 931) we have the last instance in Spain of a Christian seeking martyrdom. She was the daughter of the great rebel Omar ibn Hafsun,[1] and his wife Columba, and was born at that chieftain's stronghold of Bobastro. Upon her mother's death Omar wished her to take up her mother's duties in the palace, for Omar had become a sort of king on his own domain. She declined, asking only for a quiet retreat, where she might prepare her soul for martyrdom; and she wrote to a devout Christian, whose wishes inclined him in the same direction, suggesting that they should seek the crown of martyrdom together.[2] On the destruction of Bobastro by Abdurrahman in 928, she went to Cordova.[3] She there met with a Gaul named Vulfura, who had been warned in a dream that in that city he should find a virgin, with whom he was to suffer martyrdom. However, his object becoming known, Vulfura is cast into prison by the governor of the city. Argentea goes to visit him there, and is stopped by the guards, who, finding she is a Christian, take her before the judge as a renegade, and she is imprisoned with Vulfura. The alternative of Islam instead of death being refused, they are both executed, but Argentea, as being an "insolens rebellis," is first scourged with 1000 stripes, and her tongue cut out.

Her body was buried at the church of the three saints.

In the year 934[4] we hear of two hundred monks of Cardena being ma.s.sacred by the Berbers in Abdurrahman's army; and in some sense they can be regarded as martyrs to their faith.

[1] Who on becoming a Christian, took the name of Samuel.

Florez, x. p. 564, ff.

[2] See "Life of Argentea," by an anonymous author.

[3] _Ibid._, sec. 4.

[4] Dozy, iii. 52. Mariana, viii. 6, gives 993, but says it may have occurred in 893.

In 953 a martyr named Eugenia is said to have perished;[1] and thirty years later, the last martyrs of whom we have any record under the Arab rule. Dominicus Sarracinus, son of John, and his companions taken prisoners at the capture of Simancas, were kept for two years and a-half in prison.[2] They were then brought out and put to death, just when Ramiro III., or his successor, had sent to ransom them.[3]

There is no evidence whatever to show that there was a persecution of the Christians under the great Abdurrahman, and the statements of those writers who intimate the contrary may be set aside as unsupported by evidence.[4]

We will now turn back and take a general view of the Christian Church and its condition under the Arabs in Spain, especially--for our information is greatest as to those periods--under the two kings Abdurrahman II. and III.

Under the former of these sovereigns the condition of the Christians, until the persecution, which they themselves provoked, began, was very tolerable, and the majority of the Christians were quite content with their lot. They served in the army, both free men and slaves; they held lucrative posts at Court, or in the houses of the Arab n.o.bles, or as government officials. But though the lay community was well off, the clergy and stricter churchmen had something to complain of; for the Church[5] could not be said to be free, though the wors.h.i.+p was, since the power of summoning councils had now pa.s.sed to the Arab executive, who, as we have seen, made even Moslems and Jews sit at these councils.

Sees were also put up to auction, and the scandalous spectacle was not unknown, of atheists and heretics holding the t.i.tles, and drawing the emoluments, of bishops.[6]

[1] Schott., iv. 246.

[2] Rohrbacher, xii. 192.

[3] Charter, apud Florez, xiv. 397.

[4] See above, p. 36, note 1. A letter also is mentioned of John Servus Dei, Bishop of Toledo, to the Muzarabes with regard to the late martyrdoms and apostasies, purporting to have been written in 937.

[5] Dozy, ii. 47.

[6] Alvar, "Ep.," xiii. 3. Samson, "Apol.," ii. cc. ii.-iv.

As was to be expected, Arabic soon began to displace Latin throughout the country, and even before the ninth century the Scriptures were translated into the tongue of the conquerors [1] by Odoarius, Bishop of Accita, and John of Seville. Hischem I. (788-796) forbade the use of any language but Arabic, so that his Christian subjects had to use Arabic Gospels;[2] and the Spaniards were soon not even permitted to write in Latin.[3] Even if this statement be doubtful, we know that Latin came gradually to be neglected and forgotten. Alvar utters an eloquent protest against this: "Alas, the Christians are ignorant of their own tongue, and Latins neglect their language, so that in all the College of Christ[4] there is scarcely to be found one who can write an address of welcome to his brother intelligibly in Latin, while numbers can be found competent to mouth the flowery rhetoric of the Chaldeans."[5] In the department of poetry--the peculiar boast of the Arabs--the Christians seem even to have surpa.s.sed their masters; and to the rivalry of the two nations in this art we may attribute the excellence and abundance of native ballads of which Spain can boast.

We have seen how Eulogius did his best to check this neglect of Latin, by introducing into Spain some of the masterpieces in that language; but it is doubtful whether his efforts had much result. We can see from the remains of the Spanish writers which we possess that the structure of that language had considerably degenerated in Spain.[6]