Part 4 (1/2)

[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]