Stanley Lane-Poole’s The Story of the Moors in Spain, first published in 1886, still stands today as an accurate and detailed description of the large timespan when Europe and Asia were enculturating, populating, and warring. One of the most interesting chapters, “The Christian Martyrs,” gives a detailed explication of the handful of men, some of whom are now referred to as the Martyrs of Cordoba, who were instrumental in garnering attention for Christianity by purposefully inciting the wrath of the Muslims by denouncing it in public. These martyrs knew they would be executed for their actions, but they demonstrated their Christian beliefs nonetheless.
During this time, Southern Spain was becoming increasingly under Islamic rule; because of this, many Christians moved to Northern Spain or went underground to an extent, and those who stayed in the south shrank in numbers are time went on. Interestingly, Christians were tolerated by the Moors in the South of Spain, and were allowed to worship both in public and in private. However, “the very tolerance of the Moors only exasperated such fervent souls; they preferred to be persecuted, like the saints of old; they longed to be martyrs, and they were indignant with the Moslems [sic], because they would not ‘persecute them for righteousness’ sake’ and ensure them the kingdom of heaven” (84).
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This seems an odd tactic; the Christians were allowed to worship and did not receive poor treatment from the Moors, but that wasn’t enough – they wanted assurance of getting into heaven. It isn’t surprising that the Moors soon had enough of this type of attitude and became increasingly willing to execute those Christians who spoke out against Islam. I agree with Lane-Poole that to “willfully stir up religious strife and injuriously to abuse another faith are no deeds for Christians” (86) and that the executed Christians were “martyrs to disease” rather than “martyrs for the faith” (86). Here, Lane-Poole is explaining that these Christians were far more worried about how they were perceived, that they needed to be seen as exemplary Christians, and that they were more concerned with their own entrance into heaven and much less focused on practicing the Christian religion and spreading the word of God and Christian tenants mandate.
It seems unfortunate that the other Christians witnessing these senseless acts of supposed martyrdom rushed to martyr these individuals. In light of the fact that their zeal was mostly self-serving, it doesn’t seem right that these Christians should receive special attributions for their relatively selfish acts.
The only saving grace, as explained in this chapter, is that “the great body of Christians were dismayed at the indiscreet zeal of their brethren” (90). At least not all of the Christians in the Southern part of Spain were inflicted with the “suicide fever” (87) as Lang-Poole describes. Fortunately, the madness came to an end when one of the most manipulative martyrs, Eulogius, who “preferred the position of trainer of martyrs to setting the example himself” (95), spoke out against Mohammad and was executed on March 11, 859 (95). No additional Christians chose to speak out against Mohammad in public in the South of Spain after Eulogius’ execution, and no more executions were recorded.
- Lane-Poole, Stanley. The Story of the Moors in Spain. New York: 1898. Print.
