The long independence of the Spanish Church exerted no inconsiderable influence upon its subsequent history. Its isolation enabled it to preserve uncontaminated the ancient forms and discipline transmitted by ecclesiastical tradition from apostolic times. The authority of its councils or the validity of their canons was never questioned by the most exacting dignitaries of the Roman hierarchy after it had again acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Papal See. Its orthodoxy was never impeached. While Europe was distracted by heresy, no daring religious innovator threatened the integrity or disputed the power of the ecclesiastical government of the Peninsula. Its policy was inimical to change in organization, in ceremonial, in doctrine. Of all the religious ceremonials in Christendom its liturgy showed the least alteration, not even excepting that used in St. Peter’s at Rome. When in 1067 King Alfonso of Leon submitted the rival claims of the Gothic and Roman rituals first to the wager of battle and then to the ordeal of fire, the Christians of Arabian Spain resolutely adhered to the ancient and time-honored formulary. The only schisms recorded were those which sprang from the conflicting ambition of rival prelates. Under the iron rule of the khalifs no irregular councils assembled to disturb the harmony or excite the doubts of the Faithful. The principal abuse that existed was the fraudulent manufacture of charters, and the multitude of these pious forgeries whose spurious character has been exposed indicate at once the ease with which such documents could be issued, as well as the profit that must have attended their fabrication. The generally undisturbed condition of the Mozarabes under the sway of the House of Ommeyah is the best evidence of their enjoyment of the blessings of civil and religious liberty.
Their social customs and mode of life show in many particulars a close affiliation with their masters. They had forgotten the rude idiom of their fathers. Arabic was the language in common use among all classes of the tributary population, both Jew and Christian. It was an indispensable requisite of official position that the incumbent should possess a competent knowledge of that tongue. St. Eulogius repeatedly deplores the fact that its prevalence was universal in the Peninsula. Its popularity increased with time, and was so great during the domination of the Almoravides that the Archbishop of Seville caused the Bible to be translated into Arabic, in order that it might be intelligible to the priests of his diocese. The peculiar phrases of Moslem intercourse, such as “God preserve you!” “May you rest in heaven!” constantly on the lips of the reverent Mohammedan, formed part of the daily greetings of every Christian. They gave their children Arabic names. Their attire and their furniture were similar to those of the dominant race. The conspicuous tokens of degradation imposed upon the Mozarabes of Sicily were unknown in Spain even under the Almoravide bigots. The confidence reposed in their fidelity, and the respect with which their courage was regarded, were evinced by their constant enrolment in the body-guard of the khalifs. Partly from a desire to propitiate the favor of their rulers, and perhaps through conviction of their physiological benefits, they abstained from pork, and adopted the rite of circumcision,—concessions which, once granted, practically left the repetition of the Moslem formula the sole remaining barrier between the followers of Christ and the sectaries of Mohammed. These practices, elsewhere unknown to the Christian communities of Europe, excited the wonder and abhorrence of the stout old monk, John de Gorza, ambassador of the German Emperor to the court of Abd-al-Rahman. He denounced them in unmeasured terms to the Archbishop of Cordova, who excused their observance under the plea of necessity, and as customs long countenanced by the Church, a statement which indicates that in the tenth century they had already been in use for many generations. In a spirit of charity, greatly at variance with the intolerant hatred displayed towards the Moors in subsequent ages, prayers were regularly offered for the khalif in every Christian church of Arabian Spain.
Every circumstance relating to the habits and intercourse of the two races which has come down to us proves that, openly at least, they did not consider each other as enemies. Great numbers of Christians embraced with eagerness the extraordinary educational benefits afforded by the schools and academies of the khalifate. The University of Cordova, open to individuals of every rank, creed, and nationality, was attended by Christian students, not only resident in the Peninsula, but attracted from almost every country of Europe. The infidel doctrines taught in that famous institution had long provoked the animadversion of Moslem theologians; but the prejudices they excited among orthodox Mussulmans were far less intense and bitter than the aversion entertained towards the professors of these opinions by the Catholic clergy. Intermarriages were frequent, although public sentiment, as well as the policy of Islam, discouraged such alliances. A far greater number of women than of men renounced their ancestral faith in consequence of these unions, and the majority of proselytes were those who embraced the religion of Mohammed.
Important civil employments were repeatedly conferred upon Christians eminent for their talents and integrity. The expostulations of the faquis and the united influence of the Divan were hardly sufficient to prevent Abd-al-Rahman III. from appointing a renegade, whose parents were both Christians, to the office of Grand Kadi of Cordova, the highest judicial position of the empire. The latter monarch habitually employed Christian prelates in missions requiring the exercise of the greatest tact and ability. Rabi, Archbishop of Cordova, was sent on different occasions as envoy to the courts of Germany and Constantinople. It was he who was intrusted with the conveyance of valuable gifts from the Emperor of the East to the Khalif, among them the fountains of the palace of Medina-al-Zahrâ. The Bishop of Granada was selected to secure the withdrawal by the German Emperor of the scurrilous letter which the fanatic John de Gorza was charged to deliver, a task of great responsibility and one which few were either competent or willing to undertake. Another prelate of episcopal rank was also despatched by Abd-al-Rahman to congratulate Otho on his victory over the Hungarians. The predilection of Ali for members of the nominally prescribed sect constantly aroused the indignation and alarm of the Almoravide zealots.
Christians were not excluded from the most responsible posts of the Moorish fiscal administration. They discharged with skill and fidelity the duties connected with all the various employments of the revenue. To members of their sect was invariably committed the collection of the tribute due from their co-religionists. Thousands of them served in the Mussulman armies. When Barcelona was besieged by the Franks, the Christian residents of that city fought side by side with the Moslems against the orthodox King of Aquitaine. Of all nationalities, the Spanish Christians were considered most worthy to guard the sacred person of the khalif. At no period of the Arab domination were they absolutely excluded from court. Under the administration of the Almoravide sultan, Ali, who was conspicuous among the fanatical princes of his line for the strictness of his orthodoxy and the austerity of his manners, the Mozarabes were in high favor, and exerted an almost preponderating influence in the government.
Although in theory belonging to an inferior caste, in fact the tributary could not, by the unpractised eye, be distinguished from the votary of Islam. His life, his habits, his language, were the same. His house was an exact counterpart of that of his Moorish neighbor; his garments were cut after the pattern of the Orient. His manners were no longer suggestive of the rudeness of his Gothic ancestors. When his means permitted, he went to great lengths in the gratification of propensities censured by the canons of his Church,—entertained catamites, indulged in polygamous practices, and filled his harem with female slaves guarded by retinues of eunuchs.
But while the line of demarcation between Moslem and Christian was thus faintly drawn, and threatened, in the course of time, to entirely disappear through the fusion of the two races, there still existed in the minds not only of the zealots of the hostile sects, but also in those of the masses, a profound and irreconcilable antipathy. This prejudice was sedulously and successfully nourished by the Mohammedan faquis as well as by the Christian clergy. The tributaries, while apparently on the point of merging into the body of the conquerors, were in reality isolated from them by the most powerful emotions that can influence the human heart. No concessions could thoroughly eradicate the prejudices arising from difference of religious belief. No familiarities of social intercourse could banish the humiliating remembrance of conquest. No political honors could compensate for the injuries inflicted by racial animosity. The actual condition of the Spanish Christians was, therefore, the reverse of that exhibited by their daily life. In the presence of a mutual antagonism, all the more violent for being repressed, there could be no thorough amalgamation of races. The exalted spirit of religious enthusiasm which could voluntarily solicit the tortures of martyrdom was not propitious to national apostasy.
And yet the circumstances which appear most conspicuous and vital in the consideration of this ethnological paradox would seem to point to an opposite conclusion. A community of customs generally existed in which those of the Arab always predominated. The harems of the Moslems were filled with Christian maidens who had, without hesitancy or compensation, renounced the faith of their fathers. The corrupted Latin dialect of the Visigoths, proscribed by Hischem I., was almost extinct. The law forbade it to be either written or spoken; and it survived only in the massive volumes of the Fathers or in the secluded intercourse of the occupants of monasteries and convents. By the same decree of the Khalif, education in the Arabian schools was made compulsory. Alvarus, who wrote about the middle of the ninth century, declares that not one Christian could be found among a thousand who could compose a letter in Latin. On the other hand, the popularity of the Arab writers, and the enthusiasm with which their compositions were perused by persons of all ages, were in the eyes of pious ecclesiastics a national scandal. The growing inclination to apostasy, the natural result of these associations, was also one of the crowning grievances of the Spanish clergy. As heretofore stated, it is a fact, well established by the reluctant testimony of the Fathers themselves, that the greater part of the conquered nation had fallen away from Christianity.
Many causes had conspired to produce this lamentable condition of affairs. The geographical isolation of the Peninsula, which has always had a tendency to preserve unaltered the mental and physical characteristics of its people, has also had no unimportant influence upon the national faith. That country, even at the time of the Saracen invasion, was Christian only in name. It had never wholly discarded its Pagan forms or traditions. It was the last kingdom of Europe to nominally accept the new religion. Its creed had long been heterodox, and that creed it had abandoned, without remonstrance or regret, at the command of its sovereign. The despotic power of the hierarchy had never been able to abolish the ceremonies of Pagan antiquity which were incorporated with the ritual of the Church. The population, the offspring of a score of nations, each of which worshipped different divinities and was familiar with the fraudulent pretensions of many sacerdotal claimants to inspiration, was inclined to discredit and deride them all. To such a society religious professions and formalities were naturally matters of indifference. A nation which could spontaneously abandon the heresy of Arius would hardly hesitate to embrace the monotheistic doctrines of Mohammed. By the Moslems, so far as their tributaries were concerned, no open inducements were offered for apostasy. The practice of Islam discouraged the active proselytism advocated by other sects. The conversion of a Christian tributary, unless he had violated the law, must be voluntary, and the obligation, once assumed, could never be renounced.
The favor enjoyed by the renegade was, however, a far more powerful incentive than any that the promises of the ministers of religion could evoke. The apostate was at once received into full social communion with his former masters. He was eligible to the highest political and military honors. In theory, at least, no stigma could attach to his former condition or antecedents. The equality of all men who professed belief in its dogmas was, as is well known, the cardinal principle of the law of the Prophet.