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 God. 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 God 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 prostitutes[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 God for his release, which accordingly is brought to pass 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 prostitute themselves, if they be willing to live chastely ... but, if any shall compel them thereto, verily God will be gracious and merciful unto such women after their compulsion."
[3] Eulog., letter to Alvar, Florez, xi. 295. Fleury, v. 100.
[4] Eulogius, "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. ix.
There was now a pause for six months in the race for martyrdom, and it seemed as if the Church had come to its right mind upon this subject. This, however, was far from being the case. Hitherto the victims had been almost without exception priests, monks, and nuns; but the next martyrs afford us instances of married couples claiming a share in this doubtful honour. These were Aurelius, son of a Moslem father and a Christian mother, and his wife Sabigotha (or Nathalia), the daughter of Moslem parents, whose father dying, her mother married a Christian and was converted; and Felix and his wife Liliosa.[1] It would seem that with all the harm that was done by this outbreak of fanaticism, some good was also effected in awaking the worldly-minded adherents of Christianity from the spiritual torpor into which they were sinking; for these new martyrs were of the class of hidden[2] Christians, who were now shamed into avowing their real creed.[3] Yet surely it had been far better if they had been content to live like Christians instead of dying like suicides. In their case, indeed, we find no sudden irresistible impulse driving them to defy the laws, but a slowly-matured conviction that it was their duty, disregarding all human ties, to give themselves up to death. In this resolution they were fortified by the advice and encouragement of Eulogius and Alvar,[4] the latter of whom prudently warns Aurelius to make sure that his courage is sufficient to stand the trial.[5] Sabigotha is persuaded to accompany her husband in his self-destruction, her natural reluctance to leave her children being overcome by Eulogius,[6] who recommends that they should be given over to the care of a monastery. A seasonable vision, in which Flora and Maria appear to her, clenches her purpose.
[1] Ibid., ii. ch. x., secs. 1, 2.
[2] See below, p. 72.
[3] Aurelius was roused from his religious dissimulation by seeing the sufferings of John. See Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. x. sec. 5.
[4] Ibid., sec. 18.
[5] This would lead us to suppose that the courage of some had failed.
[6] Eulogius comments:—"O admirabilis ardor divinus, quo filiorum affectus respuitur!" The parents not only desert their children, but give away most of their goods to the poor, thereby making their own children of the number.
Meanwhile a foreign monk from Bethlehem, who, being sent on business connected with his monastery to Africa, had crossed over in Spain, impelled by the wild enthusiasm there prevailing, determined to offer himself as a candidate for martyrdom with the four persons above mentioned.
They then take counsel together how they may best effect their purpose, there being evidently enough difficulty in procuring martyrdom for themselves to shew the statements of the apologists, that there was a fierce persecution raging, to be at least much exaggerated, if not entirely without foundation. The plan decided upon, which the devisers audaciously attributed to the suggestion of God,[1] was that the women should go forth unveiled and with hurried steps to the church, in the hope that such an unwonted sight would direct attention to them, and occasion the arrest of the whole number. It fell out as desired, and they were all brought before the judge, and interrogated with the usual result, except that the judge on this occasion dismissed them with scornful anger.[2] But George, disappointed at his untoward clemency, as they were being led away broke out with,[3] "Can you not go down to hell without seeking to drag us also thither as your companions?"
This incoherent abuse naturally incensed the soldiers, as it was no doubt intended that it should. Accordingly the prisoners were dragged again before the Kadi, who asked them in a mild tone of remonstrance, why they had abandoned the faith of Islam,[4] and refused to live, promising them at the same time great rewards, if they would become Moslems again. On their refusal they were remanded for two days, which seemed a very long time, so eager were they to die. They pass the time with singing hymns, and are blessed with visits of angels and miraculous signs. Their chains drop off, and the gaolers dare not again bind those whom Christ Himself had loosed.[5] The authorities, now as ever, anxious if possible to avoid extreme penalties, determine to release George, because they had not themselves[6] heard his blasphemy. He baulks their merciful intention by repeating his words on the spot, and he is accordingly led forth and beheaded with the others (July 27, 852).
Within a month Christopher,[7] a monk of Rojana, and of Arab lineage, and Leovigild, a monk of Fraga, both being places near Cordova, are executed for the same offence and in the same manner, their dead bodies being nailed to stakes. While taking the air in his palace,[8] the king saw these bodies, and ordered them to be burnt, and the ashes scattered in the river. The same night Abdurrahman II. was struck down with apoplexy, and the martyrs' friends hailed it as a manifest judgment from Heaven.
[1] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii. sec. 27. "Omnes in cornmuni coepimus cogitare quomodo ad desideratum perveniremus coronam: et ita Domino disfiensante visum est nobis ut fugerent sorores nostrae revelatis vultibus ad ecclesiam si forte nos alligandi daretur occasio, et ita factum est."
[2] Ibid., sec. 29. "Exite quibus vita praesens taedium est, et mors pro gloria computatur."
[3] Ibid., sec. 30. "An non poteritis vos infernalia claustra adire, nisi nos comites habeatis? Numquid sine nobis aeterna vos cruciamina non adurent?"
[4] Ibid., sec. 31.
[5] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," sec. 32.
[6] Ibid., sec. 33. "Ipsi optimates et priores palatii." George, being a foreigner, could not be charged with apostasy like the others.
[7] Ibid., ii. c. xi. Alvar's Life of Eul., iv. 12.
[8] On a "sublime solarium," Eul., "Mem. Sanct.," c. ii. sec. 2. See Ortiz, "Compendio," iii. 52 (apud Buckle, ii. 442, note.) "En lo mas cruel de los tormentos subió Abderramen un dia á las azutens ó galerias de su Palacio. Descubrió desde alli los cuerpos de los Santos marterizados en los patibulos y atravesados con los palos, mandó los quemasen todos paraque no quedase reliquia cumplióse luego la órdsa; pero aquel impio probó bien presto los rigores de la venganza divina que volviá por la sangre derramada de sus Santos. Improvisamente se le pegó la lengua al paladar y fauces: cerróssle la boca, y no pudo pronunciar una palabra, ni dar un gemido. Conduxeronle, sus criados á la cama, murio aguella misma noche, y antes de apagarse las hoqueras en que ardian los santos cuerpos, entró la infeliz alma de Abderramen en los etemos fuegos del infierno."
He was succeeded by Mohammed I. (852-886), a less capable and more bigoted ruler than his father. No sooner was he on the throne than Emila, a deacon, and Jeremiah a priest of St Cyprian's church, near Cordova, following in the footsteps of so many predecessors, came before the Kadi, and reviled Mohammed,—the former being enabled to do this with the more point and effect, as he was to a remarkable degree master of the Arabic language.[1] Emila and Jeremiah won the prize they coveted, and were put to death (September 15, 852). The customary prodigy occurred after the execution, in describing which the pious Eulogius breaks into metre, saying, "Athletas cecidisse pios elementa fatentur."
On the following day occurred an outrage which the most bigoted partizans of the martyrs must have blushed to record. Two eunuchs, Rogel, a monk of Parapanda, near Elvira, and Servio Deo, a eunuch of foreign extraction, forced their way into a mosque, and by way of preaching—as they said—to the assembled worshippers, they reviled their Prophet and their religion. [2] Being set upon and nearly torn in pieces by the infuriated congregation, they were rescued by the Kadi, who imprisoned them till such time as their sentence should be declared. They were condemned to have their hands and feet cut off, and be beheaded; which sentence was carried into effect.[3]
[1] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct," ii. c. xii. Arabic boasts a larger vocabulary of abuse than most languages: see the account of Prof. Palmer's death in his Life by Besant.
[2] Ibid., c. xiii. secs. 1, 2.
[3] Eul. (1.1), adds: "Et ipsa gentilitas tali spectaculo stupefacta nescio quid de Christianismo indulgentius sentiebat."
Upon this fresh provocation the fury and apprehension of the king knew no bounds. He might well be pardoned for thinking that this defiance of the laws, and religious fanaticism, could only mean a widespread disaffection and conspiracy against the Moslem rule. In fact, as we shall see, the Christians of Toledo raised the banner of revolt in favour of their Cordovan brethren at this very time. Mohammed therefore seems to have meditated a real persecution, such as should extirpate Christianity in his dominions.[1] He is said even to have given orders for a general massacre of the males among the Christians, and for the slavery, or worse, of the women, if they did not apostatize.[2] But the dispassionate advice of his councillors saved the king from this crime. They pointed out that no men of any intelligence, education, or rank among the Christians had taken part in the doings of the zealots, and that the whole body of Christians ought not to be cut off, since their actions were not directed by any individual leader. Other advisers seem to have diverted the king from his project of a wholesale massacre by encouraging him to proceed legally against the Christians with the utmost rigour, and by this means to cow them into submission.[3]
These strong measures apparently produced some effect, for no other executions are recorded for a period of nine months; when Fandila, a priest of Tabanos,[4] and chosen by the monks of St Salvator's monastery to be one of their spiritual overseers, came forward and reviled the Prophet: whereupon he was imprisoned and subsequently beheaded (June 13, 853). His fate awakened the dormant fanaticism of Anastasius,[5] a priest of St Acislus' church; of Felix, a Gaetulian monk of Alcala de Henares; and of Digna, a virgin of St Elizabeth's nunnery at Tabanos (the latter being strengthened in her resolve by a celestial vision), who, pursuing the usual plan, are beheaded the following day; their example being followed by Benildis, a matron (June 15).[6]
[1] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct," ii. c. xii. "Non iam solummodo de mortibus resistentium sibi excogitare coepenint, verum etiam totam extirpare ecclesiam ruminarunt. Quoniam nimio terrore tot hominim recurrentium ad martyrium concussa gentilitas regni sui arbitrabatur imminere excidium, cum tali etiam praecinctos virtute parvulos videret." A similar project is attributed (mistakenly, without doubt) to Abdurrahman.
[2] Ibid., iii. c. vii. sec. 4. "Iusserat enim omnes Christianos generali sententia perdere, feminasque publico distractu disperdere." Cp. also Alvar, Life of Eul., iv. 12. "Rex Mahomad incredibili rabie et effrenata sententia Christicolum genus del ere funditus cogitabat."
[3] Ibid. "Multi insaniam modificare nitentes per trucem voluntatis iniquae officium diversis et exquisitis occasionibus gregem Christi impetere tentaverunt."
[4] Ibid. iii. c. vii. secs. 1, 2. Fleury, v. 520, says he was a monk of Guadix.
[5] Ibid., ch. viii. secs. 1, 2.
[6] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," iii. ch. ix.
The cloisters of Tabanos had furnished so many fanatics that the Government now suppressed the place, removing the nuns and shutting them up to prevent others giving themselves up.[1] One of these however, Columba,[2] sister of Elizabeth and of the abbot Martin, contrived to escape. This Columba had persisted in remaining a virgin, in spite of her mother's efforts to make her marry, which only ceased when the mother died. She now gave herself up and was beheaded (September 17).
Just one month later Pomposa,[3] from the monastery of St Salvator, Pegnamellar, suffered the same fate. Then there was a pause in these executions, which was not broken till July 11th of the following year, when Abundius, a priest, was martyred. He seems to have really deserved the name of martyr, for he was given up to the authorities by the treachery of others,[4] and did not seek martyrdom.
Another similar period elapsed before Amator, a priest of Tucci (Tejada); Peter, a monk of Cordova; and Ludovic, a brother of Paul, the deacon, beheaded four years before, shared the same fate (April 30, 855).[5]
After nearly a year Witesindus, a repentant renegade; Elias, an old priest of Lusitania; and Paul and Isidore, young monks, gave themselves up to execution[6] (April 17, 856.) In June of that year a more venerable victim was, like Abundius, betrayed to his destruction. This was Argimirus, an old monk, once Censor of Cordova (June 28).[7] Exactly one month later Aurea, a virgin and sister of the brothers John and Adulphus, whose martyrdom has been already mentioned, was brought before the magistrate. Descended from one of the noblest Arab families,[8] she had long been left unmolested, though her apostasy to Christianity was well known. She was now frightened into temporary submission; but soon repenting of her compliance, and avowing herself truly a Christian, she gained a martyr's crown (July 29).
[1] So Miss Yonge.
[2] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," iii. c. x. secs. I, 2.
[3] Ibid., c. xi.
[4] Ibid., ch. xii. "Quorundam commento vel fraude gentilium ad martyrium furore pertractum."
[5] Ibid., ch. xiii.
[6] Ibid., cc. xiv. xv.
[7] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," iii. c. xv., "Quorundam ethnicorum dolo vel odio circumventus."
[8] Ibid., xvii. sec. I, "Grandi fastu Arabicae traducis exornabatur."
The next example affords a similar instance of real persecution. Ruderic,[1] a priest, whose brother was a Moslem, unadvisedly intervened as a peacemaker, in a quarrel, in which his brother was engaged. With the usual fate of peacemakers, he was set upon by both parties, and nearly killed. In fact his brother supposed him to be quite dead, and had the body carried through the town, proclaiming that his brother had become a Mussulman before his death.[2] However, Ruderic recovered, and made his escape, but being obliged to return to Cordova, met his brother, who immediately brought him before the Kadi on a charge of apostasy. His life and liberty were promised to him if he would only acknowledge that Christ was merely man, and that Mohammed was the messenger of God. On refusing, he is imprisoned, and finds in prison a certain Salomon, also charged with apostasy from Islam. The two fellow-prisoners contract a great friendship and are consequently separated. After a third exhortation, they are condemned to death, but not before the judge had done his best to bribe them to forego their purpose by offers of honour and rewards.[3] They were executed March 13, 857, and their bodies thrown into the river—even the stones sprinkled with their blood being taken up and cast into the water, lest the Christians should preserve them as relics. Ruderic's body was washed on shore, fresh as when killed; while Salomon, not being equally fortunate, informed a devout Christian in a vision, where his body lay in a tamarisk thicket near the town of Nymphianum.
Hitherto the aider and abettor of these martyrdoms had himself contrived to escape the penalty, which he had urged others to brave. Whether this was due to any unworthy fear of death on his part is not clear, but it may have been owing to the respect in which he was held by the Moslem authorities. To these he was well known as a man of irreproachable character and unaffected piety, and several Arabs of high rank, who were his personal friends, shewed themselves anxious to screen him from the effects of his folly. Eulogius[4] was descended from a Senatorial family of Cordova, and was educated at the Church of St Zoilus, where he devoted himself to ecclesiastical studies, and soon surpassed his contemporaries in learning. With his friend Alvar he sat at the feet of Speraindeo, an eminent abbot in the province of Baetica. Besides a sister Anulo, Eulogius had two brothers engaged in trade, and another brother, Joseph, who seems to have been in government employ.[5]
[1] Eulog., "Lib. Apol.," sec. 21 ff.
[2] So the Inquisitors in Spain used to pretend that their victims had abjured their errors before being burnt.
[3] Eul., "Lib. Apol.," sec. 27.
[4] Life by Alvar, c. i. sec. 2.
[5] Eul. ad Wiliesindum, sec. 8, "Joseph, quem saeva tyranni indignatio eo tempore a principatu dejecerat:" unless this is a metaphorical allusion to Joseph in Egypt.
Eulogius became early noted for his practice of asceticism, and his desire for the life of a monk,[1] and for the glory of martyrdom. When strong measures were taken by the authorities, in concert with Reccafredus, Bishop of Seville, to stamp out the mania for martyrdom by threats, stripes, and imprisonment, though many were frightened into submission, Eulogius, Alvar tells us,[2] remained firm, in spite of his being singled out as an "incentor martyrum" by a certain Gomez, who was a temporising Christian in the king's service.[3]
[1] Life by Alvar, sec. 3, "Ne virtus animi curis Saecularibus enervaretur, quotidie ad caelestia cupiens volare corporea sarcina gravabatur."
[2] "Hic inadibilis (=firm) nunquam vacillare vel tenui est visus susurro."—Life by Alvar, sec. 5.
[3] This man, says Alvar, sec. 6, by a divine judgment, lost his hold on the Christian faith, which he thus scrupled not to attack. See below, p. 72.
There is no doubt that Eulogius did all he could to interfere with and check that amalgamation of the Christians and Arabs which he saw going on round him. Believing that such close relations between the peoples tended to the spiritual degradation of Christianity, he set himself deliberately to embitter those relations, and, as far as he could, to make a good understanding impossible. To discourage the learning of Arabic by the Christians, he brought back with him from a journey to Pampluna the classical writings of Virgil, Horace (Satires), Juvenal, and Augustine's "De Civitate Dei."
At the time when these martyrdoms took place, Eulogius was a priest, but for some reason he tried to abstain from officiating at the mass on the ground that he was himself a great sinner.[1] However, his ecclesiastical superior[2] (? Saul, Bishop of Cordova), soon made him take a different view of the question by threatening him with anathema if he neglected his duty any longer. Coming forward as a prominent champion of the extreme party in the Church, he was imprisoned in 851, where he wrote treatises in favour of the martyrs, and was released, as we have seen, by the intercession of Flora and Maria on November 29th of that year.
[1] He pleads his "delicti onera," ch. i. sec. 7. Perhaps he was infected with one of the "Migetian errors" of the previous century, which was that "priests must be saints." Saul, Bishop of Cordova (850-861), in a letter to another bishop (Florez, xi. 156-163), refers with disapproval to those (? Eulogius) who held that "sacramenta tunc esse solum modo sancta, cum sanctorum fuerint manibus praelibata;" and he quotes Augustine and Isidore against the error.
[2] Pontifex proprius.
In 858,[1] on the death of Wistremirus, he was chosen by the votes of the people[2] to succeed him as Bishop of Toledo; but from some cause, perhaps by the intervention of the Moslems, he was prevented from occupying his see. The people then determined to have no bishop, if they might not have him.[3] Yet, adds the pious Alvar, he got his bishopric after all, for "all holy men are bishops, though not all bishops holy men."
[1] "Life of Eul.," Alvar, ii. sec. 10.
[2] "Communis electio."
[3] Fleury, v. 547, says another bishop was elected in Eulogius' lifetime; but Alvar's words are "Alium sibi eo vivente interdixerunt eligere."
In the following year he was again imprisoned as being a disturber of the public peace, but as on a former occasion he had been allowed to support and encourage Flora and Maria, so now was he permitted to finish in prison a book in defence of the martyrs,[1] which had the direct tendency of inciting others to go and do likewise. The occasion of Eulogius' second imprisonment was as follows:—Leocritia, a maiden of Arab extraction and of noble birth,[2] had been secretly baptised by Liliosa, the wife of Felix. Her parents, learning her apostasy, cruelly ill-treated, and even beat her, in order to make her renounce Christ. She naturally turned to Eulogius and his sister Anulo for advice in her afflictions, expressing a wish to escape to a part of Spain where the Christian worship was free. As a first step to this, she leaves her parents under pretence of going to a wedding, and takes refuge with Eulogius. Her parents, furious at her escape, get all sorts of people imprisoned on the charge of aiding her; and she is at last betrayed and surprised at the house of her protector. They are both dragged before the Kadi, who asks Eulogius angrily why he persists in defying the laws in this way.[3] The bishop defends himself by pleading that Christian clergy are bound to impart a knowledge of their religion, if asked, as he had been by Leocritia.[4] The judge then threatens to have him scourged, but Eulogius, preferring death to so painful and degrading a punishment, repeats the lesson which he had taught to so many others, and reviles Mohammed. Even so the judge shows a disposition to treat him with leniency, and he is remanded to prison with Leocritia.
When brought up again before the royal Council,[5] an influential friend makes a last effort to save him, saying: "Fools and idiots rush on their own destruction, but what induces you, a man of approved wisdom and blameless character, in defiance of all natural instincts, to throw away your life in this manner?" He urges Eulogius to say but one word of concession in the hour of peril, promising that he should afterwards be free to exercise his religion as he pleased, without let or hindrance. But the bishop could hardly turn back now, and he rejected all such offers with the ejaculation, "If they only knew the joy that awaits us on high!"
[1] See Eulog., Letter to Alvar, Florez, xi. 295.
[2] Alvar, Life of Eulog., i. sec. 13.
[3] Alvar, "Life of Eulog.," i. secs. 14, 15.
[4] This kind of proselytism was not held to be a capital crime by the Moslems. See Dozy, ii. 171.
[5] Alvar, "Life of Eul.," v. sec. 15. Fleury v. 548.
On his way to execution, when struck by one of the bystanders on one cheek, he turned the other meekly to the striker. He was beheaded on March 11, 859, and Leocritia four days later. Miraculous appearances honoured the body of the martyred bishop, which was buried in the Church of St Genesius, whence it was translated in the next year to his own church of St Zoilus, and in 883 was given up, together with that of Leocritia, to Alphonso III. (866-910) by express stipulation.