[2] E.g., circumcision.
Yet in Mohammedan Spain religious fervour was not wholly vanished: it was still to be found among the clergy, and specially among the dwellers in convents. Monks and nuns, severed from all worldly influences, in the silence of their cloisters, would read the lives of the Saints[1] of old, and meditate upon their glorious deeds, and the miracles which their faith had wrought. They would brood over such texts as, "Ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for My sake;"[2] and, "Every one who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father, which is in Heaven;"[3] till they brought themselves to believe that it was their imperative duty to bring themselves before rulers and kings, and not only to confess Christ, but to revile Mohammed.
[1] See Dozy, ii. 112.
[2] St Mark xiii. 9.
[3] St Matt. x. 32.
However, the reproach of fanatical self-destruction will not apply, as the apologists of their doings have not failed to point out, to the first two victims that suffered in this persecution.
Perfectus,[1] a priest of Cordova, who had been brought up in the school attached to the church of St Acislus, on going out one day to purchase some necessaries for domestic use, was stopped by some of the Moslems in the street, and asked to give his opinion of their Prophet. What led them to make this strange request, we are not told,[2] but stated thus barely it certainly gives us the impression that it was intended to bring the priest into trouble. For it was a well-known law in Moslem countries that if any one cursed a Mohammedan, he was to be scourged,[3] if he struck him, killed: the latter penalty also awaiting any one who spoke evil of Mohammed, and extending even to a Mussulman ruler, if he heard the blasphemy without taking notice of it.[4] Perfectus, therefore, being aware of this law, gave a cautious[5] answer, declining to comply with their request until they swore that he should receive no hurt in consequence of what he might say. On their giving the required stipulation, he quoted the words, "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect,"[6] and proceeded to speak of Mohammed in the usual fashion, as a lying impostor and a dissolute adulterer, concluding with the words, "Thus hath he, the encourager of all lewdness, and the wallower in his own filthy lusts, delivered you all over to the indulgence of an everlasting sensuality." This ill-advised abuse of one, whom the Moslems revere as we revere Christ, and the ungenerous advantage taken of the oath, which they had made, naturally incensed his hearers to an almost uncontrollable degree. They respected their promise, however, and refrained from laying hands on him at that time, with the intention, says Eulogius, of revenging themselves on a future occasion.[7]
[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.