; >^••.v<:;:w;- . :->:»v.-.-.-' • • .^ ,' ,' r .' .■', ■■-'■■■ ':•;':':•'•'''?• >.' i.fi /.'?••-'.' 5*;* i- <••-'. •■ ; ''•-•■ 'v■"^,.';«'^•^.♦^» ;' . Zhc TFlatioiial Cburcbes. KDITED BV P. H. DITCHFIELIJ, M.A. F.R.Hist.S. THE CHURCH IN SPAIN THE CHURCH IN SPAIN BY FREDERICK MEYRICK, M.A., RECTOR OF BLICKLING, NORFOLK, AND NON-RESIDENTIARY CANON OF LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. mui) fHap. LONDON: ANELLS GARDNER, DARTOX & CO. 2 PATERNOSTICR BUILDINGS, E.C. AND 44 VICTORIA STREKT, S.W. 1892 1892. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Legendaiy beginnings — The legend of S. Iai;o — Its two forms : (i) that he preached in Spain in his lifetime ; (2) that his body was transported to Spain after his deatli, and dis- covered by Bishop Theodomir in the ninth, and by Cardi- nal Paya y Rico in the nineteenth, century — Adoption of the legend by Leo III. and Leo. XIII. — Theory of Tille- niont and Gams — The legend of the Seven .... CHAPTER H. Roman Spain — How Christianity entered Spain — S. Paul — Close connexion between the province of Spain and Imperial Rome — Likeness in origin of the Churches of Spain and England — Five periods of .Spanish ecclesiastical history . iS CHAPTER HI. Roman Spain — The Prse-Diocletian times — Civil provinces of the Peninsula — Basilides and Martial — The Valerian perse- cution — Martyrdom of S. Frvctuosus — ^Justa and Rufina — Marcellus and Cassian — Emetherius and Chelidonius. . 24 CHAPTER IV. Roman Spain — The Diock-tian persecution in Spain — Galerius and Constantius, the Caesars— Dacian Prceses of Spain — Thirty Spanish martyrs — S. Eulalia of Merida — S. Vincent 40 894 yn CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE Roman Spain — The Council of Elvira — Its purpose and its canons — Pictures in churches — Celibacy of the clergy — Asceticism — Church discipline ...... 55 CHAPTER VI. Roman Spain — Bishop Ilosius of Cordova — His favour with Constantine — President of the Council of Nicsea — Probable organiser of the metropolitan system in Spain — President of the Council of Sardica — His fall at Sirmium — His death 65 CHAPTER VII. Roman Spain — Spanish Churchmen of the fourth century — Gre- gory of Elvira — Florence of Merida — Potamius of Lisbon — Pacian of Barcelona — Paulinus of Nola — Vigilantius — Juvencus — Prudentius — Damasus of Rome — Theodosius I. 76 CHAPTER VIII. Roman Spain — Priscilliani.sm — Instantius and Salvian — Idacius and Ithacius — Synod of Zaragoza — Consecration of Priscil- lian — His execution by Maximus — Protest of Ambrose and Martin — Subsequent history of Piiscillianism — Orosius — Turribius — Council of Toledo — Council of Braga — Retro- spect of the Church of Roman Spain — Its origin, doctrines, discipline, organisation, independence .... 92 CHAPTER IX. Gothic Spain — Invasion of the Peninsula by the Vandals, Suevi, and Alani, A.D. 409 — Entry of the Goths in 414 — Its con- quest by Euric, Gothic King of Toulouse, a.d. 466 — Code of Laws of the Visigoths — Arianism of the Goths — Bishop Wulfila — Line of Arian kings to Leovigild from Euric . 113 CHAPTER X. Gothic Spain — King Leovigild — Insurrection, defeat, and death of Hermen'gild — Conversion of the Suevi, a.d. 560 — Bishop Masona of Merida— Supreme effort of Leovigild — His failure and death 125 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER XL PAGE Gothic Spain — King Reccared and the Third Council of Toledo — Conversion of the realm from Arianism to Catholicity — The Filioque inserted in the Creed of Constantinople — The insertion condemned ex cathcdrd by Pope Leo III. ; accepted by his successor, A.D. 1014 ; resisted by the Oriental Church — Results of Reccared's Council 143 CHAPTER XII. Gothic Spain — Growth of the See of Toledo — King Gunde- mar's Decree, by which it attained to metropolitan rank . 161 CHAPTER XIII. Gothic Spain — Bishop Isidore and the Fourth Council of Toledo — His brothers, Leander and Fulgentius — Persecution of the Jews — Isidore's influence and works .... 16; CHAPTER XIV. Gothic Spain — The later Gothic kings in their relation to the Church — Councils of Toledo — Bishop Ildefonso and S. Leocadia — Deposition of Wamba . . . , . iSo CHAP TER XV. Gothic Spain — Bishop Julian and the Primacy of Toledo — Toledo a rival of Rome — Bishop Julian and Benedict II. — The last Councils of Toledo 192 CHAPTER XVI. Gothic Spain — The last years of the Gothic monarchy — Witiza — Roderic — Count Julian — Tarik — Musa — Retrospect of the Church of Gothic Spain — Its relation to the Crown : {a) under the Arian, [b) under the Catholic, kings — Its in- dependence of the Primate of Italy — Its doctrines and discipline 204 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. PAGE Moorish Spain — Spread of Mohammedanism throughout the world — Rapid reduction of Spain by the Saracens — Their internal dissensions — The Ommiad Caliphate at Cordova — Origin of the kingdoms of Leon, Navarre, Aragon — Ron- cesvalles — Catalonia — Mozarabs . . . . .219 CHAPTER XVIII. Moorish Spain — The Migetian and Adoptionist heresies — Migetius — Elipandus — Bishop Egila — Felix, Bishop of Urgel 230 CHAPTER XIX. Moorish Spain — S. James of Compostela — Discovery of his body by Bishop Theodomir — Letter of Pope Leo III. — King Ramiro and the Champion of the armies of Spain — The Church of Compostela — Claudius of Turin . . . 236 CHAPTER XX. Moorish Spain — The Cordovan Caliphate — The Mosque — The Bridge — The Palaces of Azzahra and Azzahira — Almanzor 249 CHAPTER XXI. Moorish Spain — The Martyrs of Cordova — Abbot Speraindeo and his disciples, Eulogius and Alvar — Perfectus — John — Isaac — Flora and Maria — Aurelius and Sabigotho — Felix, Liliosa, and George — Columba and Pomposa — Eulogius and Leocritia . . . . . . - . . . 259 CHAPTER XXII. Moorish Spain — Bishop Plostegesis and the Abbot Samson — Heresy on the Divine Omnipresence and the Incarnation — Translation of the bodies of Aurelius, Sabigotho, and George from Cordova to Paris ...... 285 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XXIII. PAGE Moorish Spain — The second period of the Moorish domination — Alonzo VI, and the capture of Toledo — The Cid — The Almoravides and the Almohades — Rise and independence of Portugal — The battle of Navas de Tolosa — The bull of the Crusade 291 CHAPTER XXIV. Moorish Spain — The new Church of Leon and Castile : its dis- tinction from the old Mozarabic or Spanish Church : its Papal characteristics — Growth of the See of Ccmpostela — Bishop Diego Gelmirez — His robbery of the bodies of saints from Portugal — His political intrigues — Insurrection of the people of Compostela against him and Queen Urraca — His skill in enriching his See — His resolve to raise it to archi- episcopal rank — His success by bribery at Rome — Second insurrection against him at Compostela . . . 297 CHAPTER XXV. Moorish Spain — The Mozarabic Liturgy — The five groups of early liturgies — The old Spanish or Gothic or Mozarabic Liturgy prevailed in Spain till A. D. 1085 — Abolished by the influ- ence of Gregory VII. and Alfonso VI. — Ximenes' edition of it 340 CHAPTER XXVI. Moorish Spain — Four hundred years of turmoil and licence — Growth of Portugal — Pedro the Cruel of Castile and his contemporaries, Pedro of Portugal, Pedro of Aragon, and Charles the Bad of Navarre — Papal interdicts . . . 352 CHAPTER XXVII. Moorish Spain — The Military Orders and the earlier Inquisition — The Orders of Calatrava, S. lago, Alcantara — The Inqui- sition of 1204 in Provence, France, Italy, and Spain — Insti- tution of the later Inquisition — Torquemada — Arbues — Deza — Ximenes . . . . . . , . -359 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVIII. PAGE Transitional Spain — Archbishops Carillo, Mendoza, Ximenes de Cisneros . - 373 CHAPTER XXIX. Modern Spain — The later Inquisition : in the reign of Charles v., in the reign of Philip 11. — The autos-da-fe of Seville and Valladolid — Archbishop Carranza — Don Carlos — Number of the victims of the Inquisition in Spain . . 380 CHAPTER XXX. Modern Spain — The Jesuits — Loyola — Influence of the Company in Portugal and Spain — Xavier — Molina — Quarrel between the Jesuits and the Dominicans — Sebastian of Portugal — Union of Spain and Portugal under Philip XL, III., IV. — Predominant influence of the Jesuits in the whole of the Peninsula and tlie Spanish and Portuguese dependencies — Their expulsion from Portugal and from Spain, and their restoration .......... 402 CHAPTER XXXI. Modern Spain — The Spanish Mystics — Counter-Reformation in the Peninsula — S. Teresa de Jesus — S. Juan of the Cross — Fray Luis of Granada — Evanescent effects of Mysticism . 423 CHAPTER XXXI L Modern Spain — The Bourbons in Spain — Decline of ihe power of the Inquisition and of the Jesuits — Growth of liberalism — Reaction under Fernando VII. — Abolition of the Inqui- sition — Suppression of the monastic orders — Alienation of Church lands and endowments — Strained relations of Church and State under Espartero — The Concordat of 185 1 — Present state of the Spanish Church — Reappearance of Protestantism since General Prim's Revolution and the Constitution of 1868 ........ 43 c Index 447 TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS, A.D. Goths. Suevi. Aragon. Portugal. 409 Ilermeric. 414 Ataulphus. ... 415 Sigeric. ... 415 Wallia. ... 420 Theodoric I. 438 Rekila. 448 ••• Rekiar. 451 Thorismund. ... 453 Theodoric II. 457 ... Maldra. 460 Frumarius. 464 Remismund. 466 Euric. ... 483 Alaric. ... 5^6 Gesaleic. 511 Amalaric. ... 531 Theudis. ... 548 Theudigisel. ... 549 Agila. 550 ... Carriaric. 554 Athanagild. ... 559 ... Theodomir. 567 Leuva I. 569 Mi'r. 570 Leovigild. 582 ... Eboric. 583 ... Andeca (the king- dom merges in that of the Goths under Leovigild). 587 Reccared I. ,,, ... 601 Leuva II. 603 Witteric. 610 Gundemar. 6t2 Sisebut. 621 Reccared II. 621 Swintila. 631 Sisenand. 636 Cliintila. 640 Tulga. 642 Kindaswinth. 649 Recceswinth. 672 Wamba. 680 Erwig. 687 Egica. 701 Witiza. 709 Roderic. 1 1 -J XI 1 TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS. A.D. 711 Gof/is. Asturias. A r agon. Portugal. [Theodomir in ... Murcia.] 718 Pelayo. ... ... 737 Favila. ... ... 739 Saracens. Alonzo I. . .. 755 Abderrahman I. Fruela I. ... 768 OreHo. 774 Silon. , 787 Hischam. Mauregaco. . 788 Bermudo I. 791 ... Alonzo II. . 796 Hakem. . 821 Abderrahman II. . 842 ... Ramiro I. ^ 850 Ordono I. , 852 Mohammed I. , 806 Alonzo III. , 886 Mundhir. ^ 888 Abdallah. • •• Asturias and Leon. 910 ... Garcia. . ... 912 Abderrahman III, , 914 ... Ordofio II. , 923 Fruela II. . 925 Alonzo IV. , 930 Ramiro II. , 950 Ordono III. , 955 Sancho. , 961 Hakem II. , 967 Ramiro III. , 976 Hischam II. , 982 ... Bermudo II. , 999 ... Alonzo V. 1012 Sulevman. ... , 1015 AH. . 1017 Abderrahman IV. , 1018 Kassim. . 1023 Abderrahman V. . 1023 Mohammed II. , 1026 Hiscliam III. (ab- Bermudo III. dicated in 103 1 ). 1035 Ramiro I 1037 Fernando I. 1063 ... ... Sancho. {Almoravides.) 1065 Alonzo VI. ... ... 1091 Yussef ben Taxfin. ... 1094 ... Pedro I. ... 1 104 Alonzo (hus- band of Urraca). TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS. xui A.D. Saracens. Asturias and Leon. A r agon. Portugal. {Almoravides.) 1 107 Ali ben Yussef. ... ... 1 108 ... Urraca (wife of Alonzo of Aragon). ... ... III2 ... Alonzo VII. (Emperor). ••• ... "34 • •• « . . Ramiro II. 1137 Petronilla. 1139 ... Afitbnso Henrique 1144 Taxfin ben Ali. (Ahtiohades.) ... ... ... 1 147 Abdelniumen. ... 1157 Fernando II. 1 160 Alonzo VIII. (of Castile). ... ... 1163 Yussef ben Yacub. • •• Alonzo II. ... 1178 Yacub ben Yussef. 1185 • •• ■ . . Sancho I. 1188 Alonzo IX, 1 196 ... Pedro II. 1199 Mohammed. 1211 ••• Affonso 11. 1213 Abu Yacub, Asiurias, Leon and Castile. Jayme I. 1223 Abulmelic. Sancho II. 1230 [Granada.) Fernando III. (from Castile). 1238 Mohammed I. ... 1248 . . . Affonso III. 1252 Alonzo X. 1273 Mohammed II. ... 1276 ... ... Pedro III. 1279 ... Dionis, 1284 Sancho IV. ••• 1291 . . . Alonzo III. ... 1295 Fernando IV. Jayme 11. 1302 Mohammed III. . . * 1312 Alonzo XI. ... 1313 Ismael. ... 1325 Mohammed IV. Alonzo IV. Affonso IV. 1333 Yussef. Pedro IV. 1350 . .. Pedro the Cruel. 1354 Mohammed V. ... ... 1357 ... Pedro I. 1360 Abu Said. 1369 . .. Enrique II. Fernando. 1379 ... Juan I. 1383 Juan I. J0.10 I. 1390 Enrique III. 1391 Yussef II. ... 1396 Mohammed VI. ... XIV TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS. A.D. Saracens. ^Tnrc^sff,:' 1 ^-^''"- Portugal, {Granada. ) 1406 Juan 11. ... 1408 Yuss'ef III. ... ... ... 1412 ' Fernando I. 1416 ... Alonzo V. 1423 Mohammed VU. ... ... ... 1427 Mohammed VIII. ... ... ... 1432 Yussef IV. ... Duarte. 1438 Affonso V. 144s Mohammed IX. ... 1454 Mohammed X. Enrique IV. ... 1458 ... Juan II. 1463 Abul Hassan. ... 1474 «• • Isabel. ... 1479 Asturias, Leon, Castile, Aragon, Granada, i.e. Spain, Fernando II. of Aragon, V. of Castile 1483 Abu Abdallah. [Boabdil). ... Joao II. 1484 Abdallah al Zagal (capture of Gra- nada in 1491). {House of Austria.) 1504 •.• Juana, Phihp. ... ... 1516 Carlos I. (CharlesV.) ... 1521 ... Joao III. 1556 ... Philip II. Sebastian. 1578 ... Henrique. 1580 ... Phihp I. (II). 1598 ... Philip III. Philip II. (III.) 1621 ••• Philip IV. Phihp III. (IV.) 1640 ... ... ... Joao IV. (of Braganza). 1665 .«• Carlos II. ... 1676 ... ... Affonso VI. 1683 ... {House of Bourbon.) ... Pedro II. 1700 ... Philip V. ... 1707 ... ... Joao V. 1746 ... Fernando VI. ... 1750 ... ... Jose. 1759 ... Carlos III. ... 1776 ... ... Maria I. 1779 ... ... Joao VI. 1814 ... Fernando VII. ... 1828 ... ... Miguel. 1833 ... Isabel II. Maria 11. 1870 ... Amadeus. ... 1875 ... Alonzo XII, ... 1886 ... Alonzo XIII. ... • .• 1889 ... ... Carlos. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SPAIN. CHAPTER I. THE LEGENDS OF S. I A GO AND OF THE SEVEN. The history of the Spanish Church, like many other histories, begins with legend. The chief legend is that of S. lago, the story of whose coming to Spain appears in three different forms. These are : i. The legend of S. James' preaching in Spain during his lifetime. 2. The legend of the transportation of his body to Spain immediately after his martyrdom. 3. The theory of the translation of his bones to Spain in the seventh or eighth century. I. No whisper of S. James' preaching in Spain is even alleged to be heard before the seventh century. A statement to that effect appeared in a treatise ^ assigned to Isidore, Bishop of Seville, a.d. 600-636, which says that James was fourth in order of the Apostles, that he wrote to the tribes of the dispersion among the Gentiles, that he preached the Gospel to the nations of Spain and the West, that he poured ^ De OiLU ct Obilu I'alium. 2 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the light of his preaching into the Western world, that he was slain with the sword by Herod the Te- trarch, and that he was buried in Marmarica.^ The treatise, as it stands, is not Isidore's. It is impos- sible that Isidore, the most learned Spanish divine of the seventh century, could have confounded James the son of Zebedee with James the brother of the Lord, and Herod the Tetrarch with Herod Agrippa I. or could have supposed James to have been buried in the north of Africa. In his genuine works he describes James without these illiterate blunders ^ (EtyjiioL vii. 9). The passage bears on its face proof that the ignorance of the unknown author was such as to make him altogether unworthy of credit; never- theless, with him, whoever he was, that wrote the treatise or interpolated the passage into it, originated the S, lago legend, which became a firm article of faith to every Spaniard, and was adopted into the ^ Marmarica is a diitrict in the north of Africa near Tripoli. The word being misunderstood, led to accounts of marble vaults under which the Apostle's body vas laid at Compostela. Morales takes Marmarica for Marmorea Area, and appeals to this passage of the Pseudo-Isidore to prove that the chest or cofhn in which the Apostle was buried was of marble, "Una grande area o sepulcro de marmol, del qual tambien se halle niencion in San Isidore en el pequeno libro que escrivio de la vida y muerte de algunos santos del viejo y nuevo testamento ; y este sepulcro o area de marmol es muy celebrada despues in todos los privi- legios mas antiguos que aquella santa iglesia del Apostel tiene" {La Coronica General de Esfafia, Lib. ix. cap, vii., Alcala, 1574)- Florez says, " En sepulcro cubierto de unos arcos de marmol " {Espaila Sag- rada, vol. xix. p. 64). Alonzo III., "In archis marmoricis" (ibid., p. 348). Alonzo VI., "Marmoreis lapidibus contextum " (ibid., p. 63). The Historia CojnposteUana, " Marmoream tumbam " (Lib. i. cap. ii.). 2 Such a mistake might easily have been made at a later date, and by a different person. The authors of the Historia Compostellana of the twelfth century do not seem to have realised that there were two S. James. S. James the son of Zebedee is called by \\\Q.vs\consangiiineiis Dotiiini (Lib. ii. 2). THE LEGENDS OF S. I A GO, &-c. 3 Roman Breviary. When criticism awoke, Cardinal Baronius, finding a contradiction between the Spanish and Roman traditions, induced Pope Clement VIII. to alter the statement in the Breviary that James " travelled through Spain, and there preached the Gospel " (ed. 1568), into the softer declaration that *' it is the tradition of the churches of that province that he went to Spain, and there made some converts to the Faith " (ed. 1603) ; or that '' it is said to be a general belief among Spaniards that he went to Spain, and there made some converts to the Faith " (ed. 1608). But this hesitancy touched the pride of Spain, and on the protest of the Spanish Church and King, the original statement was restored,^ with the addi- tion of a clause saving the claims of S. Peter, which the Roman traditions demanded. Thus it runs at present, " Having gone to Spain, he there made some converts to Christ, of whom seven were ordained bishops by Peter, and were the first to be sent to Spain " (ed. 1625).^ Dr. Dollinger does not scruple to say, '' That the Apostle James the Great came to Spain to preach the Faith, contradicts equally the Bible and history ; but since the tenth century this has been in Spain an unassailable fact ; he is the patron saint of the land to this day ; every Spaniard maintains it in the face of the world. S. lago, the 1 " Commoviose, dice Jacobo Spondano, toda la Espana contra Earonio. ... El P. Fr. Miguel de Santa Maria, Agustiniano, y el P. jNIamachi Dominicano escribieron que si fue restituida la antigua clausula, en que se refiere absolutamente la tradicion, fue por la solici- tud y suplicas de los Espaiioles, singularmente del Key Pheliie Til." — Florez^ xxx. 57, 58. ^ Florez calls tliis "la sentencia dada juridicaniente j^or el Pontefice Urbano VIII. en vista del parecer dc toda la congregacioD." — Ibid. B 4 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN, Apostle of fishermen, has become a judge and leader of battle ; in thirty-eight fights he was seen riding in front on a white charger, and driving the enemy before him in wild flight." ^ 2. The legend of the transportation of the body of S. James to Spain is not heard of till the beginning of the ninth century, when Theodomir was Bishop of Iria Flavia, Alfonso the Chaste, King of the Asturias, and Leo III., Pope. Our first authority on the sub- ject is a letter attributed to Pope Leo III., and com- monly regarded as genuine.^ This letter tells us that after S. James' martyrdom by Herod, some of his disciples took his body to Joppa, placed it on a boat, and sailed to Iria Flavia,^ in the north-west of Spain. Here they landed and carried their treasure some miles inland^ to Liberum Donum, where they threw down an idol's temple,^ built a crypt, and buried the ^ Lecture at the Royal Academy of Science at Munich, July 25, 1884. ^ Masdeu would deny the authenticity of Leo's letter. "La carta que corre de un Pontifice Leon, que unos dicen ser el tercero y otros el quarto ; aunque se diese por legitima, no consta de que Papa es, ni de que siglo " {Historia Critica, vol. xiii. p. 322). It is certainly singular that the Historia Compostellana makes so little use of the statements of Pope Leo's letter and does not mention its exist- ence. Is it an invention of the eleventh century, that age of forgeries? 3 Iria is a word meaning in the Basque tongue " city." When its signification was forgotten the name was changed to Bisria or Bisrivus, because situated on the two streams the Sar and the Ullia. After- wards it bore the name of El Padron. ** Eight, ten, twelve, or sixteen miles, according to different autho- rities. 5 The earlier legend having metaphorically described the overthrow of the idol as the "destruction of the dragon's blasting breath," the later legends declare that they found and slew "a monstrous dragon which had depopulated the neighbouring villages with the horrid blast of his breath, had killed and swallowed every living creature, and had crushed all things else " (See Fita, Recuerdos de tm Viaja a Santiago de Galicia, IMachid, 1 880). THE LEGENDS OF S. I AGO, &^c. 5 body. Two of the disciples were Athanasius and Theodore, who remained to guard the sepulchre, and were buried by the side of their master. The rest of the legend may be given in the words of the Apostolic Letter of Leo XIIL, issued November i, 1884. " In course of time, the barbarians first and the Arabs afterwards, under the command of Muza, in- vaded Spain, and especially devastated in their frequent incursions the parts lying near the spot/ so that the sacred sepulchre was buried beneath the ruins of the chapel, and remained unknown for many years. '' But time had not effaced from the memory of the Spaniards the remembrance of the sacred relics. A constant tradition relates that at the beginning of the ninth century, in the reign of Alfonso the Chaste, and in the bishopric of Theodomir of Iria Flavia, there appeared a most brilliant star, which seemed as if nailed in the sky above the crypt which guarded the relics of S. James and his disciples, pointing with its flashing rays to the spot in which those sacred remains were buried.^ Bishop Theodomir, rejoiced at ^ Galicia was devastated by the Arabs less than any other part of Spain. In less than fifty years after Muza's invasion it became an integral part pf the Christian kingdom of the Asturias, and it never was permanently occupied by the Arabs. How then could the place of the Apostle's grave have been forgotten ? ^ The genuine legend tells of lights seen flickering in all parts of the wood, first by shepherds, then by the Bishop. These multitudinous lights on the ground are converted by Pope Leo XIII. into a flashing star nailed in the sky. Even Gams speaks of them as " gliinzende und sz'ch bewegende Lichter in dem dichten Gebiische ; " and he adds, " Aber die 'luminaria' waren, nach Florez, keine Sterne" {Kiyxheugeschichtc von Spanien, Bk. x.). The Historia Conipostcllana describes them as "luminaria in nemore ardentia " (i. 2.). Florez says, "Los docu- mentos mas anliguos que hablan de la invencion no mencionan estrella sine luces" {Esp. Sagr.^ xix, 70). The Pope has changed the character of the lights by his Pontifical authority. 6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. such a portent, ordered that fervent prayer should be made to God its author, and having then uncovered and removed the ruins of the chapel, and continuing his investigations, he at length arrived at the place where, as in a family vault, were lying in distinct niches the bodies of the three saints.^ And then, in order that the spot sanctified by religion might be the better guarded by man, he surrounded it by a wall, and at the same time secured the sacred treasure with solid subterranean constructions. " The news reached the ears of King Alfonso, and he hastened to go and venerate the sacred sepulchre of the Apostle, and ordered the ancient chapel to be rebuilt in a new style, and gave the land for a circuit of three miles for the perpetual preservation of the temple ; while, as a memorial of the apparition of the brilliant star, the town nearest the crypt took the more fitting and more auspicious name of Compostela.^ '' Numerous miracles, as well as that celestial sign, gave fame to the tomb of the Apostle, so that not only from the neighbouring peoples, but also from ^ The earlier legends speak only of S. James' body, not the bodies of his comrades, being found. See Florez, £sp. Sagr., xix. 64. The Historia Compostellana says, " Quandam domunculam, marmoream tumbam intra se continentem, inter sylvas et frutices invenit " (i. 2). 2 The derivation of Compostela is uncertain. The most probable explanation of the word is that it is a corruption of Giacomo Apostolo through the provincialism Gia-Com postol, "the Apostle James" (Gams, KirchengescMchte, x. 9). Its previous name was Liberum Donum, a Latinised form of the Celtic word Libredon, "a hill fort." Other derivations are Compositum telus {tehini or reXos?), Compos stella (Minuano, Diccionario gcograjico estadistico de Espaila y Porhigal^ Madrid, 1827). It probably has no more to do with a plain and a star than Bridgewater (Burgh Walter) has to do with a bridge and a stream. See article by Rev. W. Webster in the Foreign Church Chronicle, viii. 200. THE LEGENDS OF S. I AGO, dr'c. 7 the most distant places, multitudes hastened to pray at those sacred remains. Whereupon King Alfonso III., following the example of his predecessor, under- took the creation of a larger church, which left un- touched the ancient sepulchre, and as soon as it was finished, adorned it with all royal magnificence. *' At the end of the tenth century the savage horde of the Arabs again invaded Spain,^ destroyed nume- rous cities, and, after a hideous slaughter of the inhabitants, carried everywhere extermination by fire and sword. The Emir Almanzor, of unhappy memory, who knew how great was the worship at the tomb of S. James, conceived the idea of putting an end to it,^ thinking that if he did that, the strongest bulwark of Spain, that on which Spain reposed all her hopes, would thus fall to the ground. He commanded, therefore, the chiefs of his hordes to march at once upon Compostela, to attack the city, and to consign to the flames the church and every- thing that belonged to it ; but God checked the devouring conflagration at the very threshold of the presbytery, and struck Almanzor and his troops with bitter disasters, which compelled them to retreat from Compostela, and almost all, including Almanzor, perished by unexpected death.^ ^ Pope Leo probably means not Spain, but Galicia. Almanzor came from Cordova, where the Arabs had been settled for nearly 300 years. ^ It was not till after he had sacked the church that Almanzor learnt that it was the reputed burial-place of S. James. lie had made some fifty similar raids against the Christians before he turned his steps to Compostela. ^ This statement is abridged by Pope Leo from the Historia Com- postellana, which gives greater details. "The Blessed James, rot wishing them to escape with impunity from the church which tlcy 8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. " The scattered ashes remained round the sepulchre, a memorial of the ferocity of the enemy, and a testi- mony of Divine protection ; and when Spain was liberated from those ills, Diego Pelaez, Bishop of Compostela, built a larger temple on the ruins of the ancient one, and this, too, was enlarged and beautified by his succesor, Diego Gelmirez, and re- ceived the titles and honours of a cathedral.-^ But had so proudly trampled on, attacked them so violently with dysentery that very many died, and but few returned home. And when their leader, Almanzor, thought over the vengeance that had fallen on them, he is said to have asked his guides who it was whose palace had been almost destroyed by their raid, and when he heard that James, the disciple of the son of Mary the Virgin (whom they too call Mary), was undoubtedly buried there, repenting of his audacity, he resolutely took to flight, and in his flight, struck with a sudden sickness, died at Metina Celmas, where he was buried, and, unhappy man ! commended his soul into Mahomet's bosom" (i. 2). Almanzor, however, lived at least five years after the sack of Compos'ela ; Florez thinks thirteen years {£sj>. Sagr., xix. 7). ^ The Pope is hopelessly wrong here in his history. King Bermudo II, at once restored the church after its destruction by Almanzor, and it was consecrated afresh by Bishop Pedro I. in the year 999, that is, three years after its ruin. Florez writes, *' Retirado de Santiago el enemigo (Almanzor), vino el Rey, movido de pietad, a reconocer las disgracias ; y hallando muy arruinada la Iglesia del Apostolo, se unio con el Obispo Don Pedro para restaurarla, y con la ayuda de Dios lo consigueron. El Silense" (the monk of Silo, who wrote a chronicle, A.D. 1 100) "dice que el Rey Don Bermudo empezo a restaurar el temple del Apostolo in melius. Consta pues que Almanzor se retiro de las hostilidades de Santiago antes del 999 en que murio Don Bermudo. El mismo Obispo Don Pedro consagr6 la Iglesia " {Esp. Sagr., xix. 178). The Historia Compostellana says, "Rex (Veremundus) superni amoris stimulo excitatus in hanc urbem curiosa intentione venit et hiijus Apostoli Ecclesiam, quam dirutam invenit, cum eodem Episcopo Domino Petro, Deo adjuvante, restauravit. Post restaurationem con- secrata equidem Ecclesia Petrus idem Episcopus obdormivit in Domino" (i. 2). Diego Gelmirez did rebuild a part of it, which had been burnt down by the people of Compostela, M'ho had set it on fire hoping to burn him and Queen Urraca in it. A, D. 1 1 17 (i. 1 1 3). Pope Leo is equally wrong in supposing that the church of S. lago became a cathedral first in the time of Gelmirez. He raised the See, of which S. lago was already the cathedral, to archiepiscopal dignity. THE LEGENDS OF S. lAGO, &^c. 9 the chief care of that prelate was to establish the authenticity of the rehcs which had been handed down to him, and to make the sepulchre inaccessible by building a wall round it. On that occasion, Bishop Gelmirez sent a portion of the sacred relics, accom- panied with a letter, to S. Atton, Bishop of Pistoja ; a portion taken from the head, as has been proved by recent investigation, called the apofisis mastoideay and which still bears traces of blood, since it was wounded by the sword on separating the head from the body. And that venerable relic, celebrated by the miracles it has wrought, and by the traditional worship of the inhabitants of Pistoja, is still an object of especial veneration in that church. " Meanwhile the fame of the Spanish sanctuary had spread abroad everywhere, and innumerable multitudes of pilgrims flocked to it from all parts of the world ; such being the affluence as to be justly compared with that attracted to the holy places of Palestine and the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. On which account the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, reserved for the Holy See the dispensa- tion of the vow of pilgrimage to Compostela. '^ But the sixteenth century had not run its course when there arose a terrible and frightful tempest, which, although felt throughout Spain, menaced more seriously the sacred tomb of the Apostle. War having been declared between the Spanish and English, these last, who had abandoned the Catholic faith for heresy, formed the project of sacking and destroying the Catholic churches, profaning and demolishing every- thing that belonged to their worship. lo HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. " They disembarked an army in the province of Galicia, tore down the churches, delivered to the flames, with heretical fury, the images and relics of the saints, the most sacred objects, and then directed their march on Compostela in order to put an end to what they called a pernicious superstition.^ " The pious Archbishop, Juan de San Clemente, was then at the head of the Church of Compostela ; he consulted with the Canons on the means of placing in security the relics of the saints, himself under- taking the charge of those of S. James. But as the enemy was already at the gates of the city, he buried opere tumultuario and secretly the three bodies, taking, however, the precaution to construct the new tomb with the materials of the old one, which had been built according to the Roman methods, in order that some proof of the authenticity of the relics might remain for posterity. " When peace was made and the perils of war had ceased, the inhabitants of Compostela and the pilgrims who flocked to that spot were persuaded that the sacred relics were still in the same place in which they had been deposited from the first, an opinion believed from that time,^ so that in our day the faithful believed that the holy relics were pre- ^ It would be interesting if Pope Leo had stated to what event he refers. There were raids made by English sailors before and after the Great Armada on the west coast of Spain and Portugal, and Compostela may or may not have been burnt in one of them. 2 As the raid of the British tars could not have lasted above a day or two, probably not more than a few hours (if it took place at all), it is not clear how the memory of the place where the Archbishop had laid the relics perished. Why did not he dig them up again when the enemy was gone, or at least when peace was made with England a few years afterwards, in 1604? THE LEGENDS OF S. lAGO, &-c. ii served in the apse of the principal chapel, and went there to venerate them, while the clergy of the cathe- dral sang in it an antiphon on Sunday. " Such was the state of affairs when our vener- able brother, the Cardinal S. I. R. Paya y Rico, the present Archbishop of Compostela, undertook some years since the restoration of the cathedral, and put into execution a long intended design, viz., to search for the spot in which were the relics of S. James and his disciples, Athanasius and Theodore. For this important enterprise he selected men of high eccle- siastical dignity and of perfect competence, to whom he entrusted the direction of the work. But the result was a disappointment to every one, for the whole of the sepulchre and the crypts which are under and near the high altar were explored without finding anything ; until at last, on the spot on which the clergy and the people were accustomed to pray with greatest fervour, — that is to say, in the centre of the apse, behind the high altar and before another altar, — the workmen found some stone slabs, and, after digging down two cubits, discovered a tomb with a cover adorned with a cross, and remarked that the tomb had been formed of stones and bricks taken from the crypt and from ancient sepulchres. " Having lifted the cover in the presence of wit- nesses, they found three male skeletons." ^ ^ What they found is more exactly described by Padre Fita, wS.J., and Seiior Fernandez Guerra, who were appointed official investigators. It was a stone niche or chest formed of rough slabs, and measuring 3^ feet in length (half the length of a coffin), i foot l inch in breadth, and I foot in depth, containing bones and eartli mixed together and in disorder, so broken that there was not one entire bone in it. " l.n ella ban hallado imesos humanos, colocados sin orden y mezclados con 12 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. These skeletons, or rather this collection of bones, the Pope has pronounced to be S. James, Athanasius, and Theodore, " confirming by a solemn document of apostolic authority the sentence on the identity of the sacred bodies of the Apostle and his disciples," adding an order " that the sentence should bear force and validity for ever." He has also granted a plenary indulgence and remission of all sins, applicable both to the living and the dead, in honour of " this new treasure with which God has deigned to enrich His Church ;" and he has threatened "with the indigna- tion of God and of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul any who should dare to be guilty of the attempt to resist or contradict by an act of rash audacity these pages, invested with our approbation, ratifica- tion, reserve, concession, and will." The date of these Apostolic Letters is November i, 1884, and the Pope who has issued them is Pope Leo XIII. Dr. Dollinger writes, '' That the body of S. James was landed from Palestine on the coast of Galicia, and is there preserved, after having circumnavigated Spain, is a somewhat later invented fable [than the legend of the Apostle's preaching in Spain in person], but Compostela thereby became for many centuries the most frequented pilgrimage place of the West." ^ 3. The third form of the Spanish legend is a rationalistic attempt at so interpreting the old tradi- tions as to make them possible of belief. Tillemont, obliged to give up the story which Leo XIII. has alguna tierra, desprovistos de cartilegos y partes blandas y tan deteri- orados y fragiles que no existia un solo hueso entero ni completo " {Reaierdos de un Viajah Santiago de Compostela, p. 209. Madrid, 1880). ^ Lecture on the Political and Religious Development of Spain. THE LEGENDS OP S. I AGO, &-c. 13 now endorsed, substituted for it a theory which he honestly acknowledged to be no more than " a con- jecture without proof." The body of S. James, he thought, might have been transported from Judea to Galicia in the seventh or eighth century owing to the Saracens becoming at that time masters of the East.^ This theory seemed to him open to fewer objections than the received story, " and it makes it more easy to maintain that the relics at Compostela are really those of S. James the Greater." ^ Gams has accepted this theory with avidity, and has added to it several particulars of his own. His additions are, that S. James' body, having been buried in Jerusalem, and having rested there for five centuries, was, in the time of Justinian, translated to the monastery of Raithu, a little to the south-west of Mount Sinai ; that in the seventh century it was carried to Zara- goza and placed in the crypt of the Church of the Pillar (where S. Mary, while living in Palestine, had appeared to S. James on the top of a pillar when the Apostle was preaching in Spain) ; ^ that in the eighth ^ Memoires Ecclesiastigues, vol. i. 2 Ibid. 3 The Zaragozan legend says that the Apostles left Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen, having received their conge from the Blessed Virgin {accipiehant congeritim ah ipsd Gloriosd Virgine betudictd) ; that James the Greater went to the Virgin, and kissing her hands, asked her leave to go and her blessing with pious tears ; that having received her permission, he went to Spain, traversed the Asturias, Galicia, Cas- tile, and Aragon, converting one man at Oviedo and eight at Zaragoza ; that at Zaragoza it was his custom to sleep by the river-side, and on one occasion at midnight he heard the angels singing Ave Maria, gratia plena, which were the first words of the Office of the Virgin ; that he knelt down, and saw the Virgin sitting on the top of a marble pillar, between two choirs of a thousand angels ; that after the completion of the Office the Llessed Virgin called him to her, and desired him to build ■14 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. century it was transported to Compostela ; that the persons who brought it to Zaragoza were named Peter, Athanasius, and Theodore ; that Peter was named Rathensis from Raithu ; that this word, being misunderstood; suggested the idea of a boat or ship, ratt's, and that on this misconception was built the notion of S. James' body having been brought by sea to Iria Flavia. This Peter is identified with a Peter Rathensis, said to have been the first bishop of Braga, and Athanasius and Theodore have been called the first bishops of Zaragoza. It is plain that this hypo- thesis creates as many difficulties as it solves. It is ignored and implicitly condemned by Leo XIII. The legends of S. lago (in their unrationalised form) are purely Spanish. There was another legend, conflicting in some respects with the Spanish story, which took its origin in Rome, and was the Roman a church on the spot to her memory, and to place the altar on the site of the pillar on which she was sitting, which her Son had sent down from heaven by the hands of angels ; that miracles should be wrought there in behalf of all who asked her aid, and that the pillar should remain to the end of the world ; that when James had returned thanks to Christ and His Mother, the thousand angel?, who had attended upon the Virgin since the time of her conception of Christ, took up the Queen of Heaven, and carrying her back to Jerusalem, deposited her in her chamber ; that James at once built a church with the help of his eight converts, and gave it the title of Santa Maria del Pilar ; that he him- self returned to Jerusalem after consecrating the church, and that the Virgin was often seen singing the Matin psalms with choirs of angels in this which was the first church dedicated to her honour, and that she wrought many miracles in it. Historia Apparitionis Dciparce supra Coltimnam Beafo Jacobo aptid Ccesaratigustam prcBdicanti. Ex Cod. inembraneo, qui in Archivo SanctcB Maria de Pilari asscrvatur. Florez devotes a dissertation of nearly fifty pages to the proof of the authen- ticity of this legend (vol. xxx. cap. vi. pp. 45-95). He is scandalised at Natalis Alexander questioning a tradition which is confirmed by the authority of so many pontifical bulls and the Sacred Congregation of cardinals. THE LEGENDS OF S. I A GO, &^c. 15 tradition about Spain. This legend tells how Seven men were ordained in Rome by the Apostles and sent into Spain (just as another Seven were supposed to be sent into Gaul) by the authority of the Roman See. The Seven were : (i.) Torquatus, who became Bishop of Acci, now called Guadix, which thus gained the reputation of being the first episcopal See in Spain ; ^ (2.) Secundus, Bishop of Avila, near Guadix ; ^ (3.) Indaletius, Bishop of Urci, near Almeria ; s (4,) Ctesi- phon, Bishop of Vergium or Berja, in the Alpujarras ; (5.) Caecilius, Bishop of Illiberis or Elvira, near Granada (whence Granada, like Compostela, claimed the title of an apostolic See) ; '^ (6.) Euphrasius, Bishop of Illi- turgi or Andujar ; ^ (7.) Hesychius, Bishop of Carcesa or Cazorla.^ All the Seven are commemorated in a hymn,^ probably of the date of Cardinal Ximenes, ^ Padre Suarez, Hisloria del Obispado de Guadix y Baza. Madrid, 1696. 2 Antonio Cianca, IJistoria de la vhia, invencion, milagros, y trans- lacion de San Segundo, pj-imero Obispo de Avila. Madrid, 1595. 2 Antonio Lopez Hidalgo, Vida deSan Indalecio,y Almeria ilustrada en SIC antigilcdad^ origcn y grandeza. Almeria, 1699. ^ Jose Hidalgo Morales, lliberia Granada. Granada, 1848. ^ Antonio Terrones y Robres, Vida^ viariirio, tratislacion, y ?nilagros de S. Ettfrasio, Obispo y patron de Andujar. Granada, 1657. ^ Fernando Torre?, IJistoria de los santuarios del adelantantiento de Cazorla. Madrid, 1669. ^ Hi sunt perspicui luminis indices, Torquatus, Tesifons, atque Hesicius ; His Indaletius sive Secundus Juncti Euphrasio Cecilioque sunt. Accis continue proxima fit viris Bis senis stadiis, qua procul insident ; Mittunt asseclas escula quserere Quibus fessa dapibus membra reficeient. lUic discipuli idola gentium Vanis inspiciunt ritibus excoli ; Quos dum sic agere lletibus immorant l6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. inserted in the Mozarabic office books, which tells of their deliverance from their enemies at Guadix by the miraculous bursting of a bridge, and of the con- version of their first proselyte, Luparia."^ It vjill be noted that the legend of the Seven makes Guadix, in the south-east of Spain, the centre of operations, while the legend of S. lago carries us to the opposite or north-west corner of the peninsula. Terrentur potius ausibus impiis. Mox insana fremens turba satellitum, In his cum fidei stigmata nosceret, Ad pontem fluvii usque per ardua Incursu celeri hos agit in fugam, Sed pons praevalido murice fortior In partes subito pronus resolvitur Justos ex manibus hostium eruens, Hostes flumineo gurgite subruens. Hsec prima fidei est via plebium Inter quos mulier sancta Luparia Sanctos aggrediens cernit et obsecrat, Sanctorum monita pectore collocans. Tunc Christi famula attendens obsequio Sanctorum, statuit condere fabricam Quo baptisterii undse patiscerent, Et culpas omnium gratia tergeret. Illic sancta Dei foemina tingitur, Et vitse lavacro tincta renascitur. Plebs hie continuo provolat ad fidem, Et fit catholico dogmate multiplex. Post hsec pontificum chara sodalitas Partitur properans septem in urbibus, Ut divisa locis dogmata funderent Et sparsis populos ignibus urerent. Per hos Hesperise finibus indita Inluxit fidei gratia piseconis : Hinc signis variis atque potentia Virtutum, homines credere provocant. — Fa^6 1112. 1 Other traditions make Luparia to have been a lady of Galicia and "a friend of the Spanish king," who was converted by the followers of S. James on seeing them slay a dragon which she had set upon them, and tame some bulls which were to have gored them to death. See Morales, Coronica, Lib. ix. cap. vii. THE LEGENDS OF S. I AGO, &-c. 17 The followers of S. James are, however, often con- founded with the Seven, and they are identified in the Roman Breviary. In the earlier form of the legend of the Seven they were said to have been ordained at Rome by the Apostles, that is, by S. Peter and S. Paul ; the last revision of the Breviary attri- butes their consecration and mission to S. Peter alone. Other legendary persons of the same date are Xantippe, her husband Probus, her sister Polyxena, and Philotheus, who were the converts of S. Paul. Probus is said in one story to have been Prefect of Spain in the time of Claudius (and therefore before S. Paul could have gone to that country) ; in another he is called a friend of Nero's. His wife, Xantippe, meeting S. Paul in a market-place (no further note of locality is given), persuaded her husband to invite him into her house ; and as soon as he had entered she saw written in golden letters on his forehead, " Paul, the preacher of Christ." Thereupon she became a catechumen, and was baptized with her husband and the Prefect Philotheus, and all the inhabitants of the region. Polyxena did not become a convert at once, but having heard Andrew preach at Patras, she too was baptized, and returning to Spain, spent the rest of her life with her sister. To this apocryphal Hst must be added S. Rufus, son of Simon the Cyrenian, said to have been the first Bishop of Tortosa ; S. Saturninus, the young man who had five barley loaves, the first Bishop of Tolosa ; S. Peter of Rates, first Bishop of Bracara; S. Gerontius, first Bishop of Italica; S. Firmin, first Bishop of Pamplona ; S. Eugenius, first Bishop of Toledo. CHAPTER II. HOW CHRISTIANITY ENTERED SPAIN. There is no reason for doubting that S. Paul fulfilled his expressed purpose of visiting Spain.-^ We know that he was strongly averse to giving up the plans that he had formed for his missionary journeys. Those plans were not made " according to the flesh," that is, from a man's whims and fancies, but under a sense of solemn obligation, and if he should change them without necessity,^ he considered himself open to the charge of '' lightness." That he was very anxious to get as far as Spain is clear from the words that he uses in the Epistle to the Romans, which seem to indicate that, much as he desired to go to Rome, he regarded his visit to the capital of the world as subsidiary to his Spanish journey.^ After his first imprisonment at Rome, he had time and opportunity for carrying out his cherished purpose. His first journey on his release appears to have been towards the East, and thence adopting the sea-route via Mar- seilles, in order to avoid the Neronian persecution of the Christians going on at Rome, he would seem to have " taken his journey into Spain " according to his original proposal. What part of Spain he visited we cannot tell, for it is the legends only which assign 1 Rom. XV. 24-2S. 2 2 Cor. i. 17. ^ Rom. xv. 24-28. HOW CHRISTIANITY ENTERED SPAIN. ly the north-west to S. James, the north to S. Paul, and the south-east to the Seven. He would, no doubt, have gone, according to his custom, to those cities where he knew that there were Jewish synagogues and communities, and have made them the centres of his missionary work. The Greek settlements would have had an attraction to him owing to his own familiarity with the language, and because Christianity was as yet almost confined to men who used the Hebrew or the Greek tongue. If his journey was made by sea, he would have landed at one of the southern ports of Spain on the coast from Barcelona to Cadiz, and have made his way inland, perhaps returning east- ward through Gaul. That he passed over from thence into Britain must be set aside as a conjecture resting on no sufficient grounds. We have almost contemporary evidence of S. Paul's journey to Spain in Clement of Rome, who says that " he taught righteousness to the whole world, and reached the boundary of the west." ^ This expression, the *' boundary of the west," is not merely a rhetorical flourish ; it had a known meaning, and that meaning was Spain.^ The Muratorian Fragment is also of suffi- ciently early date for its testimony to be of value, and it speaks plainly of " the journey of Paul from the city to Spain." 3 The date of this fragment is probably 1 Kaliirl rh repfxa ttjs duaeojs i\du)u {Epist. ad Cor. i. 5). ^ Lucan speaks of " extremi orbis Iberi " {Pharsal.^ vii. 541); Juv- enal, " A Gadibus usque Aurorani," meaning from the extreme west to the extreme east {Sat. x. i) ; Silius Italicus, " Hominum finem Gades Calpemque " {Punica, i. 141); Justin, " Hispania Europce ter- niinos claudit " (Lib. xliv. i) ; I'liny uses the expressions " ab occasu £olis" and "a Gaditano fretu " as equivalent {Hist. iVat., iil. i). ^ Antiquit. Ital.^ iii. 353. C 20 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. about A.D. 170. Later writers are almost unanimous in their testimony ; but perhaps their statements are rather conclusions drawn from S. Paul's words in Rom. XV. than independent witness. Such are Athanasius/ Cyril of Jerusalem,^ Epiphanius/ Chrysostom.* S. Paul's visit, lasting about twelve months, would have been an important factor in the Christianisation of the country ; but there were other channels by which the Gospel became disseminated in the Penin- sula more readily than in any other Western country with the exception of the south of Gaul. Spain had long been under the influence of Rome. After the expulsion of the Carthaginians, b.c. 205, it was divided into two Roman provinces, named respectively His- pania citerwr, lying between the Ebro, the Pyrenees, and the sea, and Hispania ulterior, to the west of the Ebro, the further boundaries of which were uncer- tain. Each province was governed by a praetor or proconsul, who resided at Tarraco and Corduba, or occasionally at Gades, and in each two legions were permanently stationed. In the time of Augustus Hispania ulterior was divided into two provinces, Baetica, to the south, and Lusitania, to the west, and Hispania citerior, with its boundaries enlarged towards the north, now took the name of Tarraconensis ; the seat of government for the westernmost province w^a=^ Augusta Emerita. Each of these provinces was divided, for the administration of the law, into dis- tricts called Conventus, in the chief towns of which the courts were held by the Roman judges. The most important of these towns were Tarraca (Tarra* Ad Dracont. - Catech.,^vii. ^ Ha^r., xxvii. 6. Horn, in 2 Tim. iv 20. HO]V CHRISTIANITY ENTERED SPAIN. 21 gona), Carthago Nova (Cartagena), Caesar-Augusta (Zaragoza), Bracara Augusta (Braga), Gades (Cadiz), Corduba (Cordova), Astigi (Ecija), Hispalis (Seville), Augusta Emerita (Merida). If we examine the situa- tion of these places, we shall see that a network of Roman civilisation was thrown over the whole of the Peninsula by the time that, in the providence of God, Christianity was introduced into it. Nor was there merely a superficial varnish of Roman manners and unobserved laws. The last resistance to Roman arms was overcome by b.c. 25, and the Imperial policy of establishing colonies such as Pax Julia (Beja), Pax Augusta (Badajoz), besides Merida and Zaragoza, had introduced a considerable Italian and non-Iberian element into the population of the country. This element was further strengthened by the S3'stem of permanently stationing four legions in Spain ; the soldiers belonging to these legions, living year after year in the country, came to prefer it to their native land, married Spanish wives, and, on the legions being disbanded, remained in what had become to them a home. Further, communications between Italy and Spain had been made easy by the military roads constructed by Pompey over the P^^renees, and by the vessels which traded between the ports of Italy and Marseilles, Tarragona, and Cadiz. Thus Spain became the favourite country of Roman emigrants, and natives of Spain regarded themselves as Roman rather than Spanish. Lucan, tlie Senecas, Columella, Pomponius Mela, Quinctilian, Martial, and even Pru- dentius, were to all intents and purposes Romans. Spain, therefore, was in a position to answer readily 22 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. to any impulse given from Rome, and communications were so frequent that no wave of thought or belief would pass over Italy without extending beyond the Alps and beyond the Pyrenees. Christianity, coming from the East, made a lodgment in Rome, and, in the state of the civilised world, what affected the capital affected the provinces (some more, some less, accord- ing to their actual propinquity or their closer or looser relationship). In the middle of the second cen- tury a flourishing Church had established itself at Lyons and Vienne, and from thence, as well as directly from Rome, the Christian faith appears to have spread across the Pyrenees into Spain. No genuine tradi- tions of the Spanish Church reach further back than the third century, or we might expect to find more evidence than is forthcoming of the close connexion between the earliest Gallic and Iberian Churches, to which, as we shall see hereafter, the structure of the old Spanish liturgy bore testimon}-. There is a striking and interesting similarity be- tween the Churches of Spain and England in their origin and early estate. In both countries the spread of Christianity was due to the ebb and flow between the capital and the provinces, which carried men and thoughts to and fro. Both countries were indebted to the Church of Southern Gaul for their immediate conversion. Both of them became gradually though rapidly leavened, without any great events to draw the e3^es of the world to them, and without any great missionaries, with whose name their conversion is connected (for it is not probable that S. Paul's visit to Spain was of sufficient length to produce great HOW CHRISTIANITY ENTERED SPAIN. 23 results or some Spanish traditions to that effect would have survived). Both countries, after the inhabitants were civilised and Christianised, were invaded by barbarous hordes of, in one case, heathens, in the other, heterodox Christians, which made a break in the ecclesiastical life of the two nations. In both countries the conquering and the conquered after a time melted into one body and formed one Church. Both countries, after a period of independence, sub- mitted to the Papal sway. After this the parallel is less exact, for no Moorish or Mohammedan mission overwhelmed England, and Spain has not recovered, or sought to recover, the ecclesiastical liberty which England has attained. The history of the Spanish Church falls into five divisions : — (i.) The period preceding the entrance of the northern invaders, a.d. 66-409 ; (2.) The period during which the Gothic conquerors were still Arians, A.D. 414—589; (3.) The period from the conversion of Reccared to the Moorish conquest, a.d. 5^9— 710; (4.) The period of the Moorish domination and con- tests, A.D. 710-1491 ; (5.) The period beginning with Fernando and Isabel, and continuing down to the present time with such changes as were stamped upon it by Charles V. and Philip II., the Inquisition, and the order of the Jesuits, the Bourbon kings, and the French Revolution. The singularity of the history is the decisive break which occurs between the several periods. The history of each might be almost the history of a new nation and a different Church, and yet, on looking closer, we see that there are charac- teristics which belong to them all in common. CHAPTER III. ROMAN SPAIN— THE PRM-DIOCLETIAN TIMES. From the time that we lose sight of the vanishing and uncertain figure of S. Paul, the Spanish Church totally disappears for some two hundred years. At the end of that time we have evidence of its having spread throughout the Peninsula, but for those two hundred years not a shred of authentic history is forthcoming. We may suppose that, according to custom elsewhere observed, bishops were appointed at the chief centres of population. The capitals of the three provinces Tarragona, Cordova, and Merida were probably first supplied each with a bishop. The chief towns of each Conventus, Cartagena, Zaragoza, Braga, Cadiz, Ecija, Seville, and the Roman colonies, Beja, Badajoz, and other large towns, no doubt became Episcopal Sees, and under the bishops was the usual staff of presbyters and deacons. We may suppose, from the analogy of Ephesus and Crete, that the first bishops or apostolic delegates were appointed by S. Paul, and " for this cause left in " Spain, '' that they might set in order the things that were wanting, and ordain elders in every city ; " ^ and that they '' laid hands " on others as was needed.^ When the Spanish Church emerges into view, a.d. 254, we find 1 Titus i. 5. "I Tim. iv. 14, v. 22. 24 ROMAN SPAIN. 25 mentioned a joint-bishopric of Leon and Astorga/ and a bishopric of Merida ; and not only so, but we find a system of church government established and recog- nised, in accordance with which it was the custom for bishops to be elected in the presence of the whole body of the bishops of the province ; showing (i) that the Church had adapted itself to the civil divisions of the country ; (2) that in each of the three civil pro- vinces then existing there were many bishops ; (3) that those bishops had an undefined right of assent or veto on the appointment of a colleague ; (4) that no prelate outside the province had any right of inter- ference, except an emergency occurred, in which case all bishops had that right equally. The occasion on which the veil of a happy obscurity which had hung over the Spanish Church for two hundred years was raised is the following. Basilides and Martial, Bishops of the Sees of Leon-Astorga and Merida, had given way in the persecution under Callus or some local outbreak of anti-Christian zeal, and had delivered to the Roman magistrate a libel/tts, declaring their renunciation of Christianity and return to Paganism. They were charged, also, with other offences. For these crimes they were deposed, and Felix and Sabinus were in all proper form and cere- mony substituted in their room. Basilides indeed had voluntarily abdicated and begged to be admitted to lay communion ; but when their successors were appointed, both one and the other were unwilling to ^ A Roman road joined these two places. Leon derives its name from liavinq been the station of the Legio VII. Gemina, raised by (ialba in Spain (Tac. //is/, ii. ii), Astorga is the modem name of A'^turia Augusta, the capital of Asturia, 26 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. submit. Basilides went to Rome, and laying an ex parte statement before Bishop Stephen, besought his support. Stephen, in ignorance of what had really taken place, embraced his cause. Basilides hurried back to Spain, and with Martial demanded to be re- instated. The local churches of Leon-Astorga and Merida were feeble, and felt the need of some external authority to set against that of the Bishop of the Roman province. They turned to S. Cyprian and the North African Church. Felix, a presbyter of Leon, representing the Church of Leon and Astorga, Lselius, a deacon, in the name of the Church of Merida, another Felix, a presbyter or Bishop of Zara- goza, appealed to the great Bishop and Church of Carthage for advice and support. Cyprian gathered a Council of thirty-seven prelates, which, in its cor- porate capacity, addressed a letter to Felix of Leon and Lgelius. The African bishops assured them that the deposition of Basilides and Martial was made rightly and in accordance with the canons of the Church Catholic ; that the election and consecration of Felix and Sabinus had been canonically performed ; that they were to disregard Stephen's interference, who had not acted with proper circumspection, and had allowed himself to be imposed upon by Basil- ides ; that they were to continue to regard Felix and Sabinus as their lawful bishops, and that Basilides and Martial might be received back only as penitents. The authority of Cyprian was infinitely greater than that of Stephen, and the theory that the Bishop of Rome had any right of extra-diocesan intervention above or beyond that which every bishop enjoys had ROMAN SPAIN. 27 not yet been broached. The judgment of Cyprian and Cyprian's Council was acted on, and peace re- turned to the Spanish Churches. The lapse of Basilides and Martial (of the circum- stances of which we are ignorant) shows that there was a persecution going on in Spain in the year 254 — a continuation probably of that known under the name of the persecution of Callus. The history of the next fifty years is merely a record of the resist- ance offered by martyrs and confessors in the per- secutions that followed, namely, that of Valerian, A.D. 256-260, and Diocletian, a.d. 303—304. There is an unfortunate difficulty in distinguishing between genuine and apocryphal accounts of martyrdom, for each city vied with its neighbour in its claims for the antiquity of its origin and the number of its martyrs. Our best authority is the Spaniard Prudentius, who has written a series of fourteen poems in honour of the martyrs, called Peristephanon Liber} Most of those whom he commemorates were victims in the Diocletian persecution, but in his hymn on the eighteen martyrs of Zaragoza he mentions Fructuosus and his two com- panions as '' the offering of Tarragona ; " and Fruc- 1 Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was bom in the year 34S. He gives us an autobiography in a short piece prefixed to his poems, from which it appears that he began life as a barrister at Rome, and in middle life rose to high office as a provincial governor and at the imperial court. In his laier life he returned to his native land and devoted himself to religious poetry. He was born in Tarraconensis province and near the Pyrenees {Peristcph. x. 147), but the exact spot of his birth is not known. He calls Calaliorra nostrum oppidtun in Pei-isleph. i, 116, and again applies the word nostra to the town in vii. 31 ; but lie also addresses Zaragoza as deciis nostrum^ and speaks of Ccesar- Augusta as nostra in vii. 63, 141 ; and Taragona is nostra urbs in X. 143. 28 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. tiiosiis probably perished in the Valerian persecution, A.D. 259. The following account is given of his martyrdom/ and we may take it as an example of martyrdoms undergone by others whose names are unknown on earth : — ''When Valerian and Gallienus were emperors and iEmilian and Bassus consuls, on Sunday, January 16, Bishop Fructuosus and the deacons Augurius and Eulogius were arrested. While Bishop Fructuosus was lying down in his chamber, the soldiers arrived at his house — that is, Aurelius, Festucius, ^Elius, Pollentius, Donatus, and Maximus. When he heard the sound of their feet, he rose at once and came out to them in his slippers. The soldiers said, ' Come, the President sends for you with your deacons.' Bishop Fructuosus said, ' Let us go, or, if you will allow me, I will put on my shoes.' The soldiers said, 'You are quite welcome.' On their arrival they were put in prison, but Fructuosus, sure of martyr- dom, and rejoicing in the crown of the Lord to which he was called, continued to pray without ceasing. And the brethren came to him, comforting him and praying him to keep them in mind. Next day he baptized one of our brethren, called Rogatian, in prison. They spent six days in prison, and were brought out on January 21, and were tried. JEmi- lian, the President, said, ' Send in Bishop Fructuosus, Augurius, and Eulogius.' The officer replied, ' They are here.' Jimilian said to Bishop Fructuosus, ' Have you heard the Emperors' commands ? ' Fructuosus said, ' I do not know what their commands are ; but ^ Ruinart, Ac/a Martytum sincera. Ratisbon, 1859. ROMAN SPAIN. 29 I am a Christian.' ^milian said, ' Their commands are that the gods should be worshipped.' Fructu- osus said, ' I worship one God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.' iEmilian said, ' Do you know that there are gods ? ' Bishop Fructuosus said, ' I do not.' iEmilian said, * You shall know soon.' Bishop Fructuosus looked up to the Lord, and began to pray within himself. JEmi- lian said, ' Why, who will be listened to, or feared, or adored, if the gods are not worshipped, nor the Emperors' portraits adored ? ' To Augurius, the deacon, he said, ' Do not listen to the words of Fruc- tuosus.' The deacon Augurius said, * I worship Almighty God.' iEmilian said to the deacon Eulo- gius, ' Do you worship Fructuosus ? ' The deacon Eulogius said, ' I do not worship Fructuosus, but I worship Him whom Fructuosus also worships.' ^Emi- lian said to Bishop Fructuosus, * Are you a bishop ? ' Bishop Fructuosus answered, ' I am.' .E^milian said, ' You were.' And he gave sentence that they should be burnt alive. " And while Bishop Fructuosus was being led to the amphitheatre with his deacons, the people began to condole with him, because he was the object of so much love, not only on the part of the brethren, but also of the heathen. For he was such a man as the Holy Spirit by the mouth of blessed Paul the Apostle, that vessel of election, the teacher of the Gentiles, said that a bishop ought to be. Consequently the brethren, who knew that he was goir.g to so great glory, rejoiced rather than lamented, and when several out of brotherly love offered them a cup which they 30 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. had mixed to drink, he said, ' It is not yet time for breaking our fast/ as it was only the fourth hour of the day. For they had solemnly celebrated a fast in prison on the Wednesday, and therefore on the Friday he was joyfully and happily hastening to break his fast with the martyrs and prophets in the Paradise which God has prepared for those who love Him. When he reached the amphitheatre, his reader came to him at once, named Augustades, with tears, and praying that he might be allowed to take off his shoes. The blessed martyr answered, * Let be, my son ; I will take off my shoes myself without trepida- tion, and rejoicing and certain of the Lord's promise.' As soon as he had taken off his shoes, our brother and fellow-soldier, Felix, came up to him, and seized his right hand, begging him to remember him ; to whom holy Fructuosus replied in a clear voice, so that all heard, * I must have in mind the Catholic Church, spread from the east to the west.' " So when he was come to the entrance of the amphitheatre, where the soldiers, whose names I have mentioned before, were on guird, and was about to enter for his unfading crown rather than punishment. Bishop Fructuosus spoke, moved by the Holy Spirit, whose mouthpiece he was, so that our brethren could hear him, ' You will not be without a pastor now or in the future, for the love and promise of the Lord cannot fail. The present spectacle is but the weakness of one hour.' So he consoled the brethren, and he and his companions entered into salvation, happy in their martyrdom and worthy to receive the enjoyment of the promise of Holy Scrip- ROMAN SPAIN, 31 ture. They were like Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, so that even a divine Trinity might be seen in their case, for as soon as they were in the fire, the Father was present, and the Son helped them, and the Holy Spirit walked with them in the midst of the fire. When the bands by which their hands had been bound were consumed, mindful of their usual custom of praying to God, they joyfully knelt down, with no fear for their resurrection, stretching out their hands in the form of the Lord's trophy of victory (the cross), and prayed to the Lord until they gave up their lives together. "After this there were the usual mighty acts of God, and the heavens were opened in the sight of our brethren, Babylas and Mygdotius, who belonged to the household of ^milian, and they showed to ^milian's daughter, their mistress in the fiesh, holy Bishop Fructuosus and his deacons going up to heaven with crowns on their heads, while the stakes to which they had been bound were still standing. And they called ^Emilian, saying, ' Come and see the men whom you have condemned, in what guise they are restored to heaven and their hope ; ' but when he had come, he was not worthy to see them. " But the brethren were sorrowful and anxious as being left without their pastor ; not that they grieved for Fructuosus, but rather longed for him, remember- ing the faith and agony of the three martyrs. When night fell, they came hurriedly to the amphitheatre, bearing wine with which to extinguish the flames, still burning round the half-consumed bodies. When they had done this, they collected the ashes of the 32 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. martyrs, and each got for himself as much of them as he could. But here too were the mighty acts of our Lord and Saviour apparent, that believers might have their faith increased, and an example might be exhibited to babes. For the martyr, Fructuosus, had in his own passion and resurrection to fulfil a promise which in his lifetime, by the mercy of God, he had made in our Lord and Saviour. He appeared therefore after his passion to the brethren, and desired them to restore without delay whatever of his ashes any one had taken possession of through affection to him, and to take care that they should all be buried together in one place. *^ Fructuosus and his deacons also appeared to iEmilian, who had condemned him, dressed in bright robes, according to promise, reproaching and mocking him, telling him that he had gained nothing, that it was in vain that he thought to have deprived them of their body upon earth, for he could now see how glorious they were. Oh, blessed martyrs, who have been proved by the fire as precious gold, robed with the breastplate of faith and the helmet of salvation, crowned with the diadem and crown which fades not away, because they have trampled on the head of the devil ! Oh, blessed martyrs, who have reached a worthy habitation in heaven, standing at the right hand of Christ, blessing God the Father Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ, His Son ! But the Lord re- ceived His martyrs in peace, through the good con- fession that they had made ; to Him be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." ^ 1 Prudent ius has versified the Acts of the Martyrdom in a special hymn devoted to the honour of Fructuo.-us, and has quaintly and ROMAN SPAIN. 33 FiLictuosus, as was natural, became the patron saint of Tarragona, the chief city of one of the three provinces of Spain. Other cities must have their patrons and defenders also. Out of this desire pro- bably sprang the story of Justa and Rufina, the pro- tectresses of Seville. According to the traditions of Seville, which at a late date found their way into the Mozarabic Liturgy,^ they were two sisters of the labouring class who made their livelihood by selling earthenware vessels. On one occasion the image of the heathen goddess Salambo was being carried in procession through Seville, when the sisters threw themselves upon it, cast it to the ground, and broke it into fragments. The worshippers, furious at the insult, dragged Justa and Rufina to Diogenian, the governor of Seville, who tortured them with the rack and hot pincers, and consigned them to prison. After a few days he had to go to a place in the Sierra Morena, and he ordered the sisters to follow him with bare feet. Justa died in prison, and her body was thrown into a stream, but rescued thence by Bishop Sabinus. Rufina was strangled in her cell, her corpse burnt, and the ashes buried. They became the patronesses of the city, and in the great storm prettily referred to the threefold martyrdom as follows in another of his poems : — " Tu ti ibus gemmis diadema pulchrum Offeres Christo, genitri.v piorum, Tarraco, intexit cm Fructiiosus Sutile vincluni. Nomen hoc gcmmre strofio illigatiim est, Emicant juxta l:ipides gemelli, Ardet et splendor parilis duorum Igne corusco." — IIy»in ill Praise of the Ei^hleen Martyrs of Zara^^Oza, 2i-jS. ^ Sanctorale, Icbta Julii, Die xvi. Migne, lum. Ixxxvi. p. 115^. Parisiis, 1850. 34 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. of 1504 they were seen hovering on each side of the Giralda, and preventing the thunderbolts from striking it, as is depicted in Murillo's painting in the cathedral. Nay, in 1843, when Espartero bombarded Seville, and 357 shells and 600 cannon-balls were fired into the town in one day. Cardinal Wiseman tells us that men who were watching on the Giralda declared, that though the missiles were plainly aimed at the Giralda and the cathedral, some fell short, some flew beyond, some fell on either side, but none touched the holy building,^ so powerful was the protection afforded by SS. Justa and Rufina. If Prudentius had heard of SS. Justa and Rufina, he could hardly have failed to name them in his h3min on the eighteen martyrs of Zaragoza, for he there counts up the martyrs of all the Spanish towns, and compares them with those of Zaragoza. He knows of martyrs who form the glory of Cordova, Tarra- gona, Gerona, Barcelona, Alcala, Tangier, Zaragoza, but none are named as coming from Seville. Pro- bably the story is the product of the ninth century, when it was the glory of Spanish Christians to be- come martyrs by making such attacks upon Islam as SS. Justa. and Rufina are represented as making on the worshippers of Salambo. We may say once for all, that Martyrologies are not trustworthy evidence of facts, any more than Liturgies are for doctrine, for both one and the other were altered and interpolated as time proceeded. There are two more martyrdoms which are re- ■*■ Cardinal Wiseman, Abhandlungen iiber verschiedeiie Gegenstdnde, Ixegensberg, 1854, quoted by Gnm>, iii. 7. ROMAN SPAIN. 35 corded to have taken place before the outbreak of the great Diocletian persecution, both apparently genuine. These are the martyrdoms of Marcellus and Cassian of Tangier (a town which at the time was regarded as appertaining to Spain, and soon afterwards became the chief city of the Provincia Tingitana), and of Cheh'donius and Emetherius of Calahorra. The Acts of the martyrdom of Marcellus and Cassian are extant.-^ " In the city of Tangier, when Fortunatus was governor, there occurred the birthday of the Emperor. While all were feasting and offering sacrifice, Mar- cellus, one of the centurions of Trajan's legion, count- ing the festivities profane, cast down his military belt before the colours of the legion and testified aloud, ' I am the soldier of Christ the eternal King.' He also threw away his vine-staff and arms, adding, ' From this time forth I cease to fight for your Emperors, and I scorn to worship your gods of wood and stone, which are deaf and dumb images. If it be a condition of the soldier's life that he must offer sacrifice to the gods and the Emperors, see, I toss away my staff and my belt, I renounce my colours, I refuse to serve.' *' The soldiers were astounded at his words. They arrested him and sent word to Anastasius Fortunatus, commander of the legion, who ordered him to be thrown into prison. When the festival was over, he took his seat in his court and desired Marcellus the centurion to be brought in. And when Marcellus, ^ They are adniilled l^y Kuinart iiilo his Ac/a Marfyiiim sinccra^ p. 312. 36 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. who was one of the centurions of Asta, had been brought in, Anastasius Fortunatus, the commander, said to him, ' What do you mean by unbuckHng your belt and throwing it and your staff aside, in the teeth of mihtary disciphne?' Marcellus answered, 'On August 21, when you were celebrating the Emperor's festival, I replied aloud in the presence of the colours of the legion that I was a Christian, and that I could not serve under any one but Jesus Christ, the son of the Almighty Father.' Fortunatus said, ' I cannot pass over your audacity, and I shall therefore refer the case to the Emperors and the Caesar. You will be sent unhurt to my lord AureHus Agricolanus, who is occupying the post of Prcefechis PrcetoriOy Csecilius being engaged in magisterial business.' '' On October 30, at Tangier, Marcellus, one of the centurions of Asta, was brought before Agricolanus, and the officer said, ' Fortunatus, the commander, has transmitted to you Marcellus, one of the centurions, and has placed him in your charge. I have a letter on the subject, which, if you order it, I will read.' Agricolanus said, ' Let it be read.' The officer read, ' To thee, my lord, Fortunatus sends greeting, &c. The soldier before you has thrown away his military belt, and has declared himself a Christian, and has spoken many blasphemous words against the gods and Csesar in the sight of all the people. We have therefore sent him to thee, that whatever thy excellency deter- mines in the case, thou may'st order to be done.' " So when the letter had been read, Agricolanus said, ' Did you say all that is attributed to you in the governor's report ? ' Marcellus replied, * I did.' ROMAN SPAIN. 37 ' Were you serving as an ordinary centurion ? ' Mar- cellus replied, ' I was.' Agricolanus said, * What madness caused you to throw aside the emblems of your military profession and say such things ? ' Marcellus replied, ' They are not mad who fear the Lord.' Agricolanus said, ' Did you say all those things which are contained in the governor's report ? ' Marcellus replied, ^ I did.' * Did you throw down your arms ? ' Marcellus replied, * I did ; for it is not becoming in a Christian, who is a soldier of Christ the Lord, to be troubled with worldly service.' Agri- colanus said, ' Marcellus' deeds are of such a nature that discipline must be vindicated.' And thereupon he pronounced sentence that Marcellus, who was serving as an ordinary centurion, and had thrown away his military emblems, saying that they polluted him, and had also used other words full of madness, as deposed in the governor's report, should be put to death by the sword. As he was led to his punish- ment he said to Agricolanus, ' God bless 3'ou ! for this is the way in which a martyr ought to depart from the world.' And having said this, he was beheaded, and died for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is glorious for ever. Amen." Cassian was amanuensis or reporter in the court in which Marcellus was condemned, and on the sentence being pronounced he threw to the ground his stylus and tablet (his pen and book) with an imprecation. '' The court was amazed ; Marcellus laughed ; Aurclius Auricularius (he is so named in- stead of Agricolanus) leapt quivering from his chair, and demanded why he had thrown down the tablet 38 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. with a curse. The most blessed Cassian replied that he had pronounced an unjust sentence. To stop his reproaches, he had him immediately seized and dragged to prison. Now the most blessed martyr Marcellus had laughed because he knew through the Holy Spirit and rejoiced that Cassian would be his companion in martyrdom. The day came when the most blessed Marcellus obtained his desire amidst the excitement of the whole city. And after a long interval, that is, on December 3rd, the venerable Cassian was brought into the same place where Marcellus' hearing took place, and giving almost the same answers, received the same sentence as holy Marcellus, and gained the triumph of martyrdom through the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory, virtue and power, for ever and ever. Amen." The other two prse- Diocletian martyrs, Emethe- rius and Chelidonius, were brothers, and natives of Calahorra. Prudentius commemorates them in a special hymn and alludes to them in his h3^mn on the eighteen martyrs of Zaragoza. There are no Acts of their martyrdom, and Prudentius complains that the accounts of their deaths were purposely destroyed by the heathen, lest the record of their endurance should encourage others.'^ All that he can report is, that at the moment that they were about to be beheaded, the ring of one (emblem of his faith) ^ " O vetustatis silentis obsoleta oblivio ! Invidentur ista nobis, fama et ipsa extinguitur. Cartulas blasphemus olim nam satelles abstulit ; Ne tenacibus libellis erudita ssecula Ordinem, tempus, modumque passionis proditum Dulcibus Unguis per aures posterorum spargerent." — PeristepJianon, i. 73-78. ROMAN SPAIN. 39 and the handkerchief of the other were carried up to the sky by a sudden blast of wind, and in the sight of all disappeared into heaven, leaving a track of light behind them caused by the glitter of the gold and the whiteness of the fabric. Miracles, he says, were afterwards wrought at their tomb. We now come to the last and greatest persecution of the Christians. CHAPTER IV. THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPAIN. Diocletian mounted the imperial throne in the year 284 and abdicated in 305. Had he died or resigned in 302, he would have come down to us as a merciful and tolerant prince, favourable to Christianity. His wife and daughter, Prisca and Valeria, if not Chris- tians, were yet so much influenced by Christianity as to absent themselves from the heathen sacrifices/ LuciaU; his chief chamberlain, was a Christian, and liberty was given him to propagate his faith in the imperial household.^ Dorotheus and Gorgonius, the chief eunuchs, were excused from attendance on heathen rites on the score of their being Christians.^ Personally the Emperor was a religious man, accord- ing to the form of the religion in which he had been brought up, and he was constitutionally averse from bloodshed. Diocletian may be added to Juvenal's sad catalogue of the men that lived too long.* Two years after his own election, Diocletian ap- pointed Maximian as his colleague, and gave him the command of the West. In 293 he completed his system of government by the appointment of Constan- 1 Lactantius, De Morte Persecutortim, c. 15. 2 Letter of Theonas, in D'Achery's Spicilegium, iii. 297, ^ Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, viii. I. * Sat. X. 189-287. 40 THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPAIN. 41 tins Clilorus, and Galeritis as Caesars, Constantius marrying Maximian's stepdaughter Theodora, and Galerius Diocletian's daughter Valeria. Valeria was, as we have seen, almost a Christian ; Galerius' mother, on the contrary, was a bigoted partisan of the old faith. The rivalry and mutual dislike of the two women may have hurried on the catastrophe which drowned the world in Christian blood. But there were stronger causes at work than the tempers and tongues of women. Christians and heathens were now facing each other, the Christians not yet equal in numbers to the opposite host, but full of the hope and vigour of youth, while the heathens were con- scious that the time was come when they must either crush Christianity while still they could do so, or be crushed by it before many years had passed. Galerius was the representative of the old Pagan party. His mother had brought him up as a fana- tical adherent of the dying Phrygian superstitions, and he was resolved that the old faith of the Roman Empire should be preserved by the annihilation of its aggressive rival. In the autumn of 302, Galerius betook himself to Nicomedia for the purpose of con- sulting with Diocletian, and urging him to take measures against the Christians. Already Diocletian was in a state of alarm and irritation. The Harus- pices had declared that the gods vouchsafed no omens on account of the presence of Christians at the sacri- fices. All the officials about his person were com- manded by the indignant Emperor to sacrifice, or to submit to the penalty of scourging. Orders were issued that soldiers who would not sacrifice should 42 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. be dismissed from the service. Tlie oracle of the Milesian Apollo at Branchidse being consulted, de- clared itself incapable of answering as long as Chris- tians were allowed to live in peace. Galerius appa- rently urged the impossibility of maintaining military discipline if soldiers were admitted into the army whose principles led them to act like the centurion Marcellus of Tangier. Diocletian was not difficult to persuade, but he shrank from authorising the shed- ding of blood. On February 24, a.d. 303, his first edict was issued, commanding the demolition of sacred buildings, the burning of the sacred books, the degradation and outlawry of Christian officials, and the reduction of ordinary Christians to the condition of slaves. Shortly after this edict had been issued a fire took place in the imperial palace. It was attri- buted to the revengeful feelings of the Christian officers and members, of the household. They were tortured, but no proof of their guilt was found. It was believed by Christians to have been the act of Galerius' party for the purpose of alarming the mind of Diocletian. In a fortnight's time another fire occurred, and Galerius persuaded the Emperor that it was the result of a Christian plot. Diocletian, in a rage produced by terror, put to death his Christian eunuchs, compelled his wife and daughter to sacri- fice, and signed a second edict which ordered the imprisonment of the entire Christian clergy. Still, however, he would give no sanction for bloodshed. A third edict followed, and in 304 the fourth edict was promulgated, constituting death as the penalty of the profession of Christianity in all cases. In THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPAIN. 43 30$ Diocletian abdicated, and with him his colleague Maximian. Constantius and Galerius thus became the two Augusti, and Constantius' death in the fol- lowing year left Galerius supreme. The Eastern world was now given up to the slaughter of Chris- tians. In 308 a new edict was issued, more savage than the last, and the persecution raged till the year 311, when Galerius died, having just before his de- cease published an edict of toleration in conjunction with Constantino and Licinius. The Western province of the empire did not suffer the barbarities which the East underwent. When the two August! had consented to the policy of perse- cution, it was necessary for the two Caesars to give their consent to it, whatever their private sentiments might be. Galerius, the Eastern Caesar, was only too happy to take advantage of the license allowed to him. Constantius Chlorus, the Caesar of the West, whose immediate sphere of jurisdiction was Gaul, Spain, and Britain, had never been hostile to Chris- tianity, and disapproving, while unable to resist, Diocletian's edict, he did no more than close a (cw churches. Nevertheless, he was not able to restrain the violence of Dacian, who was Praeses of Spain under him. Dacian's sternness caused the persecu- tion to be severely felt in the Peninsula, and until Constantius succeeded Diocletian and Maximian in the year 305 as Augustus, he did not think it prudent to supersede him in his office. We learn from Prudentius the number of Spanish martyrs that perished in the Diocletian persecution. Zaragoza supplied nineteen, almost as many, says Prudentius, 44 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. as Rome or Carthage ; Cordova, five ; Alcala, two ; Gerona, one ; Barcelona, one ; Saguntum, one ; Merida, one — in all, thirty, besides the three mar- tyrs of Tarragona, two of Calahorra, and two of Tangier, whose deaths occurred a few years previously. Eighteen of the Zaragoza martyrs appear to have been put to death together. Their names are Optatus, Lupercus, Successus, Martial, Urban, Julia, Quintilian, Publicus, Fronto, Felix, Cecilian, Euvantius, Primitivus, Apodemius, and four others called Saturninus. Of these eighteen we know nothing more. One of them was a woman. The other martyr of Zaragoza was also a woman, Encrate, whose Greek name, 'Ey/c^ar^J?, has been corrupted into Engracias. Of her Pruden- tius uses an expression too applicable to many of the subsequent Spanish martyrs in a harsher sense than that in which the poet applied it to Encrate — violenta virgo. " Thou didst shame the spirit of the maddened world, a violent girl," sings Prudentius. Probably, in selecting the epithet, he was referring to Matt. xi. 12, " The kingdom of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force," and meant no more than to praise her bravery and firmness ; but, as we shall see hereafter, there were too many " violent girls," and boys, and men, in Spain, who brought death upon themselves by a wilful determina- tion to be martyrs. We may note in this a charac- teristic of the Spanish temperament which appeared both in the heathen and in the Mohammedan perse- cutions. Encrate courageously suffered while the flesh was torn from her sides, and her bosom cut off, and her breast pierced, after which she was thrown THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPAIN. 45 into a dungeon to die. Prudentius rightly says that ''though the envious sword of the persecutor refused to inflict death, the torments that she underwent gave her the martyr's crown." ^ The five martyrs of Cordova are Acisclus, Zoellus, and three others whom Prudentius speaks of under the name of the three crowns. Their names were Faustus, Januarius, and Martial. * They are described as meeting the magistrate Eugenius on his arrival at Cordova and declaring themselves Christians. Euge- nius first placed Faustus on the rack and tried per- suasion on Martial. Martial replied that there was no God but one, and He would punish Eugenius for his wicked acts. Eugenius placed him on the rack also, and desired that they should be tortured until they worshipped the gods, as the Emperor had ordered. Faustus replied that Eugenius had no gods to worship except Satan, who was his father. Euge- nius ordered his nose and ears to be cut off, and his eyebrows and upper teeth to be pulled out. Then he turned to Januarius and in vain urged him to avoid such torments. Failing with him, he turned once more to Martial, with no effect beyond making him confess his faith aloud. Eugenius ordered them to be burnt, and they died exhorting the bystanders not to worship the work of men's hands, wood and stone, gold and silver, but to confess Christ Jesus and to praise God every da3\ Justus and Pastor are the martyrs of Complutum or Alcala. In later times they were believed to be two schoolboys, who, as soon as they heard that ^ reristcph. vii. 133. 46 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Dacian had entered the town, ran away from school, presented themselves before him, and declared them- selves to be Christians, whom Dacian, when he found that lighter measures would not serve, ordered to be beheaded. PauHnus of Nola, in the year 391, says that he chose the place for his child's grave at Com- plutum near the graves of '' the martyrs," by which term he is supposed to mean Justus and Pastor. The relics of Justus and Pastor were taken to Bordeaux, and thence to the neighbourhood of Huesca, where they remained eight hundred years, when the Arch- bishop of Zaragoza sent two monks to steal them for a church which he had just built at Alcala. The monks succeeded in their attempt, but were over- taken on their way back and the relics were recovered. When Ximenes founded the University of Alcala, he appointed the incumbent of the Church of SS. Justus and Pastor as its first chancellor, and sent to Zara- goza for the relics, but was not able to obtain them. Alcala had to content itself with their cenotaph and the stone on which they had been beheaded, till Philip II., in 1568, made application to Pope Pius V. to order the Bishop of Huesca to send a part of them to Alcala, which was done in the same year. The Gerona martyr was Felix ; Barcelona supplied Cucufat. At Merida, which Prudentius calls the head of the Lusitanian towns, Eulalia suffered. To her Prudentius has devoted a hymn of 215 verses. She was a girl of thirteen years of age, living at some distance from the town of Merida, and her parents, knowing her temperament, locked her up to prevent THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPAIN. 47 her from demanding martyrdom. At night she con- trived to open the door, and, in spite of the darkness, ran at full speed to Merida. She arrived there in the early morning, and straightway entered the judg- ment-hall crying out, " Wretched men, are ye seeking for Christians ? I am one, and I hate your devilish rites ; I trample your idols under my feet, and confess God in my heart and with my mouth. Isis, Apollo, and Venus are nothing ; Maximian himself is nothing. They are nothing because they are made with hands ; he is nothing because he worships things made with hands. Both are nonentities, both are nothing. Maximian is the lord of wealth and the slave of stones. Let him give his own life to his gods, — why should he terrify noble hearts ? This good chief, this noble judge, feeds on the blood of the innocent ! Gloating over the bodies of good men, he tears out their entrails and rejoices to torture the faithful. Come, then, tormentor, with fire and knife, cut in pieces my limbs, made of the dust of the ground. It is easy to destroy a frail thing, but the soul within cannot be touched by the excruciating pain." The praetor strove to soothe her, reminded her of the sorrow which would fall upon her family if she was cut off in her tender age and before mar- riage ; pointed out to her the terrible instruments of torture, — she would be beheaded, or thrown to the wild beasts, or burnt alive. If she would only cast a little salt and offer a little incense with the tips of her fingers, she would be saved. Eulalia made no reply beyond spitting in the pra-'tor's face, throwing down the images, and trampling on the salt cake 48 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. which she was invited to offer. The torturers seized her, and tore her breast and side with the iron claw, while Eulaha triumphantly counted the wounds. "Thou, my Lord, shalt be written in my flesh!" thus she cried joyously and fearlessly without a tear or a groan. " What a pleasure is it to look upon these letters which are the marks of Thy victory, O Christ ! Thy sacred name is inscribed on me by the crimson of my blood." The torturers set burn- ing lamps against her side. The fire caught her hair as it hung down her shoulders and ran up to her head and face, and she tried to draw it into her mouth. Then Eulalia's spirit, milk-white, swift, in- nocent, was seen to come from her mouth in the form of a dove, whiter than snow, and to seek the stars. Her head fell as her hfe thus departed, the fiery pile died down, peace came to her worn limbs, a rejoicing breeze was heard in the sky, and the white bird passed into the lofty heavens. The executioner him- self plainly saw ■ it come from the girl's mouth ; astounded and terrified, he leapt up and fled from what he had done, and even the lictor took to flight. A wintry storm covered the whole forum with snow, and swathed the limbs of Eulalia as they lay under the cold sky in place of a white pall. The spirit shown by Eulalia was so entirely in accordance with the Spanish character, that the other provinces grudged Lusitania the sole possession of her. Barcelona claimed to have an Eulalia too, whose history is the same as that of Eulalia of Merida except in a few particulars of no importance ; it built churches in her honour and declared her patroness THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPAIN. 49 of the city. The martyrologists have for the most part admitted two Eiilalias into their catalogues/ The most famous of the Diocletian martyrs in Spain was Vincent, who was a native of Zaragoza, and put to death at Saguntum. Prudentius claims him as one of the glories of Zaragoza because he had spent his childhood there, and had been taught by the example of the eighteen martyrs of Zaragoza. He gives the following description of the scene between Vincent and the Roman magistrate. The magistrate is introduced saying, " The mighty ruler of the world who holds the Roman sceptre has commanded every- thing to submit to the ancient worship of the gods. You Nazarenes, do your part ; despise your ignorant rites and offer incense and sacrifice to these images which the prince worships." Vincentius answers, *' You may have those images for your gods, — -you may worship stocks and stones, — you may be the pontiff of dead gods, being yourself dead. We, Dacian, will acknowledge the Father, the Author of light, and His Son Christ, who is the only and true God." Dacian replies, " Barest thou, unblest one, to attack the rights of the gods and Emperors with angry words like these ? Those rights are over all things sacred and secular ; the whole human race acknowledges them. Are you not moved by the danger impending over your young life ? Take this as my decree ; either you must pray and offer sacrifice or incense, or you must pay the penalty with your 1 The Acts of the martyrdom of S. Eulalia of Barcelona, "taken from a Gothic codex of the monastery of Silo," are given by Florez, vol. xxix. p. 371 ; and h'.-r Life, written in the twelfth century, ibid., P- 375- 50 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. blood." Vincent answered, '' Use all the power and force 3'ou have. I resist you openly. Hear what I say. We confess Christ and God the Father ; we are His servants and witnesses; tear that faith out of our hearts if you can ; torture, the prison, the iron claw, the red-hot sheets of iron, and the extreme penalty of death is play to Christians. Oh, the emptiness of your vain efforts, and the inefficacy of the imperial decree ! You command the worship of deities suit- able to your own perceptions, made by the hand of the workman or moulded by the force of bellows, which have not voice to speak nor feet to walk, un- moving, blind, dumb ; for them spring up magnificent temples of splendid marble, — for them the lowing herds fall in sacrifice. Evil spirits are the authors of your crimes, who are aiming at your destruction, vagabonds of the air, powerless, base. It is they that stir you unconsciously to yourselves, and drive you into every wickedness, making you expel the righteous and persecute the pious. They know and feel that Christ lives and reigns, and that soon His tremendous sentence will be pronounced upon the wicked. Your gods, who are but demons, cry out and confess the truth, expelled from the bodies of the possessed by the virtue and name of Christ." Dacian cried out, " Close his mouth ; let not the villain utter anything more. I will let the insolent fellow feel the Praetor's power. He shall not mock our gods with impunity. Shalt thou be allowed, insolent man, to trample on the sacred rights of the capital, which all others adore ? Shalt thou be allowed to insult Rome, the Senate, and the Emperor ? Bind his hands THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPA IX. 51 behind him ; stretch him on the rack till his joints crack; then tear open his body till the wounds gape." The servant of God laughed at this, and chid their bloody hands for not fixing the claw deeper into his flesh. The strong men grew weary of mutilating him, and the muscles of their arms grew tired. He was more and more joyful, and his calm forehead shone free from any shadow, seeing Thee, O Christ, present. ^' What face is that ? " cried Dacian, beside himself with rage. '^ He is rejoicing, smiling, asking for more. The tortured is superior to the torturer. The torturer's force is of no avail here ; hold your hands for awhile." Vincent returned, " Do you see the power of your dogs failing ? Show them how to penetrate deeper — nay, yourself thrust in your hand and drink the warm blood. You are mistaken, bloody man, if you think that you are punishing me when you do to death my limbs, which are but mortal. There is a second man within, to whom no one can offer violence, free, calm, untouched, delivered from all pain. That which you are seeking to destroy with so great fury is but an earthenware vessel which can be broken in any way. You may try as you will to mutilate and torture him who lives within, and who tramples on thy madness, tyrant ! Attack him, you will find him unconquered, unconquerable, unsubdued by storms, subject to none but God." The Prsetor with serpent's guile hissed the following words, "If your obstinacy is too great to touch our altar with your hand, give up the concealed papers and books to be burnt with fire." The martyr replied, "Thou shalt thyself burn in that fire with which 52 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN, you threaten our religious books. The sword of the heavenly host shall protect the volumes, and thy poisonous tongue shall be burnt with lightning. The ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah are eternal witnesses of destruction, and they are an example to thee, thou serpent, who will soon be involved in sulphur and pitch in the lowest hell." Dacian ordered that he should be tortured with the hot iron bed and fire. Vincent hurried to the spot even before the torturers. He mounted unfrightened the fiery pile, as though he were stepping up to a lofty seat, conscious that his crown was now gained. He remained unmoved among his torments, as though feeling no pain, and as his hands were chained, he lifted his eyes to heaven. After this he was thrust into a gloomy dungeon, in which no hght entered, and his feet were fixed in the stocks, while sharp potsherds were strewn under his back. But Christ lit up the dark- ness of the prison with bright light, and the pot- sherds were clothed with soft flowers, and the odour of nectar filled the prison, and angels came and conversed with him. The jailer bore news of the miracle to the Praetor, and declared himself a Chris- tian. Dacian desired that the martyr should be carried from the dungeon and placed upon a bed, and there he died, if it is to be accounted death, and mounted straightway to heaven by the path which blessed Abel trod when slain by his impious brother ; and the white-robed choirs of saints surrounded him as he went on either side, and John Baptist, who had himself been delivered from a like dungeon, beckoned him onwards. Dacian resolved to throw his body to THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION IN SPAIN. 53 the wild beasts and dogs, but no bird nor beast dared to defile it by their touch, for a raven, once sent to Elijah, sat ever watching, and by the sound of its wings drove away a huge wolf, beating him on his eyes with his feathers. '^ I shall throw his corpse," said Dacian, " into the sea, for the mad waves have no mercy, and it shall be the food of fishes or dashed against a rock." Eumorphius, a violent and fierce barbarian, fastened a millstone to the body, and carrying it far from land, sank it in the sea. But the great stone swam, as if it had been foam, till it gently moved back again to the land, and they could not overtake it, though they tried. His soul was carried up to the abode of God, and took its place by the Maccabee brethren and Isaiah, who was sawn in sunder.^ Vincent is the most famous martyr that Spain produced. S. Augustine says, " What country, what province to which the Roman Empire and the Chris- tian name has been extended, does not now rejoice ^ Such is the account given by Prudentius, and it is probable that the other report of the martyrdom of Vincent which has come down to us, and is called the "Passion of S. Vincent," was founded on Prudentius' poem. The authorised report of the martyr's death is said to have been purposely destroyed by Dacian, and its place is sup- plied by this history, written by an unknown Christian. That the story of his death was committed to writing and read in Christian congregations is testified by S. Augustine, if the Sermons 274-277 attributed to him are genuine. Some of the words useil in the " Passio " are the same as those employed by Prudentius, and there is no material difference in the story. The various tortures, the fire, the dungeon, the angels' presence, the conversion of the jailer, the death on his own bed, the raven that protected his body from the wolf, the vain attempt to sink the body in the sea and its return to land, make the chief features of both accounts. It is more probable that the poem is the original source of the " P.i^sio " tiian tliat the "Passio" was versified by Prudcniius. 54 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. to celebrate the festival of S. Vincent ? " -^ Paulinus of Nola and Gregory of Tours also commemorate him. He is sometimes confounded with other Vincents, real and apocryphal, but his fame surpassed theirs, and that of any other Spanish martyrs. Four French cathedrals are dedicated to him, and the monastery of S. Germain des Pres accepted him as its patron. Besides the actual martyrs, there were confessors, of whom Prudentius names Caius and Crementius of Zaragoza and Bishop Valerius. Valerius we shall find returning from banishment on the cessation of the persecution, and making one of the Fathers at the Council of Elvira. A still greater man bore witness to Christ as a confessor in this persecution, namely, Hosius, Bishop of Cordova. The nature and degree of his suffering we do not know ; he merely states the fact of his confessorship. Happily for the Church, he was reserved to influence the counsels of Constantine, and to preside at the great Council of Nicsea. ^ Sermon 276. CHAPTER V. THE COUNCIL OF ELVIRA. On the cessation of persecution; the first act of the Spanish Church was to meet together in the Synod of Elvira, held in the year 305, or early in the year 306. Elvira was in the close neighbourhood of Gra- nada, and is represented by that city more than by any other in the present day. It was known also under the name of Eliberis or Illiberis. Nineteen Bishops were present, who signed in the following order : — Felix of Guadix, Sinagius of Epagra, Secun- dinus of Castulo, Pardus of Mentesa, Flavian of Elvira, Cantonius of Urci, Tiberius of Merida, Vale- rius of Zaragoza, Decentius of Leon, Melantius of Toledo, Januarius of Fibularia, Vincent of Ossonoba, Quintianus of Elbora (probably Talavera, but per- haps Ebora), Successus of Lorca, Eutychian of Baza, and Patricius of Malaga. Twenty- four priests also attended the Synod, and sat with the bishops. This list of prelates teaches us a great deal about the Spanish Church. The president is the Bishop of Guadix, a town which never had metropolitan dig- nity, either civilly or ecclesiastically. No doubt Felix held the post of premier bishop in consequence of his age, for the metropolitan system had not 3'et been developed in Spain any more than in Africa, and 55 56 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. (as in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States at the present time) the honorary primacy passed from See to See according to the age of the occupant. In the fifty-eighth canon of the Council mention is made of the Prima Cathedra Episcopatus. This expression is equivalent to Prima Sedes, which was the name given to whatever See was occupied by the oldest bishop in the province or country. It was shortly after this time that Constantino divided Spain into six or seven civil provinces, which led to an analogous division of the Church and a more strict metropolitan organisation. Hosius, who may have been vice-president of the Synod, as he signs next to Felix, probably held his pre-eminence rather from his personal character than in consequence of the greatness of his See, though that See was the famous town of Cordova ; for Hosius, who was at this time in the vigour of his early manhood, was already the greatest Bishop of the Western Church, and continued to be so for more than half a century. That the Bishop of Toledo should subscribe his name so low down in the Episcopal list shows how far that See was from having yet attained to the supe- riority which it afterwards enjoyed. The majority of the Bishops appear to have belonged to Andalusia, but the presence of the Bishops of Merida, Leon, and other northern cities show that the Synod is to be regarded rather as a national than a provincial council. Elvira was probably chosen for the place in which it was held owing to the convenience of its situation. The canons of the Council are not such as, under THE COUNCIL OF ELVIRA. 57 other circumstances, would have been passed by a convocation of bishops and clergy in the present day. This is only saying that the problems which the Church of Christ had to face in the fourth century are different from those with which it must grapple in the nineteenth century, and that the state of society then was not what it is now. In Spain the Church found herself, at the beginning of the fourth century, in a country abounding still with heathen inhabitants, where the Government recognised Paganism as the state religion. Furthermore, she found that the province had absorbed into itself the vices of the decaying civilisation of Rome. Spain was Romanised through and through, except in its mountain fast- nesses, but the Romanising, while it had brought with it material prosperity and comforts, had at the same time introduced a shameless immorality in regard to the relations of the sexes, by which the lives of nominal Christians, as well as of the heathen, were affected. Further still, she found that her own discipline was not yet settled and organised, and that she had not a sufficiently effective moral system wherewith to combat the immorality surrounding her. Under these circumstances the Bishops lead off with a series of canons condemnatory of idolatry and of concession to heathendom. Thirteen canons in all are directed against this evil, and two against Judaising. As to the method of dealing with carnal sins, they agreed on twenty-three rules or canons, twelve of them having to do with marriage, which Christianity had to purify and sanctify. Other im- moralities, such as false witness, sorcery, and usury, S8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SPAIN. are dealt with in six canons. The remaining canons, with the exception of two to which we shall recur, are framed with a view of strengthening and organis- ing the discipline of the Church as the means of counteracting the temptations of the world. Ten of them are on the subject of clerical discipline, twenty on Church discipline in general, and five on the way of conducting the Church services. The remaining two are on clerical celibacy and on the use of paint- ings in churches. The last of these is a canon of great importance, as showing the practice of the Church at the begin- ning of the fourth century, and giving the reasons for the practice. The canon runs as follows : — *' We determine that there ought not to be paintings in the church, lest the object of our worship and adora- tion be painted on the walls." That the prohibition of paintings in churches at this time and throughout the century was a rule of the Universal Church, is proved by the well-known act of Epiphanius in tearing down a curtain on which a figure was por- trayed, although he did not bear any authority in the district where the church was situated, on the mere grounds that it was contrary to the discipline of the Catholic Church to admit such representations into churches. The especial value of tin's canon is that it gives the reasons why, in the eyes of the Synod, paintings were inadmissible. The Bishops do not object to pictures of paintings on the score of their being pictures or paintings, but through the fear that, if they admitted any pictures at all, one class of paintings should find their way in, namely, those THE COUNCIL OF ELVIRA 59 which represent God or our Lord Jesus Christ, or any object of worship or adoration. The fear of admitting paintings representative of objects of wor- ship, and therefore conducive to idolatry, led the Synod to forbid all pictures en bloc. It is evident that the principle here laid down covers the case not only of pictures, but also of images. Nothing that might become to the congregation or to any member of it an object of devotion was to be admitted into a church. This was a characteristic which dis- tinguished a Christian church from a heathen temple. When Diocletian's soldiers broke into a church in Nicomedia three years previously, it is noted as a sign of their total ignorance of Christianity that they were surprised at not finding some representa- tion of what the Christians worshipped in it. It was not till the second Council of Nicsea, a.d. 787, that sanction was given to the adoration of images or pictures. For seven centuries Christianity is con- trasted with heathendom, as being entirely free from this corruption of spiritual worship. The other canon, whose consideration we have reserved, is of a different character, and reflects the harsh and stern asceticism for which Spanish church- manship has been too much distinguished. It forbids bishops, priests, and deacons to live as husbands with their wives.^ This is the first time that this rule appears in Church history. Not yet had man dared to exclude from the ministry of the Church married men, whom S. Paul had ordered to be specially selected for it, but here was a long step ^ Canon xxxiii. 6o HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. toward it ; for when the cohabitation of the clergy with their wives was authoritatively forbidden, it was only a question of time how soon, in spite of S. Paul, clerical celibacy should be imposed. S, Paul had enjoined on Timothy and Titus to select for the ministry persons who were " husbands of one wife," more exactly " men of one woman," by which, as Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret insist, he meant men of regular life, faithful to their wives, and keeping themselves only to them. The words were, however, understood by many to prohibit second marriages, and very soon not only second marriages, but all marriages after ordination were forbidden to the clergy. The next step was that which is em- bodied in the canon before us. But this curtailment of Christian liberty was never admitted by the Church at large. An attempt was made to force it on the whole Church at Nicaea, but that attempt was frus- trated by the firmness of Paphnutius ; nor did the discipline ever prevail in the East. It was the growth of the gloomy religiousness of Spain now first show- ing itself, and it was Spain that again led the way in enforcing it in the first Council of Toledo.-^ From Spain France borrowed it, the Councils at Aries and Macon, in the fifth and sixth centuries, denouncing the punishment of deposition on all clergy who prac- tised cohabitation, and thus it spread throughout the West. The East, on the contrary, looked on this rigorism with increasing disfavour, and at length, in the Council of Trullo, condemned by name the prac- tice of the Roman Church and vindicated the right ^ Canon i. THE COUNCIL OF ELVIRA. 6i of the clergy to be fathers of families.^ The Western discipline necessarily, and in no long time, led to celi- bacy on the part of the clergy, and to the consequent degradation of the general conception of marriage, as though it were a state inconsistent with the highest holiness and less chaste than single life. All the canons of the Council of Elvira are re- markable for their severity. So remarkable, indeed, are they for this characteristic, that the Synod has been charged with Novatianism. The first canon in particular has led to this accusation, for it forbids the restoration of those who have once lapsed and been guilty of offering sacrifice to idols. They can- not, says the canon, be received into communion, even at the end of their lives. This was the specific tenet of Novatianism, but it was not confined to that sect ; there was a stern and harsh school of teach- ing before the time of Novatian, sometimes formally ^ " As we know that the Roman Church has ruled that candidates for the diaconate or the presbyterate are to make profession that they will no longer live with their wives, we, oliserving the ancient canon of apostolical perfection and order, declare the marriages of all in holy orders are to be held valid, and we refuse to forbid cohabitation, and will not deprive them of conjugal intercourse at proper times. There- fore, if a man is found fit to be ordained subdeacon, deacon, or pres- byter, he is not to be refused on the ground of cohabiting with his wife. Nor at the time of ordination is any one to be required to profess that he will abstain from intercourse with his lawful wife, lest he tlius do dishonour to marriage, which was instituted by God and blessed by His presence, the Gospel declaring aloud, ' What God hath joined together let not man put asunder ; ' and the Apostle teaching, ' Mar- riage is honourable in all and the bed undefiled,' and, ' Art thou bound to a wife, seek not to be loosed.' If, then, any one, in spite of the apostolical canons, be induced to forbid priests, dcncons, and sub- deacons to cohabit and hold intercourse with their lawful wives, let him be deposed. And likewise if any priest or deacon dismisses his wife on the pretext of piety, let him be excommunicated ; and if he be obstinate, let him be deposed" (Canon xiii., Ilarduin. CoticiL, iv. 1666). 62 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. separating itself (like the Montanists) from those who were more humane in their opinions, sometimes re- maining within the borders of the Catholic Church. Elvira presents to us the teaching of this hard and stern school in all its harshness. We find in it the tenets of Novatianism, but it is in no way connected with the Novatian sect. Its harshness may be ac- counted for by two considerations : first, that it was made up of Spaniards, in whom religion has at all times worn a gloomy and morose appearance, its characteristic being rather the sternness of a grand and self-sacrificing asceticism than the pitifulness of a faith whose innermost principle is love ; and next, we must remember the circumstances under which the Council was called. The persecution had not been of the violent and bloody nature which characterised it in the East. Constantine had thrown his protecting shield over the professors of the new religion in the West ; yet the tyranny of Dacian had thwarted the intentions of the Caesar, and at least thirty martyrs had perished by the sword or by fire or by torture. This was not enough to cow those who were sub- jected to it, and the persecution which does not cow naturally brings out a spirit of resistance and fierce zeal in behalf of the assailed faith. Triumphant rejoicing in the courage of those who had resisted unto blood led to a contempt for those who had failed, and provoked a stern legislation to punish their weakness. Just emerging from persecution, which had irritated without crushing, they were not likely to be tender in the rules of conduct which they enjoined or the penalties which they imposed, but their severity THE COUNCIL OF ELVIRA. 63 does not give cause for charging the Synod with Novatianism. We may gather up, in conclusion, a few points which are indicated or impHed by the canons of the Council. The first of these is the existence of magical superstitions, shown by a practice which the Council had to forbid, of lighting candles by day and placing them in cemeteries, with a view of calling up or other- wise disquieting the spirits of the dead/ We see also that Christians had Pagan labourers on their farms, and that they had heathen slaves in such large numbers that they did not dare to deprive them of their idols for fear of a mutiny.^ The presence of a large number of Jews is also implied, the descendants probably of emigrants who had entered Spain from Africa about a hundred years before Christ. Chris- tians are forbidden to intermarry both with Jews and heretics,^ or to eat with Jews,* or to allow Jews to pronounce a blessing on the fruits given by God.^ A point of ecclesiastical discipline is proved by Canon liii., which orders that if a bishop receives into com- munion a man excommunicated by another bishop, he does it at his peril, and must prove before his brethren — that is, the Provincial Synod — that he was right in so acting, or be himself deprived of his office. This shows that the highest authority was not the metro- politan bishop, who did not yet exist in Spain, much less any bishop outside Spain, but the Synod of equal bishops. There was a first See,^' but this was the See occupied by the oldest bishop. An interesting 1 Canon xxxiv. ^ Canons xl., xli. ^ Canon xvi. ^ Canon 1. ^ Canon xlix. * Canon Iviii. 64 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. reference to such cases as that of Eulaha is found in the canon which forbids a man to be regarded as a martyr who has broken the idols and been slain for doing so ; and a wholesome reason is given for this regulation, " seeing that it is not written in the Gospel, nor will it be found to be ever done by the Apostles." ^ ^ Canon Ix. CHAPTER VI. BISHOP HOSIUS OF CORDOVA. The man who was no doubt the most influential member of the Council of Elvira, though too young to have officially presided over it, was Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, whom we may designate as the greatest man that the Spanish Church has produced. He was a native of Spain, and born about the year 256 ; he was, therefore, about forty- eight years old at the time that the Council was held. He states himself, in his letter to the Emperor Constantius, that he was a con- fessor in the time of Maximian, the Emperor's grand- father and the colleague of Diocletian. What the nature of his confession was — that is, what suffering he underwent — he does not tell us, nor have we any information upon the subject ; probably he was com- pelled to withdraw from Cordova at the time of the persecution of 303-304, which we know extended to the city of Cordova, in the same manner as S. Cyprian, under like circumstances, retired from Carthage. Cor- dova was at this time a city of great importance ; not long ago it had produced Lucan and the Senecas, afterwards it became the capital of the great Moslem Empire in Spain. The Bishop of Cordova, in the beginning of the fourth century, must have held a high position in virtue of his .'~^ce, without taking 05 66 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. into consideration the personal qualifications of the occupant. Not long after the Synod of Elvira there commenced that acquaintanceship of Hosius with the Emperor Constantine which was of such great moment to the Christian Church. When Constantine had succeeded his father in 306, he resolved to visit the provinces subjected to his jurisdiction."^ This would necessarily have led him to Spain, and there he found Hosius standing a head and shoulders above every one in the Peninsula, living at Cordova, which Constantine could not have failed to have visited. The Emperor was at this time in a mood to seek out Christian bishops and to note any among them who exhibited a statesmanlike capacity. There is little doubt that he invited Hosius to his side at this time. Six years later occurred the vision of the cross, and we may conjecture that Hosius was one of the chief of those "priests of God" whom we are told he at that time made his counsellors.^ From this time forward he seems to have been the chief influence at court until after the Council of Nicaea, when he was superseded in the imperial esteem by Eusebius of Nicomedia. Constantine appears to have used not only his advice, but his pen in writing imperial letters which affected the Church. In 313 we find him communicating the imperial will to Caecilian, Bishop of Carthage, in re- spect to the distribution of a grant of money. When the Donatists were condemned by Constantine in 316 at Milan, they attributed their failure to the influence of Hosius with the Emperor. In 321 Constantine ^ Eusebius, Lz/e of Constantine, i. 25. ^ Ibid. BISHOP IIOSIUS OF CORDOVA. 67 addressed to him a law which he promuli;altjd, sanc- tioning the iVeedom of slaves emancipated in the presence of the bishops or clergy. When the Arian controversy began, the Emperor employed Hosius, although he seems to have been unacquainted with the Greek language, to carry letters to Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and to Arius. But the contest between Arius and his opponents was not such as to be composed by the Emperor's exhortations to peace, or the counsels of the Bishop of Cordova, to whom the subtleties of the Greek theological terms had to be explained and translated, wherever the Latin tongue had an equivalent to the Greek expression. Hosius returned to Constantine reporting that throughout Egypt an obstinate conflict of opinion existed. Con- stantine on this resolved to summon the Council of Nicaea, which Sulpitius Severus states to have been done on the suggestion of Hosius.^ The Council of Nicaea was held in the year 325. The Emperor had summoned it, and to whom should he commit those functions which he was not able himself to perform in directing and presiding over the Council ? There were some great Eastern prelates present at the Council — the two Eusebiuses, Alexander, Eustathius of Antioch, Macarius of Jerusalem — but there was no one in the Western Church to come near to Hosius in reputation or character. Constantine, himself a Western rather than an Eastern, desirous above all things of peace, and distrusting and displeased with Eastern subtlety and love of disputation, would naturally have preferred a Western bishop, and of Western bishops Hosius, 1 ///St., ii. 55. 68 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. whose reputation stood highest, whom he had already employed in an effort to reconcile opponents, and by whose advice he had probably summoned the Council. Hosius was appointed to this office, as is shown by his name appearing first in the list of subscriptions. The eminent position which he held was perhaps due in part to his modesty, which would have commended him to the imperial favour as a man likely to soothe rather than sharpen conflict. The supposition that he presided as legate of the Bishop of Rome is an instance of an idea, which took its birth in a later age, being attributed to earlier times to which it is quite alien. The Bishop of Rome's jurisdiction at this time extended only from Perugia to the south of Italy, nor did he hold any eminence among his brethren except that which was derived from having the imperial city for his diocese. Owing to that position he was one of the few Western bishops summoned to the Council, where, being an old man, he was represented by two presbyters, who sign next after Hosius. When Baronius, Fleury, Hefele, and others maintain that he must have presided at the Council, and that therefore Hosius must have been his legate, they are imposing upon the Nicene age a theory that was altogether unknown to it. The idea apparently originated with Gelasius of Cysicus, a writer of little credit, who lived about 476, if the work attributed to him be genuine. Hosius owed his position to the Emperor's appointment, just as Marinus did at the Council of Aries in 314, at which Council the Bishop of Rome was similarly represented by two presbyters. As the Acts of the BISHOP HOSIUS OF CORDOVA. 6g Council of Nicaea have not been preserved, we cannot tell what part Hosius took in the debates, but from his general character we may infer, that while firmly maintaining the orthodox faith and the houio-ousion symbol, he was conciliatory and tolerant to the Eusebian party, which favoured Arius. He appears to have carried with him his patron the Emperor Constantine ; but already the subtle influence of Eusebius of Nicomedia was beginning to undermine that of the straightforward Bishop of Cordova. The year of the Council of Nicaea appears to have been the culminating point of Hosius' power at court. On the breaking up of the Synod he withdrew, like most of the other prelates, into retirement, and his place as ecclesiastical adviser to the Emperor was gradually taken by Eusebius. For twenty years after the Council of Nicaea, Hosius disappears from sight, but he was not idle. It would seem that he spent this time in the govern- ment of his important diocese, and in the organisation of the Spanish Church, performing for Spain a work similar to that done for England by Archbishop Theo- dore. In the earliest times Spain was divided into two civil provinces ; Augustus increased the number to three, and in the time of Constantine the three became five — Bsetica, Lusitania, Tarraconensis, Car- thaginensis, and Galicia, to which were afterwards added Tingitana, or the province of Tangier, and that of the Balearic Islands. Church organisation followed that of the state. Down to the time of Constantine there had been no metropolitans in Spain ; but with the constitution of the new civil provinces the tcrri- 70 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. torial organisation of the Church became more com- plete. Seville was raised to the highest civil rank in Baetica by being the residence of the Roman vicarius, becoming thereby the metropolis of the province. Cordova, however, where the Roman comes resided, rivalled it in dignity, and the fact of its being the See occupied by Hosius preserved its ecclesiastical pre-eminence during his incumbency and that of his successor. Seville then became the metropolitan See of the province, and round it were grouped ten suffragan dioceses.'^ The metropolitan See of Lusi- tania was Merida, and there were eight suffragan Sees.^ Tarragona was the metropolitan See of Tarra- conensis, and the suffragan Sees were fifteen.^ Car- thaginensis had at first Cartagena for its metropolitan See, but after a time it was superseded, as we shall see, by Toledo. In addition to these two, there were twenty-two bishoprics.* Galicia had for its metro- polis Braga, and there were thirteen suffragans.^ The person by whom the necessary adaptations of 1 (i) Italica or Old Seville ; (2) Niebla ; (3) Ecija ; (4) Cordova ; (5) Cabra ; (6) Elvira ; (7) Malaga ; (8) Medina Sidonia ; (9) Martos ; (10) Adra. 2 (i) Avila ; (2) Salamanca; (3) Evora ; (4) Coria ; (5) Beja; (6) Estoy ; (7) Lisbon (Olisippo) ; (8) Eidania. 3 (i)Tortosa; (2)Zaragoza; (3)Tarazona; (4) Calahorra ; (5) Oca; (6) Huesca; (7) Pampelona; (8) Lerida; (9) Barcelona; (10) Tarrassa; (11) Ausona ; (12) Gerona ; (13) Empurias ; (14) Urgel ; (15) Veleia. 4 (i) Alcala (Complutum); (2)0sma; (3) Pallentia; (4) Valera ; (5) Saguntum ; (6) Segovia; (7) Areas; (8) Oreto ; (9) Valencia; (10) Denia ; (ii) Xativa ; (12) Baza; (13) Mentesa ; (14) Salaria ; (15) Guadix ; (16) Segorbe ; (17) Castulo ; (18) Bigastrum ; (19) Alicante ; (20) Ergavica ; (21) Lorca ; (22) Urci. ^ (i) Dumium; (2) El Puerto ; (3) Coimbra; (4) Viseo; (5) Lamego; (6) Valencia ; (7) Leon ; (8) Lugo (itself for a time a metropolitan See); (9) Iria Flavia or El Padron ; (lo) Orense ; (11) Tuy ; (12) Astoiga ; (13) Oretagna. BISHOP HOSIUS OF CORDOVA. 71 church organisation were made was, we may con- fidently conjecture, Bishop Hosius, for we may feel sure that no great measures were taken affecting the Church of Spain during the first half of the fourth century without the controlling direction of the great Bishop of Cordova. Henceforth we may regard the Church of Spain as governed by five metropolitans and about seventy bishops."^ Hosius was never again summoned to the imperial court, and without the Emperor's summons no bishop might leave his diocese and approach it. In his absence Constantine fell under the influence of Euse- bius of Nicomedia, and when Constantius succeeded to the imperial dignity in 337, the court became altogether Arian. In 347 the Council of Sardica was held, the purpose of which was to effect a recon- ciliation between the Eusebian and Athanasian parties The most suitable man to preside over such a Council was Hosius, — orthodox himself and a hrm friend of Athanasius, but at the same time possessed of a breadth of mind and a spirit of toleration uncommon at all times, and specially during the period of the Arian controversies. Sardica was intended to be an (Ecumenical Council, and therefore, like all the (Ecumenical Councils, it was summoned by imperial authority. The Emperors at this time were Constans and Constantius, and Constans sent Athanasius into France, there to meet Hosius and conduct liim to Sardica, which was centrally situated, near the borders ^ The Jiotitm from vvhicli the details of the Sees is ilerived is of somewhat later date than that of Hosius, but it is probable that the Inter repre-ents the earlier list pretty accurately. 72 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. of the two divisions of the empire, in the country then called Illyricum. The Eusebian party numbered nearly eighty, the Athanasians nearly a hundred. Hosius pre- sided by imperial appointment, as he had done twenty years before at the Council of Nicsea. The Eusebians felt that, with the majority against them and Hosius in the chair, they would be defeated on all points at issue. They therefore took advantage of the presence and recognition of Athanasius and his friends to refuse to take their seats in the Council. They made a special appeal to Hosius to eject Athanasius as a man already condemned by the Councils of Tyre and Antioch. This demand Hosius refused, as the authority of an Oecumenical Council, which Sardica was intended to be, would supersede that of provincial councils, such as Tyre and Antioch. But he acted with great forbear- ance. He requested the Eusebians to bring forwaid their proofs against Athanasius either before the Synod or before himself personally, promising that if Athanasius were proved guilty he should not be allowed to sit. The Eusebians did not accept these terms, and on the plea that the Emperor had notified to them his victory over the Persians, and that they were therefore bound to offer him their congratula- tions, they took their immediate departure. Sardica thus failed to be an Oecumenical Council, for it did not represent the Eastern Church. The remaining Bishops, guided by Hosius, acquitted Athanasius, Marcellus of Ancyra, and Asclepas of Gaza, of the charges which had been brought against them, and drew up twenty canons, fifteen of which were pro- posed by Hosius in his capacity of chairman. They BISHOP HOSIUS OF CORDOVA. 73 deal for the most part with general church discipline. One of them (Canon iii.) is famous for having granted a right of appeal to the Bishop of Rome under the following circumstances. In case a bishop was deposed by his corn-provincial bishops, and was not satisfied with their decision, a letter might be ad- dressed to the Bishop of Rome, at the desire of the condemned person, by those who had pronounced judgment, and if the Bishop of Rome thought well, he might desire the trial to be renewed before the bishops of the neighbouring province, and might add to them some judges of his own appointment. This is the first sanction given by authority — the authority of a provincial council — to that system of appeals to Rome which afterwards took such portentous pro- portions. We see how limited the privilege was as proposed by Hosius and passed by the Council ; and even that concession was done away with by the (Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, which forbade appeals to be carried beyond the Patriarch or Exarch of each civil diocese, except in the case of Con- stantinople, where the rule was slightly relaxed, that city having become the lieadquarters of the imperial power.^ The Eusebian Bishops who parted from the West- erns at Sardica halted at Philippopolis, and there con- demned the prelates who had remained behind (speci- ^ The right derived by the See of Rome from the decree of Sardica is like that which would be enjoyed by the throne of Canterbury in any colony of the Lritish Empire where the Church of the country had granted to the Arclibishop of Canterbury permission to decide whether there should be a second trial in case of dissatisfaction with the result of a fust trial, and to send an Kngli'^h clergyman to assist the court. 74 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. ally naming Hosius) for holding communion with Athanasius, for supporting and companying with wicked men, and for persecuting one Mark, whom they pronounced to be of blessed memory.-^ The Council of Sardica was held in 347. Hosius no doubt returned to Spain, and we hear no more of him till the year 354, when Liberius, Bishop of Rome, addressed to him a letter full of respect for his consistency in opposing Arianism. Next year Constantine banished Liberius ; but that was not enough. The great ecclesiastic of the West was not the Bishop of Rome, but the Bishop of Cordova. Athanasius represents Constantius' Arian advisers as saying that they had done nothing until they had secured Hosius. The Emperor urged the old man to sign the condemnation of Athanasius. He refused with indignation, and left the imperial court. Con- stantius wrote to him, and received a vigorous reply which is still extant. In the year 357, when he had now passed his hundredth year, his presence was once more commanded by the Emperor at Sirmium. At this place a Synod was held, where there was published a heterodox creed, which Hosius was induced, ^' by stripes and tortures," says the historian Socrates, '' by repeated blows," says Athanasius, to subscribe. Great was the rejoicing throughout the Arian world. The pillar of Nicene orthodoxy had fallen. Hosius returned heart-stricken to Spain. Hilary of Poictiers says that he yielded in order that he might return to die and be buried in his own land. Almost as soon as he had reached home he ^ Hilaiy, Fragm. iii., vol. ii. 674. BISHOP HOSIUS OF CORDOVA. 75 was struck with paralysis. But before this occurred he had repudiated the concessions to Arianism which had been wrung from him by violence and fraud, and had returned to the orthodox faith, which he had consistently maintained throughout the greater part of a century. In him died the Bishop who stood next to Athanasius in reputation in the fourth century, nor has the Spanish Church ever produced a prelate equal to him since that time. CHAPTER VII. SPANISH CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. The tenderness with which Athanasius looked upon the fall of his old brother-in-arms, the champion of the faith in the West, as he in the East, is charac- teristic of the man. Formerly he had spoken of him as " the great Hosius, the father of the bishops," and extolled his ''blameless life."^ After he had given way he would not condemn him — he could hardly blame him ; " he yielded for a time, being aged and infirm ; " ^ " at the approach of death he abjured the Arian heresy, testifying to the violence which had been used towards him."^ But men of a different cast of character from Athanasius were not so forbearing. There are minds so constituted that the fall of a superior, when they have themselves stood firm, inspires them with a sense of sejf-satisfac- tion, and such persons do not spare the man whom they suppose to have sunk below their own level from any pity for his lost greatness. Such a man seems to have been Gregory of Elvira, known as S. Gregorius Baeticus. He was firm in maintaining the faith, perhaps so determined to be orthodox as to have passed the limits of orthodoxy and become a Luciferian; but at any rate, so bold in maintaining the ^ //t'sf. An'a/i. 46. 2 Apolprofitga. 5. ^ Hist. Arian. 45. 76 CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. jy truth, as to have won from Jerome the praise of having never mixed himself up with Arian pravity.-^ But Gregory was not large-hearted enough to make allowance for the decay of powers attending on such an age as that of a hundred years. He met the old man as he came back to die in his native land, and harshly refused to hold communion with one who had communicated with heretics. It is said, but on doubtful authority, that the disturbance of mind and temper caused by this rebellion against his quasi- patriarchal authority led to the stroke of paralysis which carried off the aged Bishop.^ Gregory seems to have outlived Hosius by about twenty-five years, and to have made a bold stand for the truth in the Arian Council of Rimini. The Metropolitan of Merida was of a different temperament from Gregory of Elvira. Florentius had accompanied his Bishop, Liberius of Merida, to the Council of Aries in 314. At Sardica he was pre- sent as one of the Bishops that composed the Coun- cil of the year 347, and there witnessed the great Hosius wielding the Council and determining what resolutions and decrees should be passed by it. When the broken-hearted centenarian came back from Sirmium, he met him kindly, and remembering rather what he had been than what he had at the last hour been compelled to do, he joined in com- munion with him as of old. But this act gave great offence to those who sympathised with Gregory in ^ Chronicle. ^ Marcellini et Faustini Presbyteronnn l.il)elhis Pieciim ; qiidtcd l^y Florez, Espafia Sagrada, vol. x. 78 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the harsh and intolerant view that he had adopted, and when, not long afterwards, Florentius fell down three times in a fit and expired in the church of Merida in the presence of a large congregation, his death was attributed by them to divine retribution. Faustinus and Marcellinus, the two Luciferian pres- byters to whom we owe the report of the manner of Hosius' death, held up Florentius' fate as a warning to backsliders.-^ The Metropolitan dignity had pro- bably been assigned to Florentius by the action of Hosius when he reorganised the Spanish Church a quarter of a century earlier. The first known Bishop of Lisbon, Potamius, is connected with Hosius' fall in a less creditable way. The same two presbyters who have given an account of the death of Hosius and Florentius state that Con- stantine induced Potamius to join the Arians by the offer of a farm, and Hilary of Poictiers, who has written against Hosius with an acrimony which is surprising and hardly intelligible, says that Potamius and Hosius together drew up the heretical formula which Hosius subscribed at Sirmium. No doubt this is an exaggeration, but Potamius seems to have signed and circulated the formula, and to have co- operated with the Arians. At a later date he again professed himself an Athanasian. He died, according to Faustinus and Marcellinus, as he was on his way to the farm with which Constantius had bribed him. He is the author of two sermons on Lazarus and Isaiah.^ Lisbon was known to the Romans under the name of Olisipo or Olisippo. 1 LibeUiis Prccum. ^ Pair. Lat, viii. I no. CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 79 The first ecclesiastical writer in the Church of Spain who has left any extant works, if we except Hosius' letter to Constantiiis, is a younger con- temporary of Hosius, Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona. Our knowledge of him is derived from Jerome, who tells us that he was " Bishop of Barcelona in the Pyrenees ; " that he was a man of chastened elo- quence, eminent for his life and writings ; that he wrote a book called the Cervus, and another against the Novatians, and that he died in extreme old age a little before 392. He was, therefore, born not long after the year 300, and probably succeeded Praetex- tatus, the first known Bishop of Barcelona, about the middle of the century. His writings have no local colouring, and were it not for Jerome's testimony, we should have judged him rather to belong to North Africa than to Spain. He was acquainted with Ter- tullian's writings, but his favourite author and master is Cyprian. The tenets that he opposes are those of Novatian, which do not seem to have prevailed to any great extent in Spain, though a tendency to them may be traced in some of the decrees of the Council of Elvira. The book called Cervus or Cervulus, directed against the profligacy accompanying the sports with which the heathen ushered in the New Year, is lost. There are extant three letters to the Novatianist Sympronian, and two treatises, one on Baptism, the other an Exhortation to Penitence. The letters to Sympronian contain first a defence of the word Catholic, which he says means " one and the same everywhere," or " obedience (not only to some, but) to all the commands of God " (Ep. i. 8) ; and next So HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. an arg-ument for restoration to church communion of those who have fallen into sin after baptism and have repented. The latter point he develops in his Parae- nesis or Exhortation to Penitence, which is instruc- tive in respect to the discipline of the Church in the fourth century. The Bishop begins with the command of the Synod of Jerusalem (Acts xv. 23, 24) to abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood, and from fornication, as the text of his treatise, and lays it down that there are three crimes which are mortal or capital — idolatry, murder, and fornication. Other sins may be amended by the earnest efforts of the sinner; if he has been guilty of niggardliness, he may force himself to per- form liberal acts ; if he has been morose, he may be kind ; if harsh, gentle ; if he has given way to levity, he may exchange it for gravity ; if he has cheated, he may be honest ; but any man who has been guilty of these three sins, idolatry, blood-shedding, fornication, must submit himself to the discipline of public peni- tence before he can be received back to church com- munion and obtain remission of his transgressions. He urges men guilty of these crimes not to be ashamed to place themselves in the ranks of the penitents ; they should not fear the eyes of their brethren ; if they did not hide their sins from the brethren, that is, if they would do public penance, they would thereby receive their cure ; the cure would be effected by cutting and by cautery, that is, by their bearing suffering and grief, as David bore them, and by their denying themselves the ordinary indulgences of life, as men unworthy of them, so they would obtain CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 8i Christ's absolution. There is no word here of private confession and absolution ; the time for that had not yet arrived. It is after the prayers of the whole Church that pardon is to be granted in case of true penitence, and even then there is to be no prejudging of the future judgment. Bishop Pacian was the father of Dexter/ to whom Jerome dedicates his book De Vt'ris Illnstribiis. It is probable, therefore, that he had not adopted those principles of asceticism which were beginning, in the name of chastity, to dis- honour marriage.^ During the last years of Pacian, or soon after his death, Barcelona received as a resident for some years in the city another author. Paulinus, know afterwards as Paulinus of Nola, seems to have been born in Bordeaux in 353, and he had the poet Ausonius for his tutor. After he had come to middle age he was baptized, and in 389 he transferred his residence to Barcelona. Here he married Therasia, a native of the town, and had a son, who died and was buried by his parents at Alcala, near the supposed graves of Justus and Pastor. Inheriting a large fortune by the death of his brother, he devoted the greater part of it to the redemption of captives and other works of charity. In 393 he was ordained priest by Lampius, successsor to Pacian in the See of Barcelona, and ^ Dexter, son of Bishop Pacian, held high office under Theodosius and Honorius. Jerome having stated that lie had written a chronicle, a chronicle under the name of Dexter was publislied in 1620. It is known by the name of Pseudo-Dexter, and was composed by a Spanish Jesuit, Jerome de Higuera. ^ Pacian's letters and treatises, translated into English, will be found appended to Cyprian's Epistles in the Library of the Fathers, vol. xvii., C'xford, 1844. Floiez prints them in vol. xxix. 82 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the following year he passed to Nola in Campania, of which city he became bishop ten or twelve years after- wards, and there he died in the year 431. Among Paulinus' correspondents were Sulpiciiis Severus, Jerome, and Augustine. His extant letters are fifty- one, and we have thirty-three poems by him. He was a man of pure life and ascetic piety. One of Paulinus' friends was Vigilantius, a native of Calahorra, and afterwards a priest in the diocese of Barcelona. As a boy, he was taken by Sulpicius Severus into his household, and he was sent by him to Paulinus, just after the latter had settled in Nola, with one of the letters which so frequently passed between the two friends. On his return to the south of France, where Severus was then living, he was ordained priest, and after his ordination set out on a journey to Jerusalem, taking Nola on the way, in order that he might see Paulinus once more, and obtain from him an introduction to Jerome, who had now taken up his residence in the Holy Land. He stayed with Jerome in his monastery at Bethlehem, but differences seem to have arisen between them on the subject of the quarrel between the Bishop of Jerusalem and the monasteries of Bethlehem, and on the question of Origenism. Jerome could not brook opposition, and Vigilantius, having fulfilled his pur- pose of visiting Jerusalem, returned to Europe, again passing by Nola, and being the bearer of a letter from Jerome to Paulinus. Having settled in Aquitaine, he became known among his compeers as a learned and travelled man, and his brother priests were surprised, and some of them were scandalised, to find that he CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 83 spoke against various practices which had grown up in the Church, and that he called them superstitions. These were the adoration of relics, night vigils, burn- ing h'ghts by da}^, false miracles, monastic " poverty," and celibacy of the clergy. He objected also to the amount of alms sent to the poor Christians in Pales- tine. Two of his neighbours, Desiderius and Ripa- rius, perplexed and confounded by these views, wrote to Jerome, whose reputation for learning stood higher than any one's but Augustine's, to ask his advice on the matter. Jerome had already imbibed a prejudice against Vigilantius, owing to their differences in Pales- tine and to his abrupt departure, and to his having spoken disrespectfully of Jerome's proceedings after his return to the West ; he was not therefore unwill- ing to strike a blow at the man who had offended him. He wrote at once to Riparius saying that no one adored relics, but that he could not answer Vigi- lantius without having his book (which he had written in the year 403) before him. Accordingly, Desiderius and Riparius sent him the book by the hands of a monk named Sisinnius, who was going to Jerusalem with alms and letters from the faithful in Aquitaine, and presents from Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse, in 406. Jerome delayed his answer, expecting Sisinnius to remain for a considerable time at Jerusalem, but the latter was called away suddenly, and Jerome had to write his reply at one sitting. His treatise bears signs of the haste in which it was composed, being rather an invective than an argument. It appears to have done little or no injury at the time to Vigilantius, who was supported by his bishop in Aquitaine, and 84 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. was shortly afterwards welcomed into the diocese of Barcelona. Vigilantius appears to have been a man who made an unsuccessful struggle against the tend- encies of his age. The stream was too strong for him. He made his protest ; it was all that he could do ; and he has earned a sinister reputation by the fact of having had Jerome for an opponent.^ Contemporaneously, as it would appear, with Pacian, Paulinus, and Vigilantius lived another Spaniard, C. Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus, who has the honour of being the first Christian poet in the Latin language, with the exception of Commodianus, an African bishop of the previous century. He has versified the history of the Gospels, taking the prae-vulgate version as his text, and employing the hexameter metre. He begins with the early chapters of S. Luke, and then passes to S. Matthew, whose order he follows, introducing long passages from S. John. His purpose appears to have been not only to gratify his poetic tastes, but also to lead people to the study of the Holy Scriptures. The style is very far more classical than that of Com- modianus, the latter disregarding, or being ignorant of, the ordinary rules of prosody, while Juvencus does not often transgress them. This would show that he was a man of culture, as indeed is proved by the acquaintance which his poems exhibit with Virgil and Ovid." ^ See Dr. Gilly's Vigilantius and his Times. London, 1S44. ^ There exist fragments of a history of the Old Testament, written in something of the same style as the Historia Evangelica, which has been attributed to Juvencus. They were first supposed to be a com- position of S. Cyprian ; then they were given to Juvencus on the faith of a ninth-century manuscript ; next they were attributed to Aldhehn, on the authority of a MS. found in the Library of Trinity College, CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 85 Juvenciis led the way to a greater poet, Aurelius Prudentius ClemenS; born not far from the Pyrenees in 348. He was a man of good birth, and held high office at the Emperor's court. Becoming deeply affected by religion, he withdrew from public life and lived in Spain, to which he was much attached, com- posing religious poems, from which we derive most valuable information respecting the Spanish martyr- doms during the Diocletian persecution. Prudentius, who is as superior to Juvencus as Juvencus to Com- modianus, has formed his style on Horace in his lyrical pieces, and he shows an intimate acquaintance with Virgil. The first section of his lyrical poems, entitled Cathcmerinojiy consists of hymns for cockcrow and matins, before dinner and after it, at the lighting of lamps and at bedtime, at the beginning of a fast and at its conclusion, a hymn that may be sung at any hour, a funeral hymn, hymns for Christmas-day and the Epiphany. The second section is called Peri- ^tephanoUy that is, "About the (martyrs') crowns." It consists of fourteen hymns or poems on the Spanish and some other martyrs. Many of the poems were written specially for the festivals of the martyrs com- memorated. The Spaniards that he celebrates by special poems are Emetherius and Chelidonius of Calahorra, Vincent of Zaragoza and Valencia, the Cambridge. This MS. was lent by Dr. Whewell to Cardinal Pitra, who went back to the theory of the authorship of Juvencus. At present the poem is supposed to have been written by Cyprian, Bishop of Toulon, in the sixth centurj'. As it extends from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Book of Judges, it is known by the name of the Heptateuch. See "The Latin Heptateuch Critically Reviewed," by John E. B. Mayor, M.A., Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, iSSg. , hut 88 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Prudentius' reference in the Libri contra SynnnacJiuni to the battle of Pollentia shows that he Hved beyond the year 403. There were two Spaniards who lived at the end of the fourth century whose names must not be omitted though they lived out of Spain, for they affected in different degrees the fate of the whole Western Church. These are Damasus, who was elected Bishop of Rome in succession to Liberius in the year 366, and Theo- dosius the Emperor. In the struggle between Liberius and the Anti-Pope Felix, Damasus appears to have temporised, and had taken part with each in turn. On the See being vacated by Liberius' death, Damasus and Ursicinus were each elected to the dignity by opposing factions. The two parties closed in fierce strife, stormed and de- fended churches, and massacred their opponents where- ever they had the opportunity, without paying regard to the sacred character of church or basilica, till the Emperor was obliged to appoint a non - Christian governor of Rome to put down the tumults which stained the city with blood. Damasus emerged suc- cessful from the strife. As soon as he became Pope, he resolutely took his stand as a supporter of ortho- doxy, a promoter of Papal authority, and a patron of the monastic party in the Western Church. He made the ascetic Jerome his secretary, and flattered him by appealing to his well-known learning for explanations of Scriptural difficulties. Jerome became his attached friend, and commends him as an advocate of celibacy, tlieir authenticity is uncertain. Tlaey are called Diptychon or Ditto- chcEon. CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 89 ^* who wrote both poems and prose in favour of vir- ginity." Damasus may have brought with him from Spain his tendency to monasticism, or he may have adopted it as the representative of that party in Rome to which Jerome's correspondents Marcella, Paula, Blesilla, and Eustochium belonged. Whether it were the traditions of the Council of Elvira or the imperious exhortations of his secretary which led him to assume the position which he adopted, the fact of his adopting it, combined with Gratian's law of the year 378> extending the authority of the Bishop of Rome to the provinces, had its effect upon the whole Western world. Milman fixes on the pontificate of Damasus as an epoch in which three great changes commenced. It was the starting-point of the Papacy in its progress towards sovereignty; in it monasticism sprang into an importance previously unknown ; the possession of its own Latin Bible in Jerome's translation gave a sense of Latin, as distinct from Catholic, unity, which was pregnant of results. Damasus died at the end of 384, and was succeeded in his See and in his policy by Siricius, whom we shall find addressing to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona, the first of the series of Decretal Letters which is supposed to be genuine. The other Spaniard who lived out of Spain had still more influence on the world's destinies. Theodosius I. was born in 346 at a town in Spain called Cauca. He was the son of an elder Theodosius, an able officer, who was treacherously executed for fear of his aiming at the Empire. Theodosius, the son, had fougiit bravely and successfully in Britain and in Germany, and on liis father's death, to avoid sharing his fate, lie retired to 90 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. his native place, and there hved in obscurity for three years. In the year 379 Gratian summoned him from Spain and appointed him co-Emperor with himself. He took up his residence at Thessalonica, and there, at the beginning of the following year, he was baptized by Bishop Ascolius. From this time forward, Theo- dosius' ecclesiastical policy was unwavering in its tendency, and carried out with the resolution of a soldier and the uncompromising sternness of a religious Spaniard. He determined to put down Paganism and heresy, and to give the support of the secular arm to the Orthodox Church. Paganism was now nodding to its fall, and did not require any direct legislation or action of the executive to bring it to the ground. The monks, who in the East were established in great numbers, were allowed their way. They organised mobs for the destruction of heathen temples, and the Emperor stood by and was gratified at the destruction being effected without the action of his government. With heresy he had to take a bolder course. Arianism was at the time dominant in the Eastern Empire, and in his first edict, issued in the second year of his reign, Theodosius commanded his subjects to conform to the faith which S. Peter had preached, and which Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria were then preaching, which faith was the equality of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, the maintainers of which doctrine were alone worthy to be called Catholic Christians. At the end of the same year he made his entry into Constantinople, dispossessed the Arian bishop, and substituted Gregory of Nazianzus in his place. The next year he published a law commanding all the CHURCHMEN OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 91 churches to be given up to the orthodox, and for- bidding the Arians, Photinians, and Eunomians to meet for public worship.^ The Macedonians and ApoUi- narians were treated in the same way.^ Theodosius' chief adviser was Ambrose of Milan, and Gregory of Nazianzus seems also to have influenced him through Nectarius of Constantinople. The opponents of the Orthodox Church being thus put down, the Emperor passed a number of laws elevating the position of the clergy and giving secular privileges to the bishops. It has been observed that Theodosius was a thorough Spaniard in his courage, which made him a victorious general ; in his fits of rage, which caused the massacre of Thessalonica, and brought upon him the well-known rebuke of Ambrose ; and in his devotion to the cause of the Church and his submission to her prelates. He died A.D. 395. Contemporary with Theodosius was another Spanish Emperor — a Spaniard both by birth and character — Maximus the Usurper, A.D. 383-385, whose history, so far as Spain is concerned, is mixed up with that of Priscillian. ^ Cod. Theod., xvi. i. 3, v. 6-S. 2 Ibid., xvi. V. 14. CHAPTER VIII. PRISCILLIANISM. Priscillianism at the end of the fourth century, and Adoptionism in the eighth century, are the two spe- cially Spanish heresies. Yet PrisciUianism, though taking its form in Spain, can hardly be said to have derived its origin in that country. -It was apparently a theosophy compounded of Gnostic, Manichean, and Docetic elements. With the Manichees, Priscillianists held an antagonistic duaHsm, represented by light and darkness, materialism and spirituahty. The Gnostic theories respecting the creation of the universe were revived, and astrological speculations were added to them ; each member of the human body being sup- posed to be under the special control of the several signs of the zodiac — the head ruled by Aries, the neck by Taurus, the shoulders by Gemini, the breast by Cancer. The Old Testament Scriptures were allego- rised. The body assumed by Christ was counted a phantasm. The feast days of the Church were se- lected as fast days, especially Christmas-day, on which Christ assumed a material body, or the appearance of it. Abhorrence of matter led, as it had led before, into extreme asceticism, readily exchanged, through contempt of matter, for wild licentiousness. The Pris- cillianists were the first religionists who justified lying, 92 PRI5CILLIANISM. 93 on the principle that the end justified the means, and that they were not bound to truth except in dealing with one another. Those whom they counted to be heretics had not a right to truth at their hands, and falsehood to them was justifiable if the end was good.^ The first propagator of this system was one Mark, an Egyptian, who is said to have come from Memphis into Spain, and there converted a Spanish woman named Agape and a rhetorician called Helpidius. They in turn made a convert of Priscillian, a man of good moral character, great enthusiasm, learning, and elo- ^ S. Augustine describes the Priscillianists as follows : — "The Pris- cillianists, established by Priscillian in Spain, are in the main followers of the Gnostics and Manicheans, who^e doctrines they combine ; but they are a sink into which foulness has flowed from other heresies, making a horrible confusion. To hide these impurities, they make the following one of their dogmas, 'Swear and forswear, but do not betray our secret ' [Jtira, perjura^ secrettim proaere noli). They say that souls are of the same nature and substance as God, and that in order to perform some voluntary work on earth, they descend through the seven heavens by certain gradations, and so come into contact with an evil principle, by whom the world was made, who distributes them among various fleshly bodies. And they hold that men are bound up by fate with stars, and even our bodies are composed according to the twelve signs of the zodiac (like in this to those called physical philo- sophers), placing Aries in the head, Taurus in the neck, Gemini in the shoulders, Cancer in the breast, and going through all the other signs one by one till they reach the feet, which they give to Pisces, which the astrologers call the last of the signs. The heresy is made up of fanciful ideas, foolish or sacrilegious, which it is not worth while to discuss. They will not eat flesh as being unclean food j they separate married people, without ;he consent of one of the parties. Whenever they can ; for they attribute the formation of all flesh not to the great and true God, but to evil angels. They are cleverer than the Mani- cheans in this, that they do not reject the Scriptures, but read them together with apocryphal wriings, and acknowledge their authority, but change whatever in Ploly Scripture is against their erroneous views into their own sense by an allegorising process. On the subject of Christ's nature they are Sabellians, saying that tlie Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are in all respects one and the same " (/^' Ihcns., Ixx., Op,, toin. viii. p. 44, ed. Mignc). 94 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. quence, with a strong love of acquiring knowledge and devoted to subtle inquiry. Priscillian was a wealthy man, well known, and of great influence. His adop- tion of the new views made them popular, and very soon they were embraced by two bishops — Instantius and Salvian. Hyginus, or Adj^ginus, Bishop of Cor- dova, the successor of Hosius, was the first to move in opposition to the new sect. He wrote to Idacius,^ Metropolitan of Merida, and urged him to take steps in defence of the faith. Idacius answered to the call made upon him with a vehemence which shocked Hyginus and made him recoil. His object had been to recall those who were gone astray. Idacius was bent on prosecuting and punishing offenders. Hyginus felt bound to resist the violence of his colleague, and by degrees became the apologist for the heresy which he had been the first to denounce. It was determined to hold a Synod at Zaragoza to consider the course that should be adopted. It met in the year 380, and was composed of bishops of Spain and Aquitaine. The Priscillianist bishops were summoned to attend, but knowing themselves to be in a hopeless minority, they absented themselves, and in their absence were condemned. Instantius and Salvian were deposed, and two laymen, Helpidius and Priscillian, were excom- municated. Ithacius, Bishop of Ossonuba or Sossuba, was commissioned to promulgate the decrees of the Synod, and to declare Hyginus of Cordova also ex- communicate for the favour that he had shown to the 1 Idacius is spelt Hydatius by Priscillian himself. See Scliepss^ Priscilliani qua superswit. Prague and Vienna, 1889. These Remains contain none of the heresies attributed to the Priscillianists by S. Ausjustine or Leo. PKISCILLIANISM. 95 heretics. At the same Synod eight canons were passed directed against PrisciUianist practices: — (i.) Women were not to attend conventicles ; (2.) No one should give up going to church in Lent and attend a conven- ticle, nor fast on Sunday ; (3.) Whoever failed to consume the Holy Eucharist in church should be anathema ; (4.) Every one was to go to church daily from December 17 to the Feast of the Epiphany, and they were not to go with bare feet; (5.) A person excommunicated by one bishop was not to be received by another ; (6.) A clergyman becoming a monk on the plea of the monastic being a higher hfe was to be excommunicated; (7.) No one should profess himself a teacher without being duly authorised ; (8.) No woman should take vows of virginity under forty years of age. These canons give us a blurred picture of the Priscillianists holding conventicles in opposition to the Church, setting themselves up as teachers without her authority, fasting when churchmen feasted, refusing to consume the sacred elements in church, advocating the ascetic life, run after by enthusiastic ladies, who took vows while still quite young ; if forbidden the exercise of the ministry by one bishop, seeking permission to officiate in the diocese of another. The PriscilHanists were not terrified by the action taken at the Synod of Zaragoza. They determined to strengthen their own ranks, and in order to do this effectually, their chief, Priscillian, a layman just excom- municated by the Synod, was consecrated Bishop of Avila by Instantius and Salvian. The opposite party appealed for aid to the civil power. Gratian in reply issued an edict forbidding the PriscilHanists tlui use of 96 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the churches and pronouncing upon them the doom of banishment. The PrisciUianists determined on invok- ing the aid of the Churches beyond the boundaries of Spain. Ambrose of Milan and Damasus of Rome were the most prominent churchmen of Europe, as there was at this time no leading prelate of France. Instantius, Salvian, and Priscillian, therefore, set off to lay their case before them. They passed through Aquitaine, making proselytes as they went. At Bordeaux Bishop Delphinus repulsed them, but they succeeded in attaching a lady named Euchrocia so warmly to their cause, that she joined them on their journey with her daughter Procula, and afterwards suffered death in their behalf. Neither Damasus nor Ambrose would listen to them. Like Idacius and Ithacius, therefore, they turned for help to the civil power. They won over Macedonius, a man of influence in Gratian's court, and by his means obtained a rescript ordering that they should be reinstated. They returned to Spain, and not only recovered their lost churches and dioceses, but found themselves in a position to take the aggres- sive. Ithacius, in turn, had to fly the country as a disturber of the pubHc peace. He escaped to Treves, the residence of Gregory, the prefect of Gaul and Spain, and laid his case before him. It was determined that a judicial examination must be held, and this was ordered to take place before the (civil) Vicar of Spain, whose name was Volventius. Ithacius did not dare to trust himself in Spain, and remained at Treves, where the bishop and the prefect were both in his favour. At this conjuncture, a revolution overthrew Gratian and raised Maximus to the imperial dignity. Maximus, PRISCILLIANISM. 97 being himself a Spaniard, was interested in Spanish affairs, and it was his policy to be the patron of the orthodox party. When, therefore, he came to Treves in 384, and Ithacius appealed to him, the tables were once more turned. Ithacius, but lately the defendant, became again the prosecutor, and a Synod was sum- moned at Bordeaux to determine the question between him and the Priscillianists. The Synod was held in 385. Instantius made his defence, which was also the defence of his party. He was condemned and deposed. Priscillian, finding himself in a minority, appealed to the Emperor, and his appeal was carried before Maximus. S. Martin of Tours was at the moment at Treves, and as long as he was present no measures were taken, but on his leaving the city, Ithacius' party, reinforced by two bishops named Magnus and Rufus, persuaded the Emperor to pass sentence on the Priscillianists. It was Maximus' policy to cover his usurpation by a profession of orthodoxy, and he was not unwilling to show himself to the world as its champion by an act then first perpetrated, but too often afterwards repeated. Bishop Priscillian, two presb3^ters named Felicissimus and Armenius, two deacons, Asarinus and Aurelius, a layman, who was also a poet, called Latro- nianus, and the wealthy lady Euchrocia, were con- demned and beheaded. Bishop Instantius and a man named Tiberianus were banished to the Scilly Islands, and some others were punished in like manner. Ithacius' violence overshot its mark. Theognistes at Treves, Ambrose of Milan, and Martin of Tours separated themselves from communion with the Ithacians. In Spain Priscillian was revered as a saint and martyr, 98 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. and Piiscillianists so increased in number as almost to take possession of Galicia. Maximus resolved to crush them by means of commissioners sent into Spain for the purpose. Martin of Tours besought the Emperor to refrain from further severities. Maximus made it a condition of listening to his intercession on that subject and on another for which he had come to petition the Emperor, that he should communicate with the Ithacians. Ambrose had refused under any circumstances to do so, but Martin yielded and took part with the Itha- cian bishops in consecrating Felix Bishop of Treves. In consideration of this concession the imperial com- mission was countermanded. We have here a rehearsal, on a small scale, of what was hereafter to make Spain a shame among Christian nations. The Church, not content with spiritual punishments, hands over the heretics to be put to death by the civil power, and Ithacius antici- pates the future Inquisitor. The rest of the Christian world, represented by Ambrose and Martin (but not, so far as we read, by Damasus), vainly endeavour to . prevent the crime about to be perpetrated in the name of Christ, and exclaim against it when accomplished. But the example has been set, and it will be followed. It is some satisfaction to know that both Idacius and Ithacius had to resign or were deprived of their bishoprics, and, according to the testimony of Isidore, who lived about 200 years after these events, Idacius was banished. Priscillianism could not openly resist the master of a hundred legions, but it continued to exist as a secret sect, and, for its self-defence, it adopted the principle PRISCILLIA NISM. 99 that falsehood was permissible in a man who had cause to conceal his religious opinions — ^' ad occultan- dam religionem religiosos debere mentiri." Against this view, afterwards taken by other religionists,^ Augustine wrote a treatise to which he gave the name Contra MendaciumP' The orthodox, angry at being baffled by the deceit of the sectarians, were tempted to think that they might meet them with like weapons. Augustine earnestly protests against any such idea. It is doing evil that good may come, and it would be equally justifiable to meet robbery with robbery and sacrilege with sacrilege. Their justification of lying was the point in which Priscillianists were worse than any other heretics. They -justified it by saying that they had the truth in their hearts and only uttered what was false with their lips ; but, says S. Augustine, on that principle no martyr need have suffered death ; they might have declared themselves Pagans, keeping the truth concealed in their hearts, which in matter of fact those that denied Christ did. Dictinnius, Pris- cillianist Bishop of Astorga, had written a book called Libra ^ in which he attempted to prove the right of employing falsehood from examples in the Bible. S. Augustine discusses many of these, and concludes that either they are not cases of lying, or, if they are, they * See S. Alfonso de' Liguori's Thcologia Aloralis, lib. iv., and the Treatise of Equivocation approved by Garnet and Blackwell. 2 Op.j vi. 518, ed. Migne. ^ S. Augustine says tliat it was so called because divided into twelve qucBStioJieSy as tlie Roman libra or pound was divided into twelve ounces, and that it was regarded by the Priscillianists as "more precious than many thousand pounds of gold." — Contr. JMeiid., 5. Possiljly there is a play upon the word, which means also a pair of scales, in wliich doctrine might W wciL'hed. H loo HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. are not intended for our imitation. Lying, he insists, is no more permissible than any other known sin, and those CathoHcs who allowed themselves in falsehood for the sake of discovering the intrigues of the Pris- cillianists were more guilty than the Priscillianists themselves ; if the heresy could only be laid bare by deviating from strict truthfulness, let it remain con- cealed ; but that would not be the case, for its charac- ter and proceedings might be learnt from the converts made from it, and its tenets might be refuted in fair argument. The same cause which led the defeated Priscillianists to take up their theory of untruthfulness made them also adopt the practice of accepting from the hands of the priests the consecrated elements, and secretly refraining from consuming them. This is condemned as a sacrilege in one of the canons of the first Council of Toledo, held in the year 400. Fifteen years afterwards, in 415, Orosius^ found it necessary to consult S. Augustine about the PriscilHanist tenets, which he describes in a manner which shows that they were altogether perplexing and unintelli- gible to him.^ S. Augustine, in reply, disproves their doctrine that the soul of man was consubstantial with God, but passes by their cosmical and astrological opinions, probably counting them undeserving of re- futation.^ To Bishop Ceretius he wrote a letter point- ^ Orosius appears to have been a native of Braga, but a volume of 400 pages folio has been written by Dalmasses y Ros to prove that he was born in Tarragona (Barcelona, 1702). ^ " Consultatio sive Commonitorium Orosii ad Augustinum de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum." 0/>. Attgtistini^ torn. viii. p. 666, ed. Migne. 3 Ibid,, p. 670. PRISCILLIA NISM. loi ing out the worthlessness of the apocryphal Scriptures relied on by the Priscillianists, and especially of a hymn which they said was the hymn which our Lord and his Apostles sang before going to the Mount of Olives (Matt. xxvi. 30).^ In the year 444, a body of Priscillianist schismatics was found to be in existence in Rome, and was con- demned by a Roman Council held by Leo L A little later, a Bishop Turribius, said to be successor to the Priscillianist Dictinnius, is supposed to have written to consult Leo as to the measures he should take to cope with the sect,^ with which his diocese continued to be overrun, though Dictinnius had himself conformed to the Catholic faith. The reply attributed to Leo is of much value for the determination of the character of the PrisciHianist heresy.^ To crush it finally, the writer is made to advise the convocation of a National Synod, or, if there were obstacles to that course, of a Provincial Synod. To carry out this supposed in- struction of Leo's, two anti-Priscillianist Synods are represented as having been held in the year 447, one in Galicia, at Astorga or Celenas, the other at Toledo. ^ Ep. ccxxxvii., Op., torn. ii. p. 1034, ed. Migne. 2 No such letter of Turribius to Leo is extant, but Morales in 1577 {Cor. xi. 26) published a letter supposed to have been wriiten by him to Bishops Idatius and Cyronius on the repression of Priscillianism, and giving some information respecting his own life. The Bishop Idatius here mentioned may be the same as the chronicler ; Cyronius cannot be identified. Tlie letter appears to be written by a layman or 1 resbyter, not by a bishop. It is rejected by Baluzius and Ilardouin as spurious. The history ordinarily given of Turribius is derived from that letter, and is therefore without foundation. 3 Epist. xciii. in Labbe and Cossart's Councils. Lucretius, Metropo- litan of 15raga, at the fnst Council of Braga, A.i). 561, stated in Synod that this letter was addressed by Leo (not to a Bishop Turribius, but) to a Galician Council " by the hands of Tu:iil)iu>', the notary of his See," I02 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. No such Synods were held, but there exists a creed and eighteen anathemas which were pubHshed among the Acts of the first Council of Toledo, A.D. 400, though they could not have been issued by it. Creed and anathema (whatever is their date) were alike directed against Priscillianism, and had no other con- troversial purpose ; but the creed incidentally contained an expression which preluded to a battle that should be waged centuries after Priscillianism was forgotten. For this is the first creed in which the formula '^ Pro- ceeding from the Father a7id the Son " occurs.^ It was not this creed, however, that raised the question which has since divided the East and the West, but the creed of the so-called Third Council, in which the words ^^ and the Son " were interpolated into the (Ecumenical Creed of Nicaea and Constantinople. The present creed was an original composition by the members of the Council that promulgated it, and the offence of altering an QEcumenical symbol was not committed. The clauses of this creed which deal with Priscillianism are the following : — (r.) "And the body of Christ is no imaginary one, no phantom, but real and true ; (2.) We believe that a resurrection of human flesh will take place, and we teach that the human soul is not a divine substance or like to God, but a creature made by the Divine will." The eighteen anathemas — too accordant with the spirit of the Spanish Church — declare accursed all who say or believe (i.) that the universe is not created by 1 Or shall we say that the presence of these words indicates that the creed and anathemas belong to a later date, when there was a recru- descence of Priscillianism, and the first Council of Braga was held to condemn it, a.d. 561? PRISCILLIANISM. 103 Almighty God ; (2.) that the Father is the Son and the Holy Ghost ; (3.) that the Son is the Father and the Holy Ghost ; (4.) that the Holy Ghost is the Father and the Son; (5.) that the Son took flesh, but not a human soul ; (6.) that Christ is incapable of being born; (7.) that Christ's godhead is capable of suffering a change ; (8.) that the God of the Old Tes- tament is not the God of the New Testament ; (9.) that the world was made by any other than the true God; (10.) that there is no resurrection of the bod}^; (11.) that the soul of man is part of God and of His substance ; (12.) that there are other than the Canoni- cal Scriptures to be held as authoritative; (13.) that Christ had but one nature, made up of the godhead and manhood; (14.) that anything is more extensive than the Holy Trinity ; (15.) that astrology and Mathesis are to be believed in; (16.) that marriage is abominable; (17.) that flesh is to be abstained from as abominable. The eighteenth anathema declares accursed all who follow the Priscillian heresy on the above points, or alter the baptismal formula (which the Priscillianists did by omitting the word " and " from the clause '' of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost "). The first Synod of Braga, held as late as the year 563, condemned Priscillianism in similar terms and with equal severity, and after that time it is heard of no more as a living heresy.^ ^ Seventeen anathemas are directed against Priscillianism in this Council ; they condemn Priscillianism on the score of its Sabcllianisni, Gnosticism, Photinianism, Marcionism, Manichreism. The Council was presided over by Lucretius, Metropolitan of Braga. Strangely enough, the works of Priscillian, discovered by Schepps in 1S85, and published in 1 889, do not contain any tenet which can be regarded as Sabellian, Gnostic, Photinian, Marcionite, or Manichcean, and they I04 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. The " Consultation " which, as we have seen, Orosius laid before Augustine, shows that Galicia was troubled not only by Priscillianism but by the Origenistic con- troversies. The latter, however, were but the echo of the storm that was raging in the East, where the Arians were claiming Origen as their progenitor, and the Ortho- dox were either, with Athanasian, denying their right to do so, or, if they were less clear-sighted or less large-minded, condemning him with them. Some travellers brought back with them the controversy to Spain, but it did not take root there. The necessity which fell upon the Peninsula in the fifth century to resist Arianism proper left no room for quarrels over Origen's doctrines, which were little known in the West. Orosius was not contented with consulting only S. Augustine. He extended his journey to Beth- lehem, taking with him an introduction from S. Augus- tine to the other great oracle of the Church at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century, S. Jerome, who was well versed in the Origenistic question. The quarrel between Jerome and John, show Priscillian to be an imitator, if not a follower of, Hilary of Poitiers. Was it later Priscillianism which added heresy to Priscil- lian's crime of opposition to the Spanish hierarchy? Yet this hypo- thesis would hardly account for the representations of Orosius and Augustine. Probably the explanation is that Priscillian's theosophical works are still undiscovered. Yet we have in Schepps' volume his Apology and his statement of doctrine laid before Damasus. In this he condemns and pronounces anathema on the Patripassians, the Novatians, the Nicolaitans, the Sun-worshippers, the Planet-worship- pers, the worshippers of Sacks, Nebroel, Samael, Beelzebub, Nebro- deus, Belial, Armazdel, Mariame, Joel, Balsamus, Barbilon, the Docetse, the Manichaeans, the Ophites, the (Gnostic) followers of Saturninus and Basilides, the Arians, the Photinians. Ought not the renunciation of so many heretics to have secured him from being put to death himself for heresy ? How could such grim orthodoxy have led to such a fate ? PRISCILLIANISM. 105 Bishop of Jerusalem, involved Orosius, and John charged the latter with blasphemy — an accusation which arose from the fact that one of the two did not know Greek and the other did not know Latin. Orosius set off on his return to Spain, carrying with him the alleged relics of S. Stephen, which the Church of Braga coveted. On his way he put in at Hippo to deliver a letter of Jerome's to Augustine. The latter was at the time occupied on his work De Civitate Dei, and he per- suaded the Spanish presbyter to remain with him and write a history, or an epitome of the history, of the world, which might serve to justify the assumptions made in the De Civitate. Orosius, proud to be em- ployed as a fellow-workman by Augustine, delayed his journey home for a year, and in that time wrote the work for which he is known. It does not profess to be original, except at the end, where the author relates contemporary events, but it is valuable as a compilation from historians, secular and sacred, and at one time enjoyed a high degree of popularity.^ Orosius, at the end of the year, set sail for Spain, but he did not pro- ceed farther than Minorca, from whence, terrified by the disturbances which were taking place in Spain, he returned to Africa in the year 417. We may pause here to take a retrospect of the Church of Spain during the first four centuries, before ^ The work in later limes became known by the name of Ormesta (niundi), a title which, under its various forms of Ormista, Ormesia, Hormesta, Ilormista, caused much difficulty and many conjectures to later writers. The most likely explanation is that it represents in a contracted form Or. m. ista., i.e., "Orosii mundi istoria." riiillott, in "Dictionary of Christian Biography." io6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. it entered upon the new phase of existence which was awaiting it in the fifth century. Christianity, whose cradle was in the East, was first preached in the great Eastern cities, in Jerusalem, Damascus, Antioch, Ephe- sus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth. From the East it passed westward to Italy, and in Italy to Rome, the then centre of the world. Thence it natu- rally spread to Gaul, and from Gaul to the right hand and to the left, over the Pyrenees to Spain, across the Channel to Britain. But who were the instruments for conveying the Word of Life to each of these coun- tries we do not know. The Gospel came to them, but it came not with observation. The traditions of the Spanish Church do not go back further than the middle of the third century, and all that is reported before that time is legendary, with the possible excep- tion of the visit of S. Paul to the Peninsula. But though we cannot name the person through whom Christianity was introduced and propagated, we are able to see that it spread fast. The original inhabitants of Spain, Iberians and Celts, had given themselves up to their Roman masters, and were proud to be provincialised. They readily exchanged their language for Latin, and the thoughts and beliefs of the Capitol became the thoughts and beliefs of Spain. There were still Pagans in the fourth century in the Peninsula, as there were Pagans in Rome, but by degrees Spanish Paganism died out, hardly waiting for the stern measures of Theodosius to consummate its extinction, and Spain became a Christian country. The doctrines of the Church of Spain were the same as those held by the Church CathoHc in the first four PRISCILLIANISM. I07 centuries, that is, they were those Christian truths which are embodied in the creeds. Towards the end of the fourth century the veneration naturally felt for those who had died as martyrs for the faith led to an excessive regard being paid to them, and an over- estimate of the value of the unmarried life was growing up. These two tendencies caused future evils in those directions, but up to this time none of those super- stitions which disfigured Mediaeval Christianity had emerged, except to be condemned as specifically the tenets of certain heretical bodies external to the Church. In like manner, the discipline of the Spanish Church was the same as that of all the other local churches, which together formed the Church Catholic, that is, the Church was governed and officered by bishops, priests, and deacons, with some inferior ministers, and those bishops who presided over the cities of chief authority in the various civil districts were invested with certain powers and privileges not enjoyed by their brother bishops, who, however, were in all essentials their equals. Each of the five provinces had its metro- politan, under whom each Provincial Church formed, like each diocese, a whole in itself, and the five Provincial Churches thus resulting were combined into a greater whole by their union into a National Church, the con- trolling authority over which resided in a Synod con- sisting of representatives from each province, and therefore from the entire Churcli of the nation. In tlic fourth century tlic Catholic Church was made up of fourteen such churches, namely : (i.) the Roman Church, comprising the southern half of Italy, and presided over by the Pope of Rome ; (2.) the Italian io8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Church, consisting of the northern half of Italy, and presided over by the Exarch ^ of Milan ; (3.) the African Church, under the Primate of Carthage ; (4.) the Egyptian Church, under the Patriarch of Alexandria ; (5.) the ''Asiatic" Church, under the Exarch of Ephe- sus ; (6.) the '' Oriental " Church, under the Patriarch of Antioch ; (7.) the Pontic Church, under the Exarch of Csesarea ; (8.) the Thracian Church, under the Patriarch of Constantinople; (9.) the Dacian Church, under the Exarch (apparently) of Sardica ; (10.) the Macedonian Church, under the Exarch of Thessa- lonica ; (11.) the Illyrian Church, under the Exarch of Sirmium; (12.) the Galhc Church, under seventeen metropolitans, but without an Exarch; (13.) Britain, under its metropolitans (probably five in number), with no Exarch over them; (14.) Spain, under the metro- politans of Seville, Merida, Braga, Tarragona, Cartha- gena, but with no Exarch. Each of these Churches was self-governed, and did not recognise in any prelate outside its own borders any spiritual authority or right of oversight. At the same time, when any heresy arose with which the native Church found difficulty in coping, it naturally turned for help to some neighbour- ing Church which appeared likely to be able to give the required assistance. Thus the Church of Britain appealed, not in vain, to Gaul for aid in putting down Pelagianism; the Church of Spain, as we have seen, had recourse in its first difficulty to the Church of Africa and its great pontiff Cyprian. After that time it had within its own ranks the wise and able Hosius, •'• The titles Exarch^ Patriarch, and Primate are equivalent, meaning the chief bishop of each great civil division of the Empire, which was called a " Dioecese " (Siot'/o^dis), PRISCILLIA NISM. 109 and therefore required no extraneous helper. After his death appeal was made by Paulinus, Desiderius and Riparius and Orosius to SS. Augustine and Jerome; by the Priscillianists to Damasus of Rome and Ambrose of Milan, and the precedent unhappily set in the reign of Constantine of calling in the imperial power was followed both by the prosecutors of Priscillian and by Priscillian himself. We do not find any authority vested in or claimed by the Bishops of Rome or exer- cised by them in Spanish Church affairs before the law of Gratian and Valentinian in the year 378, which enacted that all metropolitans in the Western Empire, and all bishops who chose, were to be tried before the Bishop of the imperial city in case of any charge being made against them. This decree of Gratian gave by imperial authority to the Patriarch of Rome a similar position to that which was given to the Patriarch of Constantinople by ecclesiastical authority at the Council of Chalcedon, which extended the jurisdiction of the latter Patriarch over the Churches of Pontus and '^ the East." Up to the time of Gratian's law all suits had to be settled within the Church of the nation where they had arisen. The encroachment made by that law was the more easily effected because there were no exarchs of the Churches of Gaul, Britain, and Spain, as there were of the other eleven Churches, but only metropolitans without a special head of their own, whose duty it would be to maintain their rights. From this time forward the idea of the authority of the Patriarch of Rome being extended throughout the provinces of the Western Empire was no longer alien to the sub- jects of the Western Emperor. The first Spaniards no HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. that took advantage of the new s}'stem were PriscilHan, Instantius, and Salvian, who, on being condemned at the Synod of Zaragoza, made appeal to Damasus as well as to Ambrose. Damasus' successor, Siricius, claimed some power outside his own Church if he wrote the letter which goes under his name to Himerius,^ and so did Innocent I., who came next but one to Siricius, if he wrote the letter, supposed to have been composed by him at the instance of Hilarius.^ Half a century later, Leo I. not only claimed but exerted an authority un- known to any bishops of Rome until the law of Gratian had invested them with a coercive power not before pos- sessed. That coercive power was still further enlarged, on Leo's entreaty, by Valentinian IIL, A.D. 445, and it was then exercised by Leo, not as though it had been derived from the Emperor, but on the novel plea that he, as Bishop of Rome, had succeeded to the privileges of S. Peter, the first of the Apostles. Like Siricius, ^ Who was this Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona ? Siricius professes to write in the first year of his episcopate, that is, a.d. 385, and he speaks of Himerius as liaving been long in office — ex antiquitate sacerdotii hii. Now there was a Council of Zaragoza, which the Metropolitan of Tarragona would naturally have presided over, held in 380. Twelve bishops were present. The president was Bishop Fitadius, and there was no Himerius there. The name of Himeiius does not appear in the catalogue of bishops published by the Council of Tarragona in 1555. There is a Eumerius in 334, that is, fifty years before Siricius, and a Nicomerius elected in 390, that is, five years after the date of his supposed letter. ^ Who was this Hilarius? Florez conjectures that he might have been a Bishop of Tarragona, but the name does not occur in either of the Tarragona lists, or in any other list of Spanish prelates of the date. He is said by Innocent to have gone to Rome, and to have caused him to M'rite his letter. That letter does not appear in the collection of Dionysius Exiguus ; it is addressed to a Council, not of Toledo, but of Toulouse ; of the two extant copies of it, one is half as long again as the other ; it is only in the longer copy that Hilary's name is found, and it is there spelt once as Hilarius, the other time as HelKiiu?. PRISCILLIANISM. in we find Leo represented as addressing a Spanish bishop, called Turribius, concerning the affairs of the Spanish Church.^ Whether these Papal rescripts are genuine ^ Who was this Turribius? If documents of doubtful credibility are to be regarded, there were at least four Turribiuses ; — (i.) Pope Leo's Italian notary, said by Lucretius, Bishop of Braga, to have brought Leo's letter to Spain (which Idatius says was brought by the Deacon Pervincus). (2.) Pope Leo's correspondent, said to have been Bishop of Astorga. Legend, partly founded on a letter supposed to have been written by him to Idatius, and Cyronius, says that he travelled abroad and spent fave years in Jerusalem, where he was made custodian of relics, some of which he brought back with him and deposited in the Church of San Salvador in Oviedo, wliilher he had been summoned by King Alonzo the Chaste, who lived in the eighth century ; that he wrought a miracle of healing on the Suevic king's daughter, who lived in the fifth century ; that he was elected Bishop of Astorga in 444, immediately succeeding Dictinnius, who died in 420 ; that he was charged with a carnal crime by a deacon, and disproved it by taking up in his hands some burning coals and carrying them round the church in his rochet (this word is not known till the tenth century), while he sang the Psalm Extirgat Dens ; that he discovered some Manichees in Astorga and drove them out in 445 ; tliat he wrote a letter against Priscillianism to Idatius and Ceponius, which is rejected, by Baluzius as spurious ; tliat he wrote a letter, and a consultation, and a treatise on the same subject to Pope Leo I., none of which exist ; that he received a reply from Leo, the genuineness of which is ques- tioned; that he held a Synod at Astorga to carry out Leo's instructions, which never was held, and caused another to be assembled at Toledo, which probably had no existence ; that he flooded Palcncia by making a river rise till the inhabitants, who were Priscillianists, were converted ; that he deprived Astorga of rain because the people had driven him out, till they begged him to come back again, on which rain fell and all the bells of the city rang of themselves ; that he was taken prisoner by King Theodoric wlien he defeated the Suevi and captured Astorga in 465 ; that he died in 480, in Palentia according to the Roman Martyr- ology, in Lievana according to the Astorgan Breviary, to which place he had retired, having resigned his See and having built a church in which to be buried. (3.) The third Turribius was a monk, not a bishop, who founded the monastery of S. Martin de Lievana. (4.) The fourth was a Bishop of Palencin, to whom Montanus of Toledo is supposed to have addressed a letter in 527, which represents him as a jiowerful and suc- cessful opponent of Priscillianism. This letter is designated by Mr. Ffoulkes as **a clumsy forgery" (Diet. Ant., s.v, Toledo). vSimilar difficulties attend the next case of a supposed communication between a Pope and Spain. Pope Ililnrius is said to ha\c corrc- 112 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. or not (and it is certain that criticism has not been sufficiently trenchant in declaring eighty-five out of one hundred and eleven Papal Decretal Letters up to this date to be forgeries, and looking on subsequent letters as genuine), Spanish independence was not affected by them, nor, so far as we can trace, had the thought of subjection to the See of Rome, any more than to the See of Carthage, or Hippo, or Milan, been even contemplated by Spanish churchmen. In 431 we find Vitalis and Constantine, two Spanish presbyters, appeahng for counsel and help, not to Celestine of Rome, but to Capreolus of Carthage. ponded with Ascanius, Bishop of Tarragona, but Hilarius' date is 465, and one of the two Tarragonese catalogues places Ascanius in 564, and the other assigns his death to the year 578. So many documents which profess to be historical records of the early Spanish Church were forged in the eleventh century, that it is idle to attempt to reconcile their con- tradictions. A living Spanish historian, Vicente de la Fuente, says of Spanish Church history of the eleventh century, " We swim in a sea of fable " {Historia Ecclesiastica de Espafia, iv. 105, Madrid, 1873). CHAPTER IX. GOTHIC SPAIN— THE GOTHIC CONQUEST OF THE PENINSULA. * For the first four hundred years after the Christian era, Spain lay secure under the lee of its Pyrenean range of mountains, and the still more ample protection of the Roman Empire, which appeared to be more solid and firm than even the eternal hills. But the time was now come when the effects of the shocks given to the Empire with increasing force by the barbarous nations of the North should reach the most distant province of the West. Already, in the reign of Marcus Antoninus, Rome had been terrified by a combination of the wild German tribes, and in the time of Decius a Roman emperor had fallen in fair fight with the Gothic barbarians. Spain herself had suffered in the reign of Gallienus by a sudden flood of Prankish in- vaders, who poured across the Pyrenees, sacked Tarra- gona, and overwhelmed the whole of the astonished Peninsula. But the torrent passed away as it came. When no more was left in Spain to ravage, the Franks seized some boats, and crossing the strait to Africa in search of further conquest, disappeared from the view of the Spaniards with the same rapidity with which they had broken upon their sight. The Peninsula lifted up its head again and found itself little the worse for the visitation. The irruption of the year 409 was 113 114 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH CF SPAIN. of a very different character. In that year a vast body of barbarians, Vandals, Suevi, and Alani, burst over the Pyrenees, reduced the whole Peninsula to subjec- tion, and estabhshed themselves as lords of the soil. The Vandals and Suevi were of German, the Alani of Scythian, origin. The Vandals are first found as near neighbours of the Goths to the south of the Baltic. Like the rest of the German nations they moved southwards, eastwards, and westwards, some of them appearing in Bohemia, some in Moravia, some in Pannonia, some in Dacia. A vast body of them joined Radagaisus in his invasion of Italy, and on his death before Florence they made their way into Gaul, with their comrades in arms, the Suevi and the Alani, in the year 406. The Suevi were a kindred German race, consist- ing of several tribes whose original home was a httle below that of the Vandals, from which spot they mi- grated southwards to the banks of the Rhine. The Alani were not of Teutonic blood. Thrust forward by the Huns and other barbarous tribes, they pushed westwards from Scythia and settled down for a time in various places, whence they easily moved again. In 375 they took part in the overthrow of ttie Gothic kingdom of Hermanric; after which, with barbarian levity, they joined the Gothic and other roving bands in assailing the Empire, and from that time are found in close connection with the Teutonic tribes. In the two years which followed 406 the allied marauders made themselves masters of Gaul. Town after town fell before them, and the open country was ravaged at their will. No help came from the Emperor GOTHIC SPAIN. 115 Honoriiis, but at this time the British claimant of the Imperial purple, Constantine, landed at Boulogne, and gathered under him such as still remained faithful to the Roman name in Gaul. Spain acknowledged his authority after a slight resistance made by four brothers of the house of Theodosius. But she did not thus pur- chase peace for long. Gerontius, the lieutenant of Con- stantine in Spain, revolted from him and set up a third Western Emperor, Maximus, who took up his residence at Tarragona for the short time that he was allowed to play the Emperor. Both Constantine and Maximus paid the penalty of their ambition with their lives. Meantime the Vandals, Suevi, and Alani, who had poured into Gaul in the year 406, were still at large in that country. They amounted to more than 100,000 men, and having wasted the fair lands of France, they looked about for new fields to ravage. Up to this time the Pyrenees had served as a secure protection to Spain from the Northern barbarians, except for the passing invasion of the Franks in the time of Gallienus. The defiles had been guarded by Pyreneeans well acquainted with their native mountains, and until these defiles were forced or betrayed, the rich plains beyond the mountains were inaccessible from the north. But when Constantine sent troops to reduce Theodosius' kinsmen in 408, he transferred the guardianship of the mountains from the native forces to his own troops, drawn from all parts of the world and careless of the fate of Spain. The Vandals, Alani, and Suevi, still holding together as in 406, saw their opportunity- and seized it. The mercenary guards joined the in- vaders, and the barbarian tide rolled over the range I ii6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. of mountains into the plains beyond on Tuesday, 28th September, A.D. 409. The first employment of the invaders was the plunder and robbery of the natives and settlers, who had grown rich and unwarlike in long years of peace. It was little to them that famine and pestilence followed in their wake so long as they had still something to wrest from the unhappy owners of the soil. But when all was gone except bare fields and stone walls, they found it necessary to establish themselves in the conquered territory, and to compel their subjects to cultivate for their masters the lands which but now were their own. The only risk was lest they should quarrel with one another over the spoil. To prevent this they divided the country between them. The Vandals, some of whom were called Silingi, seized Andalusia and Granada. The Suevi appropriated Galicia, Leon, and Castile. The Alani established themselves in Portugal and Estremadura. The foundation of three barbaric kingdoms were thus laid under Gunderic, King of the Vandals; Hermeric, King of the Suevi; and Atace, King of the Alani, the previous inhabitants of the Peninsula being reduced to a state of serfdom. The helpless Provincials looked in vain to the Western Emperor for succour. Honorius, in his marsh-girt refuge at Ravenna, was as helpless as they, and his great Minister, Stilicho, was dead. Vengeance was wrought on the oppressors of Spain, not by the armies of the Roman Empire, but by another body of Northern invaders, who were singly more powerful than the three allied nations combined. Natives, apparently, of Scandinavia, the Goths migrated to the south of the GOTHIC SPAIN. 117 Baltic, and thence about the year 180 they moved to the Eiixine Sea, and spread themselves along its northern coasts and the country lying on the northern banks of the Danube. Their first serious conflict with the Empire led to the defeat of a Roman army and the death of the Emperor Decius in battle. Checked for a time by the skill of the Emperor Claudius, surnamed Gothicus, and again by the Em- peror Constantine, they turned their aims and energies eastwards, and built up a powerful and independent kingdom in the wild country stretching from the Baltic to the Euxine, under Ermanaric or Hermanric, of the noble family of the Amaling. The kingdom was shat- tered, almost as soon as constituted, by an invasion of the Huns, who in the end drove the Goths before them to the banks of the Danube, which they were permitted by Valens to cross — an error of judgment for which the Emperor paid with his life, being killed in the battle of Hadrianople, A.D. 378. The firm hand of Theodosius restrained the triumphant barbarians, but as soon as that was removed, the weakness of the Empire and the power of the Goths made themselves conspicuous. Under their young King, Alaric the Bal- thing, the invaders swept through Greece, penetrated Italy, besieged and captured Rome, and carried away with them the Emperor's sister, Galla Placidia, as a prisoner. In the midst of his successes and victories Alaric died. His brother-in-law, Ataulphus or Atawulf, who was elected in his place, entertained no such far- reaching scheme of conquest as Alaric, and was willing to lead his Goths across the Alps, to carve out a kingdom for themselves in Southern Gaul. But, lacing pressed Ii8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. onward by the Roman commander, Constantine, and invited by the suffering Spaniards, he followed in the steps of the Vandals, Suevi, and Alani, led his troops across the Pyrenees in the year 414, seized Barcelona, and made that town his royal headquarters. Before he had time to subdue his Vandal rivals in Spain he was assassinated ; and as the next king, Sigeric, reigned only seven days, he could do nothing in that direction. But his successor, Wallia, made it a condition of peace between himself and the Empire that he should have the Emperor's authorit}^ for the reduction of the other Northern invaders in Spain, and he at once threw him- self upon the Vandals, and then upon the Alani, with such fierceness that he drove the former to take refuge under the wing of the Suevi in Galicia, slew Atace, King of the Alani, and compelled his subjects to give up their national character and attach themselves to the Vandals or Suevi. Honorius and Constantine, perhaps fearing that the Goths would establish them- selves too firmly in Spain, recalled them to the other side of the Pyrenees, giving them a territory which, enlarged by their owji swords, became the Gothic kingdom of Toulouse. The Vandals meantime, having recovered their old possessions in Andalusia, after some fighting with the Suevi, accepted Boniface's invita- tion in 426 and sailed across the strait to Africa under Guiseric or Geiseric, brother of their first king, Gunderic. There they created for themselves a kingdom, which flourished for a hundred years, until it was finally overthrown by Justinian's great general, Belisarius. The Suevi, disembarrassed of both of their powerful antagonists, found themselves masters of the Peninsula, GOTHIC SPAIN. 119 except so far as their dominion was cliecked by the guerrilla bands of Bagaudae which competed with them in plundering the fields belonging to the inhabitants of the cities, who cowered behind their walls. Spain became the prize for which the Emperor from Ravenna, the Goths from Toulouse, and the Suevi in Galicia con- tended. The position of the Suevi on the south of the mountain barrier gave them an advantage which they were not slow to make use of, until at length they provoked Theodoric, the second Visigoth King of that name, to make an expedition against them, which ended in the capture and death of Rekiar, their King. Theodoric's brother, Euric, who came to the throne in 466, completed the conquest of the Peninsula, and from that time Spain may be regarded as a posses- sion of the Goths, the Suevic kings being allowed to reign in the north-west corner of it as vassals of their Gothic masters. Euric's son, Alaric, lost his French dominions and his life in battle with the Franks in 507 ; and the kingdom of his son, Amalaric, and his suc- cessors was exclusively Spanish, with the exception of a strip of the French coast which constituted the pro- vince of Narbonne. Spain itself was occupied by (i) the Goths, now lords of the country ; (2) the old inhabitants of the land, known by the name of Romans, subjects of the Goths; and (3) the Suevi, confined to Galicia and the northern half of Portugal, vassals of the Goths. The three nations which were hereafter to be welded into one (one of the three being already formed of a threefold fusion of Iberians, Celts, and Romans) were as yet ruled by different laws and held different forms of religion. The Provincials had lived hitherto under the 120 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Roman law, and in dealings with each other they were still permitted to retain that law, not yet put in per- fect form by Justinian, but adapted for their use by Alaric II., the Visigothic King. The Suevi had no written code of laws, but they had followed the practices and maxims which they had brought with them from the North. The Goths themselves could boast the first of the barbaric Codes, which was drawn up for them by their great King, Euric, who in this respect set a noble example to the Northern invaders of Southern lands.^ In respect to religion, the Provincials had learnt the common faith of Christendom, which, because it was held throughout the Church from East to West and from North to South, was called the Catholic faith, that is, the faith not of one or another local Church, but of all the federated Churches which together con- stituted the Universal Church. The Suevi had entered the Peninsula heathens, and they retained their Northern mythology until the reign of their third King, Rekiar, A.D. 448, who adopted Christianity for himself and his people in order that the Suevic Royal Family might the more easily intermarry with that of the Goths. The form of Christianity which they adopted was Arianism, which they retained till 560, when, in the second year of King Theodemir, they exchanged it for that which was known as the Catholic or common faith of Christendom. The Goths entered Spain a civilised nation, as com- pared with the three other invading hordes, and they entered it as Christians, but the form of their Christi- anity, like that of all the other Germanic tribes, was Arianism. The reason of this belongs to the early ^ See Canciani, Barharonuii Leges, Venetiis, 1789. GOTHIC SPAIN. 121 history of the race. About the middle of the third century the Goths, returning from one of their phmder- ing raids, had brought back to Dacia from Cappadocia a band of prisoners, who intermarried with their captors and settled with them in the country north of the Danube. The grandson of one of these captives was Ulphilas or Wulfila, born early in the fourth century. In 332 Wulfila accompanied some Gothic ambas- sadors to Constantinople, and remained behind in the new capital when the ambassadors returned home. He there entered the priesthood, and was consecrated as a missionary bishop about the year 340. He re- turned to Dacia, and occupied himself so successfully in converting his countrymen that a violent persecu- tion of Christians was set on foot by the Gothic King, Athanagild, on which Wulfila obtained leave from Con- stantius to cross the Danube with such of his flock as chose to follow him, and he established himself with them in Moesia. The effects of Christianity here ex- hibited themselves in a remarkable manner. Of the whole Gothic race these Goths alone took no part in the fierce wars which devastated the world. They led a quiet pastoral life, enjoying a peace the charms of which none of their compatriots could understand. Wulfila himself was occupied not only with the epis- copal supervision of his flock, whom he taught to read and write, but also in the translation of the Holy Scrip- tures into the Gothic tongue, which served to confirm not only his Moesian shepherds, but the mass of the Gothic race in Christianity. The whole body of his Christian converts had not followed Wulfila into Moesia. Many remained on the north side of the 122 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Danube, and through their exertions and those of the bishops and missionaries of Pannonia, the Goths — Ostrogoths and Visigoths aHke — embraced Chris- tianity. But it happened that the Court rehgion at Constantinople at the time of Wulfila's education in that city was Arian. He was probably conse- crated by an Arian prelate, and he took part himself, A.D. 360, in a Synod at Constantinople, which pro- nounced, according to the Acacian formula, that our Lord's nature was not the same as that of the Father, but only like to it. The bishops of the country along the banks of the Danube were also Arians who held that particular tenet. The consequence was that the Goths — both those of Moesia and those of Dacia — became Arians at the same moment that they became Christians. Thus it happened that the Gothic kingdom of Toulouse was an Arian kingdom and the Gothic rulers of Spain were Arians. What sort of agreement would there be between the three nationalities cooped up in Spain, which differed in traditions, prejudices, customs, laws, and religion ? Fortunately for the Provincials, Visigothic Arianism was singularly tolerant. Owing perhaps to Arianism having been adopted uncontroversially as part of the Christianity which the nation first learned, persecution was alien to its genius. Visigothic kings occasionally persecuted those called Catholics, but when they did so, it was not on religious but on political grounds. If Euric persecuted Catholics in Gaul, or Leovigild in Spain, it was because the leaders of the Catholic party were traitors to the throne. Leovigild was the last Arian sovereign of Spain. GOTHIC SPAIN. 123 The line of kings from Eiiric to him was as follows : — Alaric II., A.D. 483 ; Gesalic, A.D. 506 ; Amalaric, A.D. 511; Theudis, the Ostrogoth, A.D. 531; Theiidi- gisel, A.D. 548; Agila, A.D. 549; Athanagild, A.D. 554; Leuva, A.D. 567 ; Leovigild, A.D. 570. Amalaric, who may be regarded as the first of the purely Gothic-Spanish kings, being a child at the time of his father's death, his interests were guarded by Theodoric the Ostrogoth, King of Italy, and his general Theudis. He was the first to introduce into the Royal Family of the Visigoths that religious dissension which afterwards became disastrous to several of the sove- reigns. In three instances intermarriage with the Frankish Royal Family brought first dissension and then death into the Visigothic palace. The Franks were the only North German race that embraced the Catholic or common faith of Christendom instead of the Arianism with which the others were imbued. Whether as a matter of conscience or for political reasons, the Franks were always the champions of orthodoxy, and the female members of the Royal Family were more remarkable for their zeal than were their fathers and brothers. Amalaric took for his wife Clotilda, daughter of Clovis. Soon complaints reached her brother, Childebert of Paris, that the Spanish Queen was ill-treated by her husband and not allowed the free exercise of her religion. A Frankish king was always ready for war. Childebert raised a large army, defeated the Goths, and brought away his sister, who, however, died on the way back to Paris. Amalaric, having lost his prestige, was assassi- nated at the instance of his powerful minister Theudis, who established himself on the throne in his place, to 124 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. be himself assassinated by a feigned madman after a reign of seventeen years. Theudigisel was likewise murdered in his own palace, and the same fate over- took Agila. Athanagild, who had headed a rebellion against Agila, in order to strengthen his party called in the troops of Justinian, and when he came to the throne he could not get rid of them. It is indicative of the change that was coming over men's minds in their conception of the Empire that these soldiers were no longer regarded as one in name and nation with the Romans already in Spain, but were looked upon as an alien people and called Greeks. Athanagild was the second of the Visigothic sovereigns that suffered in his family, though not in his own person, from intermar- riage with the Frankish princes. His younger daughter, Brunechild, was married to Sigebert, King of the East Franks ; his eldest daughter, Galswintha, to Sigebert's brother, Chilperic, King of the North- West Franks. Galswintha was shamefully maltreated, and at length put to death by Chilperic at the instance of his mis- tress, Fredegunda. Brunechild persuaded her husband to avenge her sister's wrong by making war on his brother. At length she herself was seized, tied by Fredegunda's orders to a fiery horse, and dragged along the ground till she died. Athanagild did not live to hear of her death. Athanagild's successor, Lieuva, is hardly more than a name. For three years he reigned over the Gothic province of Narbonne, having transferred the govern- ment of Spain to the stronger hand of his brother Leovigild. At the end of that time he died and left his brother sole sovereign. CHAPTER X. KING LEOVIGILD. Leovigild was the greatest king that Visigothic Spain produced. He found the country almost in anarchy, into which it had fallen during an interregnum of six months which elapsed before the nobles could agree in an election to the throne. The Imperialists, now called Byzantines, whom Athanagild had introduced into the kingdom, kept possession of the district round Granada and Cordova. The Basques were making plundering forays from their mountains, the Suevi were beginning to assert their independence; and more dangerous than all, a Catholic party was to be found in every city, which looked to the Franks for sympathy and help, and bore the rule of Arian lords with more and more impatience. Leovigild began by the reduction of the Byzantines and the capture of their stronghold, Cor- dova; he drove back the Basques to their fastnesses, he terrified the Suevi into a temporary submission, and he showed himself so well prepared for hostilities that he prevented a Frankish war. His contest with his Catholic subjects was of a more perilous and a more tragical character. Like two of his predecessors, he sought to strengthen himself by a marriage alliance witli the Franks, and, like them, he reaped disaster to himself from his 126 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. attempt. Ingunthis was the daughter of Sigebert and Brunechild, and Leovigild sought and obtained her in marriage for his eldest son, Hermenigild. Ingunthis was a strong Cathohc, hke the rest of her house. Goiswintha, the widow of Athanagild, and now the wife of Leovigild, was an equally strong Arian. The Queen and the Princess, grandmother and grand- daughter, could not agree, and Leovigild found it necessary to put a space between them. He sent Hermenigild, with the title of sovereign, to Seville, while he himself with his Queen resided in Toledo. The plan turned out otherwise than he had intended. Ingunthis now had Hermenigild to herself. She in- spired him with anger against his father and the Queen, and urged him to at once save his soul, and put him- self at the head of a powerful party throughout the Peninsula, which abhorred the Arian tenets. Her en- treaties were followed up by the arguments of Leander, Bishop of Seville, and the young man yielded to the pressure put upon him. He raised the standard of rebellion against his father, summoned to his aid the Byzantines from the east and the Suevi from the north-west of the Peninsula, and by proclaiming him- self a Catholic, sought to gather round him the old Provincials, who were likely to prefer a sovereign who held the same faith with themselves, Leovigild was deeply attached to his son, and his first effort was to bring about a reconciliation by peace- ful means. " Come," he wrote, '' and let us confer together." But the son feared a stratagem, and would not come. He was confident of success. He had the greater part of Andalusia with him, and in the west KING LEOVIGILD. 127 the strong city of Merida had declared for him through the influence of its Bishop, Masona. To show his defiance of his father, he struck coins bearing the superscription of King Hermenigild, and strengthened the fortifications of Seville. Leovigild, finding that peaceful measures were of no avail, took the field with his army, reduced Merida, defeated Mir, King of the Suevi, as he was on the march to form a junction with Hermenigild, and then formed the siege of Seville. Hermenigild had already sent his wife and child to Cordova, which was held by the Byzantines, and before the fall of Seville he escaped and rejoined them in that strong city. The King followed with his army, and on his appearance before Cordova the Imperialists consented to the surrender of the fugitive. His brother Reccared found him in a church where he had sought asylum, and brought him to his father with the pro- mise that his life should be spared. Leovigild em- braced him, and sent him to live in exile at Valencia, deprived of his royal title. Leander of Seville had already fled the kingdom, and was gone to Constanti- nople. The Bishop of Agde fled to France ; Masona of Merida was imprisoned. The King's enemies were subdued or banished, and he took this opportunity for finally reducing the Suevi and incorporating them into his kingdom. The Suevi had by this time given up Arianism and accepted the Catholic faith. Under Hermeric, A.D. 409, and Rekila, A.D. 438, they had been heathens. Under Rekiar, A.D. 448, Maldra, A.D. 457, Frumarius, A.D. 460, and for the next hundred years, they were Arian. In 560, which was the second year of King Theodcmir, 128 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. either through the Prankish and Imperial attractions being greater than the Gothic, or through the influence of Martin of Dumium, afterwards Bishop of Braga, they became CathoHc. The effect of the absorption of so many Cathohcs into a kingdom which was already divided between a Catholic and an Arian faction showed itself in the next reign, and conduced to the Gothic nation following the example of the Suevi and becoming, like them^ Catholic. While Leovigild was still occupied in the reduction of the Suevi, in the year 585, the death of his son Hermenigild occurred at Tarragona. He was killed by one Sisbert, as we learn from John Biclarensis, and, Gregory of Tours tells us, with the sanction of his father, Leovigild. It is probable that he had broken his parole, and was making his way along the coast to his old Byzantine friends and allies when he was overtaken and slain. His wife, Ingunthis, had already died in 580, on her way to Constantinople, where their young son Athanagild lived and died in obscurity. The Spanish chroniclers have no word to say in favour of Hermenigild. His contemporary, John Bicla- rensis, Abbot of Biclaro or Valclara, a strong partisan of the Catholic party, and as such a sufferer under Leovigild, regards Hermenigild merely in the light of a *' tyrant " and a *^ rebel." Another contemporary, Bishop Isidore of Seville, though brother to the Bishop Leander who had given his support to Hermenigild, speaks of him in the same terms, as a ^' tyrant " and " rebel." Paul of Merida, a fanatical opponent of Leovi- gild, alters a sentence that he was quoting from the Dialogues of Gregory I. in order to avoid calling Her- KING LEO VI GILD. 129 menigild a martyr. The character of martyr was imposed upon him by one Pope, Gregory I., and that of saint by another, Sixtus V. Gregory I. has written his story. The first part of the account was derived from Leander when he fled from Seville to Constan- tinople at the time of the siege of Seville, during the first rebellion of Hermenigild ; the latter part of it came from the reports of some anonymous Spanish travellers. These men reported that the king was so irritated at his son's constancy in the Catholic faith that he kept him in prison loaded with chains, to which the prince himself added sackcloth ; that he sent to him an Arian bishop with the promise that, if he would receive the communion at his hands, he should be restored to favour; that the prince had been so well taught by his wife that he drove away the bishop, telling him that he was a minister of the devil and only knew how to guide souls to hell, where the bishop might expect the pains prepared for him ; that on hearing this, the king sent some of his ministers, and among them Sisbert, to put him to death, which Sisbert did by splitting his head with an axe ; that angels then came and sang hymns and psalms over his body, and heavenly lights drove away the darkness of the prison. Hence he was truly a martyr, and might be venerated by all the faithful. If this stor}- were true even in its main outline, it is impossible that the Spanish chroniclers and writers should have been ignorant of it; and it is incredible that they should have omitted all mention of it and branded Hermeni- gild as a rebel and a tyrant, when they were them- selves bitter enemies of Lcovigild and sympathisers I30 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. with suffering undergone in the maintenance of the faith for which Pope Gregory represents Hermenigild to have died a martyr. It is easier to beheve that Gregory was misled by his anonymous informants. Even Gregory of Tours, whose feeHngs were all on the anti-Arian side, describes Hermenigild as a poor wretch, that did not know that God's judgment was hanging over him for conspiracy against the life of his father, heretical though the father might be. The Mozarabic Liturgy does not recognise Her- menigild, nor does any one speak of him as a martyr except Pope Gregory, and after him Paulus Diaconus ^ and a writer named Valerius,^ until the ninth century, when, on the authority of Pope Gregory's tale, his name was admitted into the martyrologies of Ado and Usuardus. In 1585, Philip II., thinking the merits of an opponent of heresy to outweigh the ill-deserts of a rebel prince, pressed Sixtus V., nothing loth, to canonise him for Spain. Urban VIII. extended his cultus to the whole Roman Church, and his name is found in the present Roman Breviary. Morales, a Spanish historian at the end of the sixteenth century, can certify of his own knowledge to his being a saint, for, being always devoted to him, he received many mercies through him, and among others the preserva- tion of his life ; for having fallen into the water at Port S. Mary, and not being able to swim owing to his cloak which impeded him, he " called on God and that glorious prince" to save his soul if his life was lost. He sank twice, and the third time that he rose a sailor stretched out a pole to him from a neighbour- 1 Hist. Lottgobard., iii. 31. ^ De vera sceculi sapietitia. KING LEO VI GILD. 131 ing boat; and he was saved ; but when he came to look at this pole afterwards, he found that it was so short that it could not have reached him. He has no doubt that the saint lengthened the pole for the occa- sion — the more, as he had become possessed the same year of a coin bearing the image of the holy prince. He did not even lose his cloak, and found himself still wrapped up in it.^ Morales is a writer on Spanish history whose works still hold their place as classics. The work of Paul of Merida, an author of the next century, called De Vita et Mir aailis Patruni Eineriten- siiun, shows so graphically the bitterness that arose after the death of Hermenigild between the Arian and the Catholic factions, that it may be well to let him speak in his own words. It will be seen at once from his style that he was a monk, and it will help us to realise the religious state of the country if we see what was the monastic conception in the middle of the seventh century of the ecclesiastical events of the previous century. The violence and exaggeration which char- acterise the story, the inability of the author to see anything good in an opponent, or anything but per- fection in members of his own party, are in themselves instructive. And yet it is this man, we may note, who, being a Spaniard, refused to follow Pope Gregory in calling Hermenigild a martyr. " Leovigild, the fiercest and most cruel king of the Visigoths, stirred by diabolical hatred, again and again sent messengers to the most holy Masona commanding him to give up the Catholic faith and turn to the Arian heresy with all his flock. But God's servant made 1 La Coroiica General de ^j/rt^a, lib. xi. p. 79. Alca'a, 1 577. K 132 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. answer with the greatest constancy, and sent back word twice and thrice to the king that he would never rehnquish the true faith which he had once embraced, and at the same time he rebuked the king for his Arianism and rejected his heresy with the reproaches that it deserved. So when his messengers returned, the king began to try to cajole him by persuasions and promises of rewards if he could anyhow bend him to accept his superstition ; but he despised his persua- sions and rejected his gifts as so much filth, and stood up with a manly spirit for the Catholic faith. And he would not be silent in respect to the King's heresy, lest by silence he might seem to give consent, but he resisted his madness with all his force, and filled the air with the clang of the truth. Finding him- self labouring in vain, the king fell into a fury and tried to terrify him, thinking that threats might suc- ceed where cajolery had failed ; but the holy man was not affected either by his terrors or by his soft-speak- ing, but, fighting bravely against the savage tyrant, continued to defend the right. Finding this, the cruel tyrant, who was altogether a vessel of wrath and made up of vices and a sprig of damnation, whose breast was occupied by truculent heresy, and whom the cunning serpent kept as his captive, who gave to his subjects bitter for sweet and rough for smooth and poison instead of health, appoints as Bishop of the Arian faction in Merida, for the purpose of exciting faction fights and for the overthrow of the holy Masona and the whole city, one Sunna, a pestilent fellow, who defended the Arian heresy in all its depravity. Sunna was a man who favoured false doctrine, an ill-looking KING LEOVIGILD. 133 man, with a stern brow, harsh eyes, a hateful appear- ance, awkward motion — a man crooked in his mind, of depraved morals, of a lying tongue, given to foul words — turgid outside, but with nothing inside; holding his head high, but empty of mind; of proud appearance, but without a virtue within ; every way ill-formed, wanting in what was good, wealthy in all that was very bad — addicted to sin, obnoxious to eternal death — this preacher of heresy came to Merida, and by the command of the king took possession of some basilicas, with all their belongings, daring to draw them away from the authority of their own bishop to himself, and he began to bark out rabid words against the servant of God, and to pour out foul threats with noisy cries. But the approved servant of God was not terrified by the threats of the scoundrel, nor alarmed by the turbu- lence of the rascal's wrath. Nor did the tempest raised by the madness of the abandoned man turn him from his course, but he stood like a strong wall for the defence of the holy faith, immovable against all storms. The infidel bishop was not able, as he wished, to deliver over the servant of the Lord and the rest of the faitliful to martyrdom, but trusting in the favour of the king, he made an attempt on the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia, in order to withdraw it from under its own bishops and devote it to the Arian heresy. Holy Bishop Masona, and all the people with him, making a vehement resistance, the false Bishop Sunna wrote a number of accusations to the aforesaid king against the holy man, and suggested that the basilica which he wished for should be taken away from the Catholics and handed over to him by the royal command. The king gave sentence that the judges should take their 134 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. seat in the court of the church, that both the bishops should appear before them and hold a disputation, each in turn defending his statements out of the Holy Scrip- tures and bringing forward witnesses, and whichever prevailed should have the possession of the Church of S. Eulalia. Hearing of this decree, Masona, humble man, went straight to the Basilica of S. Eulalia, and spent three days and three nights with tears and fast- ing stretched upon the pavement before the altar where the venerable body of the holy martyr is buried. Then on the third day he walked to the court and waited for the vile Arian bishop and the judges. At last the Arian bishop entered, swelling with pride. The judges took their seats; the two bishops began to have a mighty contest of words, but the fleshly mass could not anyhow resist the wisdom of God and the Holy Spirit, who spoke by the mouth of his servant, Bishop Masona. . . . Then all the Orthodox and Catholics, seeing their foes prostrate and overcome, gave praise unto God, and with one consent they hastened with their victorious prelate, Masona, to the basilica of the glorious virgin EulaHa, and entering the temple, shouted with loudest cries of joy and gave infinite thanks to Almighty God, who at the prayers of their holy virgin had raised His servants aloft and annihilated their enemies. " So the heretical Bishop Sunna, whose stony heart the ancient enemy had hardened, by God's permission, like Pharaoh's, seeing himself defeated on all hands, began to accuse the blessed Masona in the ears of the Arian prince Leovigild, with many charges. At length, the evil spirit drove the Arian king to summon the holy man from his See, and to desire him to present KING LEOVIGILD. 135 himself before him. . . . On his arrival at Toledo, after he had been introduced into the presence of the tyrant, the king attempted to frighten him into embrac- ing the Arian heresy. The man of God bore the insults offered him with patience, but boldly resisted the tyrant in the attacks which the mad dog made on the Catholic faith. Then the king demanded of him with threats to give him the tunic of the most holy virgin Eulalia for an Arian basilica in Toledo. The man of God answered, ' Rest assured that I will never stain my soul with the filth of Arian superstition. I will not deliver the tunic of my lady Eulalia into the sacrilegious hands of heretics, not even to be touched with the tips of their fingers.' Hearing this, the pro- fane tyrant became frenzied, and sent men in the utmost haste to Merida to bring the holy tunic. Not being able to find it, they returned empty to the king, on which the devil began to gnash his teeth against the man of God, and when the latter was brought into his presence he said to him, ' Either tell me where that which I am looking for is, or, if you will not speak, understand that you will first have to sufter, and then be sent into exile, where you will die a cruel death.' The man of God said, ' I do not fear you, nor will I give you what you ask for, but know this, that I burnt the tunic and reduced it to ashes, and mixed the ashes with water and drank them,' and stroking his stomach with his hand, he said, ' Understand for certain that I reduced it to ashes and drank it, and see, it is here in (on) my stomach, and I will never give it to you.' This he said because, without any one's knowledge, he had folded it in linen, and fastened it round his stomach under his clothes, and so God alone knew that he 136 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. wore it, for God blinded the eyes of the king and the court, so that no one understood how the man of God was carrying the matter. "While he was thus speaking, and the sky was quite clear, there was a loud clap of thunder, so that King Leovigild fell trembling from his throne upon the earth with great terror. Then the man of God with great exultation calmly said, ^ If you are a king, see there is a King whom it is proper to fear, for He isn't such as you are.' The tyrant growled out his impious sen- tence, ' Let Masona, the enemy of our person and our faith and our religion, be at once banished.' Imme- diately his ministers carried him off, and placed him on a mettlesome horse, in order that he might fall off and break his neck, for the horse was so wild that no one dared to mount him, and the king looked out of a window expecting to see the holy man fall ; but the holy priest, having made the sign of the cross in the name of the Lord, mounted the wild horse, and the Lord made him as gentle as a lamb. *' So the holy prelate Masona, with only three boys as companions, came to the appointed place of his banish- ment, and was placed in a monastery. A false priest named Nepope was substituted in his place at Merida — a profane man, a servant of the devil, an angel of Satan, a forerunner of Antichrist, and he was bishop of another city. . . . After three years and more, on Masona's going into the church of the monastery for prayer, there suddenly appeared to him above the altar the most holy virgin Eulalia, in the appearance of a white dove. She deigned to console her faithful servant, addressing him as an affectionate mistress, and then said to him, ^ Now it is time for you to go KING LEOVIGILD. 137 back to your city, and to do me service as before.' So saying, she flew swiftly from his sight. Then, without delay, the glorious virgin avenged the wrongs of her servant. One night, when the impious tyrant Leovigild was in bed, she stood over him, and beat his sides, one after the other, with a whip, saying, ^ Give me back my servant ; if you do not give him back at once, you shall suffer severe punishment.' The poor man had been so beaten, that when he awoke, he showed his bruises with floods of tears, and declared that he had been beaten for the wrongs v/hich he had done to that holy bishop ; for he knew who it was who had struck him, her name, her dress, and the beauty of her countenance. He therefore gave orders that the man of God might be allowed again to return to govern his church ; and when Masona declared that he would remain where he was, he again and again besought him to return. '' When Nepope, who had been substituted in his place, heard that he had returned, he fled to the city in which he had formerly been bishop. . . . And as a thirsty man in burning heat is eager for fresh streams, so the man of God betook himself to the church of the holy Eulalia with a burning soul and a fervent spirit, and when he had there poured out the affection of his soul, he entered the city glorying in the Lord, while all around him rejoiced, for thus the Church of Merida recovered its ruler, glorying in its happiness, for it rejoiced that he that was sick had found heahng, that he that was oppressed had found consolation, that he that was hungry was filled. Enough ! the Lord gave abundant favours to the Church of Merida ; for the presence of the holy man removed the famines, pesti- 138 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. lences, and unusual troubles of the city, which had been caused by the absence of its pastor. Leovigild, therefore, who did not so much govern as ruin Spain, leaving no crime or wickedness undone, deserting God, or rather deserted by God, miserably lost his kingdom and his life. By God's judgment he was seized by a grievous malady, lost his foul life, and gained eternal death, and his soul, painfully delivered from his body, detained in perpetual punishment in everlasting chains of darkness, is kept, as he deserves, to burn for ever in boiling waves of pitch." The above extract — it is given in an abridged form — is full of instruction to the student of Spanish Church history. It shows first that Primitive Catholicism was now, at the end of the sixth century and the beginning of the seventh, sinking down towards Roman Catholi- cism. Trust in the saints had, we see, become habitual, and there is a general mediaeval air about the story which contrasts with the wholesomer atmosphere of early Christianity.^ Next, it shows how fierce and •'• This is illustrated by another story of Paul of Merida respecting a previous abbot of his monastery : — " They say that many years ago, in the time of Leovigild, king of the Visigoths, there came from Africa into the province of Mesopotamia our Abbot Nunctus. After a time, in order to pay his devotions to the most holy virgin Eulalia, he went into her church in which the holy body rests, but, as it is said, he avoided the sight of a woman like an adder's bite ; not that he despised the sex, but he was afraid of incurring temptation by looking on them, so that wherever he went he desired one monk to walk before him and another behind him, that a woman iiaght never look upon him. "When he went into the church of the holy virgin and martyr Eulalia, he earnestly besought the Rev. Deacon Redemptus, who had charge of it, that whenever he went into the church from his cell at night for prayer, he would so arrange that no woman should see him. When he had spent some days in the church, a noble and holy widow named Eusebia desired anxiously to see him, but he would not have himself seen by her. Again and again people asked him to allow her to see him, but he would not agree at all to their request ; she there- KING LEOVIGILD. 139 dogged was the conflict between Arianism and this CathoHcism. When the Northern nations first made themselves masters of Spain, they held themselves aloof from the conquered Provincials. They scorned to interfere with their subjects' form of religion, but it was not theirs. They had themselves inherited the faith of the enemies and assailants of the Empire, while the old inhabitants of the Peninsula naturally clung to the form of faith that they had imbibed from contact with Im- perialism. They might have their religion, and the Goths and Suevi should have their own. Let them stand side by side. But by degrees the old Spanish or Roman element began first to aftect, then to absorb the Gothic element. The old Provincials were admitted as equals into the ruling caste. They brought their religion with them. The Goths, tolerant and indif- ferent, became themselves imbued with it. The very man who entered into conflict with Leovigild at Merida, Masona, was himself a Goth of noble family. The Suevi in a body had embraced Catholicism at the bid- ding of their king, forming a compact mass of Spanish fore conspired with the aforesaid Deacon Redemptus that at the end of matins, whilst he was returning from the church to his cell, she should stand where she could not possibly be seen, and that a very bright light of candles should be thrown on the holy man, that she might at least see him from a distance. And this was done. But when, without his knowing it, a woman's eyes fell upon him, he threw himself on the ground with a deep groan, as if he had been struck by a heavy stone. Presently he said to the Deacon Redemptu-, ' The Lord forgive you, brother 1 What have you done ? ' And after that he went away and betook himself with a few brethren into the desert, and there built himself a very poor cottage" (chap. iii.). Gams hesitates to be- lieve in the genuineness of this story, and thinks it to be of a later date than the seventh century {Kirchcngescliichte^ vol. iii.). The eleventh and twelfth centuries were so fruitful of forgeries in Sj^ain that the possi- bility of a document being composed at that date must always be kept before the mind. I40 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Catholics of Northern blood. The success of the Frankish arms in France not only made Catholicism respectable in the eyes of the German tribes, but led them to regard it as a religion which might be their own, not merely the religion of those whom they looked down upon as inferior to themselves in prowess. The Church of the conquered natives in Spain had been allowed from the beginning of the Gothic invasion to keep its own organisation, and the leading members of that Church — more learned than their haughty masters — the Leanders, Fulgentiuses, and Isidores — supported the efforts of the Frankish princesses who were intro- duced by marriage into the royal family of Spain in detaching individual members of the Arian congrega- tions from their hereditary faith and persuading them to go over to the rival Church. Hence arose that ex- ceeding bitterness which is caused by fear. The Goths found their adversaries drawing off one here and another there ; they felt the pain and annoyance thus introduced into families, and they trembled for their Church, of which, as an hereditary institution, they were proud. The marriage of Ingunthis with Hermenigild, and its consequence in Hermenigild's rebellion, brought matters to an issue. Hermenigild stood forth as the champion of Catholicism with his Catholic allies, the Byzantines and the Suevi, and with the sympathy of the Franks. It happened that a strong man occupied the Gothic throne, and he put down the conspiracy. But what was he to do next ? He tried — not persecution, it could hardly be called by that name — but he tried to bring back or to bring over to Arianism by the exertion of royal influence and secular force those who had ranged themselves in the anti- Arian camp. With some he KING LEOVIGILD. 141 succeeded, but their adherence was not worth having. With others, like Masona, he failed, and when he failed the result was increased bitterness and repulsion.^ So matters stood when the great king died. Pope Gregory has related, on the authority of his anony- mous informants from Spain, that before he died the king repented the attitude that he had taken up and wished to die in communion with the Catholics. This story is commonly told of men in like case, and gene- rally when examined into is found to be false. That it was not true in the case of Leovigild is sufficiently proved by the silence of the Spanish historians and by the account of his death given above by Paul of Merida. Paul had before him Gregory's statement, for in the very next sentence, he uses Gregory's words on the accession of Reccared (only altering the assertion that Hermenigild was a martyr 2), and yet, with that statement before his e^^es, he consigns Leovigild to eternal chains and torments and boiling pitch in the nether world for having died a heretic. Leovigild's seems to have been a supreme effort to maintain the Gothic kingdom in its old position of 1 As early as the year 580 Johannes Biclarensis tells us that Leovi- gild had tried to make the passage from the Catholic faith to the Aiian easy by assembling an Arian Synod and declaring, " De Romana religione ad nostram Catholicam Fidem venientes non debere baptizari sed tantumundo per manias impositionem et communionis percep- tionem ablui, et gloriam Patri per Filium m Spiritu Sancto dari." "This," the worthy Abbot adds, "had the effect of drawing over many of ours, more from vvorldy motives than spiritual impulses " {C/uonicoji). - Pope Gregory's words are, " Post cujus mortem Reccaredus rex non patrem perfidum )^q(S. fratreni martyrem sequens ab Ariance hreresis pravitate conversus est" {Dial. iii. 31). Paul writes, "Post cujus crudelissimam mortem vcnerabilis vir Reccaredus Princeps . . . non patrem perfidum sed Christutn Domimim sequens, ab Ariance hxresis pravitate conversus est "(cap. xvi.). Or did Gregory so write, and were his words afterwards altered for the honour of the Cluirch's mnrtvf ? 142 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN, superiority, ruling over, not associating itself with, the Provincials, whom his ancestors had subjected. With this purpose, he engaged in home and foreign war ; he defeated and put to death his rebel son ; he restrained the power of his nobles; he elevated the monarchy, encompassing it with a state unknown before ; he transferred the royal residence to a new capital, from Seville to Toledo ; he corrected and made more per- fect the Visigothic code of laws drawn up by Euric; he attempted to make the succession to the throne here- ditary instead of elective by associating his son Recca- red with himself in the government. His assaults on the Catholic party were rather political than religious.^ The great King held his own, but what v/ould be the policy of his successor ? 1 The conclusion of the story of the Abbot Nunctus, the earlier part of which we have given above (p. 139^, shows that Leovigild was free from religious bigotry. " The Abbot having fixed his abode in the desert, and there becoming famous for his virtues, the report of him reached the ears of King Leovigild, who, though he was an Arian, nevertheless, in order to commend himself to the Lord by the Abbot's prayers, ordered food and clothes to be given to him with his brethren. The man of God refused to receive them, but on the person who had been sent to him by the king saying, * You ought not to despise your son's offering,' he at last took them. After some days the men who lived in that place said to one another, * Let us go and see what kind of man this master of ours is to whom we have been given ;' and when they came and saw him in a torn and dirty dress, they despised him, and said among themselves, ' We had better die than be serfs to such a master as that.' And some days afterwards, when the holy man had gone into the woods to pasture a few sheep, they found him alone, and broke his neck and killed him. After no lung time the murderers were caught and brought in chains before King Leovigild, and he was told that these were the men who had killed the servant of God. And he, though he did not hold the right faith, nevertheless pronounced a right sentence, saying, ' Take off their bonds and let them go, and if they have killed the servant of God, let the Lord avenge the death of His servant without our taking vengeance on them.' Accordingly, they were set free, but immediately devils seized them and afflicted them for many days, until they shook their lives out of ilieir bodies by a cruel death." — De Vita P. P. Emeritensiimi, chap. iii. CHAPTER XI. KING RECCARED AND THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. When Reccared came to the throne in 586, he was the centre of the hopes of each of the warring factions in the state. He was Leovigild's son, but he was Hermenigild's brother. Which party would he side with, or could he fuse both in one ? Reccared's tendencies did not long remain doubtful. They were unmistakably indicated by the selection of Leander as his ecclesiastical adviser and minister. Leander was the man who had induced Hermenigild to repudiate Arianism, if he had not instigated him to rebel against his father. During the siege of Seville, he had gone to Constantinople to get help for Hermenigild, and had remained outside of Spain until the death of Leovigild. He was the eldest brother in a family which did more than any other to establish Catholicism in Spain. His brothers were Fulgentius, Bishop of Ecija, and Isidore, who was his own successor in the See of Seville. His sister was Florentina, who became a member, if not the superior, of a nunnery, for which Leander composed a Regula or Rule. Another indica- tion of Reccared's feelings was the execution of Sisbert, who had slain Hermenigild. In less than a year after his accession the new king declared his conversion, 143 144 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. and summoning the Arian bishops to his presence, induced many of them to follow his example. It was not to be expected that such a step would be taken without creating some antagonism. Insurrections fol- lowed — one in the French province of Spain, raised by Bishop Athaloc ; another by Sunna, who had been the intruded Arian Bishop of Merida. Sunna was joined in his conspiracy by Count Seggo, and by Witteric, who afterv/ards became king. Sunna'S first desire was to kill his rival Masona, and Witteric un- dertook to stab him. But Witteric's courage failed ; he could not, so he said, draw his sword, which miracu- lously adhered to its sheath, and instead of slaughter- ing him, he made confession to Masona of the con- spiracy. Masona gave information to Duke Claudius, who seized the conspirators and held them at the king's pleasure. Sunna was sentenced to banishment, and transported to Mauritania. Seggo had his hands cut off, and was confined to Galicia. Witteric's con- fession earned his forgiveness. Another conspiracy was headed by Reccared's stepmother. Queen Gois- wintha, which was discovered and frustrated. The failure of these attempts strengthened the hands of the king, and in the third year of his reign, A.D. 589, Reccared summoned the Third Council of Toledo — the most important Council for Spain that was ever held, and of greater moment to the whole Church Catholic than any Synod, with the exception of the first four CEcumenical Councils. Its effect in Spain was the repudiation of Arianism and the establishment of Catholicism. Its effect on the Church Catholic has been to divide it into two camps, or at least to give a THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 145 war-cry to the East against the West, and to the West against the East, never to be silenced until the inter- polation made at Toledo, perhaps unconsciously, in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is either withdrawn or sanctioned by (Ecumenical authority. The Council met in the month of May, and the king desired that the first three days should be spent in prayer and fast- ing. On its reassembling, a tome or book presented in the king's name was read, in which Reccared declared that he felt himself called upon to recover the Goths to the true faith. He anathematised Arianism, and all who should after their conversion return to Arianism, and pronounced in favour of the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. The tome ended with the Creeds of Nicaea and Constanti- nople, and was signed by the king himself and his Queen, Badda or Baddo. The bishops burst into acclamations, '' Glory to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who provides for the peace and unity of His Holy Catholic Church ! Glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has gathered together out of all nations a Catholic Church, at the cost of His own blood ! Glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has attached so illustrious a nation to the unity of the true faith, and has made one flock and one shepherd ! Who should have everlasting reward from God for this except our Catholic king, Reccared ? Who should have an everlasting crown from God except our ortho- dox king, Reccared ? Who should have present and eternal glory except our God-loving king, Reccared ? It is he who brings a new people into the Catliolic Church ! May he indeed have the reward of an 146 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. apostle who has fulfilled the office of an apostle ! May he be an object of love to God and man, who has so wonderfully glorified God on earth, by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, with God the Father, liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever, Amen ! " One of the Catholic bishops then rose by appoint- ment, and addressing the newly converted, exhorted them to confess aloud the faith which they now held, and in the hearing of all to anathematise that which they rejected ; especially they were to condemn the pestilential Arian heresy, with all its doctrines, rules, offices, fellowships, and documents. They replied that they had already done this when they followed their glorious lord. King Reccared, in going over to the Church of God ; but they were quite willing again to do as they were required. They then pronounced anathema on all (i) who held the Arian faith; (2) who denied that Christ was born of the substance of the Father; (3) who did not believe in the Holy Ghost; (4) who did not distinguish between the persons of the Trinity ; (5) who declared the Son and the Holy Ghost to be creatures ; (6) who did not believe the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be of one power, substance, and eternity ; (7) who said that the Son of God did not know all that the Father knew; (8) who said that the Son and Spirit had a beginning ; (9) who said that the Son could suffer in His divinity; (10) who did not believe the Holy Ghost to be Almighty; (li) who held any other faith than that which was universal and contained in the decrees of the Four Councils ; (12) who distinguished THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 147 the glory that ought to be given to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; (13) who did not believe the Son and Holy Ghost to be equally honoured with the Father; (14) who would not say, Glory and honour be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; (15) who insisted on re-baptism; (17) who would not condemn the Council of Rimini; (19) who despised the Nicene faith ; (20) who denied that the faith of Constantinople was true; (21) who did not hold the faith of Ephesus and Chalcedon ; (22) who did not receive all Councils agreeable to those four Councils. Three of the anathemas have a more local colouring, the T6th, the i8th, and the 23rd. The i6th runs as follows : — ^' If any one holds as true the detestable document put out by us in the twelfth year of King Leovigild, containing a formula by which the Romans {i.e., the old Provincials) may pass to the Arian heresy, and also a doxology wrongly expressed by us, viz.. Glory be to the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost, let him be anathema for ever." The i8th anathema says : ^' We confess that we have been con- verted to the Catholic Church from the Arian heresy with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind. No one doubts that we and our ancestors have erred in the Arian heresy, and that we have now learned the evangelical and apostolical faith within the Catholic Church. Thereupon we hold, confess, and honour the holy faith, which our aforesaid most religious lord has declared in the midst of the Council and subscribed with his hand, and this we promise to teach and to preach among the people. This is the true faith, which 148 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the whole Church of God throughout the world holds, and is therefore counted Catholic and approved. Who- ever does not accept or has not accepted this faith, let him be anathema maranatha at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The 23rd and last of the anathemas is still more explicit : '' Therefore with our own hand we have subscribed to this condemnation of the Arian heresy and fellowship, and of all the Councils that favour Arianism, and we anathematise them. But we have subscribed with our whole heart, and our whole soul, and our whole mind the constitutions of the holy Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, which we have heard with gratified ears, and have declared to be true by our confession. We do not think that anything can be more lucid for the acknowledgment of the truth than what is contained in the authoritative documents of the aforesaid Councils. Nothing can be, or ever shall be, demonstrated with greater truth and lucidity about the Trinity and the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost than is done by these. In these Councils the truth is fully made manifest, and is believed by us without any doubtfulness, about the mystery of the incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God for the salvation of the human race, wherein He is proved to have truly taken human nature without the contagion of sin, and the fulness of the perfect divinity is shown to abide in Him, seeing that neither nature is lost, and out of both is formed the one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. If any one tries to deprave, or corrupt, or change this holy faith, or to go out from or be sepa- rated from this same faith and the Catholic communion THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 149 which we have lately obtained, may he be for ever counted guilty of the crime of infidelity before God and the whole world. But may the Holy Catholic Church flourish throughout the world in perfect peace, and be illustrious for its learning, holiness, and power. May those who are within her and hold her faith and share her fellowship be placed at the right hand of the Father, and hear the words, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which is prepared for you from the foundation of the world ; ' and may those who withdraw from her and destroy her faith and reject her fellowship hear from the Divine Mouth on the day of judgment, ^ Depart from me, ye cursed, I know ye not. Go into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.' Let all that is condemned by this Catholic faith be condemned in heaven and earth, and let all that is accepted into this faith be accepted in heaven and earth, our Lord Jesus Christ being King, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, is glory for ever and ever ! " After these anathemas the new converts recited the Nicene Creed, the Constantinopolitan Creed,^ and the Exposition of Chalcedon, and then signed the docu- ment containing the anathemas and the creeds. The episcopal converts were eight in number — Ugnus, Bishop of Barcelona, Murila of Palencia, Ubiligisculus of Valencia, Sunnila of Viseo, Gardingus of Tuy, Beccila of Lugo, Argiovitus of Portugal, Fruisclus of Tortosa. After the bishops, the presbyters and ' That the Constantinopolitan Cre^d was not drawn up at Con- stantinople, but was foisted on the Council of Chalcedon as the Creed of the Council of Constantinople by the representative of that See, is a theory alike devoid of foundation and verisimilitude. i:o HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. deacons who were converted from Arianism subscribed their names, and beneath them the Gothic nobles. How many signatories of the two last classes there were we are not told. Of the eight bishops, five appear to have been Suevi, and three to have been Goths. The Suevi as a nation had been converted from Arianism twenty-nine years previously ; the con- forming prelates therefore might be the remains of the old Suevic hierarchy, or they may have been men who had been intruded into Suevic Sees on the conquest of the country by Leovigild. The converts having subscribed their recantation, Reccared rose and said that there was one thing more which he must require to have done for the protection of the Catholic faith ; this was that the Creed should be recited by all the congregation whenever the Holy Communion was administered, according to the form issued by the Eastern Fathers. *' For," said he, " if this constitution be always continued in the Church of God, the faith of the people will be solidly strengthened and the misbelief of unbelievers confuted, men being easily inclined to what they recognise as a thing which they have again and again heard ; and besides, no one will be able to excuse himself by pleading ignorance of the faith when he is taught by the mouth of all what the Catholic Church holds and believes." He desired them, therefore, before they did anything else, to pass a canon enjoining "that which our Serenity has decreed under God's guidance about the public recitation of the Creed." Twenty-three canons were then passed, the second of which is as follows : — " To pay respect to our most THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 151 holy faith, and to confirm the weak minds of men according to the instruction of our most pious and glorious lord, King Reccared, the holy Synod appoints that through all the Churches of Spain and Galicia the symbol of the faith of the Council of Constantinople, that is, of the 150 bishops, be recited, in accordance with the form used in the Eastern Churches, so that, before the Lord's Prayer be said, it be recited aloud by the people, by which means testimony may be borne to the true faith, and the people may come to receive the body and blood of Christ with their souls purified by faith," The other canons command the observance of the decrees of the ancient Councils; forbid the newly converted bishops, priests, and deacons to live with their wives ; desire that the Holy Scriptures should be read at the meal-times of the clergy ; order that all the churches, with their furniture, which had hitherto belonged to the Arians, should be given up to the Catholic bishops ; command the excom- munication of any one preventing a widow or a virgin from leading an unmarried life; insist on the severer treatment of men who did penance and then returned to their sins ; forbid clergy to go to law with brother clergymen before the secular tribunals ; prohibit Jews from having Christian wives or concubines or slaves ; desire the priests and territorial judges to exterminate idolatry in Spain, and order all masters to prevent it in their households on pain of excommunication ; denounce child-murder; command Synods to be held every autumn ; denounce extortion on the part of bishops; forbid waihng at funerals and improper dances in connexion with religious services. 152 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. The king then confirmed the Council by an edict. He states that God had inspired him with the idea of commanding all the bishops of Spain to present them- selves to his Loftiness for the sake of renewing the faith and discipline of the Church. When things had been maturely deliberated, it belonged to him to give orders to all the subjects of his realm, that none should dare to despise or disregard the decrees of the holy Council held in the city of Toledo in the fourth year of his reign. All the acts of the Council, he decreed, were to be observed for ever by all, whether clergy or laity. If any bishop, presbyter, deacon, or cleric were disobedient, he was to be excommunicated; if a lay- man of respectable position, he was to be mulcted of half his goods ; if he belonged to the lower class, he was to be banished. The subscriptions followed; they were headed by Reccared, w^ho signs as Flavins Reccared — Flavins being a name which he and others of his line adopted because it was Roman in form. He signs by a for- mula the use of which is confined to himself, '' I, Flavins Reccared^ the king, confirvi by my subscrip- tion this consultation which we have concluded with the Holy Synod." The leading bishops used the form, " I assent by my subscription to these consti- tutions." The remaining bishops only wrote '' I sub- scriber Those who declared their assent were the five Metropolitans, Masona of Merida, Metropolitan of Lusitania ; Euphemius of Toledo, Metropolitan of Car- petania (a division of Carthaginensis) ; Leander of Seville, Metropolitan of Boetica (Andalusia) ; Migetius of Narbonne, Metropolitan of the Hispano-Gallic pro- THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 153 vince ; Pantadus of Braga, Metropolitan of Galicia, and with them Ugnus of Barcelona (the Metropolitan of Tarragona being absent), Maurila of Palencia, Ando- nius of Oretum (La Mancha). Among the other bishops there are noticeable the Bishops of Carcassonne, Tuy, Lisbon, Dumium, Zaragoza, Oporto, Cordova, Elvira, Salamanca, Italica, Tortosa, Calahorra. Sixty-tv^o bishops signed v\rith their own hands and six by deputy. The Bishops of Tarragona, Cartagena, and Malaga were absent, the two last cities being in the possession of the Imperialists. Five of the cities appear to have had two bishops, one Catholic and the other, up to this time, Arian. Leander, who had been the leading spirit of the Council, closed its proceedings with a congratulatory sermon. Only one serious effort was made to shake the settlement made in this national convention. Duke Argimund, chamberlain to the Queen and governor of the province of Carpetania, made an insurrection in behalf of the old Gothic faction, for the purpose of dethroning Reccared and establishing himself as king. The insurrection was crushed ; Argimund's chief sup- porters were executed, and he himself was put to death after he had been paraded through the streets of Toledo on an ass with the skin torn from his head, and his right hand struck off. After this one attempt at the restoration of the old Gothic monarchy in its ancient haughty form of pre-eminence, the nation settled quietly down under its new constitution. The heredi- tary Arianism of the Goths was exhausted. It had always been on principle tolerant; its toleration had passed into indifference; and in order to save them- 154 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. selves from disturbances at home, which were fostered by the difference in religion, and to prevent their isola- tion from the rest of the Western World, which they felt more and more, as the power of the orthodox Franks extended and confirmed itself in France, the Gothic aristocracy adopted the religion of their subjects and neighbours — with the more readiness as it had made considerable way amongst themselves already. From this time forward the inhabitants of the whole Peninsula, united in faitli, grew more and more into one nation. It has been said above that the tome presented to the Council of Toledo by King Reccared, and signed by him and his Queen, contained the Nicene Creed and" the Constantinopolitan Creed, and that those two Creeds were subscribed by the converts from Arianism at the same Council. The statement was not perfectly exact, for the Constantinopolitan Creed recited at the Council of Toledo in the year 589 is not an exact translation and representation of the Creed of Constantinople issued in the year 351. The original Creed runs as follows: ''And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, proceeding from the Father." The same clause in the Creed as recited at the Council of Toledo runs : '' And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, proceeding from the Father and the Son" This is the first time that the interpolation ''and the Son " is found to have been made in the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed. By whom and why was it made ? It was either made by King Reccared per- sonally, or by Leander, Bishop of Seville, who, witli the Abbot Eutropius, had the arrangement of the pro- THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 155 ceedings of the Council of Toledo. If it was made by King Reccared himself, it is probable that the alteration was made by him unconsciously. As a layman brought up in Arianism, which repudiated the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, Reccared would have had no in- timate acquaintance with the Creeds promulgated by those two Councils. In his address to the Council he had said, " I observe and honour the Holy Creed of the Nicene Council, which the Holy Synod of 318 bishops wrote against Arius; and I embrace and hold the Creed of the 1 50 bishops who met at Constantinople, which smote with the sword of truth Macedonius, who declared the substance of the Holy Ghost to be inferior, and distinguished it from the unity and essence of the Father and the Son." He seems, therefore, to have intended to lay before the Council the Creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople as they were originally promulgated, and that this was his simple purpose appears to be made still more apparent by the order that he gave that the Creed was always to be recited in the service of the Holy Communion, for he commands that the Creed shall be recited according to the form of the Eastern Fathers, or, as the second canon puts it, ^' the Creed of the Council of Constantinople, that is, of the 150 bishops, is to be recited before the Lord's Prayer, according to the form of the Eastern Churches." But if it were Reccared's intention to recite the Creed in its unadulterated form, how are we to account for the interpolation of the words "and from the Son" ? We must probably look to Lcander as tlic author of this insertion. Leandcr was a personal friend of Pope Gregory I,, who held and taught the doctrine of the 156 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Procession from the Son. S. Ambrose and S. Augus- tine, both of great authority with Spanish Churchmen, had taught the same doctrine, and had used the expres- sion " Proceeding from the Father and the Son." To Spanish ecclesiastics, who had spent their Hves in a hand-to-hand conflict with Arianism, the phrase ap- peared to be of great importance, as they were anxious to maintain, in the face of a heresy which depreciated the Son, the truth that all that the Father had was communicated by Him to the Son, and therefore that the Procession of the Holy Ghost was from the Son as well as from the Father. With a view to emphasising this truth, the previous Council of Toledo had, as we have seen, put out a Creed of its own which contained the expression '' Proceeding from the Father and the Son." The Spanish Catholic theologians were, there- fore, familiarised with the phrase, not only as occur- ring in the works of individual theologians, but also as making a part of their own local Creed. Leander may well have thought that, under these circumstances, the subscription to the original Creed as it stood without this clause would be a step backwards, and that there could be no harm in the introduction of words which had the sanction of the chief theologians of the West, although they had not made a part of the original formula. Leander and his pupil, Reccared, had not the gift of prevision, but they might have understood — at least a theologian should have known — the danger of tamper- ing with a document stamped with the authority of the Universal Church and making an alteration in it by any authority less than that which had promulgated it. THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 157 At first no harm seemed to arise from the transaction. No doubt the introduction was irregular, but this, it was thought, miglit be condoned for the sake of the good which might be done to the Semi-Arian congre- gations before whom and by whom the Creed was now publicly recited week by week. From Spain the inno- vation spread into France, and extended itself into Italy. It was defended at Councils held at Friuli in 796 and at Aix in 809. Charlemagne took it under his patronage, and urged Pope Leo III. to sanction the interpolation. Leo refused, decreeing ex cathedra that it was not permissible to alter the wording employed by the CEcumenical Council of Constantinople. The first thing to do, he said, was to eject the interpolated clause from the Creed ; after that it might be lawfully taught or recited in other documents. To prevent the interpolation ever being admitted, Pope Leo engraved the Creed of Constantinople, without the words ^' and from the Son," in Greek and Latin on two silver shields, and hung them up in his cathedral church in Rome to show the inadmissibility of the innovation. Here then was the first result of the slight alteration made, pro- bably with a good purpose, in the Council of Toledo of 589, namely, a quarrel between the Patriarch of Rome and the majority of the Churches of Spain, ^ France, and Italy, supported by the Emperor of the West. But this was only a slight evil compared with what was to follow. The Pope's resistance was sure to give way as soon as the practice became so common as to make it difficult to resist ; and this, in fact, hap- pened. By the beginning of the eleventh century King Reccared's form of the Creed had in the West 138 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. almost universally superseded the original form, and therefore, in the year 1014, the then Pope quietly yielded to Imperial pressure and conformed to the popular practice, ignoring Pope Leo I.'s ^;f cathedra decree prohibiting such a thing to be done. But the attitude of the Oriental Church was very different. The act of the Spanish Council was at first so little regarded, that in the sixth (Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople, A.D. 680, the creed was recited in its original form without any notice being taken that some Spanish Christians had for their own purposes interpolated it. The Orientals do not seem to have been aware of the interpolation until the time of Charle- magne, when some Western monks carried their creed to Jerusalem, for the purpose apparently of shocking Eastern orthodoxy. It was not till 867 that the East, by the voice of the Patriarch Photius, lifted its voice against the Spanish innovation. Photius wrote a circular letter complaining of other usages and doctrines of the West, and adding that, ^^ as the acme of their impiety, men in the West had dared to adulterate the sacred and holy symbol with novel insertions, declaring the Holy Ghost to have proceeded from the Son." From the time of Photius onward, this complaint has never ceased to be urged by the Eastern Church, and at this moment it is one of the chief causes or excuses for the separation of the Oriental and Latin communions. Indeed, so living a question is it, that the subject of the retention or excision of Reccared's interpolation into the Creed is gravely occupying the minds of English and American Churchmen at the present time. THE THIRD COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 159 The Third Council of Toledo having ordered that Synods should be held once a year, we find a consider- able number celebrated in various cities during the reign of Reccared. They were, however, for the most part unimportant. The first was held at Narbonne, the capital of the Visigothic province in France. It was held in the same year with the Council of Toledo, and attended by seven bishops. It passed fifteen canons, one of which orders the strict observance of the Lord's day, forbidding any agricultural work upon it, under the penalty of a fine of six shiHings in the case of a freeman, or of a hundred strokes in the case of a slave. At the same time the religious observance of Thursday is forbidden. A canon is also passed against the Jews, who from this time forward became objects of cruel persecution. The Synod of Narbonne forbids them to carry their dead to the grave with the accompaniment of psalm-singing. A synod held at Seville next year was presided over by Leander, and attended by eight bishops. One of the canons calls in the secular power of judges to prevent the immoral life of the now celi- bate priesthood, by forcibly removing all women from the houses of the clergy. In the twelfth year of Reccared, another Synod was held at Toledo, of which Masona was president. It was attended by thirteen bishops. The Bishop of Toledo signs his name after that of Masona and of Migetius, Metropolitan of Narbonne. The chief object of the Synod was to restrain the immorality of the celibate clergy. In the following year a Synod was held at Iluesca with the same purpose. i6o HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. In the following year, A.D. 599, was held a Synod at Barcelona, the chief object of which was to discourage simony and to encourage celibacy. In the year 601 Reccared died, having completed his work of fusing into one the Gothic, the Suevic, the Roman and aboriginal races, which up to this time had lived in Spain, but owing to their separation had not formed a Spanish nation. Difference in religion had been the chief cause which prevented the different races from melting into one people. This difference was now removed. From the time of Euric to Recca- red, the throne and the altar, the sceptre and the crozier, looked at one another with distrust and jealousy; not seldom, it would appear, popular discontent was fostered by the bishops and clergy, who looked outside of the realm for moral support against their sovereign. Even Hermenigild's rebellion against his father, if it originated in the religious opinions which were im- ported from the Franks, was encouraged and strength- ened, even in things secular, by Leander, Metropolitan Bishop of Seville, the head of the Spanish Catholic party. Now all this was changed ; there was no more antagonism between a haughty, tolerant, still half-alien lord and a Church, submissive to the existing powers, but unsympathetic in its feelings; the crown and the mitre were not only reconciled but allied, and they supported each the other down to the overthrow of both by the Saracens. This was not an unmixed good : the alliance was over-close, and brought in its train evils which were at first unforeseen and un- suspected. CHAPTER XII. GROWTH OF THE SEE OF TOLEDO, Reccared was succeeded by his young son Leuva, who after two years' reign was dethroned and killed by Witteric, whom we have met with before as taking part in a conspiracy against the life of Masona. At the end of seven years Witteric was succeeded by Gun- demar, in the first year of whose reign was held another Synod at Toledo, at which a significant indication was given of the changed relations between the Church and the Crown. We have seen that King Leovigild trans- ferred the royal residence from Seville to Toledo. As long as the king was Arian, the dignity of the Bishop of Toledo was not advanced by the presence of the king's court, but as soon as the sovereign became Catholic, it was only natural that the See of Toledo should be elevated in temporal and ecclesiastical respects. Accordingly, in the Third Council of Toledo, held under King Reccared, we find the Bishop of Toledo claiming the title of metropolitan. He does not, however, yet venture to call himself the metro- politan of the whole of the province of Carthaginensis. He signs himself as Metropolitan of Carpctania, which was one division of that province. At tlie end of eleven years from that time the prelate of the royal city was not content with being the metropolitan of i62 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. half the province, nor was King Giindemar satisfied with the bishop peculiarly attached to himself being inferior in dignity to any other. The king and the Church of Spain had now come into the same relation with one another as that which had long been held by the Emperor of Rome and the Church of the Western Empire. In the same way, therefore, that Gratian and Valentinian had passed laws commanding that the Bishop of Rome, their capital, should be the chief bishop within their empire, so Gundemar resolved that the Bishop of Toledo, the bishop of his capital, should be at first the equal of any other Spanish pre- late, and, after a time, primate of the Church of Spain. As there were five provinces, there were five metro- politans in Spain, namely, the Bishops of Seville, Tarra- gona, Cartagena, Merida, and Braga. But Cartagena had been sacked, and for the time almost destroyed, by the Vandals a little before their disappearance into Africa, and subsequently it was occupied by the Byzan- tines who had been introduced into the country by Athanagild. As Cartagena sank in estimation, Toledo grew in power. In 527 Bishop Montanus could call it a metropolis (if his letter is not forged), and in Reccared's reign its bishop was able to claim the title of metropolitan of half the province. Gundemar resolved to place him higher. He therefore called a Synod, at which fifteen bishops declared their sub- mission to the Bishop of Toledo, and he issued an edict of singular interest, as showing the authority assumed from this time forward by Spanish kings in ecclesiastical matters. He begins with a declaration of the duty of kings to rightly dispose things pertaining GROWTH OF THE SEE OF TOLEDO. 163 to divinity and religion. Coming to the subject in hand, the king complains that there are some of the bishops of the province of Carthaginensis who despise the dignity of the Church of Toledo, which has been raised to a height by the imperial throne. This, he says, he will not any longer endure, but insists on the honour of the primacy over all the Churches of the province of Carthaginensis being given to the Bishop of the See of Toledo. Nor would he allow that the province should have two metropolitans, but Toledo was to stand first and alone. He then proceeds : — - '' But as to the subscription made by the honourable Bishop Euphemius in the general Synod of Toledo, in which Toledo is declared to be the metropolis of the province of Carpetania, we correct that ignorant state- ment, knowing for certain that the district of Carpe- tania is not a province, but a part of the province of Carthaginensis, as ancient monuments also declare ; and because it is one and the same province, we decree that as Baetica, Lusitania, Tarraconensis, and the rest which belong to the rule of our realm are known to have each their own metropolitan, according to the ancient decrees of the Fathers, so the province of Carthaginensis also shall pay respect to only one primate, whom ancient synodal authority points out, and let it honour him as the chief prelate amongst all his comprovincials, and let nothing be done without his consent, as the proud presumption of arrogant priests has up to now attempted. By this edict, issued by our authority, we la}^ down the manner in which men are to live religiously and without offence, and hence- forth we do not allow any such things to be done by i64 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the bishops in disorderly fashion, but of our clemency we pardon past carelessness, and though the guilt of previous delinquency be great, any who audaciously try to transgress this our decree, resting on the authority of the old Fathers, will be counted guilty of greater, nay, unpardonable crime. Henceforth we shall not pardon the offence, if any of the priests of Carthagi- nensis disregard the honour of this Church. Whoever is disobedient shall certainly undergo the sentence of degradation or excommunication, as well as the inflic- tion of severe punishment by us ; for we firmly believe that our kingdom is so directed by Divine government according as we, in our zeal for what is just, seek to correct what is wrong in the observance of order, and try constantly to maintain it aright." ^ The king is the first to subscribe his decree. The formula that he uses in subscribing is the following : " I, King Flavins Gundemar, sign with my own hand the constitution established by this edict to confirm the honour of the holy Church at Toledo." The other signa- tures are twenty-six, including those of Isidore, Metro- politan of Seville ; Innocent, Metropolitan of Merida, both of whom state that they had been invited by the king to be present; Eusebius, Metropolitan of Tarragona; Sergius, Metropolitan of Narbonne ; Maximus, Bishop of Zaragoza; Mumius, Bishop of Calahorra; Goma, Bishop of Lisbon ; Fulgentius, Bishop of Ecija, brother of Lean- der and Isidore ; Argebert, Bishop of Oporto ; Pisinus, Bishop of Elvira ; John Biclarensis, Bishop of Gerona. Toledo thus attained to full metropolitan rank. It had still to wait awhile to be recognised as the prima- tial See of Spain. ^ Labbe et Cossart, Concil. Gen., v. pp. 16-24. CHAPTER XIII. BISHOP ISIDORE AND THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. At the above Synod it will be seen that Isidore sub- scribes as Metropolitan Bishop of Seville, and Fulgeii- tius as Bishop of Astigi or Ecija. They also sign the Second Council of Seville, held in 619, in which Isidore presided and formulated a theological refutation of the Monophysite sect called Acephali, which appears in its Acts. They were two brothers, belonging to the remarkable family to which Spain owed more than to any other the establishment of the Catholic faith as the faith of the nation. Leander was the eldest brother. We have seen him as the adviser of Hermenigild and Reccared, and the friend of Gregory I. of Rome, with whom he made acquaintance at Constantinople, while Gregory was holding the office of Apocrisiarius for Pela- gius II. On Gregory's advancement to the Papacy, Leander, who had now returned to Spain, wrote to congratulate him on his elevation, and to give him an account of Reccared's Council and the conversion of the Goths. Gregory twice wrote to Leander, sending him each time some of the books which he had written, and the 3^ear before Leander died he wrote a third time to him, and at the same time to King Reccared, sending to liis honoured brother and fellow-bishop, 165 i66 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Leander, the pallium as a gift from the See of the blessed Apostle Peter, which he owed to ^' ancient cus- tom (or to his old friendship), antiquce consuetudiiii, to the king's merits and the bishop's excellence." As there are only three instances of the bestowal of the pallium by the Bishop of Rome before Gregory (by Symmachus, A.D. 513, Vigilius, A.D. 545, Pelagius II., A.D. 590), this gift is of much interest. What did it mean ? We learn from the Council of Macon, held A.D. 581, that at that time all archbishops in France were bound to wear the pallium (a vestment falling down the back in the form of a Y) while performing mass.^ Therefore it was a natural present to bestow upon an archbishop. The Popes of the sixth century occasionally made this present to special friends. It was a gift, as Gregory says above, but no more. As time passed on, it was not difficult to attach to this gift a signification convenient to the interests of the giver. First, it was made to imply that the presentee became thereby the vicar or representative of the Pope in the country in which he resided; next, it was a badge of acknowledgment of papal superiority ; and lastly, it was declared by Pope Nicholas, A.D. ^66^ to be a necessity without which no archbishop could officiate. Da, tit habeas, Leander died in the year 600, and was succeeded by his youngest brother, Isidore. His second brother, Fulgentius, became Bishop of Astigi or Ecija, and the Second Council of Seville had to settle a dispute between him and Honorius, Bishop of Cordova, as to the possession of a church which they both claimed. ^ Can. vi. THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 167 A sister, Florentina, entered a convent in her brother Fulgentius' diocese, and received from Leander a trea- tise on conventual Hfe, called Stz. Leaiidri Regida. At the end of it Leander reminds her how their young brother Isidore had been left by their parents to the care of himself and Fulgentius and her, and begs her to love and pray for him the more because he had been their parents' favourite child, — a touch of nature which comes home to us across twelve centuries. Isidore was the first personage in the realm during the reigns of Leuva, Witteric, Gundemar, Sisebut, Rcccared II., Swintila, and Sisenand, as his brother Leander was in the reign of Reccared I. We have already seen him signing Gun .emar's edict next after the king and presiding at the Provincial Council at Seville. In his old age he presided at tlie National Council of Toledo, called the Fourth, at which all the metropoli- tans of the Spanish dominions and sixty-two bishops were present. That Council, which laid down rules for the government of the National Church where- ever experience had shown that rules were wanted, probably represents the ecclesiastical views of Isidore in his mellow old age. It exhibits a perfect indepen- dence of foreign control, and a loyal, almost too sub- missive, deference to the king of the country, who, in turn, pays an excessive reverence to his bishops. Political reasons may, to a certain extent, account for this relation between the sovereign and the prelates, but it is probable that it represents Isidore's concep- tion of what that relation ought to be. The canons passed under his influence were for the most part of a thorouglily practical character, as is shown by tlic i68 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. canon on the appointment of bishops, which, for the sake of the peace of the Church, refuses to interfere with appointments already made, but orders that for the future none shall be consecrated who are criminals, or penitents, or heretics, or misformed, or mutilated, or twice married, or married to a widow, or divorced persons, or fornicators, or slaves, or unknown men, or neophytes, or laymen, or soldiers, or statesmen, or unlearned, or under thirty years of age, or men who have not passed through the ecclesiastical steps regu- larly, or who try to get appointed by bribery, or have been nominated by their predecessors. Besides having these qualifications, it is necessary that a bishop should be elected by the clergy and laity of the diocese, and approved by the authority of ^he metropoHtan and the assent of the comprovincial bishops. A candidate thus qualified is to be consecrated on a Sunday, with the good will of the clergy and laity, by all the compro- vincial , bishops, or at any rate by three of them, with the consent of the others given in writing, and with the authority or personal presence of the metropoHtan. A suffragan is to be consecrated in whatever place the metropolitan chooses, a metropolitan in the metropolis. (The word archbishop has not yet appeared in Spanish ecclesiastical history, nor will it appear for several centuries.) There are seventy-five canons in all passed by this Council. Two of them are directed against the Jews, and hard and cruel as they are, they yet lay down a principle of persecution which rises above the practice of the Spanish Church at that or at any other time. The 57th canon says, "About the Jews, the holy THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 169 Synod lays down this rule, that violence is not to be used to make people believe, for on whom God wills He has mercy, and whom He will He hardens. For men are not to be saved against their will but by their own will, that righteousness may have its perfect form. For as man perished by obeying the serpent at his own will, so is every one saved when the grace of God calls him, by the conversion of his own soul. There- fore, they are to be persuaded to be converted, not forced — not by violence, but by free choice." If this canon embodies the views of Isidore, as is probable from his having expressed a similar sentiment else- where,^ we must grant that he rose above the opinions and the practice of his contemporaries and of his nation. While Reccared's conversion seemed to weld together the other elements in the Spanish Peninsula, it had the opposite result on the Jewish residents in it. Already in 305 the Church had shown a fierce feeling of enmity toward Jews, forbidding agriculturists to accept the blessing of a Jew on their crops, and prohibiting Christians from eating with Jews, but, as long as the sovereign remained Arian, the Jews profited by the general toleration which was extended to the Roman subjects of the kingdom, and were free from secular persecution. But as soon as the throne and the altar were united in sentiment, and the King's conduct was directed by the Churcli, the power which stood between ^ " Initio regni Judoeos ad Fii'iom Christianam permovens, aemula- tionem habuit sed non secundum scientiam : potestate enim compulit quos provocare fidei ralione oportuit. Sed, sicut est scriptuni, ^ive per occasionem sive per veritatem Christus annuntiatur. " — Di'vi Isidori Uispal. Episcopi Historia de Regibus Gothorum. 170 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the Jew and his assailant was renewed. In Reccared's Council of the year 589 the 14th canon had pro- hibited intermarriage between Christian and Jew, and had forbidden the Jew to have a Christian slave, and had ordered that any child of a Jew and Christian should be baptized and brought up as a Christian. Sisebut, who succeeded Gundemar in the year 612, was not content with such weak measures ; he ordered that all Jews should submit to baptism within one year, or undergo scourging, mutilation, banishment, and confiscation of goods. In the Fourth Council ol Toledo, Isidore's influence availed, as we have seen, to lay down the grand principle that force ought not to be employed in effecting their conversion ; but this barren declaration did not help the poor Jew much, when at the same time it was enacted that all that had been baptized in consequence of Sisebut's orders were to be compelled to continue in the profession and practice of Christianity (Can. 57); that no converted Jew was to be allowed to apostatise or to circumcise his children or slaves without suffering the penalty of being sepa- rated from the former and deprived of the latter (Can. 59) ; that his children might be taken from him and sent to monasteries or Christian families for educa- tion (Can. 60) ; that if he apostatised himself, but his children did not, the latter might take possession of his goods (Can. 61) ; that he was not to hold any communication with his unbelieving fellow-countrymen (Can. 62) ; that a Jew married to a Christian was to be separated from his wife unless he became a Chris- tian himself, and that the children of mixed marriages were to be brought up as Christians (Can. 62,); that THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. r/i the testimony of a Jew was not to be accepted though he declared himself to be a Christian (Can. 64) ; that neither a Jew nor the children of a Jew were to be capable of filling public offices (Can. 65) ; that no Jew should have a Christian slave, seeing that one was a member of Christ, and the other of Antichrist (Can. 66). Such was the manner in which the Council and King Sisenand put into practice Isidore's principle of no compulsion, and Isidore acquiesced without appear- ing to see any inconsistency in his conduct. On Isidore's death the last restraint on severity and cruelty was removed. Chintila, who succeeded Sise- nand in 637, passed a law that neither Jews nor any others except Catholics should be permitted to reside in his dominions ; and the Sixth Council of Toledo, A.D. 632, thanking God for having created so illustrious a soul as the king's, so full of zeal and wisdom, decreed, with the assistance of the Grandees of the Palace, that no one henceforward should be elected king who did not make oath that he would never permit Judaism or heresy to exist in the kingdom (Can. 3). Even this was not sufficient, for there still remained the converted Jews to persecute, and accordingly King Recceswinth com- pelled them to promise that from that time forward (a.D. 654) they would not follow any Jewish custom or observance ; that they would never on any occasion have dealings or converse with unbaptized Jews ; that they would observe the laws prohibiting marriage with relatives to the sixth degree ; that they would only marry, and only allow their sons and daughters to marry, with Christians ; that they would not circumcise themselves, as they used to do; that they would not 172 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. keep the Passover, nor the Sabbath, nor other feasts according to the calendar and rites of the Jews ; that they would not refuse to eat meats forbidden in the old law ; that they would not give in to any of the abomin- able practices of the Jews; that they believed with sincere faith and right heart and true devotion in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God ; that they accepted and embraced with the greatest sincerity and respect all the customs and uses of the holy Christian religion as to festivals, marriages, meats, and every- thing. And if any of them failed to fulfil their present promises in the least point, or to delay their fulfilment, or to oppose by word or act the religion of Jesus Christ, they promised and swore by the true and only God, and by the three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that they would themselves stone them to death or burn them ; and if the mercy of the king should grant them hfe, they besought His Majesty, of their own free will and choice, to reduce them to slavery and dispose of their goods as he pleased. Even this was not sufficient. Twenty-seven years afterwards, in the reign of Erwig, each of the converted Jews had individually and personally to make and sign a declaration, which, for its ingenuity in the prolonga- tion of an oath, known by the imposers to be a perjury on the part of the man who took it, is almost unrivalled in history. The declaration begins with a renunciation of all rites and observances of Judaism, an abomination of all the solemnities and customs hitherto practised, and a promise to hold henceforth as erroneous and abominable all that the man had observed and respected up to that time, and to reject everything opposed to the THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 173 faith of the Christians. Then follows the recitation of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, with a profession of full faith in it, and a promise never to return to Jewish superstitions, to do what Christians do, eat what Christians eat, to go to church like good Chris- tians, to keep Sunday and other Christian festivals, and to join with Christians in celebrating their religious rites. Then follows the oath,^ which, were it not for 1 " I swear to observe this profession of my faith by God the Father Almighty, Whose words are, * By Me shalt thou swear, and thou shalt not take in vain the name of thy Lord God, who made heaven and earth and all that is therein.' I swear by the God Who hath placed a bridle on the sea, saying, * Hitherto shalt thou come, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed ; ' and by the same God Who said, ' The heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.' I swear by Him Who cast down from heaven proud Lucifer, at Whose presence the hosts of angels tremble, the depths are dried up, and the mountains are levelled ; by Him Who commanded the first man not to eat of the forbidden tree, and for his disobedience drove him out of Paradise, permitting the whole human race to be corrupted by his sin ; by Him Who accepted the sacrifice of just Abel and justly rejected accursed Cain ; by Him Who keeps Ellas and Enoch alive in Paradise, to I'eturn at the end of the ages and be slain ; by Him Who preserved in the ark Noah and his wife, and sons and daughters, and four-footed beasts, and fowls, and animals, to renew life on the earth ; by Him Who blessed Shem, the son of Noah, to be the father of Abraham and all the Israelites ; by Him Wlio chose the Patriarchs and Prophets, and blessed Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; by Him W^ho promised to the first of them that all nations should be blessed in him, commanding him to be circumcised in sign of perpetual covenant. I swear by Him Who destroyed Sodom and turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt ; by Him Who wrestled with Jacob, and, making him halt, ordered him to take the name of Israel ; by Him Who delivered Joseph from the oppression of his brethren, and made him pleasing in the eyes of Pharaoh for the good of the people of Israel ; by Him Who saved Moses from the water and appeared to him in a burning bush ; by Him Who made use of Moses to bring the Ten Plagues on Egypt and to deliver His people from slavery ; by Him Who divided the waters of the Red Sea, making a miraculous path by which the Israelites crossed on dry ground, while Pharaoh and all his host were destroyed ; by Him Who guided His people in their journeys by day as a column of smoke, by night of fire ; by Him Who made Mount Sinai to smoke in the sight of all the people of Israel ; by Him Who called lU HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the deadly earnest of the Jewish persecution, we might suppose to have been the jesting composition of one who wished to parody past enormities. It is probably Spain alone that could have presented us with such a formula drawn up for real use by the Primate of a Aaron for his first priest, and consumed his sons with fire for having ofTered sacrifice with strange fire ; by Him Who ordered the earth to swallow up Dathan and Abirani ; by Him Who turned the bitter water into sweet and gave virtue to the rod of Moses to draw water out of the rock in sight of the people. I swear by Him Who sustained the Israelites for forty years in the Wilderness with no want of any- thing and their garments unconsumed ; by Him Who declared that none of the Israelites should enter the Promised Land except Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, because they had not believed the words of the Lord ; by Him Who made the people victorious, while Moses held up his hands, against the Amalekites ; by Him Who caused our fathers to pass thi'ough the River Jordan with Joshua, and in sign of having crossed to take twelve stones from the river ; by Him Who commanded them at once to be circumcised with sharp stones ; by Him Who threw down the walls of the city of Jericho, and saved David from the hands of Saul and Absalom ; by Him Who listened to the supplications of Solomon and filled all the Temple with a cloud and sanctified it with His blessing; by Him Who carried up the Prophet Elijah from the earth to heaven in a chariot of fire ; by Him Who, listening to the prayer of Elisha, divided the waters of Jordan ; by Ilim Who filled the prophets with His Holy Spirit, and delivered Daniel from the lions ; by Him Who kept alive the three children in the furnace in the sight of the king their enemy ; by Him Who holds the keys of David, and shuts and no man opens, and opens and no man shuts ; by Him Who worked all the prodigies and miracles which have taken place in Israel and the other nations of the earth. I swear by the Ten Com- mandments of the Law of God, by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by the Holy Ghost, Who is true God and the Third Person of the Trinity ; by the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Ascen- sion into heaven ; by the glorious and awful day on which He shall come to judge the quick and the dead with a countenance gracious to the good and terrible to the wicked. I swear by the body and blood of the adorable Redeemer, Who opened the eyes of the blind, made the deaf to hear, restored the paralytic, gave speech to the dumb, de- livered those possessed from the devils, healed the lame, raised the dead, •walked on the water, brought Lazarus from the tomb and the corruption of darkness, giving life to the dead and joyfulness to those who wept for him, I swear by the Creator of the World, the Origina- tor of Light, and the Author of Salvation ; by Jesus Christ our Lord, Who gave light to the earth by His birth, redeemed mankind by His THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 175 National Church, who is canonised as a saint.^ The Jewish persecution under the Gothic kings was a pre- lude to persecutions of the Jews, Moors, and Pro- testants in later ages, and showed that the Spanish temper, before it had been hardened by the Saracenic struggles, was such as to make the Inquisition a con- genial institution. And even this was not enough. In the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, held A.D. 694, the eighth canon ordered that all Jews should be sold as slaves and the whole of their goods confiscated for having Judaised after baptism and conspired against the kingdom. What wonder if they did conspire ? and how can they be Passion, died without losing His liberty among the horrors of the tomb, burst the gates of hell, carried thence the blessed souls, triumphed over death, entered heaven with His body, sat down on the right hand of God the Father, and took possession of the throne of His eternal king- dom. I swear by all the choirs of angels, by the relics of the apostles and saints, by the four Gospels on this altar, which I touch with my hands, that I have promised with all sincerity, without the least deceit, and in the natural sense of the words used, all that I have pro- mised and said before my Bishop with profession of faith which I have signed with my hand ; and I hereby bind myself to renounce all the Jewish rites and ceremonies, to believe firmly in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, to separate myself for ever from the sect of the Jews and from all communication with them, to live in the religion of the Christians, and to ol)serve what they observe according to the Apostolic rules and traditions. " If I fail in any of the things promised, or defile my faith with any Jewish superstition, or contradict by my acts the plain and natural meaning of this my profession, may there come on me all the curses threatened by the mouth of God on the breakers of His law ! May there come on me and on my house and on my children all the plagues of Egypt, and for a warning to others may the earth swallow me up alive like Dathan and Abiram ! May the eternal flames burn me in company with Judas and the men of Sodom, and when I stand before the tremendous judgment-seat of the Supreme Judge of men, may Jesus Christ say to me in wrath, ' Depart from me, thou cursed, into eternal fire prepared for Satan and the evil angels 1 ' " — Masdeu, IJistoria Critica de Espana, vol. xi. p. 367. ^ S. Julian of Toledo, himself of Jcwi'^h blood. 176 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. blamed if they threw themselves on the side of the Saracens at the time of the invasion which was now imminent ? The only man who even by an academical utterance tried to check this course of barbarous persecution on which the Spanish Church set out in the days of Rec- cared and continued till its overthrow by the Saracens, was Isidore. He died in the year 636, three years after the Fourth Council of Toledo had been held, and in the reign of Sisenand. As Hosius was the greatest ecclesiastic that Spain has produced, so Isidore was the most learned, and, next to his brother Leander, he was the most influential in directing the affairs of the Gotho-Spanish Church. He was acquainted not only with Latin, which was the ordinary language of Spain, but also with Greek and Hebrew, and with the whole cycle of the Greek and Latin classics. His book on Etymologies or Origins, though full of mistakes which any schoolboy could now correct, contains almost all the knowledge that the world at that time had in grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, medicine, law, sacred and profane history, men,, animals, the universe, agriculture, war, ships, architecture, food, and many more subjects. Besides this work, which is of the nature of an ency- clopaedia, he wrote on physics, metaphysics, Scripture, theology, history. His history of the Goths is of great value even at the present day. Many works have been attributed to him which he did not write; one of these is the treatise Be ortu et obihc Patrinii qui in Scripturd laiidibiis efferuntury which, as we have seen, is quoted as the first authority for S. James' preaching THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 177 in Spain. The sentence making this statement fuses into one James the son of Zebedee and James the son of Alphaeus, says that he wrote to the dispersion of the Jews and preached in Spain, declares him to have been put to death by Herod the Tetrarch, instead of Herod Agrippa L, and states that he was buried in Marmarica, a district in Africa, where he never went.^ The seventh century was not a learned age, but that the most learned man of that century should have penned such a sentence as that is outside the limits of credibility. It would be possible, indeed, that the passage might have been interpolated in a genuine work of Isidore's for the sake of claiming his authority for it ; but the character of the book throughout is such as to be unworthy of Isidore. It is probable that the whole was written in his name by a forger, like many other documents connected with Church history in Spain. Another work which he did not compile has been attributed to him, called Collectio CanomiinP- This was an edition or adaptation of the Code of Canons ^ '•■Jacobus filius Zebedsei, frater Joannis, quaitus in ordine, duo- decim tribubus, qu?e sunt in dispersione Gentium scripsit, atque His- panise et occidentalium locorum geniibus evangelium prxdicavit et in occasu mundi lucem prgedicationis infudit. Hie ab Herode Tetrarcha gladio csesus occubuit. Sepultus in Marmarica." The grotesque passage above may be a variation of a statement in the Martyrologiuin Gellovcnsc s.ive Sancti Guillelmi de Dcscrio, written about 804 : " Jacobus qui interpretatur supplantator, filius Zebedoei, frater Juhannis. Hie Ilispanice et occidentalibus locis prccdicavit, et sub Herode gladio ccesus occubuit, sepultusque est in Achaia Mar- marica, viii. Kal. August." See Arevalus' Jsidoriana in Migne's Patrologia. May we And here, that is, in the ninth century, the t)rigin of the legend ? Marmarica is still a place, not a marble arch, as it became afterwards. 2 Migne, Patrologia /.,Uiiiu, lorn. Ixxxiv, 178 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. formed by Dionysius Exiguus at Rome at the end of the fifth century. There had been from the time of Hosiiis a collection in Spain consisting of the Canons of Nicaea, Sardica, Elvira, and perhaps a few more. This collection was enlarged, towards the end of the seventh century, by the addition to it of the Canons which Dionysius Exiguus had put together from the early Eastern and African Synods and the earliest Decretal Letters of the Popes, beginning with the sup- posed Letter of Siricius, A.D. 384, down to Anastasius II., A.D. 496. This enlarged edition of the Hispana Collectio was attributed to Isidore, as being the most learned man of the century and of Spain, but there are no good grounds for attaching his name to it. In Italy the collection of Dionysius, sometimes called the Codex Hadriamis, because sent by Hadrian I. with his approval to Charlemagne, was regarded as the authoritative Code ; in Spain the Hispana Collectio^ attributed to Isidore. But in the year 850 or there- abouts there appeared the famous forgery of the False Decretals, which, like the other collection, was issued in the name of Isidore, not now with a more or less innocent purpose, but with the deliberate inten- tion of deceiving the Western Church into the belief that the forgeries of which it consists were stamped as genuine by the authority of the learned Bishop of Seville. Perhaps no forgery ever made was so suc- cessful as the Decretals of the Pseudo-Isidore, and none has had such a vast and permanent effect on Christendom. On it, as its basis, was erected the edifice of the Papal monarchy, and when the basis was found to be rotten and was knocked away, the THE FOURTH COUNCIL OF TOLEDO. 179 edifice still remained, having been propped up by sub- structions run under it with infinite skill and untiring perseverance. Without the False Decretals it could not have been erected at all. The work begins with between fifty and sixty epistles, supposed to have been written by the Popes from the earliest times down to Melchiades, all of which are false ; then come some falsified decrees of Councils, then again a second series of supposed decretals, some of which are forgeries, some adulterated. The object of the compilation was to prove the right of Papal intervention in all parts of the Western Church, and the pre-eminent authority of the Pope in matters ecclesiastical. It was not till the dawn of the Reformation that the true character of this enormous deception was discovered. From the ninth century to the fifteenth it was accepted as a genuine work of Isidore's, and, stamped by his name, was regarded as true.^ ^ See Heinschius, Detretales Pseudo-Isidoriance, T.ipsiae, 1863. N CHAPTER XIV, THE LATER GOTHIC KINGS IN THEIR RELATION TO THE CHURCH. Bishop Isidore and King Sisenand died in the same year, A.D. 636. Isidore was the last of the great prelates of Seville, the dignity of which See more and more passed to the See of Toledo, though the latter had not yet attained to other than metropolitan rank. Sisenand was succeeded by Chintila, who, in the first year of his reign, summoned the Fifth Council of Toledo, and two years afterwards the Sixth Council. In the Fifth Council the king proposed the appoint- ment of three days litanies every year, on the 13th, 14th, and 15 th of December, and in his confirmation of the Council's Acts he prohibited his vassals, gran- dees, counts, judges, and all others whatsoever, from doing any business on those days, which were to be given up to fasting and weeping. While the king thus provided for ecclesiastical matters, the bishops, in their character of a national parliament, renewed a canon of the previous Council, excommunicating any one guilty of treason, and added to it a canon of their own excom- municating any pretender to the throne who was not of pure Gothic descent, and who had not been lawfully elected. The canon against treason they ordered should be henceforth read in every Spanish Council. The Sixth Council renewed with stronger anatliemas the canon THE LATER GOTHIC KINGS. i8i against treason, forbade any one to hold the royal dignity who had once put on the dress of a monk, and ordered that a part of the king's oath should be that he would no longer tolerate Judaism in the kingdom. What little force the decrees of the Councils had in matters secular is shown by the fate of Tulga, son of Chintila. He had not been two years on the throne when Kindaswinth headed a rebellion against him, relegated him to a monastery, and seized the throne. Kindaswinth was a fierce old man, seventy-nine years of age, who hated the supremacy which the Church had begun to exercise over the State, and was resolved to vindicate the authority of the monarchy against both the bishops and the nobles. He is said to have executed no fewer than two hundred of the nobles of the first rank and five hundred of those belonging to the second class, besides driving many into exile and seizing their estates. Having made the factious nobility feel that they had a master, he turned upon the Church. Summoning the Seventh Council of Toledo in 646, he made the obsequious bishops im- mediately, and without preface, as their first canon, pass a law depriving, excommunicating, and subjecting to lifelong penance any priest who fled the country, or aided and abetted any who were traitors at home or had become refugees in foreign parts. Such a canon is an indication of a reign of terror extended over the clergy as well as the aristocracy. The Council made no resistance to the king's will, and having passed the canon, was allowed to proceed to ecclesiastical business. The sixth canon ordered the residence in Toledo of one of tlic ncighbom'ing sufVragan bisliops i82 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. for a month in every year. This makes a step towards the Toledan primacy, the MetropoHtan thus having an assistant always at his side; but he still stood only on a level with the other Metropolitans, and on this occasion signs third in order, while the Metropolitans of Merida and Seville precede him. The occupant of the See at this time was Eugenius I., a learned man, who had some knowledge of astronomy. He was succeeded in the same year that the Council was held by a second Eugenius, who was compelled by Kinda- swinth to accept the office. Eugenius II. was a man of learning like his predecessor, a musician, and a far from contemptible poet. The epitaph which he puts into the mouth of Kindaswinth after the lion was dead, while it shows his power of versification, ex- hibits at the same time the bitter hatred which the ecclesiastical party entertained for the stern old king. Indeed, the lines could hardly have been made public as long as the author lived and Kindaswinth's son Recceswinth reigned.^ ^ "Chindasuintbus ego noxarum semper amicus, Patrator scelerum Chindasuinthus ego. Impius, obscsenus, probrosus, turpis, iniquus, Optima nulla volens, pessima cuiicta valens. Quidquid agit, qui prava cupit, qui noxia qu^rit, Omnia commisi, pejo: et inde fui. Nulla fuit culpa quam non committere vellem, Maximus in vitiis et prior ipse fui. En cinis hie redii, sceptra qui regia gessi, Purpura quem texit, jam modo terra premit. Non mihi nunc prosunt biblattea tegmina regni, Non gemmre virides, non diadema nitens. Non juvat argentum, non fulgens adjuvat aurum, Aulica fulchra nocent, non mihi gaza placet. Omnis enim lute?e deceplrix gloria vitae Ut flatus abiit ; mox liquefacta perit. Felix ille nimis et Christi munere felix, Qui teriK fragiles semper abhorret opes." THE LATER GOTHIC KINGS. 183 When the old man had reached the age of eighty- seven, he began to feel the burden of the government too great for him, and he was anxious to see the succession settled in his family while he was still there to overawe the turbulent nobles. Bishop Braulio of Zaragoza there- fore addressed to him an opportune petition praying that he would associate his son with him in the king- dom. Kindaswinth graciously acceded to the prayer ; Recceswinth was nominated by him and accepted by the nation as joint-ruler with his father. Four years later, A.D. 653, he became sole king. In the three years following his accession three Councils were held by him, known as the Eighth, the Ninth, and the Tenth Councils of Toledo, in the years 653, 655, and 656. The first of these confirmed in its tenth canon the right and duty of the prelates and nobles of the palace to elect the new king, on the occasion of a vacancy of the throne, in the city of Toledo or wherever the previous king had died, and ordered that the king-elect should take a coronation oath before entering on his office to observe the conditions under which he accepted it. The character of a parhament rather than of a synod, which belonged to all the Councils of Toledo, was specially impressed on this Council by its Acts being signed not only by the bishops and their representatives, but by eleven abbots, an archpriest, a primiccrius (head of the inferior clergy), and seventeen lay nobles. The Ninth Council is noticeable as the first at which the Bishop of Toledo adopts the sounding title of " Metro- politan Bishop of the Ro}^^! City." As Bishop Eugc- nius was the only metropolitan present, he of course presided at it, and from that time forward the office of i84 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. president was always occupied by him or his successors at the Councils held in Toledo. The Tenth Council took into consideration the case of Potamius, Metro- politan of Braga, and deposed him on his own con- fession of sin, showing that the court of trial for a metropolitan in the Spanish Church in the seventh century was the National Synod. The Council unani- mously elected in his place Fructuosus, Bishop of Dumium, a warm supporter of the monastic system and the founder of many monasteries. After holding these Councils so quickly one after the other, Recceswinth dispensed with his ecclesiastical parliament for the rest of his life, that is, for seventeen years. Several explanations of this singular fact have been offered, but the most probable cause of the king's change of sentiment was a distrust of the new Metro- politan of Toledo, who succeeded Eugenius II. in the year after the Tenth Council. This was Ildefonso, a man of whom we know scarcely anything, but whose reputation in Spain, resting on a legendary Life of him written (if it was written) by Bishop Cixila rather more than a hundred years after his death, is greater than that of any ecclesiastic except Isidore. Nor are we able to be sure about his written works any more than about his acts, for it became customary to attri- bute books and treatises of unknown authorship first to Isidore, and, if not to him, to Ildefonso. Singularly enough, the work which is almost universally regarded as really his, De Viris IlliistribtiSy is not one that is attri- buted to him by the only " Life " of him which has any claims to be regarded as trustworthy; while another work which is so attributed to him, De Cognitione Baptisini, THE LATER GOTHIC KINGS. 185 is not his. It is said that he was ordained by Hella- dius, Bishop of Toledo, and that he became Abbot of Agali about the year 650.^ In the latter capacity he was present at the Eighth and Ninth Councils of Toledo, and was appointed Bishop of Toledo in 657, and died in 66y. This is all that is related of him in the Life of him supposed to have been written by Julian, a successor in the See of Toledo; but legend has revelled with his name. There is extant a book on the Virginity of S. Mar}^ supposed (perhaps truly) to have been written by him. In return for this book the later ecclesiastical historians of Spain assure us that S. Mary appeared to him in the Cathedral of Toledo on the Feast of the Annunciation at midnight, sur- rounded by a company of virgins, and after thanking him for defending her against the calumnies of Helvi- dius, Bonosus, and an unnamed Jew, presented him with a cassock to wear in her memory, which was afterwards carried to Oviedo and preserved in the cathedral in a silver chest with other relics.^ The following is another miraculous tale of Ildefonso, which ^ Rodrigo el Cerratense says that on his first going to the monastery of Agali, he was pursued by his father, and that seeing his father behind him, he hid behind an old wall till he saw his father leave the monas- tery, when he immediately took the habit. ^ Morales says that '* this sovereign miracle is one of the most certain and assured things that the Church of Spain has in the matter of miracles" [Coron., iii. 187), and Masdeu does not venture to reject it {Ilistoria Critica^ vol. xi. p. 131). Cixila says that the saint found the Lady herself sitting in the bishop's ivory chair (which no bishop ever afterwards dared to sit upon except Sisebcrt, who immediately lost his See), and the whole apse full of troops of virgins chanting softly the Psalms of David. Rodrigo Cerratense says that they were singing the praises of S. Mary, and that the present made to Ildefonso was "the vestment that we call an alb," and that on tiie next bishop, Siargius (there was no such bishop), daring to put it on, he was seized w itii cramp and fell down dead (^Florez, Esp. Sagr., v. 489, 506). i86 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. we give in Morales' words. No true impression of Spain can be given if we omit these stories altogether from our narrative, for they became to the Spaniards more real than the facts of history, more true than Scripture. " S. Ildefonso went one day with King Recceswinth and all the court to celebrate the festival of S. Leocadia in the church called after her, in which she was also buried. The holy archbishop being arrived at the blessed sepulchre, knelt down there to pray, and as he was praying he saw the sepulchre open of its own accord, the stone above it, which, Cixila says, thirty men could not have moved, slowly sliding from the mouth of the tomb. And immediately the holy virgin arose, after lying there 300 years, and holding out her arm, she shook hands with S. Ildefonso, speaking in this wise : ' O Ildefonso, through thee doth the honour of my Lady flourish ! ' All the spectators were silent, being struck with the novelty and greatness of the miracle; only S. Ildefonso, with Heaven's aid, replied to her, ' Glorious virgin, worthy of reigning with God in heaven, since for His love thou didst despise and offer up thy life, happy is this city which thou didst consecrate with thy death ; and its joy is now increased in seeing thee, who dost triumph with God in glory ; a mighty testimony this for the Christian faith and for the sweet consolation of thy citizens, who believe in it as becomes Christians. And I beseech thee, lady, turn thine eyes from heaven on this city, which begot and reared thee to be what thou art. Aid by thine intercession and prayers both thy countrymen and the king, who with much devotion doth frequent thy temple and celebrate thy feast ! ' Now the holy virgin looked THE LATER GOTHIC KINGS. 187 as if she wished to return into her tomb, and she turned round for that purpose ; then King Recceswinth begged of S. Ildefonso that he would not let her go unless she left some relic of her behind, both for a memorial of the miracle and for the consolation of the city. And as S. Ildefonso wished to cut a part of the white veil which covered the head of S. Leocadia, the king lent him a knife for the purpose, and this must have been a poniard or dagger, though others say it was a sword. With this the saint cut a large piece of that blessed veil, and while he was giving it to the king, at the same time returning the knife, the saint shut herself up entirely, and covered herself in the tomb with the huge stone. The king commanded the veil and the knife to be preserved with great veneration in the sacristy of the cathedral : to this day both are honoured and shown in that holy church." ^ ^ Morales, iii. 158, Dunham's translation. The original story is to be found in Cixila's Vita S. Ildefonsi [Esp. Sagr., v. 486), and in the Vita Beati Ildefonsi, by Rodrigo Cerratense, a writer of the thirteenth century (ibid., 505). Cixila says that the lid of the tomb, which thirty young men could not stir, was raised by the hands of angels, and the veil which covered Leocadia lifted itself as though it had been alive and the most beautiful virgin came forward into Ildefonso's sight ; on which all the bishops, princes, presbyters, and deacons, clergy, and people, cried out, "Thanks to God in heaven! thanks to God on earth ! " Leocadia then embraced him with her hands and exclaimed, "Thanks to God ! my Lady lives by the life of Ildefonso ! " (This Rodrigo thinks meant that belief in the virginity of S. Mary had been made to live in Spain by the efforts of Ildefonso.) Then the people shouted again and stood with open mouths. Ildefonso raised his voice amidst the clamour with a bellow {quasi miigiens) and called for some- thing to cut the veil with, as the holy virgin was violently dragging it back. Recceswinth pulled out a little knife, and bowing his neck and holding out his hands in supplication, besought those about him to carry it to Ildefonso. The bishop seized the knife with his right hand, and still holding on to the veil with his lc:''t hand, cut ofT a piece of it, and deposited it with the knife in the reli([uary. This is the first form of the legend. i88 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. It is easy to imagine that the king may have felt apprehensive of the results of a Council presided over by such a prelate as Ildefonso, and there are some in- dications of disagreement between them. Cixila tells us the saint reproved the king.^ Isidore Pacensis speaks of the king as being in the latter part of his life jiagitiosiiSy and Roderick Sanchez de Arevalo, Bishop of Palencia, declares that " he was as bad as possible, for he used to sacrifice to demons." A Council was allowed to be held at Merida in 666y but there Ildefonso had not to preside. Whatever the cause was, there were no more Councils at Toledo till Recceswinth died, nor till the fourth year of his successor. Recceswinth's reign was longer and more peaceful than that of any of his predecessors or successors on the throne. He occupied himself in perfecting the Visigothic code of laws, and legalised for the first time intermarriage between the old conquerors and their subjects the Goths and the Romans.^ Wamba was elected to succeed Recceswinth, and we are told by Bishop Julian, who wrote an account of the early years of his reign, that he was anointed by Quiricus, Bishop of Toledo. Whether the ceremony of anointing was first used or first mentioned on this occasion in Spanish history does not appear. The first year of the new king's reign was spent in putting ^ Vida de San Ildefonso. ^ A magnificent crown once worn by Recceswinth, and afterwards offered by him to the Cathedral of Toledo, was dug up in the year 1858 at Fuente de Guarrazar, and is now deposited in the Museum of the Hotel de Cluny in Paris. It is sufficient of itself to prove to us how costly were the offerings made by the Gothic kings to the Church. THE LATER GOTHIC KINGS. 189 down an insurrection of the Basques, and crushing a rebelhon in Narbonensis, headed at first by Count Hilderic of Nismes and Bishop Gumildus of Mague- lonne, and afterwards by Duke Paul, who had been sent by Wamba to attack the rebels. Paul and his associates were defeated in the field, driven to take refuge in the amphitheatre of Nismes, obliged to sub- mit to the conqueror, and sentenced to undergo the penalty of decalvation (by which the skin was torn or burnt from the head) and thrown into prison after having been led in triumph through the streets of Toledo. Warned by what had happened, Wamba issued a law commanding not only laymen, but clergy, to be always ready to resist invasion or rebellion, and inflicting the penalty of fine or banishment on any bishop, priest, or deacon who failed to do his duty to the State on emergency by personal service. Having settled the civil affairs of his kingdom, Wamba allowed two Councils to be held, one at Braga, for the first (and last) time since Galicia had been made a part of the Gothic kingdom ; the other at Toledo, where Quiricus had now succeeded Ildefonso as bishop. Both Councils confined themselves, probably by the king's command, to matters of ecclesiastical discipline, and did not meddle with political affairs. The Council of Braga is remarkable as giving the first indication of the existence in the West of a practice which has become universal in the East, but was uniformly condemned in the West as heretical, except for a short period in the twelfth century, when it was allowed as a step towards the denial of the cup. This is the practice of dipping the bread in the wine before I90 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. administration. Some semi-heretical priests in Galicia were found to have done this, while others used milk or the unfermented juice of grapes instead of wine. These practices are forbidden in the first canon of the Council. Another canon, increasing the severity of canons which had been passed again and again since the introduction of clerical celibacy into Spain, pro- hibits any woman whatsoever living in the same house with a priest, except only his mother. The Council of Toledo, called the Eleventh, deals, like that of Braga, with Church discipline. The fifth canon imposes the penalty of degradation, exile, and excommunication on any bishop who seduced the wife or daughter of any man of rank, or was guilty of causing the death or grave injury of any member of a nobleman's family. The limitation shows the oli- garchical character of the country, and the little con- ception entertained by the Council of sin as distinct from crime. The seventh and eighth canons are directed against simony, the punishment for which is two years' degradation. The Council ends with re- turning thanks by acclamation to King Wamba as the restorer of the discipline of the Church. That Wamba took serious interest in the welfare of the Church is shown by his instituting two new bishoprics ; but he appears to have acted in a high- handed manner by right of his royal supremacy rather than the advice of his prelates and nobles, and in the next reign the two new bishoprics were suppressed. It is probable also that his permitting only a Provincial instead of a National Council to be held in Toledo gave offence to the nobles, who had now made good THE LATER GOTHIC KINGS. 191 their right to sit in a National Council. The burden which he had laid on bishops and nobles alike of defending the country in case of invasion and rebellion also had a tendency to make him unpopular. His fall came in a singular way. He was taken ill, and became insensible. In this state he was dressed as a penitent or monk, and tonsured as being a dying man. But he did not die. His senses returned to him, and he recovered. But he had been habited as a monk, and therefore, by the existing law, he could no longer be king. He was well aware that his illness had been superinduced by a drug, and that his having been in a state of unconsciousness when the penitential habit was put upon him might well prevent the law from applying to him, but he had none to support him, and the opposite faction was strong. He saved his life by signing an Act of abdication and nominating the head of the adverse party as his successor. He retired into a monastery, but he was still dangerous, and he died in the course of a year. ^ Masdeu thus describes this custom: — " Desde el siglo quinto o principios del sexto preveleiro en Espaiia la costumbre de que los enfermos, viendose agravados y en peligro de muerte, tomaban per devocion la tonsura y el habito de penitencia obligando se a llevarlo perpetuamente, se Dies les daba vida. ... Si el moribundo per la gravedad del mal no tenia advertencia para pedir el habito, sus pari- entes o amigos se lo ponian, como si el mismo lo hubiese pedido. . . . Dichos penitentes podian morar en suscasas sin cerrarse en Monasterio, pero llevando siempre la cabeza raida y el habito religioso, separados de todo negocio y diversion, y viviendo con exemplaridad y castidad, sin poder ni casarse si eran celibates ni cohabitarcon la muger o mnrido si lo tenian, de maneraque aunque no claustrales, eran religiosos y con- sagrados a Dios," — Histoyia Critica, vol. xi. p. 272. CHAPTER XV. BISHOP JULIAN AND THE PRIMACY OF TOLEDO. The nominal head of the conspiracy was Erwig, and he was accordingly declared king, but the chief power remained in the hands of Julian, Bishop of Toledo, who had been appointed to the See a few months before Wamba's deposition. Erwig's first act was to summon a Council, known as the Twelfth Council of Toledo. The acts of this Council show the character of the revolution that had been effected. The king presented himself before the assembled bishops, abbots, and nobles, with a declaration that, without doubt, Councils served as a remedy for all the evils of the world, and that the present Council was the salt of the earth, and he besought them to apply to the diseases of the State the remedies which the times required. In particular, he begged them to confirm his election, to approve further laws against the Jews, and to de- clare null and void the military laws of his predecessor. The first canon of the Council absolved the nation from its oath of fidelity to Wamba and confirmed the election of Erwig, who had been already anointed by Julian. The second showed the nature of the plot which had caused Wamba's deposition, by arguing that any man who had been clothed in the penitential habit, even though the act were done against his will, 192 THE PRIMACY OF TOLEDO. 193 was bound to observe the promises which the accept- ance of the habit symboHsed, and thenceforward to give up the world. If the baptismal vow, the prelates argued, was binding on children, although they were unconscious at the time of their baptism, the effect of taking the penitential or monastic habit under like circumstances would likewise be valid. The third canon readmits to Communion those that had been excommunicated for treason in the last reign, but had now received the king's pardon. The fourth canon annuls the Act of the late king in establishing the two new bishoprics, one of which was offensive to Stephen, the Metropolitan of Merida, and the other to the all- powerful Julian. The seventh canon restores to their honours all who had suffered for the non-observance of Wamba's military law. But the most important act of this Council was the passing of the sixth canon, which establishes, for the first time, the primacy of the See of Toledo, at the instance, doubtless, of the strong-willed Julian. We have before seen that Toledo was not originally even a metropolitan See. It was in the province of Carthaginensis, and Cartagena was the metropolitan See of the province as soon as the metropolitical system had been introduced. After Cartagena had been sacked by the Vandals in 425, Toledo began to lift up its head and to call itself a metropolis ; and when Lcovi- gild transferred the royal residence from Seville to Toledo, the bishop of the royal city could no longer endure inferior rank. Accordingly, in the reign of Lcovigild's son, Rcccared, the Bishop of Toledo sub- scribed the Acts of the Third Council, A.D. 589, as 194 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. metropolitan, not yet of Carthaginensis, but of Carpe- tania, a division of Carthaginensis. Next came the decree of Gundemar, in which the king constituted the Bishop of Toledo metropolitan of the whole province, A.D. 6 10. In the Ninth Council, A.D. 655, the Bishop of Toledo, for the first time, presided over a National Council, describing himself as the '^metropolitan bishop of the royal city," and from that time forward no bishop presided at the Councils of Toledo except the metropolitan of that province. Still, however, the bishop was only a brother metropolitan among six ecclesiastical equals. The time was now come when, Julian resolved, he should not be an equal or even a primus inter pareSy but the Primate of the National Church. The sixth canon of the Twelfth Council there- fore decreed, A.D. 681, that the Metropolitan of Toledo might choose and consecrate bishops for all the pro- vinces of the kingdom, and might place in any vacant See those whom the king selected and the judgment of the Bishop of Toledo approved, and that it was not neces- sary to consult the various Churches concerned, though it was proper that the new bishop should present him- self before his own metropolitan in the course of three months. This ordinance overthrew the whole process of election as it was laid down in the Fourth Council of Toledo, and as it still existed in theory, which was that the clergy and laity of the diocese should elect, the metropolitan and suffragans should consecrate, and the Crown should confirm. Already the King had so far innovated on the ancient constitution as to nominate out of a list of names supplied to him by the vacant diocese. Henceforth the whole power of THE PRIMACY OP TOBEDO. 195 appointing bishops throughout the reahn was concen- trated in his hands and those of the Bisliop of Toledo, acting together. It appears to have been the judgment of the Spanish Church and nation that the time was come for the con- stitution of the National Church to be completed by the establishment of a primacy. None of the other metropolitans protested against the canon as an in- vasion of their privileges — perhaps they thought that the voice of the single Primate would be more power- ful in checking the king's appointments than their own. In the Thirteenth Council, held two years later, the Acts of the Twelfth Council were emphatically approved, and the metropolitans there present refrained from entitling themselves otherwise than as simple bishops, while Julian alone subscribed as '^ metropolitan bishop of the holy Church of Toledo." Things had, as we have seen, been long working up to this point, and the force of Julian's personality brought about the event which, if the See had been occupied by a weaker man, might have been delayed till the Church and Bishopric of Toledo were swept away by the Moors. As it was, Toledo acquired the dignity of the Primatial See of Spain in the year 681 by the act of the bishops of Spain and the great Council of the nation. Four hundred years later, when Toledo was recovered from the Moors and the Christian Church once more re- established in power, a Frenchman was appointed Bishop of Toledo, and he accepted the title of Primate, not as a dignity inherent in the See of Toledo, but by a formal act of Urban II., which attributed to the See of Rome the right of instituting and rcinstituting the 196 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. primacy.^ From the date of Urban's Bull, A.D. 1088, the Primates of Spain have been the most submissive of vassals to the Primate of Italy, but it was rather as a rival institution to the Roman Papacy than as a prop to it that Juhan concentrated in the See of Toledo the authority of the whole Spanish Church. This may be seen thus : At the close of the Thirteenth Council, which was held two years after the Twelfth, letters arrived in Spain from Pope Leo II., requesting the adhesion of the Spanish Church to the decrees of the Sixth (Ecumenical Council, which had been held at Constantinople against Monothelitism.^ The Spanish Council having already broken up, Julian, as Primate of the Church, despatched a treatise to Rome dealing with the theological question, to which he gave the ^ " Pallium tibi frater Ven. Bernarde ex Apostolorum Petri et Pauli benedictione conferimus, plenitudinem scilicet omnis Sacerdotalis dignitatis ; teque, sicut ejusdem Urbis antiquitus constat exstitisse Pontifices, in totis Hispaniarum regnis Piimatum privilegii nostri sanctione statuimus. . . . Primatum te universi Hispaniarum praesides respiciant, et ad te, si quid intra eos qugestione dignum exortum fuerit, referant, salva tamen Romanse auctoritate ecclesise et Metropolitanorum privilegiis singulorum. . . . Haec et csetera omnia quae ad antiquam Toletanae Sedis dignitatem atque nobilitatem probari poterunt per- tinuisse, auctoritate certa, Sedis Apostolicce concessione, nos tibi tuisque successoribus perpetuo possidenda concedimus atque firmamus." — Bttl/ of Urban II. ^ These letters were four, addressed (i) to the Spanish bishops, (2) to Quiricus (who had, however, been dead more than three years), (3) to Count Simplicius, (4) to King Erwig. The first declares Theodore, Cyrus, Sergius, and Pope Honorius to have been "convicted as traitors to the purity of the Apostolic tradition, and to have gone into eternal condemnation as their punishment ; " while the last states that Pope Honorius had been "condemned by the venerable Council" (Constan- tinople II.), and thereby "cast out of the communion of the Catholic Church." No surprise is shown by the Spanish Church at hearing from a Pope, in an official document, that a Pope had been excom- municated by an CEcumenical Council for heresy, and that a Pope pronounced the excommunication to be deserved. Nor was it a sur- prise to any of Pope Leo's contemporaries. THE PRIMACY OF TOLEDO. 197 name of Apologeticuui fidei, and forwarded copies of the Constantinopolitan decrees to the five metropoli- tans of Spain for their consideration, and that of their suffragans. The following year, A.D. 684, the Four- teenth Council of Toledo met, at which Julian presided, and representatives of the five metropolitans were present. This Council accepted the decrees of Con- stantinople as orthodox, and ordered that they should be added to the Codex Canomun of the Spanish Church, immediately after the decrees of Nicaea, Con- stantinople I., Ephesus, and Chalcedon. It also entered at some length into the doctrine at issue respecting the two wills of Christ in four canons drawn up by Julian, probably in the very words of his Apologeticiim. The final canon places Julian's treatise on a level with decretal letters in regard to the respect that is to be paid to it. Two years later the Pope, Benedict II., ventured to object to some of the statements in Julian's letter as being at the least incautious. Without a moment's delay Julian wrote, and sent to the Pope, a defence of his treatise, maintaining the orthodoxy of the two statements to which the Pope had objected, which were, that in the Divinity Will begat Will, and that in Christ there were three substances. Soul, Body, and Divinity. Having apparently received no satisfactory answer from the Pope, Julian brought the matter before the Fifteenth Council of Toledo, which was held in the year GZZ. The Council, which represented the whole Church of Spain, consisting of metropolitans, bishops, abbots, and nobles, sided as one man with the Primate, pronounced his Apolo- geticiim to be orthodox, and supported its statements 198 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. by the authority of the early Fathers. If the Pope and his advisers continued to raise objection, the Spanish Churchmen would follow the steps of their ancestors, and all who love the truth would regard their answer as not only satisfactory but sublime, however much ignorant rivals might be displeased at it. The Italian Primate was not prepared to enter into a struggle with a Spanish Primate such as Julian. The Pope tem- porised. Julian's second Apologetic was accepted graciously and made known, according to Isidore Pacensis, to the Emperor of Constantinople, who found all that Julian had written to be right and good, and returned him his thanks for it. Thus the matter blew over. Before another occasion arose for the Primates of Italy and Spain to measure their strength together the Church of Spain had been trodden underfoot by the Saracens, who thus removed from the Papal path an inconvenient obstacle to his supremacy in the West, as the Vandals had previously done by crushing the Church of Cyprian. King Erwig died the year before the important Fifteenth Council was held, which was summoned in the first year of his reign by Egica and confirmed by him. Egica was the nephew or cousin of Wamba, and had married Cixilo, the daughter of Erwig. He thus represented a coalition of the two parties which had torn the Gothic Court asunder in the reigns of his two predecessors. One of his first acts was to lay before the bishops in Council a question of casuistry for them to solve. Erwig had made him take an oath to protect, in their lives and properties, the late king's widow and relatives. When he became THE PRIMACY OF TOLEDO. 199 king he had taken an oath to do justice to all his people. How could he keep both oaths ? And, if that were not possible, which of the two was to yield to the other ? The bishops, who had already at the beginning of Erwig's reign taken upon themselves to absolve the people from their oath of fidelity to Wamba (the first occasion on which such a right had been claimed and exercised by ecclesiastics), had no difficulty in deahng with the question. They absolved Egica from the obligation of his oath to Erwig as being incompatible with the higher obligation of his constitutional oath. The solution of the difficulty was no doubt suggested and drafted by Julian, who presided over the Council. This great prelate seems to have exercised as overwhelming an influence in the reign of Egica as he did in the reign of Erwig. Two years after this time he died, after ten years' occupation of the See, having lived long enough to show what an enormous power the Primate of the Spanish Church might have been in Western Cliristendom had the See of Toledo ever again been filled by a man of his genius and force of will. But it never was. Of his predecessors in the Spanish episcopate, none can be compared to Julian for learning with the exception of Isidore (whom he surpassed in his literary style), nor in the power which he exerted over the course of events, except Isidore's brother Leander — if we put aside from our consideration the great Ilosius as belonging to pre-Gothic times. Julian was succeeded by Sisibert, in the year 690. Though nominated by the king, tlie Bishop was found, 200 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. at the end of two or three years, to be impHcated in a conspiracy which had for its object the murder of Egica and the royal family, the causes of which are unknown to us. The king deposed the ambitious prelate, and exerting the authority assigned to him by the canons of the last Council, nominated and appointed Felix Metropolitan of Seville in his room. Immediately after this occurrence Egica called together the Sixteenth Council of Toledo, and requested its confirmation of the appointment of Felix. The Coun- cil confirmed the deposition of Sisibert by its ninth canon, and added to it the penalties of excommuni- cation and banishment, declaring kings to be the vicars and the anointed of God. It would appear, from a passage in an address made by Egica to the Fifteenth Council, that Sisibert's plot must have been far-reaching and of great peril to the State, for the king desires the Council to take measures against any who aspire to obtaining the throne by insolence and boasting, and attempt to slay the king, and bring about " the ruin of the race and country of the Goths." It would almost appear as though Sisibert anticipated the treason of Oppas. His suc- cessor, Felix, was an admirer and imitator of Julian, whose life he wrote, but he was a man in all respects feebler than that great prelate. The remaining business of the Sixteenth Council was confined to matters of Church discipline, with the exception of the usual order for enforcing the persecution of the Jews. The second canon shows that idolatry was not yet extirpated from Spain. It was still prevalent among the slaves, and not un- THE PRIMACY OF TOLEDO. 201 known among freemen, who are threatened with banishment and excommunication if they are dis- covered. Canons of the Twelfth Council and the Sixteenth Council order that if a priest says more than one Mass a day he is to communicate not only once, but each time that he says one ; and that he is not to use common bread, but bread prepared for the purpose — a step towards wafers and unleavened bread, neither of which were yet known in the Church. A canon of the Seventeenth Council, which followed two years later, shows the existence of a singular superstition respecting the Mass which was so preva- lent as to make the king demand legislation on the subject. This was the habit of applying Masses for the dead to those that were still alive, under the hope and expectation that their death would thus be brought about. Those who paid a priest to say such a Mass, and the priest who said it, are condemned to banishment and perpetual excommunication. The canons of this, the last Council of Toledo whose acts are preserved, were less secular and more eccle- siastical than most of those that had immediately preceded it; but they end with the frightful ordinance already mentioned, that all the Jews in the kingdom should be made slaves and their property confiscated. The additional severity of this law was caused by a real or pretended discovery of a plot said to have been entered into by the Spanish Jews with the Jews of Africa to overthrow Christianity. The Seventeenth ends the long series of the Coun- cils of Toledo. One more was held in the year 698, four years after the Seventeenth, but of its acts no 202 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. record is handed down. We are merely told by Isidore Pacensis, who lived about the year 750, that such a Council was held, after Witiza had been associated with his father, Egica, in the kingdom. The character of these Councils is remarkable. The first two Councils were solely ecclesiastical, the German tribes not having entered the Peninsula at the date of the first, and being still Arian when the Second was held. The Third, held in Reccared's reign, A.D. 589, inaugurated the alliance between Church and State, which grew from an alliance into a union, if not a fusion. From this time forward the Councils of Toledo became at once Church Councils and national Parliaments. The king immediately takes the first place, and by degrees it becomes the recog- nised practice that he should present himself to the Council at its first meeting, deliver to it a Tom?is, or written address, respecting the matters with which it was to deal, and confirm its acts at the conclusion. Laymen were present at Reccared's Council, but they were there for a special purpose, to declare their con- version from Arianism. When we reach the Eighth Council, sixty-four years later, we find dignified pres- byters and representative nobles sitting as of right in the National Council. The same order is followed in the Twelfth and all succeeding Councils. From Reccared's time onwards no serious effort seems to have been made to distinguish between the secular and ecclesiastical elements. Bishops passed laws ordering banishment, and laymen signed canons imposing excommunication. No jealousy appears to have been felt by the king of the Church's power, nor by the Church of the royal THE PRIMACY OF TOLEDO. 203 supremacy. Occasionally there arose a king, like Kindaswinth or Wamba, who favoured the army and repressed the ecclesiastics, but as rule the king, elected by the bishops and nobles, favoured the Church and was the favourite of Churchmen. More and more the Government took the form of a theoc- racy, the king's conscience being governed by his prelates. The National Church, with the king for its supreme governor, was a self-governed whole, that did not look beyond itself for guidance or con- trol in matters ecclesiastical any more than in matters secular. From no statement, or canon, or allusion in the acts of all the seventeen Councils of Toledo could it be gathered that there existed on the other side of the Pyrenees a prelate whose representatives and adherents in after ages claimed that he had been all the while the divinely appointed monarch of the Church. The Councils of Toledo did not know him in any other capacity than that of the Italian Primate, and repudiated with scorn his one attempt to set them right on a point of doctrine. CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. Egica associated his son Witiza with himself in the kingdom in 698, and died in 701. Witiza's character is painted in very different colours by the earlier and later chroniclers. According to the earlier historians, he was an upright king, beloved by his people, and devoted to their welfare. The later accounts repre- sent him as a monster of iniquity and licentiousness, who allowed himself a plurality of wives, and en- couraged his nobles and clergy in the same courses. He is charged also by them with resistance to the Papal authority, and with having thrown down the forti- fications of all the cities in Spain with three exceptions. The explanation of this discrepancy seems to be this — Spanish writers from the ninth to the thirteenth century felt it necessary to discover some cause for the fall of the Gothic kingdom before their hated masters the Saracens. They could imagine no adequate cause for such a catastrophe except the vengeance of God on the sins of the later monarchs. They appear to have selected Witiza as the scapegoat, and attributed to him sins and crimes of which no one was conscious before the ninth century, some of which, indeed, are directty denied by the writers nearest to him in age. Sebastian of Salamanca, in the ninth century, can state 204 LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. 205 that he allowed no Church Councils to be held. Isidore Pacensis, in the eighth century, has, as we have seen, related that a Council met in his reign. In all probability Witiza maintained the traditional in- dependence of the Church and nation in respect to any Ultramontane claims, and he may, as Sebastian reports, have been opposed, as a matter of piety and policy, to the celibacy of the clergy. On this founda- tion the later fables seem to have been raised. While Witiza was still living the war with the Saracens commenced. It appears probable that his reign lasted to the beginning of the year 711; and in 710 Musa despatched Tarif across the straits on a plundering expedition as a prelude to the later in- vasion. To this act Musa was encouraged by Count Julian, who was apparently a Spaniard by birth, and governor of the strip of territory in the neighbourhood of Ceuta, on the coast of Africa, which was still held by the Byzantines, although they had long since been deprived of their former possessions in Spain. Julian appears to have regarded the position of a Byzantine commander, and therefore an hereditary enemy of the Spanish Goths, as justifying him in introducing into Spain the Saracen hordes in spite of their mis- belief, thinking perhaps to deliver his own territory from their presence. The invaders were but five hundred men, who made a plundering raid and came back with their easily gathered spoils. Musa, con- firmed in his intentions by their report, made his preparations, and the following year hurled Tarik upon the opposite coast with seven thousand troops, who seized Gibraltar and plundered the neighbouring 2o6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. country. After the expedition of Tarif, and before the invasion of Tarik, it would seem that Witiza died, and Roderic, by the help of the army and the con- nivance of a faction among the nobles, was elected king. The Saracenic movements had not yet caused apprehension, and it would appear that Roderic turned his attention to a revolt or threatened invasion from the north, like Harold of England, when destruc- tion was coming upon him from the southern coast. On hearing of Tarik's occupation of Gibraltar, he marched to attack him with a hundred thousand men. Musa sent five thousand men to the support of Tarik. The two armies met on the banks of the Guadalete on July 19, and the kingdom of the Goths was swept away in one day. It is said that the cause of the discomfiture of the Christians was the deser- tion of Oppas, brother of Witiza and Archbishop of Seville, with all the adherents of the late king, in the heat of the battle. Roderic was killed, and the Saracens, to their own astonishment and the amaze- ment of the world, found themselves to have become by one blow the lords of Spain. All the world knows the story which poets and romancers have made of the fall of the Gothic king- dom. According to it, Julian is a Spanish noble holding oflfice under Roderic ; the king insults his daughter in a way that demands a father's vengeance, and Julian, forgetful of his duty to his country, opens the gate to the enemies of his race and faith. If Tarif s expedition took place before Roderic's acces- sion to the throne, as would appear to be the case, the story cannot be true, and no Spanish chronicler LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. 207 speaks of his treachery till the beginning of the twelfth century, yet Mohammedan writers testify to the existence of Julian at Ceuta, and to his dealings with the Moors. The explanation given above of Julian's relations both with the Goths and the Saracens is the most probable that can be given until further light is shed on the darkness which envelops the last years of the Gothic kingdom in Spain. We pause once more, at the end of the second and third divisions of Spanish history, to look back at the state of the Church during the Gothic rule; which state was more affected by the conversion of the Gothic sovereign from Arianism in the year 589 than even by the irruption of the Vandals and Siievi in 409, or the original conquest of the Peninsula by the Goths. As long as the conquerors were Arian, whether they were Suevi or Goths, they ex- hibited a contemptuous tolerance towards the faith of their Roman subjects, and allowed them their own ecclesiastical government, just as they permitted them their own laws for regulating their civil affairs. The Goth was too proud and too indifferent to interfere, until, in process of time, the subjects grew up to be nearer to their masters in social position, and it was found that the iiupci'iinn in impcrio which they formed was politically dangerous, when a secret un- derstanding was liable to be entered into between them and their co-religionists, the Byzantine repre- sentatives of the Roman Empire and their powerful neighbours the Franks. Wlien this peril was espied, and when individual Goths fell off one by one, through ^o8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the instrumentality of proselytism, from the Court to the country party, the king and his principal nobles became irritated, and the result was an occasional, if contemptuous and short-lived, persecution. No change was made by the Arian conquerors in the constitution or regimen of the Church. It still con- sisted, as in the times previous to the invasion, of seventy or eighty dioceses, divided into six provinces, one of which was situated in Gallia Narbonnensis, outside the limits of the Peninsula. No change was yet made in the direction of establishing a primacy with authority or jurisdiction over his brother metro- politans, nor was it made till about thirty years before the overthrow of the kingdom. The six metropolitans were equal in power, acknowledging no superior out- side the kingdom, nor any within its borders except the National Synod, in which they and all the other bishops of Spain were represented. The conversion of the king and his Court made an enormous difference to the Church. Instead of a tolerant and contemptuous civil ruler, who scorned to take part in the religious affairs of an alien race subjected in war, there appeared at once on the scene a monarch willing and anxious to humble himself before his bishops, and to use the civil arm for the pro- tection of a Church whose faithful and obedient son he had suddenly become. The Church, on her part, rejoicing to bask in the warmth of the royal favour from which she had been so long excluded, and grati- fied at being able to use the civil power for her own purposes, was willing to give an ecclesiastical supremacy to the king, such as circumstances did not LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. 209 permit any other National Church to grant, and which was elsewhere regarded as an encroachment upon the spiritual power. We have already seen the important and authoritative position held by the king in relation to the Councils, which he summoned and confirmed, and the subject of whose deliberations he determined. We have seen that these Councils were neither Synods nor Parliaments, but both one and the other, and that there was a home-like feeling between Church and State in Spain, as there was in England before the Conquest, which caused people to be content so that matters ecclesiastical and civil were duly performed, without inquiring by whom they were performed, or drawing a hard-and-fast line between the sphere of the ecclesiastic and the sphere of the layman, except, of course, in respect to the administration of God's Word and Sacraments. But the position which the king held in reference to his Council was far from being the only point which showed the intimate relations between the king and the Church, and the extent to which the royal supre- macy in matters ecclesiastical prevailed. The learned Jesuit Masdeu sums up the ecclesiastical privileges of Spanish kings under four heads. The}^ had the right of (i) ordering and providing for the good and edification of the faithful; (2) personally constituting the final court of appeal in ecclesiastical causes; (3) nominating to bishoprics; (4) calling and confirming Church Councils. To prove the first point he quotes the Council of Merida, which thanks God for the wisdom that He had given to Recceswinth for the government of the 210 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Church; shows that the king of his own authority established rogation days and fast days, that he forbade the publication of books written against Christianity, that he fined all men who did not send their Jewish slaves to be catechised, and performed other acts of the same kind. On the second point he declares that "our Gothic kings, as Catholic princes and protectors of the Church, had the right of examining ecclesiastical causes in the last instance, that they might be ended by his authority and power, according to the rule of the sacred canon." He shows that the Ninth Council of Toledo determined that in respect to ecclesiastical property an appeal lay from the clergyman to his bishop, from the bishop to the metropolitan, from the metropolitan to the king ; and that this right of appeal was extended to other subjects by the Thirteenth Council. He gives instances of bishops, clergy, and monks cited before the tribunal of the king for ecclesiastical causes. He adds : " It cannot be denied that this practice of the Spanish Church is contrary to that of other Chris- tian Churches, where recourse of ecclesiastics to a secular tribunal was generally prohibited ; but all canonists know and confess that our Church, which is the purest and firmest of all in the unity of Catholic doctrine, had many pecuhar customs in discipline, which, instead of meeting with any reprobation, deserve in time to be accepted and adopted by many other Churches — ay, and some of them by the Church of Rome and the whole Christian world. ... It cannot be denied that from the day that our kings of Spain began to be Catholic our Church granted to them a supreme tribunal of appeal for every kind of LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. 211 ecclesiastical cause, in order that the royal power might execute the sacred canons and protect the Church." 1 On the third point, Masdeu, having shown that the election of bishops was in the hands of the clergy and people as long as Spain was subject to the Roman emperors, and as long as the Gothic kings were Arian, proves that from the time of Reccared the system of royal nomination became gradually sub- stituted for it. Sisibut instructed the Metropolitan of Tarragona as to the person to be elected Bishop of Barcelona in 620, and Braulio in a letter to Isidore in 683 urges the latter to make every effort to induce the king to nominate a good bishop for Tarragona. In the Fourth Council of Toledo an attempt was made, as we have seen, to restore the old system of elec- tion by clergy and people and consecration by the metropolitan and suffragan bishop, but in spite of the canon of this Council the new system prevailed over the old, and a uniform practice was adopted of the following nature. As soon as a vacancy in a See occurred, the diocese sent word to the king, telling him the name of those who appeared worthy to occupy the See. The king nominated out of the list so sent, and the metropolitan, on the occasion of the next Provincial Council, accepted the royal nominee and consecrated him. It was the prevalence of this system which caused the Church so readily to acquiesce in the primacy conferred on the Bishop of Toledo in the time of Julian. By the important sixth canon of the Twelfth Council the rights of * Vol. xi. p. 19. 212 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. clergy, metropolitans, and suffragan bishops were all swept away, or rather were concentrated in the hands of the Bishop of Toledo ; and the reason why the metropolitans and other bishops so tamely acqui- esced in the loss of their privileges was probably that they persuaded themselves that a single prelate, holding the Primatial See, would have more influence in advising the king than they had found by experi- ence that the bishops of the various Sees had been able to exercise. Masdeu defends the S3''stem of royal nominations, in the character of a patriotic Spanish Churchman. '* Some canonists," he says, ^'have found great fault with the Spanish discipline for not following the Pontifical decrees, or the rules enacted by the Councils of other nations, but our Church has the glory of setting the example to others rather than taking example from them in many points of discipline; nor, in fine, is it a matter so worthy of censure that the people should have freely yielded to its sovereign the right of nominating its bishops, which it held from the time of the apostles." ^ Masdeu approves also of the right possessed by the king of summoning and confirming Councils, showing that we have proof of its having been exerted in Councils III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., X., XL, XII., XIII., XIV., XVI., XVII. of Toledo; Councils I., II., III. of Braga ; a Council of Narbonne in 589, a Council of Merida in 666, and a Council of Zaragoza in 691 ; and pointing out that the sovereigns thus acted with the full approbation of the National Councils, and with no opposition from ^ Vol. xi. p. 23. LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. 213 a single bishop in Spain or even from the Roman Pontiffs. Church and State thus acting cordially together, each paying deference to the other, and each yield- ing somewhat to the other even in its own sphere, without jealousy or fear on either side, no need was felt of any external authority to which to have re- course ; consequently, from the time of the conversion of the Court, the Primate of Italy had as little to do with the Church of Spain as the Church of Italy with the Spanish Primate. Only one case of the trans- mission of the pallium is found, and that was a mere present of Gregor}^ I. to his old friend Leander of a vestment commonly used by metropolitans in services of more than ordinary solemnity, and bearing at that time no significance. Only one case is found of the Pope's acting upon the permission granted by the Council of Sardica and sending a judge to examine into and decide a quarrel that had arisen between two bishops; but that case arose in a part of Spain which was still subject to the Roman Empire, and Gregory I., in sending John the Defensor, was act- ing in accordance with the laws of Gratian and Valentinian. The whole affair was outside the Gothic kingdom. Three instances are found of the Pope giving the title of his " Vicar " to Spanish bishops, but all three of these were previous to the conversion of Reccared, and whatever the title may have meant in the Pope's estimation and desire, it gave no authority in Spain. The three Papal vicars in Spain were men of no importance or power — Zeno and Sallust, Bishops of Seville, at the end of the fourth and the beginning 214 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. of the fifth century, and John, Bishop of Elche, who held the title at the same time as Sallust. Throughout the whole time no recourse was had to Rome for obtaining dispensations in respect to the observance of the canons. Nine Popes are said (truly or falsely) to have written letters to Spaniards during this period — Leo I. and Hilarius, A.D. 447 and 465 ; Simplicius and Felix III., A.D. 480 and 481; Hormisdas and Vigilius, A.D. 517 and 538; Gregory I., A.D. 589; Leo IL and Benedict II., A.D. 684. The first six of these letters were written before the Conversion Council was held — when, therefore, the Imperial laws of Gratian and Valentinian continued to regulate the relations of the bishop of the Imperial city with the prelates of a country still regarded as belonging to the Empire in matters ecclesiastical. Gregory's epistles were friendly letters to Leander, Reccared, and Duke Claudius (be- sides those written to John the Defensor, who was not within the Gothic kingdom). The letters of Leo II. and Benedict II. were requests to the Spanish Church to acknowledge the decrees of the Sixth (Ecumenical Council after examination of their purport, and they led to a sharp repudiation of Roman interference with the Toledan estimate of orthodoxy. Masdeu sums up the subject as follows : " In respect to the Papal jurisdiction in Spain there is one thing very worthy of notice, that every recourse, appeal, or vicariate in our nation belongs to the times of the Arian kings. In the long space of a hundred and fifty years, when the Catholic religion was on the throne, ^ from the conversion of the Suevi to the entrance of the Arabs, there is no record of any jurisdiction exerted by the LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. 215 Pontiffs with the exception of that of John the Defensor, and that took place in the territories of the Eastern Emperor, not in the dominions of our kings. Two reasons alone can be assigned for this important fact — (i) the greater facility of summoning National Councils after the Court had become Catholic, and thus ter- minating causes of moment ; (2) the practice which arose of referring ecclesiastical causes in the last instance to the tribunal of the king as the protector of the Church. The result of this system (which it is not for me either to blame or to praise) was cer- tainly good ; the greatest enemies confess that the Church of Spain was most saintly and an example to the world at the time that it was governed only by its kings and Councils without any foreign tribunals." ^ While Spain had its National Church, independently governed, except so far as it paid deference to the (Ecumenical Councils at which it had been represented or whose decrees it had accepted,^ she also had her own code of laws different from that of the rest of the world. The Visigothic code was first composed, or rather reduced to shape, by Euric in 480 for his own Goths. Another code, drawn in part from that of Theodosius, was prepared by his son Alaric at the beginning of the sixth century for the conquered provincials. These two codes proceeded side b}^ side, corrected and enlarged by Leovigild, Kindaswinth, Recceswinth, Wamba, and Erwig, until, in the reign ^ Historia Critica, vol. xi. p. 164. 2 The Spanish Church did not admit (though it did not deny) the authority of the Fifth Council (Constantinople II.), because she had not been represented nt it, nor were its decrees submitted to her for consirleration. 2i6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. of the later kings, the native or Roman population was admitted to the privilege of living under the purely Gothic code. The Visigoths enjoy the honour of having been the first to reduce to writing and to cast into the form of a code the unwritten rules of conduct which the German tribes brought with them in their invasions. The magnificent kingdom ruled by Euric at Toulouse must have forced upon him the necessity of a written code of laws, and the sub- jection of Spain must have made that necessity still more imperative. The Spanish Church had also its own liturgy, after- wards called the Mozarabic, of which there will be occasion hereafter to speak more at length. In respect to matters of doctrine and of practices resulting from doctrine, the Spanish Church under- went the same deterioration during the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries as the rest of the Western Church, but to no greater extent than other Churches. Those three centuries are noticeable as forming the commencement of the decline into mediaevalism and modern Vaticanism. After S. Augustine had died no great Western theologian arose, and the Church had no great teachers to call it back to the original standards from which it insensibly and unconsciously declined. As yet, however, we have but the commencement of the downward grade. Of the twelve articles by which the Creed of Pope Pius IV. distinguishes Roman from Catholic doctrine, none had as yet reached maturity; some had not yet been heard of. Transubstantiation and the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass, first heard of in the eleventh century, were as yet unknown, LAST YEARS OF THE GOTHIC MONARCHY. 217 although the simpHcity of the original liturgical forms had now become to some extent perplexed. No indi- cation of the fifteenth century dogma of the reception of Christ under one kind is found except that a few priests were condemned for mixing the elements to- gether in the administration of the Holy Communion — a practice which afterwards was used as a step towards the abolition of the cup. So far was the twelfth cen- tury dogma of there being neither more nor less than seven sacraments from being known that no sign can be found of the existence of Extreme Unction. The first step towards the belief in a Purgatory had been made by Gregory I., who threw out the idea that the soul might undergo some cleansing process after death, and this opinion might have been shared by his friend Leander and by Isidore. The appearance of the doctrine of Indulgences had to wait till the thirteenth century. We have seen that the Spanish Church would have nothing to say to any supremacy on the part of the Bishop of Rome; nor have we any evidence of its elevating tradition to a level with Holy Scripture as a distinct source of truth. The mediaeval doctrine towards which it had made the greatest advance was the Invocation of Saints, origi- nating in the panegyrical orations over martyrs used as a means of stirring the feelings of the auditors. If the works attributed to Ildcfonso are really his, the adoration of S. Mary had by his time made con- siderable progress. Connected with the invocation of saints was the veneration ot relics and the worship of images, in respect of botli of which the practice of the members of the Churcli liad become tinged 2i8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN, with superstition. Asceticism had from the beginning a strong hold on the Spanish Church, and had already produced enormous mischiefs, as exhibited by the im- position of a forced celibacy causing those terrible evils against which Council after Council in vain issued its canons with increasing severity. What could be the state of a Church when the clergy were not trusted by their superiors to lead moral lives if they lived in the same house with a maidservant, a cousin, a niece, an aunt, or even a sister ; ^ and when authority was given to the Justices of the Peace to seize any woman whom they found in a clergyman's house and shut her up as a servitor in a convent, '' that this vice, which the power of the bishops is incapable of putting a stop to, may be circumscribed by the force of the law " ? ^ Moreover, the ascetic principle led to the unspiritual notion that by personal suffering and action merit might be laid up, and thus that salvation was rather a prize to be earned by man than a free gift bestowed on man for Christ's sake, confusing, if not contradicting, the true doctrine of justification. Some evil tendencies then were on their way to their consummation ; the purity of the Primitive Church had passed away ; but mediaeval doctrine had not yet established itself. ^ Cone. Brae. III., Canon 5, a.d. 675. 2 Cottc. Hispal. I., Canon 3, a.d. 590. CHAPTER XVII. MOORISH SPAIN. Twenty years before the conversion of the Gothic kings from Arianism Mohammed was born. Twenty years after that date, in the year 609, he began his mission. The two great powers which at that time divided the world between them were the Empires of Rome and Persia. Since the year 476 the Western portion of the Empire had been reunited to the Eastern, and the Roman Empire, under Justinian, ruled over the whole of the West with the exception of Britain, Gaul, and Spain, which were occupied by the Northern nations. Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, and part of Armenia belonged also to the Imperial dominions; while the farther East was, speaking roughly, subjected to Persia. When Mohammed came to man's estate, about the time of Reccared's Council, he found the Arabian Peninsula, which belonged to neither of these great Empires, filled with indepen- dent tribes, who had degenerated from the Mono- theism which once prevailed in Arabia, and while acknowledging one supreme God, recognised a num- ber of inferior divine beings, to whom they paid religious worship as well as to Allah. The reli- gion of these tribes has the general name of Sabi- anism. Among tlicm there was a large spiinkHni; .19 220 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. both of Jews and Christians, but the Christian reli- gion appears to have put on a very corrupt form in the Arabian Peninsula, the Collyridian heresy, which worshipped the Virgin Mary and made to her sacrificial offerings of cakes, being very prevalent, together with a veneration of saints which might easily be con- founded with the Sabian practice of recognising one chief God and inferior objects of worship. Magianism also existed, but had not many votaries. The prevail- ing religion was a polytheistic idolatry. Mohammed's object, at the beginning of his career, was to restore Monotheism, and to overthrow the idolatry by which he was surrounded. With Magi- anism he appears to have had no sympathies. Judaism was, in his estimation, a true religion, but it was the religion of a nation now passed away, and it required development and addition to be made suitable for the world as it now was. Christianity was not fairly represented to him ; he could hardly recognise in the form of Christianity with which he was famiHar a repubHcation of the great truth of the unity of God and of the degrading character of idolatry. He paid the highest respect to the teaching and to the life of Jesus Christ, but could not recognise in the Chris- tianity which he saw before him that development of Judaism by which the world was to be saved and man elevated. Something more was wanted to con- summate and perfect the religion that had been preached by Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. At first Mohammed seems to have been nothing else than a preacher of a religion which he believed true. After years of persecution he found himself at the MOORISH SPAIN. 221 head of an enthusiastic following, and now he de- clared, and perhaps believed, himself to be a prophet of God, as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus had been. He destroyed the three hundred and sixty idols that stood in the temple of Mecca, and having established a belief in Monotheism and his own apostleship in the Arabian Peninsula, and having convinced himself that in so doing he was performing the will of God, he resolved to make the whole world a sharer in the truth which he had been instrumental in making his own countrymen embrace. Mohammed died in 632, and was succeeded by Abu-bekr, Omar, Othman, and Ali. Abu-bekr at once threw himsrlf upon the two great Empires which were dividing the world between them, and wrested Syria from Rome and conquered Persia. The Caliph Omar added Egypt to the Arabian Empire, and under Othman, in 647, the Moslems pushed their victorious arms along the northern coast of Africa as far as Carthage. Thirty years later, in the reign of Moawia, Okba led a victorious army to Tunis, Carthage, Ceuta, Tangier, and the Atlantic Ocean ; but the Arabian rule was not yet consoli- dated in this district. North Africa was inhabited partly by Romans, partly by the native Berber or Moorish tribes. Neither of them were antagonists to be despised ; and it was not till 709 that the pro- vince was fully subjected to the rule of the caliphs. Ceuta, and a strip of territory near it, belonged to the emperor; and his officer, the Spaniard Julian, bravely resisted the attacks of the Arabians. The following year, whether from a fear of being unable to resist tlic continued onsets of the Arabs unless 222 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. their attention was diverted elsewhere, or from a feel- ing of partisanship with the fallen house of Witiza, some scions of which are said to have taken refuge at Ceuta, Julian made peace with the Saracens and promised them to facilitate an invasion of Spain. Musa, the Moslem governor of Africa, hesitated to trust Julian, and sent for instructions to the caliph, Walid I. The caliph ordered him to take advantage of the offered opening, but to act with caution. Musa despatched a small body of invaders, who crossed the strait under the command of Tarif in 710, and returned with plunder and with news which encour- aged him to undertake an expedition on a greater scale. Tarik crossed the next year, and having given his name to Gibraltar (Gebal-tarik), marched forward and fought the battle of Guadalete near the site of Xeres. Roderic having been slain in the battle, no Gothic noble was found capable of gathering round himself the remains of the defeated army and retrieving the fortunes of the war. The party of Witiza had joined the invaders, not expecting them to remain as per- manent possessors of the country. Of Roderic's faction no leader appeared of higher merit than Theo- domir, who had previously been governor of the South of Spain, and was now capable of doing no more than retreating into Murcia, and there making a stand with the few soldiers who accompanied him. The sudden collapse of the Gothic kingdom, as the result of one defeat on the field of battle, shows how ener- vated and degenerate the Gothic conquerors had become since their fusion with the old inhabitants of MOORISH SPAIN. 223 the Peninsula. Even yet, however, it would seem that they would not have succumbed so tamely had it not been for the internal quarrels by which the Court was distracted, and the bitter hostility which a hundred and forty years of persecution had implanted in the minds and hearts of the Jews. The last canon of the last Council of Toledo, which was a civil par- liament as well as an ecclesiastical synod, had ordered that all Jews in the country should be made slaves and their children taken from them. The Jewish population bowed for the moment before the storm, but as soon as the Saracen invaders appeared they threw themselves heart and soul on their side, knowing that they could not be worse off under any masters, and aware that elsewhere the Moslems had demanded, and w^ould probably here demand, no more than tribute from those that were not their co-religionists. Another vast body of men who were indifferent, if not favourable, to the success of the invaders was the slaves. From the canons of the later Councils of Toledo we find that some of these slaves had been allowed to continue in heathendom, so that their religious sympathies were not with their masters, and socially their estate could not be more degraded. Now they saw open to them a means of escaping from their Christian masters by declaring themselves converts to Islam. No serious resistance was made to Tarik. After the battle of Guadalete, disregarding the commands of Musa, he divided his forces into three bodies, and directed them against Cordova, Malaga, Elvira, and Toledo, of all of which he made himself master. The following year Musa landed with 224 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. an additional force, anxious to reap the fruits of his heutenant's victories, and reduced Seville, Merida, and Zaragoza. In three years' time the whole of Spain had become subject to the caliph, with the exception of the small district in Murcia where Theodomir main- tained himself, and the mountains of the Asturias, into the fastnesses of which the Christians withdrew who had neither paid tribute nor would give up their faith. The province of Narbonne, in France, which had always belonged to the Gothic kingdom of Spain, was also subjugated, and it was only by the great battle of Tours in 732 that Eudes, Duke of Aquitania, and Charles Martel saved France and Europe from undergoing the fate of Spain. The Moslems recog- nised the crushing character of the defeat there re- ceived, and confined themselves thenceforward to Spain and that part of France, called Septimania or Nar- bonnensis, which throughout the Gothic regime had been Spanish, from whence also they were before long dislodged. The Mohammedans in Spain found it far easier to conquer the Spaniards and subject the country than to agree among themselves as to the division of the spoils. Though united in faith, they were made up of different nationalities, jealous of each other, and consolidated only by a common obedience to the caliph, whose residence was now in the distant city of Damascus. The majority of those who had de- feated Roderic were not Arabs or Saracens, but Ber- bers or Moors. The Berbers had resisted the Arab invasion for fifty years, and when at length defeated, had enrolled themselves under the banners of their MOORISH SPAIN. 225 conquerors, but they still retained their independent organisation. Tarik himself was a Berber, while Musa was an Arab, and this difference of race augmented the bitter jealousy that existed between them. Musa and the other Arab governors had taken care that the men of Arab blood should have the fairest parts of Andalusia, while the Berbers were relegated to the north, and were made to serve as a bulwark against the still unconquered Christians, and the lands that they occupied were very inferior to the smiling plains of the south. Thirty years after the invasion of Spain the Berbers of Africa rose and shook off the Arab yoke, and the troops sent from Syria to reduce them were themselves besieged in Ceuta. The Berbers of Spain resolved to take part with their African brethren, and rebelled against the emir of Andalusia. The emir sent for the Syrian troops at Ceuta to come to his help, and with their aid he defeated and massacred the Berbers. But as soon as this had been effected, the new-comers them- selves rose against the emir and murdered him. On this followed anarchy and internecine warfare, a state of things that was palliated, but not fully remedied, by the caliph ordering the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Arabs, and the Berbers to settle in different parts of the Peninsula. The first half-century after the invasion was spent by the Mohammedans in civil war and internal contests. In the person of Moawia, the fifth in succession from Mohammed, the Ommiad caliphs had established themselves at Damascus, and they reigned for a hundred years, until ovcrtlirown by the Abbasside 226 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. dynasty in 750. One member of the Ommiad family escaped the general massacre of its adherents by the Abbassides, and fled first to Africa and then to Spain, where he arrived in 755. He was received with open arms by the contending factions, and having defeated the Arab governor of Andalusia, established in Cor- dova the famous dynasty of the Ommiad Caliphs of Spain. The Empire thus established by Abderahman flourished in great magnificence and splendour for nearly three hundred years down to A.D. 103 1. Then followed two centuries of war and rivalry between the various Mohammedan cities and kingdoms, succeeded by two more centuries and a half of war, ending with the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabel in 1492. During the dissensions of their conquerors the few native Christians who preferred the sword to Islam or tribute grew in numbers and confidence. Theo- domir, indeed, after one spasmodic effort, succumbed. He and his Murcian Christians became tributary to the emir, and before long were absorbed in the Empire of the caliph ; but men of a different stamp were growing up behind the mountains of the Asturias, on the shores of the Bay of Biscay. To the Cave of Covadonga, which no Moorish step ever violated, there gathered such as preferred the protection of their swords to submission to the unbelievers. At one time, it is stated by an Arabian authority, they consisted of only forty souls all told — thirty men and ten women — who are described by him as getting their food from the honey which they found in the rocks. The Arab conquerors, revelling in the sunny MOORISH SPAIN. 227 plains of "Andaluz," thought that they might well leave those few brigands to perish, nor did they ever push the confines of the Moorish state quite up to the shores of the Bay of Biscay in the neighbourhood of Oviedo. The head of the hardy body of refugees who made their home in the Cave of Covadonga was Pelagius or Pela3^o, said to have belonged to the blood of the old Gothic kings. Year by year accessions were made to his little company, till in 718 they had become sufficiently numerous to proclaim him king. The Moors made one attempt, it is said, to hunt them out of the defiles of Covadonga, but the attempt ended in a disastrous slaughter, in which the Moorish chief- tain was slain, and the renegade Oppas, son of Witiza and Archbishop of Seville, was taken and put to death.^ In 751, Alonzo of Cantabria, the district lying next to the Asturias, and, like the Asturias, never subjected to the invaders, married the daughter of Pelayo, and the Christians were now strong enough to push their arms as far southwards as the Sierra de Guadarrama, recovering Braga, Oporto, Astorga, Leon, Salamanca, and other towns, and wresting from the invaders the provinces of Galicia, the Asturias, Leon, and Old Castile. About the same time that Pelayo was gathering his outlaws about him at Covadonga, the mountaineers, who lay farther eastwards, where the Pyrenees run down to the Bay of Biscay, formed another centre of independence, under Garcia Ximenes, which became the origin of the kingdom of Navarre. At a somewhat ^ "Ibique statim Oppa capto, Alcaman cum cxxiiii. niiilibus Cald«- oriim interfecliis est." — Monachi Sile.nsis Chronicon. Q 228 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. later date the Christians, still eastwards of Navarre lying under the slopes of the Pyrenees, leagued to- gether, and created what became the kingdom of Aragon. Such was the origin of the Christian king- doms of Leon, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon, which were destined in the course of centuries to win back the whole of Spain to the Cross. These little Christian bodies were composed of native Spaniards. From the other side of the Pyrenees, France contributed somewhat to the discomfiture of the Moors in Spain, besides driving them out of the French province of Narbonne, which had so long been counted as Spanish territory. In the year yyy Charlemagne, invited by some discontented Moslems as well as by Christians, marched across the Pyrenees, reduced many towns, and laid siege to Zaragoza. Before he had succeeded in reducing the province to submission the needs of his vast Empire recalled him to the North. He led his main army safely back across the mountains, but while the rear was entangled in the defiles of Roncesvalles it was attacked by the wild inhabitants of the Pyrenees and cut to pieces, together with its leader, the famous Roland. Charle- magne's authority was recognised in Catalonia, and his rule was further confirmed by an invasion led by his son Louis the Pious during his father's lifetime, who took the city of Barcelona after a siege of two years, and made himself master of Tortosa and other towns. The most important result of this invasion was the establishment of a line of Christian counts at Barcelona, who after a time made themselves masters of Catalonia, and held also under their rule the pro- MOORISH SPAIN. 229 vince of Narbonne, which had so long been connected with Spain. The Moslem kingdom was thus encircled from Lisbon (to which the Christian forays soon ex- tended) to Corunna, and from thence along the whole northern coast and boundary of the Peninsula, from the extreme point of the Bay of Biscay to the Pyrenees, and thence to the Mediterranean Sea, with Christian confederations, not yet touching one another, but which were to grow and form themselves into the kingdoms of Portugal, Leon, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon, as well as the quasi-kingdom of Catalonia. The story of the Spanish nation recommences as from a new source in the mountains of the Asturias and Cantabria, whence the Christians rolled down and spread like a stream of ever-increasing volume, till they recovered from Moslem sway first the northern and western parts of the Peninsula, and at length the whole of their ancient heritage. The first five kings, if kings they can be called who were no more than leaders of a few resolute mountaineers, Pelayo, Favila, Alonzo, Fruela, and Orelio, made the Cave of Cova- donga, in the valley of Cangas, their headquarters. The next three, Silon, Mauregato, and Bermudo, took up their residence in the town of Pravia. Alonzo IL transferred the scat of government to Oviedo, whence it was subsequently removed to Leon, where it re- mained, except for a moment, until Toledo, the ancient seat of the Gothic monarchy, was recovered in the year 1085. Those who submitted to the conquerors became known by the name of Mozarabs. CHAPTER XVIII. THE MIGETIAN AND ADOPTIONIST HERESIES. The whole of the eighth century was occupied with the hard work of fighting against the infidel. No Councils were held except in Narbonnensis (in the year 788) and in Urgel of Catalonia (in 789), both of which were then in the dominion of Charlemagne. Towards the end of the century there sprang up the heresy of Migetius, whose tenets it is difficult for us to learn with exactness from the reports of his adversaries. Perhaps his system was, as Gams supposes/ a mixture of Christianity, Judaism, and Mohammedanism. If he is rightly reported to us, he appears to have taught the existence of an earthly Trinity, consisting of David, who has written, " My heart is inditing of a good Word ; " Christ, who is that Word ; and S. Paul, who was an apostle, *' not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father" (Gal. i. i). He is said, also, to have been very strict in forbidding Christians and unbehevers to eat and live together; to have held that the true priest of God could not commit sin, and that the Christian Church was iden- tical with the Roman. Elipandus was now Bishop of Toledo, and he fell upon Migetius less with argu- ^ Kircheiii;eschichte^ ix. 2. 230 MIGETIAN AND ADOPTIONIST HERESIES. 231 ment than with abuse, denouncing him in language of extremest violence. Whether Migetius was priest or layman does not appear; probably he was a lay- man, living in the city or province of Seville. After a time we find, from a letter of Pope Adrian I., that he made a convert of Bishop Egila. This bishop, of whom we would fain know more, was ordained by one of the French archbishops, and sent by Adrian into Spain, without any definite See, for the purpose of inflaming Christian zeal in a country which had so easily accepted Mohammedanism. After being in Spain for some time, Egila wrote to Adrian for further instructions respecting the observance of Easter, the eating of things strangled, intercourse with unbe- lievers, and predestination. Not receiving an answer, Egila applied to Charlemagne, who requested the Pope to send to Egila a second copy of his reply, as it appeared that the first had been lost. Adrian com- plied with this request and sent him the required instruction in the year ^82. Almost immediately after this time Egila fell under the influence of Migetius, and adopted his system. Adrian warns the Spanish bishops against him in 785 as a man who had taken Migetius as his master. It was he, perhaps, that added to the original Migetian doctrines the anti- national opinion as to the perfection and supremacy of the Roman Church ; for it would appear to have been by the act of Pope Adrian, and without tlie con- sent of the authorities of the Spanish Church, that Egila was sent on his mission into Spain. It was apparently this part of the Migetian doctrines which caused the extreme bitterness with which Elipandus 232 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. assailed Migetius and repudiated his doctrines. As Primate of Spain he maintained the traditional in- dependence of his Church, and showed impatience at a superiority being assigned to the Church of Rome; and, as a theologian, he rejected with scorn the novel and, as he regarded it, absurd position that the Roman See "constituted the Church Catholic and the power of God." How could it be the very power of God, he asked, without spot or blemish, when at least one Bishop of Rome had been condemned by the whole of Christendom as a heretic ? ^ In the darkness of the eighth century we are not able to trace the issue of the Migetian controversy. The interest that it excited was soon swallowed up in the larger question of Adoptionism, which was opened a few years later. Elipandus, the denouncer of heresy ^ "Quod vero asseris quia in sola Roma sit potestas Dei, in qua Christus habitat, contrarius Prophetse oraculo, qui dicit : ' Domina- bitur a mari usque ad mare, et a fluminibus usque ad terminos orbis terrge : ' et quia ipsa sit tantum Ecclesia Catholica, ubi omnes Sancti sint, absque macula, et ruga ; et quia de ea sola dicatur. ' Tu es Petrus, et super banc petram asdificabo Ecclesiam meam : ' et quia non in- trabit in ea aliquid coinquinatum et faciens abominationem et menda- cium : ' et quia ipsa est Jerusalem nova, quam vidit Joannes de- scendentem de Coelo. Hsec omnia aniens ille spiritus et iniprudentise tuse intellectus te ista intelligere docuit. Nos vero e contrario non de sola Roma Dominum Petro dixisse credimus : ' Tu es Petrus,' scilicet firmitas fidei, * et super banc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam ; ' sed de universali Ecclesia Catholica per universum orbem terrarum in pace diffusa j de qud ipse Dominus testatur dicens : * Venient ab oriente et ab occidente, et recumbent cum Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob in Regno Caslorum.' Nam quod asseris quia ipsa est ecclesia sine macula, et ruga ; et quia non intrabit in ea aliquid coinquinatum, et faciens abominationem et mendacium — si ita est, quare Liberius, ejusdem Ecclesise Pontifex, inter haereticos damnatus est ? Cur Beatus Gregorius tot sceleratos homines in Roma fuisse protestatur?" — Espana Sitgi-ada, v. 534. MIGETIAN AND ADOPTIONlST HERESIES. 233 ill Migetius, here is liimself accused of heresy, together with Fehx, Bishop of Urgel. The essential feature of the Adoptionist heresy was the tenet, that while our Lord Jesus Christ was the proper Son of God according to His Divine nature, in His human nature He was only His Son by adoption. It is probable that Elipandus was pushed into this opinion by the scornful arguments or questionings of the Moslems amongst whom he lived, asking how one could be the true Son of God who had a human soul and body. Elipandus was an impatient man, as we see by his treatment of Mige- tius, and he was not clear-sighted enough to perceive that his solution of the difficulty with which he was pressed did not make due distinction between the natures and the person of our Lord, and involved in the end the acceptance of the Nestorian rather than the orthodox hypothesis. He was an old man, and distrusting his own judgment, he wrote to Felix, Bishop of Urgel, in Catalonia, to ask his opinion on the subject. Felix confirmed him in the view that he had taken, and thenceforward he maintained it to the end of his life, disregarding the advice of Pope Adrian, who warned the Spanish bishops against it as a mere offshoot of Nestorianism and the arguments of Etherius, Bishop of Osma, and the Abbot Bcatus, who set themselves in opposition to the new dogma. As Elipandus was living in the dominion of the Moors, no coercive force could be brought to bear upon him ; but this was not the case with Felix,, whose See was situated in Catalonia, which was for the time subject to Charlemagne. In 788 the Archbishop of Narbonne held a Council, which condemned Felix 234 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. for heresy. In 792 Charlemagne summoned him to attend a Synod at Ratisbon. Felix recanted at this Council, and at a Roman Council held shortly after- wards by Pope Adrian. Returning to Urgel, he again disseminated his Adoptionist doctrines. Charlemagne brought the matter before the great Council of Frank- fort held in 794. Here Adoptionism was again con- demned, as well as in the Council of Aquileia held in the year 796 by Bishop Paulinus. Felix still con- tinuing wedded to his views, the emperor ordered a synod to be held at Urgel by the Bishops of Nar- bonne and Lyons, and others, in the year 799. Again condemned, Felix appealed to Charles, and was allowed by him to appear before a Council held in the same year at Aix-la-Chapelle, where his opinions were contravened by Alcuin. Felix again retracted, and again revoked his retractation. Once more he was condemned at a Council held at Rome by Leo III. At length he yielded, drew up a con- fession of faith that was approved by the emperor, and, to be out of temptation for the future, was sent by him to spend the rest of his life with Leidradus, Bishop of Lyons. In this retreat he returned once more to his old convictions, which, perhaps, he had never lost, and left behind him a treatise arguing in favour of Adoptionism, to which Leidradus' succes- sor, Agobard, published a reply. No other leaders of Adoptionism appeared, and in the next century it ceased any longer to be a living faith. Like Priscillianism, Adoptionism was a heresy of the West, and it was almost confined to Spain. The East never troubled itself with either of these specu- MIGETIAN AND ADOPTIONIST HERESIES. 235 lations, though both were founded on Christological heresies of Eastern growth. Probably it regarded the later of the two heresies as a Logomachy arising from the want of subtilty of the duller Western brain. CHAPTER XIX. 5. JAMES OF COMPOSTELA. Contemporaneously with the strife respecting Adoptionism, the chief seat of which was in Catalonia, an event occurred in the north-west corner of Spain which is of singular interest in the history of human credulity. We have seen that the power of the Christian kings had now overgrown the mountains of the Asturias and Cantabria, and Alonzo II., surnamed the Chaste, had transferred the royal residence to Oviedo. The Moorish invaders had been expelled, in the hundred years that had now elapsed, from the whole of Galicia, and the Christian power was still on the increase. The Moslems, while very jealous to confine worship to God alone, were in the habit of building magnificent memorials to their saints, and even to the old Jewish patriarchs, which served as local centres for fanning the flame of their piety or fanaticism. Their Christian opponents seem to have felt the need of some such assistance to their zeal. At the end of the eighth and beginning of the ninth century Theodomir was Bishop of Iria, in Galicia. It was reported to him that on a certain spot in his diocese a hermit named Pelagius and others saw lights glancing on a wooded hill and heard angelic music. These two things were always 236 5. jfAMES OF COMPOSTELA. 237 the signs, according to Spanish legend, of the pre- sence of something saintly. Theodomir went to see for himself, and saw the moving lights. Thereupon he set men to dig, and they found a tomb lying under some marble arches. Whose tomb was it ? At some time previous, the exact date of which is uncertain, a statement had been inserted amongst the works of Isidore that James the Apostle, who was so described that he must have been at once James the son of Zebedee and James the brother of the Lord, had preached in Spain, and had been buried in Marmarica. This was enough for the foundation. Of course it was the body of S. James, the more as it was found under marble arches ; for Theodomir and his associates did not know that Marmarica was a district in the north of Africa, and supposed it to mean marble, making use of the newly coined adjec- tive viannorica for mannorea^ and supposing that this was what was meant by the Marmarica in the passage above interpolated into Isidore's writings. Theodomir hastened to tell King Alonzo of the event. Alonzo had no doubts on the subject, and at once transferred the See of Iria to the spot, which took the name of Compostela. Pope Leo III. was communi- cated with, and it is from a letter written by or falsely attributed to this Pope that we derive our first in- formation respecting the voyage of S. James' body to Spain after his martyrdom by Herod Agrippa (whom the Pseudo-Isidore calls Herod the Tetrarch). Such was the origin of the legend of the connexion of S. James with Spain. It was adopted without a moment's hesitation by Alonzo, whether from motives of policy. 238 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. that Christians miglit have a local centre superior to any Marabout's tomb at which to keep the flame of their faith alive, or, as is more likely from his charac- ter, from simple superstition. There is extant — who shall say whether it is genuine or not ? — a document addressed to Theodomir in which Alonzo grants ''to this Blessed James the Apostle, and to this our Father Theodomir, three miles round the tomb of the Church of the Blessed James the Apostle." '' For," continues the king, " the proof of this most blessed Apostle, that is, his most holy body, has been revealed in our time. As soon as I heard of it, I and the grandees of my palace ran to worship and venerate so precious a treasure with much devotion and supplication, and we adored him as the Patron and Lord of the whole of Spain, with tears and abundant prayers ; and of our own will we have made the aforesaid little gift, and we have built a church in his honour, and we have united the See of Iria with this sacred place, for the good of our soul and that of our parents, so that all these things may be yours and your successors' for ever." The date of this alleged grant is either A.D. 824 or 829, and it is signed by Alonzo, his son Ramiro, and five others.^ Ramiro succeeded his father, Alonzo the Chaste, in 842, and another charter, or grant, in favour of S. James and his church is assigned to the second year of his reign. Whatever may be the case as to Alonzo's ^ Either Alonzo and Theodomir were acting in collusion, in which case the discovery of the body and the invention of the legend were a political stratagem emanating from the king, or, more probably, Theodomir perpetrated the fraud for the elevation of his See, and the king was his dupe and cat's-paw. S. JAMES OF COMPOSTELA. 239 grant, this which is attributed to his son, called Privi- legiuni Votorinn^ is without doubt spurious; but as it contains in the simplest language an account of the manner in which S. James became the leader of the armies of the Christians in Spain in their battles with the Moors, it is worthy of a place in history, though we cannot tell the exact date at which it was com- posed. ^' There were," the king is made to say, "in old days, about the time when Spain was destroyed by the Saracens and Roderic was king, some ancestors of ours, slothful, negligent, careless, and idle, whose way of life is not a matter of imitation to any believer. To save themselves from being troubled by the raids of the Saracens, they agreed to pay a shameful tribute every year, namely, a hundred most beautiful girls — fifty belonging to the noble class and fifty to the lower orders. Christian girls were thus given in order to procure a momentary peace, a shameful thing, making a precedent honoured in its breach. Being descended from those princes, we determined to abolish this dis- grace of our nation, and in order to carry out our determination, we took counsel, first with our arch- bishops, bishops, abbots, and monks, and afterwards with all the nobles of our kingdom. Having received from them good and wholesome counsel, we promul- gated a law at Leon and established customs for general observance; then we issued an edict to all our nobles to summon from the very ends of our kingdom all men fit for battle, noble and simple, horse and foot, to assemble on an appointed day. We also desired our archbishops and bishops, and abbots and monks, to be present to encourage our soldiers by their 240 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. prayers. Our command was obeyed. None were left to till the lands except the feeble and such as were unfit for war ; the rest all met, not with the unwilling- ness shown by men acting under orders, but gladly, for the love of God and under the guidance of God. With them, I, King Ramiro, trusting in the mercy of God rather than in our numbers, directed an expedition to Naxira, and then to Albella. All the Saracens in the country, hearing of our approach, gathered to- gether and summoned their allies from beyond seas, and attacked us in great force. Assaulted and wounded and many of us falling, we were for our sins turned in flight, and fled in confusion to a hill called Clavigius, and there, crowded together, we spent the night in tears and prayers, not in the least knowing what we should do next day. Sleep fell upon me. King Ramiro, while I was forming plans, in deep anxiety for the danger of the Christians. As I slept the blessed James, protector of Spain, deigned to appear in bodily form. In astonishment I asked him who he was, and he confessed tliat he was the Apostle of God, the blessed James. As I was more amazed than can be described at these words, the blessed Apostle said, * Did not you know that our Lord Jesus Christ, when He distributed districts among my brethren the apostles, allotted the whole of Spain to my protection and committed it to my guardianship ? ' And grasp- ing my hand with his own, ^ Be strong,' said he, * and courageous, for I will be your helper, and in the morning you shall conquer, by the hand of God, the innumerable multitude of Saracens by whom you are surrounded ; but many of your men, for whom eternal .5. JAMES OF COMPOSTELA. 241 rest is already prepared, will, in the moment of battle, receive the crown of martyrdom for the name of Christ. That you may have no doubts, both you and the Saracens shall see me all the time on a white horse, carrying a lofty white standard. Early in the morning, then, after confessing your sins and doing penance, and having celebrated Mass and received the Com- munion of the body and blood of the Lord, do not hesitate to assault the Saracen lines with your forces, invoking God's name and mine, and be sure that they will fall by the edge of the sword.' With these words, the beloved form of the Apostle of God disappeared from my sight. In great excitement at so glorious a vision I woke from sleep, and caUing the arch- bishops, bishops, and monks together by themselves, I declared to them, with tears and sighs and contrition of heart, the revelation that had been made to me. They fell down in prayer and gave incessant thanks to God and the Apostle for the wonderful consolation given us, and then we hurried to set the matter in order as we had been instructed. We drew up our line of battle and entered on the fight with the Saracens. And the blessed Apostle of God appeared, as he had promised, to both sides, encouraging and animating our men to battle, and driving back and striking down the Saracen troops. At once we recognised that the promise of the blessed Apostle was being fulfilled, and exhilarated with so grand a vision, we called upon the name of God and the Apostle with loud cries and with all our hearts, saying, ' Help us, God and S. James.' This is the first time that this invocation was made in Spain, and, b}' God's mercy, it was not in 242 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. vain; for on that day there fell about seventy thousand Saracens. We pursued them, overthrew their fortifi- cations, and captured the city of Calahorra, subjecting it to the Christian religion. Thinking over this great miracle of the Apostle after our unexpected victory, we determined to make a gift to our patron and pro- tector, the most blessed James, which should last for ever. We therefore made a decree and vow that throughout Spain, and in every part of Spain which God should deign to free from the Saracens through the name of the Apostle James, for every yoke of oxen a measure of the best products of the land should be given as first-fruits every year for ever to the minister of the Church of S. James, and wine in the same proportion, for the support of the canons of the same church. And we granted, and we appoint for ever, that out of whatever the Christians get from the Saracens in any of their expeditions throughout Spain, one soldier's portion shall be set aside for our glorious patron and protector of Spain, the blessed James. All these donations, vows, and offerings we, the whole body of Spanish Christians, promised to give every year to the Church of the Blessed James ; and we give them for ourselves, and they are ever to be observed by our successors in a canonical manner. We pray, therefore. Almighty Father and Eternal God, that, by the blessed intercession of the blessed James, Thou wilt not remember, O Lord, our iniquities, but of Thy pity have mercy upon us unworthy ; and that those things which we have given and offer in Thy honour to Thy blessed Apostle James out of what wc have obtained by Thy aid may avail for ourselves S. JAMES OF COMPOSTELA. 243 and our successors for the healing of our souls, and that by his intercession Thou may est deign to receive us with Thine elect into eternal tabernacles, Thou who livest and reignest in Trinity for ever and ever, Amen. We also will and appoint an everlasting statute that our descendants, and all others, shall ever give their support to the aforesaid donations to the Church of the Blessed James. So that if any of our descendants, or any other, shall violate this our testament or not help to carry it out, whether he be a cleric or layman, he may be damned for ever in hell with the traitor Judas, and Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed alive, and that his sons may be orphans and his wife a widow, and that another may take his kingdom on earth, and that he may be separated from the Com- munion of the body and blood of Christ and be for ever deprived of a share in the eternal kingdom. Be- sides which, he is to pay a fine of six thousand pounds of silver to the Crown and to the Church of the Blessed James, and this ordinance is ever to remain in force ; and we, archbishops, bishops, and abbots, who by God's help saw with our own eyes this miracle which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to exhibit to our illus- trious King Ramiro by his Apostle James, confirm for ever the aforesaid oath made by our king and the whole of Spanish Christendom, and we canonically rule that it shall be observed for ever. And if any one disregards this document and the donation to be made to Hie Church of the Blessed James, and refuses to pay it, be he who he may, king, prince, countryman, cleric, layman, we curse him, and we excommunicate him, and we damn him to be tormented for ever with the R 244 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. punishment of hell, together with the traitor Judas. And our successors, archbishops, and bishops are to renew this curse every year; and if they refuse, let them be damned by the authority of the Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by ours, and let them be excommunicated. This Act of consolation, donation, and offering was written in the town of Calahorra on the well-known day the 8th of the Calends of June, in the era 872 (A.D. 844)." This document is signed by King Ramiro, his Queen Urraca, his son King Ordofio, his brother King Garcia, the Archbishop of Cantabria, five bishops, nine nobles, six witnesses, and it has the following sentence after their names : '^ We, the whole of the inhabitants of Spain who were present and saw with our own eyes the above-written miracle of our blessed patron and protector, the most glorious Apostle James, and won a triumph over the Saracens by the mercy of God, give our sanction to what is written above, and con- firm it, as a thing to last for ever." ^ It need hardly be said that this charter, or testa- ment, or privilegitini^ is a forgery composed many years later than the date of King Ramiro for the sake of securing the grants named in it to the canons of the Church of Compostela. There never was a tribute of a hundred maidens paid by the Asturian kings to the Saracens, there never was a battle of Clavijo, and, in the time of Ramiro, there were no archbishops in Spain. The title Archbishop was un- known in Spain until the reconquest of Toledo from the Saracens in the year 1085 ; and there was no arch- ^ Florez, Espana Sagrada, xix. 334. S. JAMES OF COMPOSTELA. 245 bishop in the Asturias, Cantabria, Leon, or GaHcia till the time of Gelmirez, Bishop of Santiago, in 1121, who obtained the title of Archbishop from the Pope. We may regard the document as a product of the twelfth century, embodying the belief then existing as to the manner in which S. James became the leader of the armies of the Christians against the infidels. Other charters or donations are in existence which are probably genuine. Ordono I. in 854 grants three more miles of territory to the Bishop of Santiago, together with all the people who lived upon it. Alonzo III. in 866 confirms previous gifts and assigns to him several towns and churches and estates. The same sovereign built a magnificent church in succession to the smaller edifice erected by Alonzo II. The work occupied him two years, as he brought his materials, consisting mostly of marble, from Portugal by sea, making his Moorish captives carry them from the coast to Compostela. In 899 the church was consecrated in the presence of the king and his Court by seventeen bishops. Alonzo describes with pride the marble columns and sculptured work of his new church, which he com- pares with the common stone and mud used by his predecessor, and he gives us a lengthy list of the holy relics which were deposited under the various altars,^ and desires Bishop Sisnandus to pray that ^ The following is the list of relics : — Part of 1. Our Lord's tomb ; 2. Our Lord's vestment at the time of His crucifixion ; 3. The Saviour's tunic ; 4. The earth on which the Lord stood ; 5. Tlie wood of the holy cross ; 6. The bread of tlie Lord ; 7. The milk of S. Mary ; 8. The ashes and blood of S. James the Apostle ; 9. Of S. Thomas the Apostle; 10. Of liishop Martin ; 11. Of S. Vincent; 12. Of S. Christopher; 13 Of S. Bandulus ; 14. Of S. Julian ; 15. Of S. Basi- 246 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. when he dies he may have forgiveness and eternal peace. A few years later Alonzo is said to have written to the clergy at Tours glorying in the presence of S. James's body, and telling them that it certainly was that of the son of Zebedee, and that it was under marble arches in the province of Galicia; ^'for by the guiding hand of the Lord, as many truthful histories relate, his body was brought here by a ship and buried, and his tomb is renowned for many miracles: demons are cast out, sight is given to the blind, power of walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, as well as many other wonderful things which we know and have seen, and which the bishops and clergy have told us. The way in which he was beheaded in Jerusalem by Herod and brought hither and buried, and the time and manner in which this occurred, is evidently manifest to all, and is witnessed to by the truthful letters of our archbishops and the histories of the Fathers and the speech of many." ^ Ordofio II. in 915, Fruela II. in 924, Ramiro II. in 932, Ordofio III. in 952, and other sovereigns added to the endowment of the church by further gifts of land and wealth, which brought about its destruction lisi ; 16. Of S. Leocadia ; 17. Of S. Eulalia ; 18. Of S. Marina ; 19. Of S.Peter; 20. Of S.Paul; 21. Of S.Andrew; 22. Of S. Fructuosus; 23. Of S. Lucia; 24. Of S. Rufina; 25. Of S. Lucrea; 26. Of S. John; 27. Of S. Bariholomew ; 28. Of S. Laurence ; 29. Of S. John the Baptist; 30. Some of our Lord's blood; 31. Some of S. Mary's blood ; in addition to a box of relics of other martyrs. ^ Florez, xix. 348. It appears from this letter, spurious as it is, that it was the habit of the different local churches to report to each other the glories each of their own church. This may account, in some degree, for the miracles claimed by each in rivalry to the other. 5. JAMES OF COMPOSTELA. 247 at the hands of Almanzor in the year 997. After his raid it was again rebuilt, and at the beginning of the twelfth century Gelmirez, a prelate of turbulent ambition, succeeded by means of intrigue and bribery in inducing the Pope, whose authority was now recog- nised in Spain, to raise the See to the rank of an archbishopric. How S. James's body was again lost in the sixteenth century, owing to the *' heretical fury " of the English, and again found by the existing arch- bishop in 1879, has been already related in the words of Pope Leo XIII.i At the same time that Theodomir and his associates were debasing and materialising Christianity in Spain by the introduction of the fable of S. lago, and by their devotion to his supposed tomb and relics, another Spaniard was fighting a brave battle for the main- tenance of its more spiritual character in the north of Italy. This was Claudius, known as Claudius of Turin. Summoned by Louis the Pious to his court, he there occupied himself in composing commentaries on Scripture, and in 814, on the emperor's nomina- tion, became Bishop of Turin. A student of S. Augustine, and adopting Augustinian theology, he contrasted Divine grace with human merit, and op- posed himself to the religious tendency of the age by depreciating external acts of formal religion in comparison with spiritual worship and unselfish de- votion to God. Finding that images and crosses had become objects of adoration, he removed them from the churches ; he denied the value of relics and of pilgrimages, and taught that the intercession of ^ See Chap. i. p. 9. 248 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. saints would not save men of irreligious life. Abbot Theodomir, head of a monastery near Nismes, who had been his friend, taking alarm at his doctrines, lodged a complaint against him before an assembly of bishops, and addressed a letter to him lamenting the evil done by his views, which were spreading through the north of Italy, France, and Spain. Claudius wrote a defence, condemning in the most uncompromising way image-worship, saint-worship, pilgrimages, especially pilgrimages to Rome, and trust in the merits or intercession of others. He even ventured to remind Theodomir that it was only while S. Peter was on earth, not after he had gone to heaven, that he had been given power to bind and loose, and that it was not sitting in the seat of an apostle which made a man apostolic (this against Pascal I., who had found fault with him), but ful- filling the work of an apostle. Such plain speaking could not be allowed to pass. An Irishman named Dungal, and Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, undertook to refute his opinions, but he died in 839, and, perhaps through the powerful protection of the emperor, with- out any condemnation having been pronounced upon him. CHAPTER XX. THE CORDOVAN CALIPHATE. After Abderrahman had established himself in power the anarchy which had existed among the Moham- medan conquerors in Spain came to an end. Ab- derrahman was, it will be remembered, the sole sur- viving representative of the Ommiad caliphs, who had reigned for a hundred years at Damascus. It was his fortune now to establish a new line of Ommiad caliphs at Cordova, which lasted for nearly three hundred years. He did not, however, call him- self caliph. He and his immediate succcessors adopted only the inferior title of emir or sultan, which was in itself a recognition of the Abbasside line of Caliphs of Bagdad, though the lords of Cordova, in fact, paid no obedience to them, and in the time of the third Abderrahman assumed the title of cahph, claiming thus equality with them, if not den^-ing their authority altogether. Almost as soon as Abderrahman had established himself at Cordova he had to contend with an emissary of the Abbassides, Ibn-Mughith. Defeating him in a fiercely fought battle, he cut off his head and the heads of the other leaders of his party, and sent them as a present to the Abbasside caliph. Finding himself still exposed to the danger of rebellion in Spain, he surrounded himself with a 249 250 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. bodyguard of Berbers, who secured the throne for himself and his dynasty. The latter part of his reign was spent in beautifying his capital, and in 784 he began building the famous mosque which still remains for the admiration of the world, having passed into the hands of the Christians, whose Church of S. Vincent the sultan destroyed for the sake of making room for his mosque. As it now stands, the mosque occupies a space measuring from north to south 410 feet, and from east to west 440. The parallelogram thus formed is divided by rows of pillars, 1 293 in all, into thirty-one aisles or arcades running from east to west, and nineteen running from north to south. The pillars are all of marble gathered from Christian churches or ancient temples, and the aisles are surmounted by a double horse-shoe arch thrown across from one row of pillars to another, the lower arch being a few feet beneath the upper ; the roof is much lower than would be admissible in any architecture except the Arabian, being only thirty-five feet from the ground. The ap- pearance of the interior of the mosque is at present marred by a pile of building introduced into it in the time of Charles V. to serve as a choir. The h'dla, or sacred point towards which the Moslems address their prayers, still remains. It is an octagon chapel, the roof of which consists of one block of marble wrought into the shape of a shell. It was entered by a door- way surmounted by a horse-shoe arch, surrounded by briUiant mosaic-work. Its stone floor is worn by the feet of Moslem pilgrims, who used to compass it seven times, walking backwards with bare feet. The kid/a represents, or ought to represent, the direc- THE CORDOVAN CALIPHATE. 251 tion of Mecca, and therefore in Spain it should have been towards the east of the building, but whereas most of the Moslem conquests lay to the north of Mecca, it had become customary to fix this sacred point towards the south. When the time came for settling where the ^id/a should be placed for the Mosque of Cordova the question was gravely debated. It was finally determined to follow previous prece- dent and fix it in the south. ^ The pulpit was of ivory and inlaid woods, and the building was lighted by a number of lamps, to add to which Almanzor carried ofi" the bells of S. lago de Compostcla in the year 997. The mosque was to the kings and caliphs of Cordova what S. lago de Compostela was to the kings of Oviedo and Leon, a religious toy, and at the same time a feeder of religious fanaticism. Abder- rahman's son, Hischam, continued the work of his father and brought the substantial part of the building to a conclusion ; but each sovereign, during the palmy days of Cordova, added his quota to the magnificence of the mosque, as each Asturian king poured his gifts on Compostela. The war was a war of races, but ^ While the architects, mathematicians, and astronomers were dis- puting among themselves, the Faquih Abu Ibraham came up to Alhakem and said, '* O Prince of the Believers ! all the people of this nation have constantly turned their faces to the south while making their prayers. It was to the south that the imams, the doctors, the kddis, and all the Moslems directed their looks ; and it was to the south that the ialns (may God show them mercy !) inclined the kiblas of all their mosques. Remember the proverb which says, ' It is preferable to follow the example of others and be saved than to perish by separating from the tr.ck.' Upi)n which the caliph exclaimed, * By Allah, thou sayest right ! I am for following the example of the tabis, whose opinion is of great weight" {Makkari^ Book iii. c. 2). 252 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. it was also a war of religions, and the two religions found their material exhibition in the Church of S. lago de Compostela and the Mosque of Cordcva. The Ommiad dynasty of Cordova was not content with conquering their Christian rivals in the field ; they would surpass them also and make themselves a mark for the admiration of the whole world by becoming in the West the exponents of an Oriental splendour and civilisation which should overpass the glories of even the caliphs of Damascus or Bagdad. Of this splendour the city of Cordova should be the symbol. Abderrahman's son, Hischam, built the noble bridge of Cordova which still spans the Guadalquivir. Hakem, A.D. 796, Abderrahman II., A.D. 821, Mohammed, A.D. 852, Mundhir, A.D. 886, Abdallah, A.D. 888, all added to the magnificence of the city. Abderrahman III., who succeeded in the year 912, excelled his pre- decessors in the splendour of his buildings as in the military and statesman-like power that he exhibited. The palace which he is famed for building is that of Azzahra or Ez-zahra, named after one of his favourite wives who bore the name of Ez-zahra, '' the fairest." ^ It is said that ten thousand workmen and ^ The Arabian historian Makkari describes the course of its building as follows: — "The sultan determined to spend some money in the redemption of captives. A search was accordingly made in the country of the Franks, but not one Moslem captive could be found ; upon which An-nassir (Abderrahman III.) was greatly delighted, and gave thanks to God. His mistress, Azzahra, then said, ' Build with that money a city that may take my name,' and in compliance with her wish he built the city. The favourite, however, being dis- satisfied with the appearance of the mountains behind, said to her royal spouse, * See, O master, how beautiful this girl looks in the arms of yonder Ethiopian.' On hearing which, An-nassir gave immediate orders for the removal of the mountain (the Sierra Morena) ; but one THE CORDOVAN CALIPHATE. 253 three thousand beasts of burden were employed every day for forty years in the construction of the palace, in which there were four thousand columns of marble, fifteen thousand doors of brass, a vast hall, with walls of marble and gold, containing a fountain presented by the Emperor of Constantinople, and a large basin of quicksilver, which cast dazzling flashes around it. There was also a marble terrace from which a view was obtained of gardens filled with shrubs and flowers, and having in it a lake with fish fed every day on twelve thousand loaves. The number of palace slaves is said to have been twenty-three thousand, including six thousand women. ^'We might go to a great length," writes Makkari, "were we to enumerate all the beauties, natural as well as artificial, contained within the precincts of Azzahra, — the running streams, the limpid waters, the luxuriant gardens, the stately buildings for the household guard, the magnificent palaces for the high functionaries of State ; the throng of soldiers, pages, and slaves of all nations and religions, sumptuously attired in robes of silk and brocade, moving to and fro through the broad streets; or the crowd of judges, theologians, and poets walk- ing with becoming gravity through the magnificent halls and ample courts of the palace. . , . ' Praise be to Allah ! ' exclaims the good Moslem, ' who allowed his humble creatures to design and build such enchanting palaces as this, and who permitted them to inhabit them as a sort of recompense in this world, of his counsellors, happening to be present when the order was issued, said to him, ' O Prince of the Believers ! God forbid that thou shouldst undertake a task the mere idea of which is sufficient to make a man lose his wit.' An-nassir was convinced." 254 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. and in order that the faithful might be encouraged to follow the path of virtue, by the reflection that, delightful as were those pleasures, they were still far below those reserved for the true believer in the celestial paradise.' " But his rejoicing soon turns to a groan as he describes how [' this abode of contentment and mirth was converted (not by the Christian con- querors, but) by the Berbers into a place of desolation. There is no God but God the Great, the Almighty ! " Abderrahman's son, Hakem II., not having the same interest in architecture as his father, occupied himself in collecting a noble library. His agents were de- spatched to Bagdad, Damascus, and other cities of the East to search for manuscripts, which were either purchased or copied. The books in his library are said to have amounted to four hundred thousand, and they were not only owned but studied, and in some cases annotated, by him. After Hakem there were no more great caliphs, but in the reign of his son, Hischam II., lived the Vizier Almanzor, greater than the greatest of the caliphs. He too added to the architectural beauties of Cordova by building in the neighbourhood of Azzahra his own palace Azzahira, which is described as still more gorgeous than the caliph's erection. So splendid was this more than imperial palace that Almanzor is said to have felt that a Nemesis must fall upon it. '' He was one day," says Makkari, "sitting regaling his eyes, his whole soul absorbed by the contemplation of the beauties surrounding him, when suddenly tears rolled down his cheeks, and he exclaimed in deep sorrow, * O Azzahira, may the Almighty Lord save you ! ' And Almanzor wept THE CORDOVAN CALIPHATE. 255 bitterly, and hid his face with both his hands. Then one of his favourites said, ''What ails thee, O Al- manzor ? What is the meaning of words which thy lips never uttered before ? " " God grant," said Alman- zor, " that my presentiments do not come true." -^ Almanzor is an eminent example of a Spanish Moslem, both in his grandeur and in his baseness, and his history best illustrates the relations which existed between the Christian kingdoms and the haughty Arab occupants of Cordova. Almanzor be- gan life as a student of the University of Cordova, with no especial prospects or opportunity of advance- ment. His first profession was that of a letter-writer, which in the East has always been held in respect, if not in honour. Brought b}^ his occupation to court, he gained a position there by flattery and bribes, so that he became known to the Caliph Hischam's mother, Aurora. By her patronage he became a judge and a commandant in the civil guard. On the accession of Hischam to the throne one of the conspiracies which are common in Oriental palaces broke out. Aurora called in Almanzor to crush it, wliich, with the aid of the chamberlain, Mushafy, he did. He was as yet only a civilian, but by the chamberlain's influence he was nominated on two occasions to lead the Saracen troops against the Christians. Almanzor put himself under the tutelage of a naval officer named Ghalib, and succeeded on both occasions in worsting the Christians. Returning with a groat reputation, he contrived to get himself appointed Governor of Cordova in place of tlic chamberlain's son, and in a * Makkari, p. 224. 256 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. very short time he was able to arrest Mushafy himself and have him thrown into prison on a charge of peculation. Here he allowed his old patron to lie in a state bordering on starvation for five years, when, being now forgotten, he was put out of the way. Almanzor became chamberlain, and ruled the kingdom as the grand-vizier of the caliph. An attempt was made to assassinate him, but he seized the conspirators and had them crucified. He had married the daughter of Ghalib, to whom he owed his own elevation as a soldier. Ghalib and Ja'far were the two most popular men in the army, and might be his rivals. Almanzor detached the veteran troops, who were devoted to Ghalib, from him, and soon Ghalib fell in battle, and Ja'far by assassination. Almanzor was now first in civil and military affairs. At the head of the army he gained the name by which he is known in history, Almanzor — that is, the victorious. He is said to have fought fifty battles and never to have been defeated except on the day when he met his death. His wars were, for the most part, with the Christians of the North, against whom he conducted an expedition generally twice in the year. His first raid was against Castile ; then Simancas and Zamora fell before him ; soon Leon, which had been the residence of the Chris- tian kings for fifty years, was captured, and Bermudo n. had to retire to the old capital Oviedo, while Almanzor razed Leon to the ground. Astorga, Sala- manca, even Barcelona, Coimbra, Braga, and at length Compostela, were reduced by him and left in ruins. Castile, Leon, Galicia, and Navarre combined their forces to resist him, but they were utterly routed at the THE CORDOVAN CALIPHATE. 257 River Tormes. Leon, Navarre, and Castile again combined. Almanzor took his way to Navarre, and met the Christian forces at Calatanazor. Here for the first time he was defeated. Wounded in the field, he is said to have secured the retreat of his army and then refused to live as a vanquished man. In the year 1002, whether from his wounds or from sickness, he died, and according to the Spanish chronicler was *' buried in hell." To balance his craft and cruelty, acts of great generosity are reported of Almanzor. On one occasion having caught a body of Christians in a defile, on their refusing to surrender, he let them pass unhurt. At the battle of Tormes, when the victory had declared on his side, finding a troop of Castilians trying to transport the dead body of their slain sovereign from the field, he allowed them a passage through his soldiers, exclaiming, '' Let tlie Christians live and bless the name of the clement and merciful God." Having won a victory in Africa, he returned his thanks- giving by giving freedom to three hundred slaves and fifteen hundred captives. When his son was married he gave dowries to orphans and gifts to schools and hospitals. In Almanzor the last great Arab passed away. His ambition had kept the caliph in the harem in order that he might himself play the sovereign, and now there was no one to take his place. His son kept things together for six years, but after that time tlie Arab rule gave way to confusion and anarchy. Men of Ommiad blood still nominally held swa}' till His- cham III. was deposed in 103 1, but the glory of the dynasty ended with Alnianzor's life in 1002. Then 2 58 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. followed two hundred years during which Moham- medan Spain was distracted by the rivalries of the numberless kingdoms into which it was divided, such as Toledo, Zaragoza, Seville, and Valencia. The royal city of Cordova was captured by the Moham- medan King of Seville in 10/6, and in 1084 Alonzo VI., King of Leon, recovered Toledo. CHAPTER XXI. THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. On the conquest of Spain, the Moslems, in accordance with their law and custom, offered Islam, tribute, or the sword to their vanquished foes. We have seen how they that chose the sword gathered at first in very small numbers in the Asturian Mountains, and spread from the Cave of Covadonga and the valley of Cangas to Oviedo and Leon, and thence through Galicia, Portugal, and Castile ; while smaller bodies maintained themselves in Navarre, Aragon, and Catalonia. The natural consequence of the relation in which these men found themselves with their Mohammedan enemies was to intensify their hatred of everything belonging to the Moslem faith, and to cause them to cling to all that distinguished Christian faith and practice with a determination which might easily degenerate into fanaticism and superstition. Those Christians that remained behind in the parts of the country subjected to the Arabs were in a very different position. They were brought into daily and hourly contact with men often of cultured and chival- rous mind, which prevented them from regarding Mohammedanism with the bitter hatred entertained for it by the Christians of the North. They were nut 259 s 26o HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. persecuted, which would have aroused their an- tagonism and pride, but they found themselves looked down upon with a quiet contempt and refused a posi- tion of equality with the ruling caste ; they had to pay tribute to support an alien race and religion ; the Jews, whom they had trampled upon in the days of their prosperity, now stood higher in position than themselves, and the wealthier classes from day to day lost their slaves, who had only to pronounce the formula, "There is but one God, and Mohammed is His prophet," to deliver themselves from bondage and raise themselves to an equality with their old masters, or a superiority to them. It was a temptation to themselves, to pronounce the talismanic formula, after which the prizes of the State were opened to them without any close inquisition into their private senti- ments. Many indifferent Christians passed over in this way to the dominant religion, as is found always to be the case in countries under Mohammedan rule. There were others who would not so violate their conscience or shame their Christian profession, who yet grew to be on intimate terms with their Moslem neighbours, and came to regard the differences be- tween them less and less as of vital importance. Inter- marriages took place between the two races, begin- ning almost immediately after the battle of Guadalete, soon after which Rodericks widow, Egilona, married Abdul-aziz, the son of Musa. The Arabian emirs retained in their hands the right of veto on episcopal elections, which had previously been exercised by the Gothic kings, while at the same time they threw con- siderable secular power into the hands of such bishops THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 261 as were appointed, whom they made their agents and officers in governing the Christians. Bishops so nominated and so treated were not likely to play the part of martyrs or confessors, or to be very vigilant in preserving the zeal of their flocks at boiling-pitch. Sindered, who had been nominated Primate of Toledo by Witiza, seems to have been succeeded, on Roderic s nomination, by Urban; after whom came Simifred, A.D. 738; Concordias, A.D. 758; Cixila, A.D. 774; EHpan- dus, A.D. 782. Cixila occupied himself in writing the legendary story, full of miraculous events, which is called a " Life of Ildefonso," whence arose the extra- ordinary reputation enjoyed by Ildefonso for the next three centuries. Elipandus* interest seems to have been mainly fixed on points of speculative theology, as the opponent of Migetianism and the supporter of Adoptionism ; and during this time we may easily believe that zeal more and more died out from the daily life of the Christians interspersed among the Moors. The place where there was the greatest danger of the Christians forgetting their faith and sinking down into practical indifference was Cordova, where their eyes were dazzled by the splendour of Mohammedan magnificence, while Christian worship was confined to such churches as were in existence at the time of the conquest, no new edifices being allowed to be constructed. The Mohammedans exhibited an air of contemptuous superiority, which was not enough to arouse antagonism, but was sufficient to be galling. They went into their churches (whereas no Christian might enter a mosque) and ridiculed the ceremonies 202 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. which they saw but did not understand.^ The Chris- tians did not dare to retahate, and for the most part did not wish to do so. But the general apathy caused a reaction. Earnest Christians looked on with alarm amounting to terror as they saw their young students at the University examining into the religion and philo- sophy of the Mohammedans, ^'not in order to refute their errors, but on account of their elegance of diction and clearness of expression, while they neglected Chris- tian writings." ^ They saw them ^' taking delight in Arab poetry and their thousand stories." ^ They saw them submitting to circumcision as a matter in itself indifferent.* "Who is there," cries Alvar in despair, ^ Ibn Shoheyd thus describes what he saw : — " I once entered at night into the principal Christian church. I found it all strewn with green branches of myrtle and planted with cypress-trees. The noise of the thundering bells resounded in my ears ; the glare of the innumer- able lamps dazzled my eyes ; the priests, decked in rich silken robes of gay and fanciful colours and girt with girdle-cords, advanced to adore Jesus. Every one of those present had banished mirth from his countenance and expelled from his mind all agreeable ideas ; and if they directed their steps towards the mar])le font, it was merely to take sips of water with the hollow of their hands. The priest then rose and stood among them, and taking the wine-cup in his hands prepared to consecrate it ; he applied to the liquor his parched lips — lips as dark as the dusky lips of a beautiful maid ; the fragrancy of its contents cap- tivated his senses, but when he had tasted the delicious liquor the sweetness and flavour seemed to overpower him. ... By the Lord of Mercy ! this mansion of God is pervaded with the smell of unfer- mented red liquor, so pleasant to the youth ! It was to a girl that their prayers were addressed ; it was for her that they put on their gay tunics, instead of humiliating themselves before the Almighty ! . . . The priests, wishing us to stay long among them, began to sing round us with their books in their hands ; every wretch presented us the palm of his withered hand (with the holy water), but they were even like the bat, whose safety consists in his hatred for light ; offering us every attraction that their drinking of new wine or their eating of swine's flesh could afford." — Makkari, B. iii. ch. 4. - Alvar, Indiculus Luminosus, c. 35. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 263 '* among our faithful laity who reads the Holy Scrip- tures or takes a look at the works of any doctors that are written in Latin ? Who loves the Gospels, the Prophets, the Apostles ? Are not all our young Chris- tians, with set faces and eloquent tongues, and refine- ment of dress and gesture, skilled in heathen learning, lifted into the fields of Arabian eloquence, eagerly turning over the pages of the Chaldeans, earnestly reading them, discussing them with the pre^itest ardour, holding meetings with the greatest interest in order to praise and propagate them, ignoring the beauty of the Church, and despising the Church's streams, which flow from Paradise, as poor things ? Oh, grief ! Chris- tians do not know their own tongue, Latins cannot understand their own language, so that out of the whole company of Christ scarcely one in a thousand can be found who could intelligibly address a letter to his brother, while innumerable crowds are found who can most learnedly explain the beautiful order of Chaldean words, and can add the final flourish which their language requires with greater skill and beauty than the heathen themselves." ^ It was, in truth, no shght danger that was run by Christian students in the tolerant and magnificent University of Cordova. A sluggish indifference prevailed among the higher officials in the hierarchy. The metropolitan bishop, Reccafred of Seville, was a temporiser. A few years later the Bishop of Malaga was a persecutor of his co-religionists ; but there rose up a school which set itself with fixed purpose to counteract the prevailing laxity, even at the cost of martyrdom at the hands ^ Alvar, Ivdiculiis I uminosus, r. 35. 264 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. of their Mohammedan masters. The leader of this school seems to have been the Abbot Speraindeo/ who gathered round him some earnest spirits, chief among whom were Eulogius and Alvar, a doctor named Vincent, a writer named Basilisque, a pres- byter named Leovigild, and an archpriest named Cyprian, followed shortly afterwards by the Abbot Samson. Speraindeo was a deep student of Holy Scripture, in which he gave lectures ; he wrote a trea- tise against Mohammedanism, the trenchant character of which may be gathered from the extracts preserved to us by Eulogius, and by a similar work written by his other pupil, Alvar. He also wrote an account of the martyrdom of John and Adolphus of Seville, put to death in 824, whose example he held up as an encouragement to weak Christians throughout Spain. Another of his writings was a theological work written at Alvar's request against some heresies that were infesting the Church. He lived to an old age, and died about the year 850. The school of which Speraindeo was the chief founder gathered into its ranks all the more earnest believers in Cordova, whether clerical or lay. It is not too much to say that it saved the Christian faith in the Moorish capital ; but it could not do this without some cost. Constituted as men's minds are, an ardent zeal for Christianity could not be separated from a hatred of Mohammedanism. If religious faith was to be fanned into enthusiasm, it could not always be restrained within the limits of prudence. A sharper feeHng of antagonism sprang up between the Arab 1 That is, ''Hope-in-God." THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 265 and Spanish population. Moslem laws, which do not profess to set Christians on an equality with the professors of Islam, and the haughty bearing of the Mohammedan, which leads him to insult and shrink with disgust from all but his co-religionists, began to be felt as an intolerable burden by the now excited Christians. As the latter carried their dead to the grave the Moors cursed them aloud and cast stones at the clergy. When a priest was found in the street there was danger of his being hustled and insulted, if not stoned. When the bell sounded for church " they uttered cries of derision and contempt, wagging their heads, reiterating intolerable insults, assailing and mocking the whole flock of the Lord Christ, with- out respect to sex or age, with a thousand different kinds of insult." ^ They went further. There was a priest named Perfectus who had gone out of his house and was occupying himself in the everyday business of life. The Moors surrounded him and demanded why he was not a believer. He refused to answer, knowing that his reply miglit make him liable to capital punishment. When they continued urging him, he said that he could repty well enough if they would give him a promise, confirmed by oath, that he should not be harmed by what he said. They accepted his condition, and then he denounced Mo- hammed as a man of profligate life. His hearers were lashed to fury, but, for their oatli's sake, they let him go unhurt. But a short time afterwards they again fell in with him, and regarding their oath as no longer binding, the}' seized liim niul carried ^ Alvar, c. vi. 266 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. him to the kadi, declaring that he was trying to overthrow their faith and had cursed the prophet. Perfectus, taken aback and terrified, denied that he had said anything of the kind; and he was remitted to prison for further examination. Here he repented of his previous weakness and acknowledged his words, and repeated them, on which he was immediately beheaded. The matter rested for a year; then the mob seized a Christian named John, crying that he had been heard often to utter the name of the prophet in a derisive tone. John was a quick-tempered man and had a caustic wit; he answered hastily, '^ Accursed be he who wants to utter the name of your prophet at all." At these words a great tumult was raised ; a crowd gathered like a swarm of bees, and dragged him with blows before the kadi. His sentence was four hundred blows, while a proclamation was made in all the Christian churches, ^* This is what the man has to suffer who does anything to the dishonour of the prophet of God." ^ In these two cases the aggression was with the Mohammedan party, and we cannot be surprised at the indignation expressed by Alvar : '^ Now, be just judges and give an impartial sentence. I ask with whom did this persecution arise ? Is it not plain that they were the beginners of mischief who first made a promise which then they did not keep ? As to audacity or obstinacy with which you charge us when you bring us before the judge, this priest had them not ; he was a timid man, and he proceeded ^ Aivar, c. v. THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 267 timidly to the battle. It was diabolic zeal which brought about his death — the disciples of Antichrist who caused his passion. Can it be concealed that it was with them that the persecution arose and com- menced, was carried on and completed ? ... Is any one so possessed by error, so steeped in iniquity, as to deny that this is persecution ? What can be greater persecution than when men are not allowed to say with their mouth what they have good reason for believing in their heart ? Yes, there is the public law, there is the legal ordinance which runs through- out their whole realm, that any one who blasphemes Islam should be flogged, and any one who strikes a Mohammedan should be put to death. Day and night they curse the Lord, while they extol the prophet, who is shameless, perjured, furious, and unjust. Ah ! and we not only accept the poison offered to us with a merry heart and a ready hand, but, what is worse, we go against those who have zeal for God like Elijah, and make friendship with the enemies of God most high, and to please them we speak evil of our own faith. Every day we are overwhelmed with insults and a thousand contumelies, and then we say that there is no persecution." ^ When the temper of men's minds was thus in- flamed some catastrophe could hardly lail to be pro- duced. It was indeed a hopeless matter for the few Christians whose feelings were thus roused to rise in insurrection against the mass of the citizens in the midst of whom they were living scattered in the capital whcro tho mighty Ommiad dynasty was iiold- ' Alvar, cc. iv., vi. 268 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. ing its splendid court ; but if they could not overcome their opponents, they could die in the cause of their * insulted master. They forgot the old ecclesiastical rule laid down in their own Council of Elvira, and founded upon the words of our Lord, that none were to offer themselves voluntarily for martyrdom. Moved at once by religious enthusiasm, racial hatred, and present anger, men and women came forward and denounced Islam in the bitterest terms before the people and before the kadi, knowing well, and re- joicing to know, that the legal penalty was death. The first of these voluntary martyrs was a monk named Isaac, who, going straight to the kadt, declared that he too had adopted all that Perfectus and John had said, adding his own to their denunciations of Mohammed. *' What have you to blame in that ? " cries Alvar. '' I have shown that the persecution began with the heathen. It was religious zeal, not personal interest, which has moved our men ! What have you to blame ? Tell me ! They saw the battle begun ; they put on the breastplate of faith and joined the noble struggle with hurried step, after they had seen one comrade slain and another wounded, and they charged the enemy, seeking tlie palm of glory. You say that some are too weak to take this course, and that brave men should hold back lest feeble men should be terrified. If you are weak, brainless, cowardly, sit still and do not fight ; sit still and await results, and learn to bridle your tongue in silence ; but if you are strong, if you are brave, ii you are firm, if you can fight God's battle against His enemies, hurl your spear, throw your javelin. Why THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 269 do you pay no respect to fiery purpose, astonishing confidence, glorious firmness, zeal for the Catholic faith and religion ? . . . Have not those men who seem to be pillars or are supposed to be rocks of the Church, who are regarded as elect, have not they gone, without compulsion, before the kadi and spoken ill of God's martyrs ? Have not shepherds of Christ, doctors of the Church, bishops, abbots, presbyters, nobles, and officers openly called them heretics ? It is true that they spoke ill of the false prophet; we speak ill of Christ's worshippers. T/icj/ were brave and faced the devil ; we are proud, but it is against the Lord. T/iej' were haughty in the presence of an earthly king ; we in the presence of the Eternal King. Tkey spoke with their mouth what they held in their heart; we keep one thing in our heart and profess another with our mouth. 7Viejy were truthful con- fessors and witnesses ; we, alas me ! are deceitful feigners. Scandals always arise to the carnal and the learned in the days of martyrdom. That light of our Church, blessed Isidore, says, aptly using the illustration of the star Orion, ' Orion,' says he, ' appears in the sky in the season of winter, and martyrs come forward in the Church in time of per- secution.' As Orion proceeds, earth and sea are disturbed b}^ storms, and when martyrs arise the hearts of worldly men, and even of the faithful, are . stricken." ^ With such fiery teachers as Alvar and Eulogius it is not to be wondered at that the list of mart3Ts is a long one. Isaac's fate was singularly unprovoked by ^ Alvar, xii. 15. 270 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the Moslem. He went before the kadi as a would-be proselyte to Islam, and asked for an explanation of its doctrines. The kadz gravely replied that the author of the true faith was Mohammed, who, having been taught by the archangel Gabriel, and having become the prophet of God, published to the world the Law and revealed Paradise and Heaven. " He is a false prophet," burst in Isaac ; " he has lied and led you astray, so may God curse him ! Filled with iniquity, he has perverted innumerable souls, and cast them into the pit where he will everlastingly pay the penalty of his crimes for having given his followers to drink of the cup of perdition, full as he is himself of the spirit and deeds of the devil. How is it that you, who think yourselves wise men, do not deliver yourselves from like peril ? How is it that you do not renounce his pestilent and perverse doctrines and embrace the perfect salvation of the Christian reli- gion ? " The kadi burst into tears of rage and struck him on the face, declaring that he was either drunk or mad. ^' I am neither drunk nor mad," said Isaac, ^'but I am zealous for righteousness, which neither you nor your prophet know, and therefore I declare to you the truth — ^ Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' " The kadi referred the case to • the sultan, who ordered Isaac to be beheaded. His body was fastened to a stake erected on the banks of the river in the sight of all the town, in order to strike terror into the hearts of the Christian revilers of the prophet. The result was contrary to that which was expected. Two days after Isaac's death, THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 271 on Friday, June 5, A.D. 851, Sancho, a young man who had been made a prisoner in France, and was being trained for one of the sultan's bodyguard of renegades, made confession, like Isaac, and suffered the same fate, his body being set next to Isaac's. On Sunday the 7th, immediately after Mass, a priest be- longing to Isaac's Monastery of Tabanos, had a vision of a most beautiful young man, and was assured that as Abraham had offered his son Isaac, so now this Isaac had offered a sacrifice for his brethren. The same day three monks of Cordova, Sabinian, Haben- tius, and Jeremiah, were beheaded and staked in company with Peter and Wistremund of Ecija and Walabonsus of Ilipa or Elepla. Thus there were eight bodies standing in a ghastly row along the bank of the river, and one of them had been there since Wednesday the 3rd, and another since Friday the 5th. They remained there till Friday the 12th, and that in the south of Spain in the month of June ; then they were burnt and their ashes thrown into the Guadalquivir. About a month later Sise- nand of Beja, and, persuaded by him, Paul, a deacon of S. Zoilus, Cordova, and Theodomir, a monk of Carmona, offered themselves for martyrdom, and were beheaded. Flora's story is specially touching, owing to the fatherly affection and spiritual adoration borne to her by Eulogius, who, nevertheless, con- firmed her in her resolution to die. Early converted to Christianity — she was the daughter of a Moslem father — she deserted her home to escape the insults she there suffered. Compelled to return to it she resisted her brother's persuasion, and was by him 272 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. brought before the ^adl and beaten. Continuing to attend the worship of the Christian church, she met Maria, sister of the martyr Walabonsus, and together the two maidens determined to denounce Mohammed and die. The kadi before whom they appeared for this purpose sent them to prison. In prison they found the brave priest Eulogius, who had been sent thither by his time-serving metropohtan, Reccafred of Seville, on account of the encouragement given by him to the martyrs' devotion of themselves to death. In a prison of the ninth century the inmates were merely kept safe by their jailers in a common receptacle of misery, and no attempt was made of separating one prisoner from another. Eulogius had free access to all that were incarcerated, and he employed himself in encouraging the two girls in their resolve, all the while feeling a yearning affec- tion and chivalrous devotion to '' his lady," Flora, whose purity and piety made him ready to kiss the ground beneath her feet. Flora and Maria were beheaded November 24, A.D. 851. That year pro- duced thirteen martyrs. The next year began with the death of a priest, Gumesind, and a monk called Servus Dei (January 13, A.D. 852). Then came repre- sentatives of the large class of Christians who had hitherto not thought it shame to pretend, for worldly purposes, to be Moslems and go under the name of Cristianos ocultos. Aurelius and his wife Sabigotho or Nathalia, and Felix and his wife Liliosa, belonged to this class. All four of them felt a necessity laid upon them to confess their faith, which, as they would be regarded as renegades, meant to die for it. Aurelius THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 273 and Sabigotho committed their children (two girls) to the care of the Christian Church, and all four dis- tributed their goods to the poor. At this moment they were joined by George, a monk of S. Sabbas, near Jerusalem, who had been sent by his monastery to Africa for the purpose of gathering alms, and from Africa had passed across to Cordova. The five en- thusiasts met in the house of Aurelius for prayer, and then solemnly took counsel how they should devote themselves to death. The plan they determined on was this. The two women, Sabigotho and Liliosa, who, as Moslems, had hitherto never appeared in public without the yasJunak or covering for the face, ran through the streets to the Christian church with their heads uncovered and their faces unveiled. The Moslem authorities sent to the two husbands to inquire what was the meaning of the strange act performed by their wives. They replied, '^ It is a Christian custom to visit churches and to worship at the tomb of the martyrs, and as we are Christians, we show our faith in Christ not only in words but in deeds." News of the apostasy was carried to the kadi^ and he sent men to seize the four renegades. They were found in AureHus' house, and set off joy- fully for their doom. George was with them in the house, but the officers had no order to arrest him, and would have left him behind. The monk was in despair, and threw himself upon them with words of reviling : '' How dare you thus treat the faithful, seek- ing to pervert them to superstition ? Can you not go to hell by yourselves for not holding the true faith without our accompanying you ? Go thither, 274 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. you and your false prophet, for tlie light of our holy religion has neither art nor part with your darkness." The officers turned upon the intruder with blows and kicks, and carried him with the others before the kadz. The kadi treated the accused with great mild- ness — " Why would they lose not only the present life and its pleasures, but also the enjoyments promised hereafter ? " They answered that nothing that could be offered them was to be compared with the happi- ness that they hoped to enjoy through faith in Jesus Christ, and that they abhorred and rejected all that separated them from Him who was their Good. The kadi sent them to prison, where they were kept for five days, which appeared long to them, so anxious were they for the consummation of their hopes. Offers of honours and riches were made to them if they would recant, and on their scornful refusal, their execution was ordered. 'But George was not guilty of apostasy from Mohammedanism, and the authorities had not heard him blaspheme Mohammed; he was therefore granted his liberty. " What ! " cried the monk ; " do you think, then, that I am a follower of your false prophet ? Nay ; I recognise him as the minister of Antichrist, deluded by Satan in the form of an angel, perverted and a perverter ; not only gone to hell himself, but taking you there too." So Felix, George, Liliosa, Aurelius, and Sabigotho were be- headed together on July 27, 852. The bodies were exposed for three days, and then carried away by the Christians for burial. George and Aurelius were laid in the church of the Monastery of Pinamelar, near Cordova; but, by mistake, Sabigotho's head was de- THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 275 posited there with her husband's headless body, while her body was laid in the Church of S. Faustus. Six years later the remains were translated to Paris, as will be seen presently. Next month two monks, Christopher of Cordova and Leovigild of Granada, offered themselves for martyr- dom, and were beheaded. The following month two young students, Emila, a deacon, and Jeremiah, came forward. Being well acquainted with Arabic, we are told that, on presenting themselves before the ^adi, ^'they said so much about the Mohammedan super- stitions that all that the Moors had previously heard from the martyrs against the false prophet seemed as nothing compared with what they said." ^ They were beheaded on September 5, and their bodies fastened to stakes on the river's bank. While they were still in prison, two Christian eunuchs, one from Elvira, the other from the East, made their way into a mosque — a thing forbidden to Christians — and with loud voices denounced the superstition of the worshippers. They were at once seized, and after their hands and feet had been cut off, they were beheaded and their bodies set up with those of Christopher and Leovigild on the river's side, where they were soon afterwards burnt. It is said that Abderrahman, seeing the four bodies exposed, angrily desired that they should be burnt, and while giving the order was struck with apoplexy, whereby ^'his soul was dismissed to burn in hell, and he left the ashes of the saints to be gathered together by the faithful and reverently stored in holy places." ^ In the year 852 there were eleven martyrdoms. * JSsp. Sagr., X. 405. ^ Ibid,, 406. T 276 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Mohammed, who succeeded Abderrahman as sultan, was a man of much fiercer nature than his father, and at first he seems, by his threat of a general massacre, to have struck terror even into the seekers after martyrdom. None offered themselves to death for six months, but at the end of that time, on June 13, 853, Fandila of Guadix, and next day Anastasius of Cordova and Felix of Alcala, reviled Mohammedanism before the kadi and were beheaded. The same day a nun named Digna (Worthy), who for humility's sake begged to be always addressed as Indigna (Unworthy), left her monastery, and going to the kadz, asked why he had taken the life of the preachers of the truth. ''Is it because we worship the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and confess that there is one true God, and abhor everything contrary to the truth?" The kadi ordered her at once for execution, and the four bodies were exposed on stakes, and then burnt and the ashes thrown into the Guadalquivir. The next martyr was likewise a nun, Columba. She belonged to a noble family of Cordova, and was persuaded by her sister Isabel, who had herself married the martyr Jeremiah, to demand admission into the cloister. Her mother opposed the plan, preferring to see her married. We are told that, as neither would yield to the other, " God came between them and gave the mother a sudden illness of which she shortly died, leaving the daughter not so much sorrowing for her death as rejoicing to see the impediment to her effecting her purpose removed." ^ As the girl was wilful in entering the monastery, she was wilful in leaving it. ^ Jtsp. Sagr., X. 409. THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 277 She contrived to pass out of the gate without being seen in order to confess her faith. *' She did not know the streets of the city, for she had never cared to learn more than the way to heaven, but she was told where the kadi lived, and presenting herself before him, proved to him with the sweetest words that he ought not to allow himself to continue any longer deluded by the superstitions of Mohammed, and she expounded to him the truth of the mysteries of the Christian religion and the abomination of the Mohammedan sect." The kadi, touched by the girl's beauty and modesty, carried her to the palace and brought her before the Judicial Council, on which Columba repeated her con- fession of faith, and " begged the judges to seek the salvation of their souls instead of trying to pervert her by offering her honour and wealth. . . . The judges, seeing her immutable firmness in the oracles of the faith, ordered that she should be beheaded in the court of the palace." 1 She died on September 17, 853, and her body was at once consigned to the river. Columba had a friend named Pomposa, also a nun, in a monastery about a league from Cordova. Hearing of Columba's fate, she resolved on following her example, and on the very night after Columba's exe- cution it happened that the gate of the monastery was by accident left unlocked. Pomposa opened it with great caution that she might not be discovered, and found herself outside the walls. It was night and quite dark, and the road was lonc]}^ Nevertheless she made her way to Cordova, where she arrived at daybreak, presented herself before the kadi, and ^'ex- ^ F.sJ>. Sagr., x. 411. ■lyZ HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. pounded the mysteries of our Redeemer and declared the abomination of Mohammed." ^ She was at once beheaded, and her corpse was thrown into the river. The year 853 thus gave six martyrs. The next year offered only one, a priest named Abundius. Unlike the others, he did not seek out the ^adi, but being brought before him, he declared himself a Chris- tian and assailed Mohammedanism in the usual way. He was beheaded and his body thrown to the dogs. In 85 5 Amator, a priest of Tucci ; Peter, a monk of Cordova ; and Lewis, a brother of the already martyred Paul, suffered. In 856, Elias, an aged Portuguese priest, Paul and Isidore, two young Cordovan monks, Witesind and Argimirus of Egabra, and Aurea of Seville, sister of two brothers, John and Adolphus, who had been put to death at the beginning of Abderrahman's reign, met the same fate. In 857 Roderick and Solomon were executed on a false charge of being renegades from Islam. And now a blow was struck at the man whose zeal and courage had kept up the spirit of martyrdom in the breasts of others. Eulogius was a man of good birth and a native of Cordova. As a young man he became a pupil of the Abbot Speraindeo, and in the lecture-room made a boyish friendship with his biographer, Alvar, which lasted till his death. The young men used to send essays and verses to one another — '' an exercise sweeter to us than honey, more pleasant than the honeycomb " ^ — and with the enthusiasm of young students in every generation, '' composed whole volumes of attempts to grasp the unknowable, which, when we ^ Es/>. Sagr., x. 416. - Vita Eulogii, c. 2. THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 279 grew older, we determined to destroy, that they might not get into other hands." ^ Eiilogius became a man of great learning, devouring the writings of " Catholics, philosophers, heretics, and heathens ; poetry, prose, history, hymns, Virgil, Juvenal, Horace, Augustine ; " but his chief study was the Holy Scriptures, '' so that he preferred nothing to Holy Scripture, nor liked anything better than meditating day and night on the law of the Lord." ^ In due time he was ordained deacon and priest, and employed himself in keeping alive Christianity in the capital of the Ommiads. Abderrahman called on the Metropolitan Reccafred to restrain the over-zeal shown by him and those Hke him. Reccafred in 851 consigned him to prison. There he found the two maidens, Flora and Maria, and confirmed them, in spite of an overwhelming pity for them, in their resolution to die. Six days after their passion Eulogius was released from prison, and continued his bold course, ''while bishops, priests, clergy, and the wise men of Cordova walked in a crooked path, and through fear denied the faith by signs, if not by words. "^ So much honoured was he for his straightforwardness and zeal, that on the See of Toledo becoming vacant by the death of good Bishop Wistremir, he was elected to the primacy with the full approval of the suffragan and neighbouring bishops, but he was never consecrated to the post. Some obstacle, we are told, prevented it, which, probably, was the veto of the sultan. Still, he was spiritually a bishop, sa3's Alvar; "for every saint is a bishop, tliough every ^ Fi'^a Enlogii^ c. 2. ^ Ibid. ^ Ibid. c. 3. 28o HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. bishop is not a saint." ^ His martyrdom came about in this wise. A girl of Arab family named Leocritia was baptized and taught in the Christian faith by a relative named Litiosa. When she grew up her Moslem parents forbade her to practise Christianity, and assailed her with blows and stripes and threats of charging her with being a renegade. In her dis- tress she had recourse to Eulogius and his sister Anulo for help, and telling her parents that she was going to the wedding of a relation, she fled to them for refuge. Eulogius sent her to the house of a Christian, and she was passed on from house to house, so that her parents, armed with all the power of the law, could not find and recover her. It was often her habit to pay a visit to Anulo by night, when she was not likely to be caught ; but on one occasion her companion who was to conduct her to her place of security did not arrive till it was broad daylight, when it was not safe for her to stir abroad. Anulo kept her concealed for the day, but on that very day the Mohammedan soldiers made a descent upon the house. Leocritia was apprehended, and Eulogius, as owner of the house in which she was found, was hurried before the kadi, who sternly demanded why he had not delivered the girl up. Eulogius replied, '' My lord, the office of preaching the Gospel is laid upon us, and it is our duty as faithful men to hold out the light of the faith to all inquirers ; nor must we refuse holy things to any one who is hastening to the paths of life. This is the duty of priests ; this true religion requires ; this our Lord Christ com- ^ FzVfl Eulogii, c. lo. THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 281 manded us — that any thirsty soul which asks to drink of the streams of faith should be supplied with a double draught of that which he seeks. As this girl made inquiries of us as to the rules of our holy faith, it was necessary for us to attend to her with all readiness in order that her affections might be the more inflamed towards it. It would be wrong to reject an applicant whose object was such as I have described, especially in the case of a man appointed for this very purpose to the office which he holds from Christ. I have, therefore, instructed her to the best of my power, and taught her, and explained to her that the faith of Christ is the way to the eternal kingdom, as, indeed, I would gladly do for you, if you thought fit to enter upon a discussion." The kadi, disdaining to answer, threatened to bastinado him to death, and ordered the rods to be brought in. "What do you intend to do with those rods?" said Eulogius. " I intend to drag your life out of your body with them," said the kadi. " Nay," said Eulo- gius, " sharpen and prepare the sword, for by that you shall deliver my soul from the yoke of the body and give it back to Him that gave it ; but don't think to cut my limbs asunder with whips." Beginning then to denounce the false prophet and to preach Christianity, he was hurried off to the palace and placed before the Council. On the Council sat one well acquainted with him, who took him aside and besought him as a friend not to throw away his life. " Fools and idiots," said he, " allow themselves to be carried down the stream to ruin and death in this lamentable way ; but what madness is it that 282 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. induces you, a man respected for your wisdom and well known for your good life, to give yourself over to death in defiance of the natural love of life ? Pray listen to me, and do not, I beseech you, run headlong to destruction. Just say a word now in the hour of your need, and afterwards exercise your faith where you can. We promise you that no inquiry into your doings shall be made anywhere." Eulogius smiled. "Ah!" said he, "if you could but know what good things are laid up for those that maintain our faith ! Or if I could communicate to you the feelings that animate my breast ! Then you would not try to recall me from my purpose, but rather would think how to deliver yourself from the earthly honours that you enjoy ! " His friend drew back, and Eulogius began to preach Christianity to the Council. The judges at once gave sentence of death, and ordered him to be led out for execution. As he passed along one of the eunuchs struck him on the cheek. Eulo- gius turned to him the other cheek, saying, " Put this cheek, I beseech you, on an equality with the other." The eunuch struck him as desired, and he again offered him the cheek that had been first struck. The soldiers grew impatient, and thrust him forward to the place of execution. Here the martyr knelt down, and lifting up his hands to heaven and signing himself with the sign of the cross, after a few moments of secret prayer he stretched his head forward and " by a swift blow he found his life." He died on Saturday, March ii, 859. It was noted that a white dove sailed through the air in the sight of all present and pitched upon the body as it lay exposed. Driven THE MARTYRS OF CORDOVA. 283 off by hand-clapping and stones, it wheeled upwards to a tower that overlooked the spot, and there sat without moving. At night some priests, dressed in their white robes of office, came with lanterns and sang psalms round the corpse. One of the palace slaves, going down to the river to draw water, saw and heard them, and thinking them to be celestial visitants, ran back in terror to call his comrades. By the time that they had returned together the priests had finished their service and were gone. The Christians recovered the martyr's head by paying a sum to the executioners, and at the end of three days they were allowed to gather up the remains of the body and give them burial. Leocritia was beheaded a few days later, and her body was thrown into the Guadalquivir, whence it was recovered by the care of the Christians. Both the bodies are said to have been translated to Oviedo in the year 883, during the reign of Alonzo III. With Eulogius the martyr-spirit died out. It required a man of his capacity, courage, and vigour to keep it alive. Alvar was the only surviving member of Speraindeo's school left, and brave as he was, alone he was unequal to the task which Eulo- gius so successfully performed. From this time forward the Mozarabic Church is less and less heard of; and when, at length, Toledo was recovered to Christianity, the Mozarabs had not strength enough to preserve their own line of prelates and the lofty traditions of the Primatial See. They submitted to have imposed upon them by the King of Leon (Alonzo VI.) and by the North Spanisli Ciiurch a 284 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Frenchman who accepted his ofBce as a gift from the Itahan Pope, and who introduced into Toledo the ideas prevalent in the Monastery of Cluny. The page of history that is written in the blood of Eulogius and his comrades and followers is a noble one, and contrasts favourably with the contemporary Christian history in the kingdoms of Leon, Castile, and Aragon. While the Mozarabic Christians were giving their lives grandly, if rashly, for the cause of Christ, the Leonese, which after a while became the Spanish, Church was sinking down more and more into the superstitions which naturally permeated a body whose profoundest belief was in the fable of S. James preaching in Spain, the translation of his bones to Iria after his death, the discovery of his body in the ninth century, his prowess as a leader in war, and the miracles by which the church, built over the spot where he was said to be buried, was magnified. CHAPTER XXII. BISHOP HOSTEGESIS AND THE ABBOT SAMSON. Before the martyrdoms had come to an end another question arose in Cordova which served in some degree to turn public attention from them. Hoste- gesis, Bishop of Malaga, came, with the connivance of his metropolitan, to reside in the royal city, where he made himself very popular with the Arabian courtiers by freely joining in their excesses. He was connected by marriage with Servandus, Count of Cordova, the official set in authority over the Christians by the sultan, and was great-nephew to Samuel, Bishop of Elvira, who had apostatised to Islam. He was a harsh man, and his mind was by no means that of a theologian. He took little real interest in the truth or falsehood of doctrines, but he was a man of considerable mental power, and always disposed to take the lead. At Cordova he came in contact with some anthropomorphitcs, named Romanus and Libertian, who maintained the old heresy that regarded God as existing in the human form. Hostegesis did not adopt their view, but he struck out from it a new heresy, which denied, or seemed to deny, the true character of the Divine Omnipresence. He taught that God existed in every- thing, not by His essential nature {substantia), but by 286 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. His power of penetrating (subtilttas). He denied that God was present in every part of everything ; and he maintained that it was not in the womb but in the heart of S. Mary that the Son of God became in- carnate. The formula by which Hostegesis differed from the orthodox doctrine was hardly more than a distinction of words, and had it been left alone would probably have been soon forgotten ; but the Spanish mind was singularly fond of occupying itself with points of speculative theology, and even now, when the Church had to struggle for its life in the face of oppressive Mohammedanism, men were found ready to embark in the controversy thus offered to them. The second tenet of Hostegesis was more adapted to rouse attention than the first, because it had to do with S. Mary the Virgin, whose venera- tion was becoming more and more extended in Spain through the authority of writings that bore the name of Ildefonso. The Abbot Samson came forward to oppose Hostegesis, and published a con- fession of faith specially aimed at his errors. Hoste- gesis, being a man of overbearing temper, summoned an informal meeting of the Bishops of Anda- lusia, called Samson before them, and charged him in turn with heresy, telling him that unless he would acknowledge that at the Incarnation Christ was enclosed in the heart of the Virgin, just as he closed his open hand upon his thumb, he should be excommunicated and deposed. Samson refused, and although the assembled bishops allowed that his confession of faith was orthodox, they were overawed by the violence and power of Hostegesis, BISHOP HOSTEGESIS AND ABBOT SAMSON. 287 and signed a condemnation which that prelate had drawn up beforehand, by which Samson was ex- communicated, banished, and deprived for ever of every clerical office. It so happened that in the year 862, just before this meeting, Valentius had been consecrated Bishop of Cordova. He was con- vinced of Samson's innocence, but being the youngest bishop present, he did not venture to oppose his brethren. But as soon as he was freed from the pressure of Hostegesis' presence, he repented of his backwardness and took measures to cancel the ex- communication. He communicated with other bishops who had not been at the Synod ; among them the Metropolitan of Merida. Supported by their written opinions and by the consent of some of those who had been present, he declared the sentence of ex- communication to be void, restored Samson to his office, and gave him a cure in Cordova. Hostegesis appealed to the sultan, Mohammed I., who ordered the deposition of Valentius and the election of Stephen, who was accordingly appointed by the Metropolitan of Seville and two suffragan bishops, in the presence of Jews and Moslems summoned to fill the place of the Christians, who had all absented themselves. Samson was next accused of treason against the sultan, tried, and acquitted. Servandus then proposed a scheme for the destruction both of Valentius and Samson. One of the Cordovan martyrs was about to be put to death on a charge of blasphemy. Servandus suggested that they should be asked whether what the accused had said was true or false. If they said it was true, they would incur 288 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the penalty of death themselves, if they said it was false, they might be ordered to put him to death for his guilt with their own hands, and if they refused, be slain for their disobedience. The Moslem sultan was too high-minded to accept the counsel given by a Christian bishop and by the count of the Christians, but Samson felt that it would be safest for him to absent himself from Cordova, '' thinking it better to change his place than to change his faith ; " so he withdrew to Tucci (Martos), about fifty miles from the royal city, and occupied himself there in writing his defence, which he called Apologeticus. Not long afterwards, Hostegesis, who had no real preference for one doctrine over another, and had acted rather from pride than misbelief, allowed him- self to be persuaded by Leovigild into giving up both of his dogmas concerning the Omnipresence of God and the manner of the Incarnation. Samson returned to Cordova, and died in 890. The arch- priest Cyprian wrote an epitaph for his tomb. Samson had come before the world at an earlier date. In the year 856, Hilduin, Abbot of the Holy Cross and of S. Vincent, near Paris, had sent Usuard, known as the author of a martyrology, into Spain to fetch the body of S. Vincent. Usuard made his way to Valencia, and found that the body was gone, a monk named Audaldus having carried it to Zara- goza, where it was venerated as that of S. Marinus. Usuard, not knowing this, went in quest of it to Barcelona. Here he heard of the martyrs of Cor- dova, and journeyed to that city, provided with letters BISHOP HOSTEGESIS AND ABBOT SAMSON. 289 from the Bishop of Barcelona to a layman named Leovigild Abadsolomes (not the Leovigild mentioned above) asking for his help in securing some relics, as he had failed to get those of S. Vincent. " For," says Aymon, the narrator, naively, " he and his com- panions vi^ept over the thought of going back empty- handed ; and as they could not anyhow get hold of the body of the blessed Vincent, they said that they were determined to find the limbs (membra) of some saint who deserved such honour, and to take them with them, that they might not go empty away." Leovigild confidentially communicated Usuard's object to Samson, who was then attached to the Church of S. Zoilus. At that moment, '' by the special provi- dence of Heaven " (divinitus contigit), Samson was elected Abbot of Pinamelar or Penamellar ; and as the bodies of George and Aurelius, whose martyrdom has been recounted above, were buried in the church of this monastery, Usuard was convinced that these saints had caused Samson to be elected in order that their bodies might be translated. Samson ob- tained permission from Bishop Saul for the transpor- tation, and Usuard determined to take advantage of an expedition that Mohammed was about to make against Toledo to convey his treasures so far in safety. At the critical moment Samson was absent, and the monks refused to give up the bodies ; the Bishop was again appealed to, and at length the monks yielded, after a hard struggle and with grent reluctance. The bodies were dug up six years after they had been buried. That of George was found perfect, the head of Sabigothu or Nathalia (as she is 290 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. now called) was sewn to the body of her husband Aurelius. The bodies were swathed in linen wrap- pings, sealed by Bishop Saul with the Prankish king's seal, and carried to Cordova ; whence, through Toledo, Zaragoza, Bordeaux, and Narbonne, they safely reached Paris. This is one of the many stories of attempts made by the adherents of one Church to beg or steal the bodies of saints from another. CHAPTER XXIII. THE SECOND PERIOD OF THE MOORISH DOMINATION. When the last scion of the Ommiad race perished in the year 103 1, the unity of the Mohammedan rule in Spain perished likewise. The pretenders to the throne of Cordova during the last twenty years had bribed the governors of the various cities to take their side by making their offices hereditary. When the last Ommiad died all these governors claimed perfect independence, and the result was that there were as many Moorish kingdoms in Spain as there were cities under Moorish control. These indepen- dent principalities, each led by their petty interests, warred one with another ; nor did they even abstain from allying themselves with Christian States in order to obtain the mastery over a more powerful neighbour. The time seemed to be come for the Christians to re-enter their inheritance. Who would have believed that that time was not yet to arrive for nearly five hundred years ? The cause of the continuance of Mohammedan sway in Spain was twofold — I. The incessant dissensions among the Christians of Leon, Castile, Navarre, and Aiagon, and the frequent separation of the larger pritici- pr.litics into petty fiefs. 2. The leinfo'cement of the 292 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Mohammedans from Africa, first by the Almoravides in 1087, next by the Almohades in 1146. Even before the deposition of the last Ommiad, Cordova bore the appearance of a city that had been taken by storm and devastated. In 1006 the mob had risen and plundered Almanzor's palace of Azza- hira. Two years later the Berbers, who were then in power, sacked and burnt Abderrahman's magni- ficent palace of Azzahra. When the last repre- sentative of the caliphs had passed away there was no central authority round which the lovers of order could gather to make head against either civil or foreign assailants. Alonzo V. began the forward movement of the Northern Christians by rebuilding Leon, and once more transferring the capital to that city. He again reduced Portugal, which had been rent from his father by Almanzor, but was killed himself in laying siege to Viseo. Fernando I., in the year 1057, captured this city, cut off the hands of the archer who had slain Alonzo, and finally re- duced the remaining towns of Lusitania ; the Moorish King of Toledo became his vassal, and he carried his arms southwards as far as Valencia. He was succeeded by Alonzo VI., who, after reuniting the kingdoms of the Asturias, Leon, Galicia, and Castile, which had again become separate, led his troops against Toledo, and captured that city. To this reign belong the exploits of Rodrigo Diaz of Bivar, called the Cid, an Arabic title meaning master. He is first heard of as fighting a Navarrese knight in single combat in the year 1064, after which he became captain of the Castilian forces, and soon after took MOORISH DOMINATION : SECOND PERIOD. 293 service with King Alonzo. According to his inchna- tion he passed from one sovereign to another, and by- and-by constituted himself the head of a free com- pany, ready to take service sometimes even with Moors, but with all his prejudices enlisted for the Christian and against the Moorish cause. In the end he made himself master of Valencia, and kept it for himself against both Moors and Christians, occupying himself in harrying the Moors and de- feating the various Moslem kinglets of Andalusia.^ The capture of Toledo, and perhaps the prowess of the Cid, struck terror into the hearts of the Spanish Moors. Mohammed, King of Seville and Cordova, felt that if he was to save himself he must enter into an alliance with all the remaining indepen- dent Mohammedan powers in Spain, and that it was doubtful whether this combination would be strong enough to resist Alonzo. He invited to Seville the Kings of Badajoz, Almeria, Granada, and Malaga to take counsel together. They determined that there was no force in Mohammedan Spain which could resist their adversary, and that if they were to be saved they must look outside the Peninsula. ^ The sources of our information about the Cid are — (i) " The Chroni- cles of the Cid," translated by Soulhey ; (2) [ioenis and ballads relating to him ; (3) notices of "the tyrant Cambitur " by Arab writers. Pro- fessor Dozy, whose delight is to reconstruct history on the narrowest foundations, rejects the whole story of the Cid. In this he follows Dr. Dunliam, who relegates it to an appendix, and Masdeu, who can- not feel sure of his existence (///j/. OzV., xx. 170). It is not necessary to accept the whole of the Chronicles as free from exaggeration, nor is any trust to be put in the details of the romances and ballads invented by patriotic fancy about liim, but it is probable that out of ilie Chroni- cles we are able to gather a sufficiently exact idea of one who combined the life of the free-lance with Spanish chivalry and Christian faith. 294 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. They turned their eyes to Yusef-ben-Taxfin, who had just succeeded in erecting a powerful kingdom in Africa. Yusef was a cousin of Abu-Bekr, who, under the guidance of a religious teacher named Abdallah, had given a fiercely warHke turn to an Arabian tribe called Lamtuna, and had formed them into a fanatical army, with which he had subjected the West of Africa. He gave his followers the name of Morabethah or Marabouts, which name was cor- rupted into Almoravides. Abu-Bekr began to build the city of Morocco in 1070, but being called away to oppose an enemy, he left his cousin Yusef to complete the work which he had begun. When Abu-Bekr returned he found that Yusef had finished building Morocco, and had also made himself so popular with the soldiery that there was nothing left for himself but to abdicate. Yusef took the name of Emir-al-Muslemin, Commander of the Mos- lems, which was much the same thing as claiming the title of caliph. At this moment there came to him the application for help from Spain. He accepted the invitation on condition that Algesiras should be delivered up to him, and in 1086 he crossed the straits with a powerful army. Alonzo was at the time besieging Zaragoza, and marched southwards to oppose the invader. The two armies met in the plain of Zalaeca, and Alonzo was van- quished. So well, however, had the Christians fought that the troops of the conqueror were paralysed, and had to wait for further reinforcements. Twice Yusef returned to Africa, and twice he came back to Spain with new forces. Finding then that the Christians MOORISH DOMINATION: SECOND PERIOD. 295 were a more difficult prey than his co-reHgionists, he turned his arms upon the latter. He subjected to himself the Kings of Granada and Malaga, and made war upon Mohammed, who, in despair, called in Alonzo to his aid. Yusef, however, beat back the Christians, captured Seville, and sent Mohammed and his family as prisoners to Africa. The whole of Mohammedan Spain submitted with the exception of Zaragoza, which was left to serve as a rampart against the Christian States of the North, a duty which it fulfilled until it was captured, in the year 11 18, by Alonzo I. of Aragon. The overthrow of the Almoravide dynasty came from Africa. There was in that country a religious teacher professing to be '' the Mahdi," who gathered round himself a body of fanatical believers called Almohades, a name derived from the title Al-Mahdi, and who in time formed a kingdom. The Berbers joined the Mahdi in great numbers, and he appointed Abdelmumen as a rival caliph to Ali, son and suc- cessor of Yusef Several battles ensued between the two parties, and the Almohades besieged Morocco. The siege was twice raised, but at length the city was captured and the Almoravide Empire in Africa destroyed. The Christian cause had made progress while the two Mohammedan powers were fighting with each other. The King of Aragon had been successful in the North, and the Count of Portugal had been pro- claimed king ill the West. The arrival of the Almo- hades in Spain under Abdelmumen in 1146 turned the scale against the Christians. In 1195 Yacub- 296 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Almanzor, grandson of Abdelmumen, defeated Alonzo of Castile in the great battle of Alarcos, and reduced many towns in the centre of Spain. Three years later he died, leaving the kingdom to a weak suc- cessor named Mohammed, who was in turn defeated by Alonzo in the great battle of Navas de Tolosa in 1211.^ Mohammedanism never recovered the blow it received in this great battle, which practi- cally closed the second period of the Moorish domi- nation in Spain, though that period did not absolutely come to an end till 1237. After that date the posi- tion of Christian and Moor was so changed that the Mohammedans had only one corner of the Peninsula left them, like the Christians after the year 711. ^ Pope Innocent 111. encouraged crusaders to come from other countries to take part in this battle by the Bull of the Crusade, which extended the privileges granted to the Crusaders to those who fought against the Saracens in Spain or contributed money to the cause. The Saracens of Spain are no more, but the Bull of the Crusade, renewed by subsequent Popes, continues to be issued to the present day. But it has changed its character. Now its possession is a con- dition of obtaining Indulgences, whether for the benefit of the owner or for the souls of the departed, and it secures a dispensation from fasting on all but a few days in the year. Every Spanish Roman Catholic is bound to purchase a copy of this Bull every year, for which he has to pay fivepence-halfpenny, and without it no Indulgences can be gained by him. Vast numbers of copies are printed annually, and they are sold at certain specified churches. All devout Spaniards buy their copy, for their everyday religion consists in gaining Indul- gences for themselves and for their deceased relatives. In consequence, all devout Spaniards are excused from fasting. The arrival of the new Bulls, which come at Midlent, is welcomed with ringing of bells and other joyous ceremonies. CHAPTER XXIV. THE NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE, The men who were now winning back their patri- mony from the misbehevers were very different from those who had lost it. Five centuries ago there had been a haughty Gothic court and aristocracy, which looked down with scarcely concealed contempt on those who had been their subjects, and whom, as an act of grace, they had raised to a legal equality with themselves, by allowing them for the last generation or two the right of intermarriage and the use of the same laws that governed their own conduct. Now all differences of race were lost. The distinction of Christian and Mohammedan swallowed up all minor differences. No one knew whether the hardy mountaineers who had pushed their way back from the Cave of Covadonga to Toledo, to Seville, and to Cordova were descended from Goth or Sueve, Roman or Byzantine — nay, from freeman or slave. They were not Arabs or Berbers, and that was enough. There emerged a nation &' no longer composed of rival and jarring elements, but welded together by the blows of adversity into one homogeneous mass, however much the interests of different provinces or petty kingdoms set them at times at variance with one another. Only one 297 298 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. race, the Basques, resisted the fusing-power of the flame of the Arab wars, as it has resisted full amal- gamation with its neighbours to the present day, with the help of the obstacle presented by its language. The Church which came back with the conquer- ing Castilians and Leonese was far more changed in its essential characteristics than the nation. It was a new Church, with doctrines altered, and — a more important thing, as it turned out — with a new centre on which to rest. We have seen that down to the time of Bishop Julian, a.d. 681, the highest ecclesiastical authority for each province was the metropolitan bishop, and for the nation the National Council. At the Twelfth Council of Toledo a Primatial power was given to Bishop Julian, which thenceforward resided in the See of Toledo. Above the Primate of Toledo and the National Council there was no authority except that of the (Ecumenical Councils, of which the Spanish Church recognised the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Sixth, with- out passing any judgment, favourable or otherwise, on the Fifth. The Primate of Spain regarded him- self as on an equality with the Primate of Italy, as is shown by the indignant rejection of the Pope's criticism on the orthodoxy of Julian's Apologcticmn by the Fourteenth Council of Toledo. This spirit of independence was inherited by the Spanish primates who lived during the Moorish domination, and is as strongly expressed by Elipandus as it was by Julian. But what was an Elipandus or any Christian bishop under the Moslem rule as compared with N^IV CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 299 a Julian wielding the power of the Spanish mon- archy ? Even the Christians who lived in the conquered districts and paid tribute to their insult- ing masters could get no real help from him, and the free Christians of the North looked with disdain on all who had not cast in their lot with them in their struggle for faith and liberty, and paid little heed to a primate who might be deposed by a caliph, and on whom pressure might be brought to bear at any time by the enemies of Christianity. Their bishops were as free as their kings. Merida, the seat of the metropolitan power, had been razed by the Moors, nor could they look to Braga ; but in Galicia, the ancient kingdom of the Suevi, which was well out of the way of the Moorish invasion, and could not be reached while the Christian kings held their own at Leon, there was, or there might be erected, a See which should supply to the free Christians the place which Toledo still held for the Mozarabs and had once held for the whole Spanish Church. So at the beginning of the niiith century there were the glancing lights and the angelic songs which told of something holy, and Theodomir dis- covered at Compostela the body of .S. James the son of Zebedee, and King Alonzo the Chaste hastened to build a church on the spot, and Alonzo III. changed it into a cathedral, and the Kings of Oviedo and Leon and Castile vied with one another in enriching and magnifying the See which was now the centre of the religious aspirations of the Chris- tians of the North. But S. lago de Compostela could not stand by its own force, even when supported by 300 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the Kings of Leon. It required some ecclesiastical sanction as well. And for this it looked outside of Spain. When Theodomir had made his wonderful discovery, he at once had recourse to Rome for the Papal sanction, and Leo III. wrote the letter (if, indeed, it is genuine) which gives us most of our information on the subject. The long-continued Moorish domination afforded to the Pope an opportunity of extending his power over Spain which he had never before had, and he took advantage of it. It was easier for Galicia, Por- tugal, Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, to communicate with the capital of Italy than with the capital of Spain while the Moslem reigned at Cor- dova, and a natural sympathy between Christians and Christians united the inhabitants of those coun- tries with the Franks across the Pyrenees, and with the powerful Western prelate at Rome. On the other hand, a generous and unselfish interest in the cause of Christianity had its share in moving the latter to give all the spiritual aid in his power to the antagonists of Mohammed. It was perhaps an un- selfish zeal for religion which caused Adrian to send Egila on a mission into Mohammedan Spain at the end of the eighth century. For two centuries and a half after that time there was no communication between Rome and the Peninsula. Until the fall of the Ommiad dynasty the few Christian Churches in Leon, Aragon, and Catalonia were weak institutions, and the degraded state of the Papacy prevented it from occupying itself with foreign affairs. With the eleventh century came the revival of religion at New church of leon and castile. 301 Rome, first promoted by the Emperors of Germany, and then turned against them by the genius of Hil- debrand, who regarded it as a necessary condition of carrying out the ecclesiastical reforms which he desired to effect, that the Western Church should be consolidated into a single monarchy, despotically ruled by the Roman Pontiff. Decretal Letters of an unimportant character were addressed to Churches or bishops in free Spain by Benedict VIII. in 1013, John XIX. in 1030, Nicholas II. in 1060, Alex- ander II. in 1063 and 1066. The last-named Pope in 1065 adjudicated the case of a Portuguese pres- byter who, by his bishop's desire, had appealed to Rome,^ and in the kingdom of Aragon he began the assault on the old Spanish, or, as it was now called, Mozarabic Liturgy and Breviary, which was des- tined in the course of the century to be too success- ful throughout the Peninsula. The use of the Mozarabic service-books was the one distinctive feature of the various Churches at this time existing in Spain. There was now no National Church, but there was a Church of Leon, a Church of Castile, sometimes united with one an- other, sometimes separate ; a Church of Aragon, a Church of Navarre, a Church of Catalonia, and a Mozarabic Church. The authority of the Primate of Toledo was confined to the Mozarabic Church, and the others were governed by their own metropolitans ^ This is the first genuine case in Spanish and Portuguese history of an appeal being carried to Rome instead of being settled by a court of the bishops of the province. There had been great difficulty in assembling bishops ever since the Moorish conquest, and this may have opened tlie way to appeals to Rome. 302 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. and bishops as Provincial or National Churches.-^ There was no special link to bind them together, except the common use of their old national Liturgy and Prayer-book. The story of that Liturgy and its overthrow we reserve for the present, as it belongs as much to the history of Aragon and of Toledo as to that of Leon, and we are at present more particu- larly engaged in tracing the character and fortunes of the Church of Leon, for which we must return to Compostela. The successors of Theodomir, the happy discoverer of S. James, were — (i) Adolphus, a.d. 843, said to have been exposed by the king to a bull, which would not hurt him because he was innocent of crimes laid to his charge ; (2) Sisnand, his nephew, A.D. 879, who revenged his uncle's wrongs by making, with the king's leave, all the relations of his accusers slaves of the Church for ever, and who consecrated the Church built by Alonzo III.; (3) Gundesind, a.d. 923, who, dying in sin, was saved by his mother's prayers, fasts, and good works ; (4) Hermenigild, A.D. 924, struck dead for his cruelty and gluttony ; (5) Sisnand II., a.d. 952, deposed by King Sancho I. in favour of Rudesind, restored on Sancho's death, ^ " In the eighth and ninth centuries Spain was divided into three dominions, and afterwards, by the multiplication of new kingdoms, into four, three, and six. The Churches, or rather provinces, were divided in the same way. The faithful in the Mohammedan dominions formed one Church ; the inhabitants of Galicia, Leon, the Asturias, Castile, and Biscay another; the natives of Navarre and Aragon another; the Cataloniansand the French of Narbonnensis another. These Churches or provinces did not communicate with one another. Each had its Councils with its own bishop, and did not summon the others, looking upon them as different nations " (Mas'leu, HisL Crit., xiii. 257). NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 303 and slain in battle with some Norman ravagers of Galicia ; (6) Pelayo, a.d. 977, deposed by King Ber- mudo II. for his unspiritual life; (7) Peter, a.d. 986; who was bishop during Almanzor's raid into Galicia, and lived to see his church restored again by Bermudo after Almanzor had burnt it ; (8) Pelayo II., a.d. 1007, deposed for his bad life, and succeeded by his brother (9) Vimara, who was no better and was drowned in the Minho ; (lo) Vistuarius, a.d. 1016, deposed by King Bermudo III., and imprisoned for his bad morals; (11) Crescarius, a.d. 1048, a good soldier, who re- pelled the Norman ravagers and fortified Compostela ; (12) Gudesteus, a.d. 1075, killed in his bed by his uncle, Count Froila, and torn limb from limb on account of a family quarrel; (13) Diego Pelaez, a.d. 1070, appointed by King Sancho II., but deposed and kept in prison for fifteen years by King Alonzo VI. for unecclesiastical conduct and ti'Bason. In the time of Diego Pelaez — that is, in the begin- ning of the reign of Alonzo VI. — we are told that " the Toledan law was abolished, and the Roman law received" (Hist. Comp., i. 2, 12). What does this mean ? Florez understands by it the substitution of the Roman for the Mozarabic Liturgy, but the " Tole- dan law " and the ^' Roman law " mean more than that. They signify the whole system of Roman canon law as contrasted with that of the old Spanish Church. It is remarkable that the False Decretals, which were brought into the Church in the ninth century under the name of the Spanish Bishop Isidore, were not recognised or acknowledged in Spain until the middle of the eleventh century. This is proved 304 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. by the Colecion Escttrialense de Sagrados Canones y Decretales, drawn up about 1050.-^ How did they come to be accepted ? The " Roman law," including the canons of Roman Councils and the results of the False Decretals was adopted by the kingdom of Leon in 1073, in place of the old ^' Toledan law," which had governed the Gothic and Mozarabic Church. The main object of the False Decretals was, as we know, to magnify the office of the Roman Pontiff, and to exhibit him as the absolute monarch of the Church, interfering where he would, and having a right so to interfere, as proved by the most ancient precedents. The Decretals had been bearing their fruit now for some two hundred years, and had led Pope and people into a belief that the Roman prelate was invested with the despotic power which we see that a Gregory VII. was honestly convinced that he had a right to wield. The subst^ution, therefore, of the " Roman law " for the " Toledan law " was a revolution. It was the rejection of the primitive and the acceptance of the mediaeval conception of the constitution of the Church. With the new system there came in the idea of 1 No single copy of the False Decretals existed in Spain before the invention of printing. "El celebre Padre Barriel que examine por si y por otros con tanto trabajo y diligencia los mejores archivos de nuestra nacion, en carta dirigida en mil setecientos cincuenta y dos al Padre Francisco Ravajo, Confesor del Rey Don Fernando Sexto, atestigua che en todos ellos no se encuentra hasta la invencion de la imprenta ni copia ni noticia de las Decretales iiiventadas por el falso Isidoro, y nombra y elogia nuestra Colecion Escurialense de Sagrados Canones y Decretales^ uscita a mitad del siglo once por ser la mas copiosa de las que hasta ahora se han publicado, y sin la menor mancha ni sombra di fabulas Isidorianas" (Masdeu, Hist, Crit., xiii. 278). NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. J^D Councils being held by Papal legates for the purpose of setting to rights the affairs of National or Pro- vincial Churches, and for the first time in history a Roman cardinal presided at a Spanish Council, which was held at Fuselli. This Council took in hand the question of the deprived Bishop Diego Pelaez. The bishop was worn out with his long imprisonment. He placed the symbols of his office, the ring and pastoral staff, in the hands of the car- dinal, as a token of his resignation ; and King Alonzo, with the cardinal's sanction, appointed Peter de Abba, of the Monastery of Cardena, to succeed him. The matter seemed settled ; but Urban II. was not satisfied with the course taken by his legate. He was not convinced that he had done right in degrading Diego, and he deprived him of his legatine office for his pre- cipitancy. Another cardinal reopened the question at a Council held at Leon, and deposed Peter. The Church of Compostela was therefore without a bishop, both Diego and Peter being deprived. Its tempo- ralities were administered by a layman named Peter Vimara, and after him by Diego Gclmirez, who be- longed to the clerical order, but was not yet even a sub-deacon. In 1094, Dalmachius, a monk from the French Monastery of Cluny, who was visiting some of the Cluniac monasteries in the north of Spain, was appointed bishop by King Alonzo, with the Pope's assent. Being a Frank and a Cluniac, his sympathies were with the Roman Pontiff, and those of the Roman Pontiff' — himself a Cluniac monk — were with him. Accordingly he attended the Council of Clermont in the year 1095, and obtained from Pope 3c6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Urban a Bull confirming to the Bishop of Compostela all the rights and possessions of the ancient See of Iria, and " conceding," as a privilege granted by the Pontiff, exemption from all metropolitan control, im- mediate subjection to the Roman Pontiff, and — greatest favour of all' — that Dalmachius' successors should be consecrated by the hands of the Roman Pontiff, as his special suffragans. Thus a blow was struck at the authority of Braga, Merida, and Toledo, and Compostela was made the instru- ment of introducing Papal rule into the Spanish Church. Dalmachius dying at the end of ten years, the ex-Bishop Diego Pelaez hurried to Rome, and prayed to be restored to his See. The matter was kept unsettled as long as Urban lived, but on the acces- sion of Pascal II. the deposition of Diego Pelaez was finally confirmed, and Pascal desired that a new bishop should be elected, and should be sent to him for consecration. During the four years which were occupied by these transactions Diego Gelmirez had again administered the temporalities of the See, and he was at this moment at Rome, where he was ordained sub-deacon by the Pope. Gelmirez singu- larly well knew, as we shall see farther on, the way to obtain favours at Rome, and he returned with a Papal rescript recommending him to the charity of the Church of Compostela, and ordering that his ordination at Rome in the bosom of the Apostolic See should not stand in the way of his further pro- motion. He was elected in the year iioo, and so there began an episcopate which was to have so NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 307 sinister an effect on the independence of the Leonese and, through that, of the Spanish Church.-^ The first noticeable act of the bishop was one that belonged rather to the age than to the man. The Bishop of Compostela had some ecclesiastical juris- diction over scattered churches and estates in Portugal, and in the second year of his episcopate Gelmirez made a visitation of them. He was received at Braga by Gerald, the metropolitan, now called, after the Franco- Italian style, archbishop, and lodged in his palace. Making this his headquarters, he went to the various churches with which he was connected, and he noticed that the Portuguese did not pay any great adoration to the bodies of the saints that lay in their churches. He also observed that in many cases it would not be a difficult task to carry them away without being discovered. He therefore called together his clerical following, and said to them, " You see, dearest brethren, that there are here a num- ber of bodies of the saints, which are not venerated with any worship, but are lying open and exposed to public view in the churches ; and you are aware that they do not enjoy the veneration which is their due. If, in your prudence, you agree with me, we will amend this, and will carry away to Compostela some of the precious bodies of the saints who have no worship offered to them here. But we must do this secretly, for fear the undisciplined people of the coun- 1 The whole story of Gehiiirez is derived from a contemporary source, the Ilistoria Com/osteIa}ia, which was composed under his own eye by his Archdeacon Hugo, afterwards Bishop of Portui;al ; Munio, who became Bishop of Mondono ; and Gerald, a canon of the catlicdral. X 3o8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. try, finding themselves deprived of so great a treasure, should make a riot against us, and so we should have to lament the failure of our scheme." His clergy were sure that the idea came from Divine inspiration, and promised their help. Having settled their plan of operations, they went to the Church of S. Victor, and while the bishop was celebrating Mass he had a hole dug on the right side of the altar. There he found a marble chest, and in it two little boxes, one con- taining relics of our Saviour, and the other those of a number of saints. These boxes he closed again, sealed, and " handed them over to his faithful clergy to take care of." The next day he went to the Church of S. Susanna " and celebrated Mass with the deepest devotion." When the service was ended he hurried in his canonicals to the tombs of S. Cucufat and S. Silvester, who were buried in the church, '' and, without being seen, drew out their bodies, which were wrapped in clean linen, from their unworthy monuments, and very reverently had them carried to his own rooms by suitable and faithful attendants, none others knowing what he was doing." Then he proceeded to the tomb of S. Susanna, " and with tears and sighs took her venerable body, and secretly sent it to be taken care of with the rest." Two days afterwards he went to the Church of S. Fructuosus, and having celebrated high Mass, went in his robes to the saint's tomb ; " but as S. Fructuosus was the defender and patron of that district, it was with greater fear and silence that he took him away by a pious robbery from his church, which he had himself built in his NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 309 lifetime, and gave him to be kept safe by his faithful custodians." The Historia proceeds : — " Though no one knew what was done except those who had made the conspiracy, nevertheless next night the bishop could not sleep in comfort, so afraid was he to lose that which it was such a joy to him to have. Finding in the morning that no discovery had been made, he hurried like a fugitive with his hidden treasure to a town called Corneliana, belong- ing to S. James of Compostela. Here a public rumour struck the pontiff's ears. People said that an unworthy deed was being done by the Bishop of S. James ; that he was trying to carry off from Portugal to his own city the saints who were the defenders and patrons of the country. Hearing this, and being a man of the greatest prudence and ex- treme piety, fearing to lose his sacred burden by some tumult or violence, he committed the saints' bodies to a faithful archdeacon of his, and gave him most sagacious instructions for carrying them by by-paths to the town of Tuy. So the pontiff remained at Corneliana, and the archdeacon, follow- ing his instructions, safely reached the River Minho, on the other side of which Tuy stands. For three days the river had been so rough that no boat could cross it ; but when the saints' bodies were laid upon the bank the river seemed to feel a reverence for them, for the wind sank and the stormy weather ceased, and the river offered all the means that smooth water could give for transporting the bodies. So great was the cahn that they were not even rockccl by the waves in passing." When the arch- 3IO HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN: deacon had passed the Minho he was safe, as he was now in Galician territor}^, so he left the bodies under the care of the dean at Tuy, and came back to the bishop to tell him of his success. The bishop at once returned with him, and conveyed the bodies in triumph through Galicia. When he came near to Compostela, " the clergy and people of Compos- tela, hearing that by the Divine mercy the bodies of the saints had been allowed to be translated from Braga to Compostela, rejoiced mightily ; for they knew that by their merits and intercession, and the most pious patronage of the blessed Apostle James, by the presence of whose holy body the town of Compostela is ennobled, they would be de- livered from all pestilences and sicknesses." They went out, therefore, to meet the returning company, and the bishop and his companions took off their shoes, put on their robes, and conducted the saints with hymns and songs and pious devotions into the city, and laid them down in the Church of S. James of Compostela. It is possible that in these proceedings Gelmirez was, half unconsciously, condescending to the spirit of the age in which he lived. The next scene exhibits him in the character of a turbulent pre- late, led by his ambition to embroil himself in the political movements of the time. Those were disturbed days. At the beginning of his episco- pate Alonzo VI. was king. Alonzo died, and his daughter Urraca succeeded to the kingdom of Leon. Urraca had previously been married to Raymond, whom her father had made Count of Galicia. Her NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 311 second husband was Alonzo of Aragon, with whom she was almost constantly at feud, and from whom she was divorced on the ground of propinquity by Pascal II. By her first husband Urraca had a son, who was both christened and crowned by Gelmirez, and who came to the throne under the name of Alonzo VII. When the hand of Alonzo VI. was withdrawn the realm fell into utter confusion, and the Prelate of Compostela took his full part in the military actions and political intrigues with which it was distracted. Sometimes he was co-operating with Urraca, sometimes fighting against her ; some- times he was supporting her son, sometimes settling terms of reconciliation between him and his mother; sometimes he was at the head of the Galician troops, laying siege to the enemy's fortresses, sometimes he was attacked by his own people in his episcopal palace. Generally he was on the winning side, for he was a man of great sagacit}^, and his ecclesiastical character protected him; but in the year 11 16 the faction opposed to him in Compostela very nearly brought about his destruction. For the moment the queen, her son, and the bishop were all good friends, having made peace with one another and bound themselves together in an alliance against Aragon. It appeared to be a good opportunity for crushing the bishop's adversaries in Compostela. The queen and the bishop led their forces into the town, and the young king encamped close by with a consider- able army. At first the citizens were terror-struck and took sanctuary in the churches. At the queen's suggestion the bishop made proclamation that all 312 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. who took sanctuary must give up their arms. The citizens burst into a roar of rage at such an inno- vation on their privileges, pursued the messengers who came to announce the bishop's orders into the clerestories and towers of the churches, and then, opening the church-doors, rushed through the city, assembled their friends, and shouting execrations against the bishop and the queen, surged up to the episcopal palace and fiercely assaulted it, as well as the Church of S. James, in which they were sup- posed to have taken refuge. Stones, arrows, javelins, were not enough ; they set fire to the cathedral and palace in hope of burning the bishop and the queen within their walls. The bishop and the queen fled to a tower attached to the episcopal residence, while the mob burst into the palace and plundered it, and then made an assault upon the tower. The bishop's soldiers kept back the assailants for a time, but at length means were found to set the tower on fire, and the flames, fed from below with oil, ran up furiously round its walls. The queen turned in terror to the bishop — '' Come away, come away, father, and take me out of this fire with you. Surely they will spare you as their patron, bishop, and lord." '' That is not good counsel," said the bishop ; " they hate me and my party, and are pant- ing for our death." The mob shouted that the queen might come out, but all the rest should perish in the fire. There was nothing else to be done, and the queen came out alone. The mob made a rush at her, threw her to the ground, tore her dress from her back, and cast mud upon her, and an old woman NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 313 struck her on the face with a stone. But it was not the queen who was the object of their intensest hatred. They stood round, rejoicing that the bishop was being consumed in the burning tower. Gelmirez was at first paralysed with terror, but he determined to make one last effort for his hfe. He took off his episcopal dress, and borrowing the oldest cassock that he could see, he took a crucifix in his hands, and holding it close before his face, passed through the crowd unrecognised, and reached the Church of S. Mary safely, passing the queen still lying in the street. Presently the queen reached the same place of refuge ; some of her partisans gathered round her, and she sent them to extinguish the fire at the tower. They were too late. Had the bishop still been there he would have been reduced to ashes. All those whom he left behind him had either escaped or perished. Among those who were killed in at- tempting to escape were Gelmirez' brother, his major- domo, his seneschal, and his bailiff. The bishop, not feeling himself safe in S. Mary's Church, climbed the walls, and getting on the roofs of the houses, passed over them till he reached the house of one Marinus, into which he crept by a window, and was covered by a heap of rags and bedclothes. Almost im- mediately four soldiers presented themselves. " Any one hiding here ? What are you doing ? Have you seen anything of the man we are looking for — the bishop ? " The bishop kept quite still. Two French- men who had come with him assured the soldiers that they were only resting after the tumult, and the lady of the house assailed them with loud cries 314 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. and drove them out of the house, declaring that they were trespassers and spies. As soon as they were gone this lady's son-in-law, named Gun- disalv, rushed into the house and roused the bishop. " Fly, father ! Fly, my lord ! Go and hide yourself. A body of conspirators is looking everywhere for you, thirsting for your blood, after shedding that of the others. I saw them coming here with swords and clubs. Away quickly ! There is not a moment to lose. God alone can save you from the hands of the villains, and from their open jaws." With these words Gundisalv broke through the par- titions between his house and the next and the next and the next. The fourth house belonged to a friend of the bishop named Froyla, but he was out, and his wife screamed with terror at the burglary which she supposed was being attempted. Gundisalv assured her that he was bringing in a friend of her husband's for concealment ; and Froyla entering at the moment, carried the bishop at once down into the cellar, "where for a long time they shed tears in the dark- ness." Presently a secret message was brought to the bishop that there were 1500 men ready to put themselves under his command, if he would meet them at a certain spot. The bishop prudently said that he would come to-morrow, and forbade the place of his refuge to be made known. It turned out that the message was part of a plot to lay hands on him. Having stayed in the cellar during the day, the bishop crept out at nightfall, and got to the Church and Monastery of S. Pelayo, where the abbot and the bursar hid him in the bursary and gave him some- NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 315 thing to eat. The next day was Sunday, and in the morning the heads of the popular party presented themselves before the queen, and told her that their quarrel was not so much with her, and that they were willing to come to terms, with one proviso. '' We will not have Diego Gelmirez for our bishop. To a man we are his enemies, for up to this moment he has oppressed us, and trampled upon the dignity of our Church and city ; therefore we all hate him, and will not have him to reign over us." The queen answered, '* What is your bishop to me ? Decide about him as 3^ou will. Your pleasure is mine. I will nominate your nominee, for I am altogether with you." As soon as they had withdrawn she sent a message to the bishop, telling him that she was pre- pared to say anything and to swear anything, and make others swear anything in her behalf, and to become herself and to make others for her guilty of perjury, so that she could escape from the city, and then " she would return evil for evil to the con- spirators, as they deserved." " Hearing which, the bishop was glad." The oath was taken, accordingly, by the queen and by all her chief nobles, and she was allowed to leave the city and join her son's camp outside the walls. As soon as she had reached it she sent word that she renounced her oath, and would revenge herself for all that she had gone through. During this important day the bishop had re- mained concealed in the bursary of S. Pcla3'o. In the evening the mob came to search the monastery. " Let us fly, Michael," said the bishop to his com- 3i6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. panion, Canon Michael. " Let us get out quick ! You put on the bishop's cloak, and I will wear this very old cassock. They are running here and there ; let us run too. They are hurrying about ; let us hurry. In the midst of those who are going in and going out, let us get out. God alone can deliver us, if He will." The bishop and Michael made their way from the bursary into the cloister ; thence into a second cloister, from which they climbed a wall and got safely into the canons' dormitory along the tiles. After resting here a little while they went down and out into the court. It was bright moonlight, and men were running hither and thither, conveying their goods into churches, where they hoped to take sanctuary from the vengeance of the queen. The bishop and Michael made their way to the house of a canon named Peter ; Michael knocked, and the bishop glided in. It so happened that Peter had some of his brother-canons at dinner with him, whom the bishop distrusted. He got rid of them as soon as he could, and then led his guests through the house, and let them out by another door. He advised the bishop to dress himself in armour ; but as he would not do that, he sent two armed men, who walked one on either side of him, while Michael walked behind. As they neared the gates the picket challenged the party. " Who are you ? Where are you going ? What do you want ? " '' We are going outside," said one of the men, to whom the bishop had given his cue, '' to be on the watch, that the enemy may not attack us unawares. You ought to be keeping watch ; you ought to be up and stirring. What are NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 317 you stopping here for, resting lazily ? Up ! Be active ! Be moving ! Mind your watch ! " Under the cover of these exclamations they were allowed to pass the barrier. The bishop and his companions walked some miles, till they reached a place where it was safe to desire one of his bailiffs to provide him with a carriage, on which he mounted, and was driven safely to Iria. His first act on arriving was to inform the queen of his safety ; his next was to pronounce a sentence of excommunication on all the inhabitants of Compostela, shutting them out from the Church, by which he " wounded the men of Com- postela to the marrow and totally prostrated them ;" the third was to assemble his forces and join them to those of the queen, the young king, and the Galician nobles. Compostela found itself blockaded *' on the side of the Rocky Mountain " by the king and his governor ; on the side of Iria by the bishop ''with a vast army of horsemen and an infinite number of foot-soldiers ; " on the side of " the sacred mount of S. Peter's Monastery of Penellae " by other large bodies of troops. The citizens found their case hopeless, and asked for terms. After long negotiations it was arranged that they should pay 1 100 silver marks, besides making good to the bishop and the queen all that had been damaged, and that a hundred men should be proscribed. The bishop sat on his throne again, and ordered the Church of S. James and his own palace to be rebuilt at the expense of the city. The great object of Bishop Diego Gelmirez' life was the aggrandisement of his See. He acknow- 3i8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. ledges this, and his biographers boast that it was the purpose of all his acts, and that he succeeded in that purpose. "He always everywhere panted with un- wearied solicitude for the dignity and augmentation of his Church," says the Historia. He had a perfect genius for getting farms, lands, villages, towns, given to the See of S. James. He never forgot them, and never failed to ask when there was a chance of secur- ing them. But he had other and more efficient means than begging at his disposal. Those were rough, wild days, and the land was full of rough, wild men, ready at any moment for rough, wild deeds ; but yet these men were devout believers in God and in S. James. When conscience accused them of any more than usually outrageous act they came to the bishop to make their peace with the Church, and this they were allowed to do by transferring part of their estates to the patrimony of S. James. For example : Count Peter struck Count Alonzo within the Church of S. James. Then he came with his wife to the bishop and confessed that and other crimes which, at the instigation of the devil, he had committed, and asked for penance and counsel for his soul's salvation. The bishop gave him a penance, and desired him to give an estate to God and S. James in remedhim peccato- rum. Therefore the count and his wife gave the Monastery of Corispind, with all the souls belonging to it, and the whole town to the blessed James and his church for a perpetual possession.^ Numbers of grants of land are reported as made pro salute anirnce, for the salvation of the donor's soul. Sometimes the ^ Hist. Conip., ii. 69. NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 319 souls of others are also to be saved by the donation. Alonzo Vll. grants '^ a privilege" to the See, "for a remedy for my father's soul, and the salvation of my soul, and the remission of my sins, and the refreshment and absolution of all my ancestors." -^ Nor was it lands and tenements only that the bishop accepted. On one occasion King Alonzo VII. squeezed a large subsidy out of the bishop, which he gave with tears and groans. But even here he was no loser. As soon as he had promised to give the amount demanded, he reproachfully reminded the king that he had baptized him, anointed him king, and put on him his knightly armour. " But I must have the money for my soldiers," said the king. " What can I do ? " *' You can promise to be buried in our church," said the bishop, " and you can console the Church of S. James by presenting it with a gift or benefice." If he would do this, he should have the advantage of the third part of the Masses said at the altar of S. James, mention should be made of his soul and he should be prayed for at the General Synod, and after his death a special Mass should be said every week for the remedy of his soul (pro aiiimce tuce remedio) in the church. The king consented, and allowed himself to be elected a member of the Chapter. Then the signification of the request as to his burial became clear. One of the canons rose and said that all good princes gave an estate for keeping the annual memorial of their funeral, and he hoped that, for the advantage and salvation of his soul, the king would follow their example and give some ' I list. Comp.^ ii. 92. 320 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. estate or possession to the Church of S. James. The king could not refuse ; he granted on the spot the Fort of S. George, appointing that the present tenant should do homage for it to the bishop and Chapter, and that after the tenant's death it should become the freehold of the See. He also gave the mediety of another estate, and at the bishop's request, handed over to him the nomination of his chief chaplain and his chancellor. Finding that royal funerals were to his advantage, the bishop then prayed the Infanta to be buried at Compostela likewise, to which she assented, promising at the same time the gift of S. Michael de Escalata, a rich monastery adjacent to Leon, with a number of farms belonging to it. The Queen of Portugal followed suit. From Queen Urraca he received many donations in requital for political services, and she brought him a gift of another nature, the head of S. James, which the bishop laid on the altar of his church, and which was thenceforward preserved in a silver casket.'^ ^ Urraca became possessed of S. James's head in the following way : — Maurice, Bishop of Coimbra and afterwards of Braga, was paying a visit to Jerusalem. He heard from an old priest that a little church near the city contained this relic. Maurice tried to bribe the old man to let him have it, frequenting the church, and often attending vigils there. But the custodians were always present, so he made a plan that two of his clergy should feign sickness, and for the relief of that sickness should offer wax-candles to the church and spend the night in it. Seizing an opportunity when no one was there in the middle of the night, they shut the doors, took out some spades which they had previously hidden there, and dug up from under the altar an ivory box containing a silver box full of relics, of which they took possession, and getting safely out of the chuKcb, they and the bishop ran full speed to Jerusalem. As they were going a hermit called to them, and said, " I know, dearest brethren, what it is that you are carrying, and what a precious treasure you have stolen. Go, and the grace of God go with you, for the Apostle's head ought to be where his body is." NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 321 But if Bishop Diego Gelmirez showed a skill and power which his biographers think so admirable in amassing money, it was not for the money's sake that he did it. He was no miser. He had an object before him, the object of his life, and that, he knew, could not be obtained without money. His object was to raise his See, first to metropolitical power, then to an equality with Toledo, and finally to make it the Primatial See of the new Spanish Church which was about to swallow up the Mozarabic shadow of the old Church of Spain, and a rival of Rome her- self. In his first two attempts he was successful, and the means of his success were gold. The bishop began by setting his own house in order. There were seven men who, in imitation of Rome, were called cardinals. Diego Pelaez had These words " made the bishop see that the Holy Spirit had revealed what he had done to the servant of God." He set off at once for Spain, and deposited the relic in the Church of S. Zoilus at Carrion, whence it was taken by Urraca to Leon and presented to Gelmirez, The bishop received it with the greatest joy. Clergy and people came out from Compostela to meet him as he brought the sacred treasure. He and the canons walked with bare feet before it, singing psalms. " How the people danced ! " says Canon Gerard, an eye-witness ; "and I myself, coming back with the bishop, burst into tears through too much joy." There is not a hint that the writer of this part of the Historia Compostelana had an idea that the head was any other than that of " the blessed. Apostle James " the son of Zebedee. But later writers found, to their dismay, that the Bishops of Portugal and Mon- dono, who wrote the first part of the Historia, had specially and empha- tically stated that Pope Leo HL had testified (the extant letter assigned to him does not contain this testimony) that the whole boiiy, with the head, had been carried from Palestine into Spain — integrtmi corpus cum capiie. What was to be done ? There was another S. James — S. James the Less — and the Bishop of Tuy convinced himself, in the middle of the sixteenth century, that this was his head, because it had a "con- tusion" on it, which no doubt was caused by the fuller's pole with which S. James the Less was struck sixteen hundicd years previously {,Esp. Sagr.^ xix. 252). ^sz HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. added twenty-four canons, and Diego Gelmirez raised the number to seventy-two. He laid down strict rules as to their dress and behaviour in the choir, and he divided the days of the year between them, so that each had his special time for ministering, and a regular allowance was made to each. Finding among them too much national sentiment and loyalty to the traditions of the old Spanish Church to suit his purpose, '' he applied his mind to implanting at Compostela the customs of the French Church," ■*• and sent the ablest young men among them to Cluny (which was in those days the headquarters of Ultra- montanism) and elsewhere in France for education in the Roman system. For he saw that if he were to climb to the eminence to which he aspired, it must be by the help of Rome. When he had by this means attained to the Spanish Primacy, it would be time for him to see whether the Apostolic See of S. James might not rival even that of S. Peter. Down to the beginning of his episcopate we are told that ** almost the whole of Spain was rude and illiterate ; for not one of the Spanish bishops at that time showed any submission or obedience to our mother, the Holy Roman Church. Spain accepted the law of Toledo, not the law of Rome. But when Alonzo VI. imposed upon the Spaniards the Roman law and Roman customs, from that time the cloud of ignorance was dissipated and the power of the Holy Church began to break among the Spaniards." ^ As an example of Spanish rudeness is quoted the case of a cardinal legate of the Holy See who came to Spain ^' in the ^ I/is/. Comp., ii. 2. ^ Ibid., ii. i. NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 323 time when the law of Toledo prevailed," to look into the state of religion in the country. When he gave notice of his approaching visit to Compostela, the bishop sent the bursar to meet him, and desired him to show just so much respect and attention to the representative of Rome in Spain as the Roman Church paid to a representative of Compostela in Italy. This act of independence, the Abbot of Cluny told Gelmirez, had done infinite mischief to Com- postela at Rome. " For when the Roman Church, which is the mother of all Churches, heard /hat, it unanimously passed a resolution that the Church of Compostela should never, with its consent, be further elevated." -^ Gelmirez determined not to commit the same fault as his predecessor, until he had got from Rome all that could be obtained from her. His first aim was to obtain the pallium. Pope Urban had refused Dalmachius, but Gelmirez journeyed to Rome, disguised as a soldier, to petition for it, and when he arrived sent his clergy (we shall presently see what this means) to all the cardinals, as the Abbot of Cluny had advised him, to remove all ill- feeling towards him '' from the tenacious memory of the Roman cardinals." The interviews of his clergy with the cardinals had the effect of making them all pray the Pope to give him the pallium, with which, accordingly, he returned to Compostela, Pope Pascal reminding him that he and his Church were thereby for ever, and more than ever, debtors to the Apostolic See, and making him take the following oath of obedience: — "From this time forward I will be ^ nisi. Comp., \. 16. 324 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. faithful to S. Peter and the Holy Roman Apostolic Church, and to my Lord Pope Pascal and his canonical successors. I will have nothing to do with any counsel or deed which shall be to their injury in life, limb, or liberty. I will never betray any counsel committed to me by them or their nuncios, to their damage. Saving my own Order, I will give my assistance against all men in maintaining the Roman Papacy and the Royalties of S. Peter.^ When summoned to a Synod I will come, unless necessarily prevented. I will treat with honour the legate whom I know to be the legate of the Apostolic See. Every three years I will visit the threshold of the apostles in person or by my dele- gates, unless I receive a license to the contrary. So help me, God and these holy Gospels." We have gone far indeed from the time of Primate Julian. On his return to Compostela the bishop made each of the canons take an oath of obedience to himself, thus framed : " I [N.] swear to you, Don Diego, my present bishop, by God, the Father Al- mighty, that from the present day and henceforward I will be obedient and faithful to you in all things, and I will defend you in life and limb, and in all the possessions which you have or shall have, and without fraud and ill intent I will exalt you to the best of my power and ability all the days of my ^ This is one of the very first instances of the imposition of the oath to maintain the Royalties of S. Peter. Down to this time the oath of a bishop, when taken at all, was to maintain the rules of the Holy Fathers. Regalia Sancti Petri was substituted for Regidas Sanctorum Patrtifn, and made compulsory by this very Pope, Pascal II., A.D. 1099-1118. It is now universally taken by prelates of the Roman Church. NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 325 life. So help nic, God and these holy Gospels." This oath was taken at a subsequent date by the Roman cardinal, Deusdedit, and by King Alonzo VII., both of whom became canons of Compostela. Gelmirez had succeeded in getting the pallium, but '' his mind always panted for the archiepisco- pate." ^ How should he attain to it ? His great difficulty was the jealous fear entertained at Rome lest when he had succeeded he should throw off the mask and defy the Papacy. " What especially pre- vented him from obtaining it was this : the Romans resisted his petition, saying that * already the Church of Compostela had been proud and arrogant towards us ; already it has looked upon the Roman Church, not as its mistress, but as an equal, and has been unwilling to serve her. This bishop, as he shows so much humihty and obsequiousness towards us at a time when humility carries all before it, must persevere in his humility and obsequiousness if he is to succeed with our consent.' For, indeed, the Roman Church feared lest the Church of Compos- tela, resting on so great an apostle, if it gained ecclesiastical dignity, might assume to itself the primacy of honour in the Western Churches ; and as the Roman Church stood first, and ruled over the other Churches on account of one apostle, so the Church of Compostela might make itself first and rule over the Western Churches on account of its apostle. This is what the Roman Church was afraid of, and at this day fears, and is taking precautions against for the future." ^ There were only two ^ Ni'sL Comp.^ ii. 4. ^ Ibid., iii. 3. 326 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. means of conquering this feeling, obsequiousness and gold ; Bishop Diego Gelmirez offered both. In the month of January 1118 Gelasius succeeded Pascal as Pope, and Gelmirez seized this occasion to press his claim for the archbishopric. The oppor- tunity was favourable, for the matter had been dis- cussed with Gelasius while he was a cardinal, and the See of Braga, whose honours it was hoped to trans- fer to Compostela, had given deadly offence to the new Pope. Two of the canons of Compostela at once presented themselves before Gelasius. ^' I know, I know," he cried out, " what you want, brethren ; to rob the Church of Braga of its archbishopric, and to elevate the Church of S. James ! I have often talked it over with my predecessor when and how it could properly be done. Now the time is come ; for the Church of Braga has produced a shameful offence against the Roman Church in Maurice, who has allowed the sacrilegious German Emperor to set him up as an idol in the church for his own con- fusion, whom the whole Catholic Church abhors and detests.-^ Go your ways. If your bishop will send us special messengers on the subject, we will answer him fully and as he wishes. Tell him what you find to be my mind towards him. I will write myself." Accordingly, he despatched a favourable letter to Gelmirez, in which he did not fail to ask him to " remember the Roman Church, and subsidise her needs with due charity." The receipt of this letter made Gelmirez very happy. He called together the ^ Maurice, Bishop of Coimbra and Archbishop of Braga, had been made Antipope. NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 327 Chapter, and reminding them how long and how hard he had laboured and panted for the elevation of the See, appointed the Prior and one of the Cardinals of Compostela to go at once to Rome, as the Pope desired. Before starting he supplied them with 128 ounces of gold from a gold plate which had formed the top of a disused altar. In passing through Aragon the two canons, though they had dressed themselves as pilgrims, were stopped, and the gold which they were carrying was taken from them. Gelmirez was grieved at the loss of the money, but, without being disheartened, appointed a bishop and a canon named Gerard (one of the authors of the Historia Compostelland) to make a second attempt, giving them from S. James's treasury 100 ounces of gold as "a benediction" for the Pope. The two messengers dressed themselves as labourers, but they could not get through Aragon, so they sent on half the money by the Prior of Carrion, who, not being suspected, reached Gelasius in safety. At this time there arrived at Compostela a Roman cardinal named Deusdedit, and he was at once made a canon of S. James, and a canonical allowance was assigned to him, " which, we saw, would be very profitable to our church and bishop." Everything was looking well, when Gelasius died (January 1119). The bishop who had set out to meet the Pope in Auvergne, where he hoped that his wishes would be consum- mated, returned in great disappointment, but was relieved and rejoiced at hearing that Gelasius's suc- cessor was to be Calixtus II., a friend of his own and uncle to King Alonzo VII. lie immediately 328 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. despatched Canon Gerard to Rome '' with the money necessary for the affair, namely, a gold chest of 9 marks, lOO Spanish coins called morabitini, 21 1 solidi of Poictiers, 60 solidi of Milan, 20 solidi of Toulouse, et cceteraJ^ But, to avoid the mischances that had happened before, this treasure was sent by another hand, while Gerard disguised himself as a poor man and travelled with two pilgrims ; '' and when I remember the labour and anxiety that I under- went," says the canon, " as the Lord liveth, and as my soul liveth, I tremble all over." Gerard found Calixtus in France, but the money did not arrive, and the Pope deferred the question for six months, when he would be at Toulouse. By that time the money had arrived ; but meanwhile letters of com- plaint against the bishop had been received from the Archbishop of Toledo and from Alonzo VII., whereupon Calixtus again deferred the subject. Gerard in conse- quence gave him only twenty ounces of gold, and de- posited the rest with the Abbot of Clun^^ for future use. Calixtus wrote to Gelmirez, desiring him to come to a Council at Rheims, and advised him to help his mother, the Roman Church, out of the means which the Lord had given him, since he (CaHxtus) wished to honour the Church of S. James as much as the Lord allowed him. Gelmirez did not himself venture on the jour- ney to Rheims, but his late Archdeacon Hugo, now Bishop of Portugal, undertook to go for him, sug- gesting, however, that it would be better to ask that the archbishopric of Merida should be transferred to Compostela than that of Braga, because Merida had been destroyed by the Saracens. Bishop Hugo set NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 329 off dressed in beggar's rags. Sometimes he pre- tended to be blind, sometimes lame, sometimes para- lysed ; and so he got safe to France, recognised only by one person, to whom he gave a mark of silver to keep silence. After two days' rest he proceeded to Cluny. The Pope was there with a great part of his court, but at first the bishop could do nothing, '' for the Roman cardinals and the others had been look- ing with the greatest longing for the arrival of the Bishop of Compostela, being in hopes of receiving from him great and innumerable gifts ; but when the Bishop of Portugal came, and brought word that the Bishop of S. James could not come, they took it hard to be balked of their hopes. '' The Bishop of Com- postela," they grumbled, *' was as rich as possible, and cared nothing for the Roman Curia.." ^ But the Abbot of Cluny was a friend of Gelmirez, and the Pope, though personally offended, could not refuse any petition presented by him. So Hugo went to the abbot and said, *' Now, now, most reverend father, is the time for elevating the Church of S. James, while Pope Calixtus is in your hands. Deafen his ears with your prayers ! Let us be quick while we have the time. It is the blessed James who has got it for us." ^ The abbot presented a petition in the name of S. James. Then, '' turning with the Bishop of Portugal to the cardinals, he gave promises to some, and soft words to others," till they all fell on their knees and joined in the petition. Then the Pope opened his mouth and said, " The Church of Compostela shall be honoured with the metropolitan ^ Z^/j/. Covip., ii. 15. - Il)ki. :>j^ HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. dignity of Merida, as God wills." The Bishop of Portugal sent off two canons with the good news, and desired that more money might be immediately sent him for the Pope and the cardinals. He had with him the golden chest, the lOO morabitini, and the 50 solidi of Poictiers which had been deposited with the abbot, and 100 morabitini which he had brought with him ; but 260 marks of silver were still wanting '' to make up the benediction." Bishop Gel- mirez straightway took from the treasury of S. James a round silver table containing 40 marks of silver, a gold cross, a gold chasuble which King Ordono had given, and a gold crown, and had them broken up, to make up the full sum required. Still there was not enough, so the bishop gave 40 marks of silver out of his own pocket. But how to send so much safely ? He pretended to send it by a ship, but " his clever and sharp-seeing genius " suggested to him a better plan, which was this. He desired the confessors to send to him any persons on whom they had imposed penances, and he arranged with these persons that one should carry ten ounces of gold, another eight ounces, another five, and so on, and that they should be excused as many years' penance as the number of the ounces that they safely transported. The " peni- tents " carried the money to the borders of France, and Cluniac monks met them there and carried it to the monastery. ^* Papce ! suhtilissimi atque perspi- cacissimi ingenii dispositio ! " cries Canon Gerard. There was still a difficulty. The gold chest had been given to Pope Calixtus by Bishop Hugo and the Abbot of Cluny as pure gold, and had been received NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 331 by him as such ; but, on examination, the inside was found to be silver-gilt, and the Pope demanded twenty more ounces of gold to make up for it, whilst Stephen, the Pope's chamberlain, vowed that no less than two hundred ounces of gold which he had ac- cepted was bad money. A compromise was made ; the twenty ounces were paid to the Pope in full, but Stephen had to content himself with thirty. For this additional payment, and his own expenses, Gelmirez had to give Bishop Hugo another hun- dred ounces of gold, besides a number of presents. But he was an archbishop, and he did not com- plain. The Roman Curia, however, was too quick-witted thus to let the archbishop slip out of its hands. The grant of the archbishopric was made only until such time as the city of Merida should be delivered from the Saracens and restored to Christian rule. In about four years' time the archbishop saw that this was inevitably about to happen, and fearing that he should be in worse plight than ever if he were degraded to his previous condition, he sent one of his cardinals and his archdeacon to Rome with four hundred pieces of gold to get the concession made perpetual. '' His legates, therefore, after immense toil and anxiety, at last reached Rome ; and first they presented the greater part of the four hundred pieces of gold to the Lord Pope as they kissed his feet and humbly saluted him on the part of the Lord Archbishop Diego, and then they distributed the lesser part among the cardinals and the chief persons in the Roman Curia, according as they knew 332 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. would be most effective." ^ At the same time they assured all whom they saw of the devotion and meekness with which the archbishop desired to serve the Papacy. The legates were successful, and the concession was made. But the Pope sent the Bull without its seal, and therefore legally of no value, on the plea that the archbishop might like to peruse it before it was sealed. The archbishop understood what was meant ; he found nothing to alter, but he sent back his legates to get it sealed, and with them 300 more ounces of gold — 200 ounces from the treasury of S. James and 100 ounces from the archbishop's privy purse. These 300 ounces were conveyed by pilgrims, all of whom arrived safely with the exception of one, who was carrying 27 ounces. What was to be done about this ? Two canons of Santiago, who had been begging alms in Sicily, were then passing through Italy. One of these lent the 27 ounces, and so the 300 ounces were made up, and '* they distributed them to the Lord Pope and to the others to whom distribution was to be made." ^ The Bull was de- spatched, and the archbishop was made legate of the Holy See for the two provinces of Merida and Braga. Canon Gerard pauses to express his admi- ration of the zeal, liberality, cleverness, and obse- quiousness by which Gelmirez had won success. He had, indeed, gained two of the objects of his life. Would he be able to proceed further, to make himself Primate of Spain by the help of the Holy See, and then to release himself from dependence on it ? Bernard, Archbishop of Toledo, had already ^ Hist. Comp., ii. 64. ^ Ibid., ii. 21, NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 333 shown his jealousy of him. While he was still only bishop, the primate had loftily told him that, out of respect to his old friendship and to the apology made by his clergy, he forgave him for not attending a Synod to which he had summoned him in Palencia, but that it must not happen again ; and the bishop had taken the reproof meekly. Now, when the bishop had become archbishop and legate, with juris- diction over two provinces, the primate refused to acknowledge his newly acquired rights. Salamanca was a Suftragan See of Merida. When it became vacant the Archbishop of Toledo consecrated a bishop for it, although the jurisdiction of Merida had been transferred by the Pope to Compostela ; and he wrote to the Bishops of Braga and Coimbra, for- bidding them to recognise the Archbishop of San- tiago's authority by attending any Synod to which the latter should summon them. He also addressed an angry letter to Gelmirez, accusing him of secretly and furtively using all his power to diminish, steal away, and appropriate the dignity of the See of Toledo at a time when he was professing friendship, and ended by summoning him to appear at Leon on the second Sunday after Easter, and to pay him, as primate, the obedience which the sacred canons order shall be paid by metropolitans to primates, adding that if he failed he would pass canonical sentence on him. Archbishop Gelmirez laughed in his face. Bernard had cut away his own standing- ground by accepting the dignity that he held as a gift from Pope Urban. From that moment he was no longer the representative of Julian and the other 334 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. great Toledan primates and metropolitans. He was a Frenchman, nominated by Alonzo VI., who had substituted the Roman for the Toledan law through- out his dominions, and he was authorised to act by a foreign power. The line of Toledan prelates who were primates by the will of the Church and State ended with his predecessor. He was him- self the first prelate of the new Church, which Alonzo and Urban, taking advantage of the weak- ness of the Mozarabs, were substituting for the old Spanish Church. He who gave him his power could take it away, or could give a share, or the whole of it, to another. Gelmircz, therefore, wrote back in light and contemptuous style to his " beloved brother : " — " You must know that, with the sole exception of the Pope's jurisdiction, I am absolutely uncontrolled, and that I am not going to pay any obedience to you as primate, or as legate, or as archbishop. After hearing the extravagances and false claims of your letter, we refuse to hold any interview with you, or to continue our friendship with you, until you have given us satisfaction for consecrating the Bishop of Salamanca, and for the other patent wrongs you have done us. And we desire you no longer to presume to disturb or usurp our archiepiscopal dignity." ^ At the same time he sent to Rome to get Calixtus's support. Bernard was left sore and defeated. He deserved his defeat, but, unhappily, the Church of Spain was defeated with him. From that time forward the highest ecclesiastical authority in the Peninsula was the legate of the Primate of ^ Uis/. Com/>., ii. 66. NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 335 Italy. The once proud Primate of Spain could now only plead his cause in the Court of Rome. Me and the Bishop of Coimbra bowed their pride to go there for that purpose, but the Archbishop of San- tiago at once sent off two of his canons " with a benediction, with which they quieted (sedaverujtt) the Lord Pope and the whole Curia." ^ But the relations of the archbishop with the Court of Rome were no longer as good as they had been. Calixtus was dead, and Honorius was afraid that Gelmirez might play his last card and declare his independence. He would not, therefore, put him above the Archbishop of Toledo, though he suffered him to be on a par with him, and he wrote to him severely, saying that sinister accounts of him had been brought to his ears, but that, as he professed himself a most devoted son of the Roman Church, he wished to deal charitably with him, and not easily to believe the charges made against him. " Be humble, therefore, and submissive, so as to retain the favour of the blessed Peter and our own." Gelmirez had reached the summit of his greatness. The Holy See was too shrewd and sagacious to help him further upwards. The king distrusted him, and secretly prayed Cardinal Guido to depose him from his ill-got honours; and when Rome, to which the ^ Hist. Conip., ii. 83. One of ihe Roman cardinals, Deusdedit, was in the pay of the Archbishop of Santiago, and had previously "quieted the Curia when it was angry" with seven ounces of gold (Ibid., ii. 44). King Alonzo's major-domo was also in his pay. " lie cornipted the nearest attendants of the king," says Canon Gerard naively, " with money, and offered ten marks to his major-domo, and ten more to another of his counsellors who was his chief business-man " (Ibid., ii. 81). 336 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. cardinal referred the question, temporised, would have himself deprived him, had he not been " quieted by an immense sum of money." Once more the people of Compostela rose against him with the purpose of taking his life. He was now an old man, having been a bishop thirty-six years. He was lying down, taking his siesta after dinner, when the mob rose, headed by one William Siginides, and rushed raging to the palace. The archbishop ordered the great gates to be closed ; and against them the mob threw them- selves, beating on them with axes and clubs and any weapons that they had. The gates were too strong, but there was a door or window leading from the upper part of the palace into a gallery of the Church of S. James. The leaders of the assault made their way thither and burst through it into the palace. The archbishop, hearing the tumult, threw a canon's cloak over him, and supported by two canons, fled for refuge to the church, the mob hurling stones at him as he ran through the street and up the nave of the church. One of the stones struck him on the shoulder, and he fell into the arms of his two com- panions, who lifted him up and bore him on to the altar of S. James, closing and locking the tall iron gates which shut it off from the rest of the church, and laying him under the cimborium or canopy of the altar. The people, having ransacked the palace, poured in crowds into the church and surged up to the railings, which those within had in the mean- time blocked with planks. Not being able to get through, they swarmed up the wooden stalls of NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. ^y, the church, and hurled stones from thence into the enclosure. The archbishop advanced to the barrier and tried to soften his enemies' rage, but while he was speaking an attempt was made to stab him through the rails, so he ran back to hide himself under the altar. There he was exposed to the volleys of stones thrown from the top of the stalls, one of which wounded his ear. As quickly as he could he concealed himself in the altar-hangings, while stones, *' thicker than rain-drops in a storm," were poured upon him, breaking part of the cimborium and of the altar and its furniture. His companions covered their heads, leaving the rest of their bodies exposed to the missiles, and the archbishop, try as he would, could not altogether keep himself hidden. " It was only God's mercy and the intercession of the glorious Apostle whose church he had loved all his life, that delivered him from the hands of his enemies by means of some of the canons." These canons collected a number of the graver citizens, together with their wives and widows, who all threw them- selves between the assailants and their prey with weeping and lamentations ; the stone-throwers thought they had done enough and withdrew, and the new- comers conveyed the bishop to his palace. A few days after this occurrence the Papal legate was holding a Council at Burgos, attended by the king, at which both the archbishop and William pre- sented themselves. The king and the cardinal legate were prepared to depose tlic archbishop, but in the nick of time letters arrived in his favour from the Abbot of Cluny and from Pope Innocent II., and the J)J' HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. archbishop was able to promise the king 400 marks of silver, and to give the cardinal 300 gold-pieces. The result of the Council was that William was excommunicated and his followers punished, and the archbishop returned to Compostela. There soon afterwards he died, having lived to receive from Pope Innocent an invitation as " the head of Spain " (caput Hispanice) to the second Lateran Council, where the question of the Spanish Primacy was to be considered. Masdeu concludes a summary of his career and character as follows : — " He made himself famous and memorable by his simoniacal buying and selling, by selling for money dispensations, absolutions, and indulgences, and by buying for gold almost all the decrees, grants, privileges, and honours which he ob- tained, and, above all, the two lofty dignities, which he in no way deserved, of archbishop and legate. That is the true historical portrait of Don Diego Gel- mirez, so venerated till now in his holy church of Compostela, of so good name in all my nation, and so celebrated by all our writers." ^ The same writer says : — ^' The French-Italian privilege by which for the future the Bishops of Compostela depend im- mediately on Rome alone, as suffragans of the Pope, so that none can consecrate them except the Roman Pontiff, is directly opposed to our genuine canons, to the good order of the hierarchy, to the regular jurisdic- tion of the bishops, and to the whole of the ancient system of uncorrupted ecclesiastical discipline." ^ With Gelmirez and his many ounces of gold, the ^ Hist. Grit., xx. 244. * Ibid., 102. NEW CHURCH OF LEON AND CASTILE. 339 hope of Compostela becoming the Primatial See of Spain perished. No conclusion was arrived at in the Lateran Council, and in the year 1 155 the Pope's legate gave judgment in favour of the claims of the See of Toledo, and against those advanced by San- tiago and Braga. After Bernard's primacy Rome no longer feared a rival in Toledo, but it was con- venient to keep the question open. In 12 1 5 it was again discussed at the Fourth Lateran Council, when Rodrigo, Archbishop of Toledo, stoutly refused to accept the legend of S. James having preached at Compostela, and though he did not dare deny the legend of the translation of his body, he claimed that S. Mary's appearance to Ildefonso at Toledo gave his See a greater right to the primacy than S. James' burial gave to Compostela. CHAPTER XXV. THE MO Z ARABIC LITURGY. The first forms of the liturgies of the Christian Church arose out of the extemporaneous prayers used by the Church officers in setting apart and offering for consumption the sacred elements which were given and taken as symbols of the body and blood of Christ at the Feast of Love. The earliest Eucharistic form extant is one of extreme simplicity, preserved to us in the " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." It consists of a thanksgiving for mercies wrought through Jesus Christ, and a prayer for the Church, before reception, and after reception of a second thanksgiving for the bodily and spiritual nutriment supplied by God to man, and of a second prayer for the Church. These forms are provided for the less learned, but a special instruction is given that *' the prophets " are to be allowed to use what words they would.^ At a later period, when the ad- ministration of the Communion was separated from the Love Feast, we find from Justin Martyr that the officiating minister still used carefully prepared ex- temporaneous prayers and thanksgivings.^ But ex- 1 Chap. X. ^ '0 TTpoecrrws euxas ojuoiojs Kal evxapi^CTTtas, ocrrj diva/mis aury, dva- irefiTrei, — Apo/. i. 340 THE MOZARABIC LITURGY. 341 tempore prayers and thanksgivings for a particular object, again and again offered, have a necessary tendency to take a stereotyped shape. Thus forms grew up in one and another congregation, and were borrowed by other congregations. Bishops naturally sought to make the forms identical in the various congregations over which they ruled, whence arose a general use for the diocese. When dioceses were combined together into provinces the use of the metropolitan church superseded those of the various dioceses, and when provinces were united into a national or " dioecesan " church, the primate or exarch encouraged his metropolitans to adopt the use of the primatial church in place of their own. Had this process been carried out with perfect regularity there would have been in the latter years of Constantine fourteen liturgies, as there were fourteen " dioecesan " churches under fourteen primates. But the process was not altogether regular. There was no law which required the bishop to give up his use for that of the metropolitan, nor compelling the metropolitan to adopt the use of the primate's cathedral. There was often some good reason why the old forms of some local church should be retained and approved by the pri- mate, or even by more than one primate, in prefer- ence to his own. After a time the various liturgies gathered themselves into five groups — (i) those of the Patriarchate of Antioch (which included the head- quarters both of the Jewish and Gentile Christian Church), on which the name of S. James of Jerusalem was imposed ; (2) those of the Patriarchate of Alex- andria, to which the name of S. Mnrk was assigned; 342 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. (3) the Nestorian Liturgies of the far East ; (4) the French-Spanish Liturgies, which are regarded as con- nected with S. John, owing to their having been brought originally in germ from Ephesus to Lyons by Irenaeus ; (5) the Roman Liturgy, including the Ambrosian and African, called by the name of S. Peter, from a belief once entertained that S. Peter was Bishop of Rome. The Galilean and Spanish Liturgies, standing in the relation of sisters to each other, and differing in some respects from the Roman, served as a perma- nent memorial of the independence of the Galilean and Spanish Churches in regard to any authority claimed over them by the See of Rome, and for this reason they were objects of detestation to the Roman prelates. At the beginning of the ninth century, Charlemagne, who was intimately associated with the See of Rome, ordained by an imperial edict, issued at the instance of the Roman bishop, that the Roman Liturgy should be substituted in his dominions for the Galilean, and thus the ancient liturgy of France was abolished for ever. The sister liturgy of Spain prevailed in that country in the time of Hosius and all through the period of the Gothic rule, during which time it was revised several times, and great additions were made to it by Leander and Isidore of Seville, and by Eugenius and Julian of Toledo, the last of whom so altered it that it bore the impress both of his in- dividuality and of the character and tenets of the Spanish Church at the end of the seventh century. Down to this period it had borne the name of the Spanish or Gothic Liturgy. With the eighth century THE MOZARABIC LITURGY. 343 came the overthrow of the Gothic kingdom and the introduction of the Moorish rule in Spain. The Christians who submitted to the Moors and Hved in the districts subjected to the conquerors were called Mozarabs, and as they continued to use their old liturgy, it came to be called from thence the Mozarabic Liturgy.^ But this liturgy was not confined to the use of the Mozarabs ; as the free Christians made good their standing in Leon, Castile, Aragon, and elsewhere, they naturally made use of the old National Liturgy, and continued to employ it until the eleventh century, when it was superseded by the Roman in Aragon in the year 1071, and in Castile partially in 1078, and fully in 1085. The first Roman objection to the Spanish Liturgy was made by Vigilius, who in the year 538, shortly before he became Pope, wrote to Profuturus, Bishop of Braga, describing the ceremonies used at Rome ; and the Council of Braga, held in 561, appears to have adopted the Roman customs for the province of Galicia, which was then under the dominion of the Suevi. The Suevi having been reduced to subjection by the Gothic King Leovigild, the province of Galicia was ordered by the Council of Toledo held in 633 to conform to the National Liturgy, which was done without a murmur, and the whole of Spain, having become one kingdom and holding one faith, united in one ecclesiastical discipline." It was not till the tenth ^ The word Mozarab, or Mostarab, is a participle meaning one that has adopted the Arab way of living, and it was applied to those Chris- tians that preferred the Arab rule to the free life of the Asturias. ^ " One order of prayers and psalms is to be used by us through- out Spain and Galicia, one manner of solemnising Mass, one form of 344 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. century that the resolute assault commenced which was to be successful at the end of about 150 years. " The tenth century," says Masdeu, " which was the age of the greatest ignorance and darkness of all the ages of the Church — thai is the fatal epoch in which strangers began to assail our ancient liturgy, which they continued to assail for more that a century and a half, from 920 to 1080, when at last they succeeded in their designs."^ Early in the tenth century Pope John X. sent a presbyter named Zanelo to Compos- tela to make a report on the Missals, Breviaries, and other ecclesiastical books of Spain. Zanelo submitted his report to a Council that was sitting at Rome, which gave its approval to them. Forty years later Alexander II. sent Cardinal Hugo Candidus with in- structions to prohibit the Mozarabic office, but he was met with proofs of the approbation given to it by John X., and returned to Rome without effecting anything. Alexander sent another cardinal with the same object as before, on which three Spanish bishops proceeded to Rome with their ecclesiastical books and submitted them to the examination of the Pope and of a Council that was sitting at Mantua. The Pope and the Council determined that there was ''nothing in the books to condemn or to censure or to alter." Never- theless, Alexander, urged on by the monks of Cluny, continued negotiations with the King of Aragon with the view of restoring Spain to *' unity in the Catholic faith, in ecclesiastical discipline, and in the sacred Matins and Vespers ; and we are no longer to have different customs in our churches, seeing that we are embraced in one faith and in one kingdom" {Cone. To/eL, iv. 2). ^ Apologia Catolica, p. 339. THE MOZARABIC LITURGY. 345 liturgy." Gregory VII. followed in Alexander's steps with greater passion and greater vigour, as might be expected from his character. In March 1074 he wrote to Sancho, King of Aragon, declaring him a good son of the Church for abolishing the old Spanish office. In the same month he wrote to Alonzo of Castile and Sancho of Navarre ''exhorting and ad- monishing them to acknowledge the Roman Church for their mother, and to receive, like other nations of the North and West, not the office of the Church of Toledo, or any other particular office, but that of Rome, which S. Peter and S. Paul had founded upon the Rock and consecrated with their blood." In the same year he wrote a third letter on the subject to Alonzo VI., from w^hich it appears that he had made some Spanish bishops who had visited Rome pro- mise to introduce the Roman Liturgy into their dioceses. Two years later he wrote to the Bishop of Burgos desiring him to use every means in his power to introduce it into Castile, Leon, and Galicia. In 1078 he wrote to King Alonzo " giving thanks to God for his fidelity and obedience to the Holy Roman See " on the occasion of his allowing the use of the Roman Liturgy in Burgos. All seemed going well for the Papal design, when suddenly King Alonzo changed his mind and took the Spanish office under his protection. It was whispered — falsely, as it turned out — that his queen and a Cluniac monk named Robert were the cause of this change. Gre- gory was furious. " Your monk Robert," he wrote to the Abbot of Cluny, " has had the audacity to rebel against S. Peter, and has done infinite mischief 346 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. at the instigation of the devil by his words and say- ings, which have spread all through the Spanish Church. Threaten the miserable monk immediately with excommunication and degradation. Notify to all the other monks in Spain that no function is valid in that kingdom except that which has the authority and approbation of my nuncios." To Alonzo himself he wrote : — '' You that used to be the model of kings and the glory of the Roman Church, how have you allowed yourself to be perverted by a limb of the devil, the false monk Robert, and by a nefarious woman who has always protected him ? My son, drive away from your side that perverse monk and that incestuous female, for that is no good marriage which you have made with a relative of your first wife. Do not delay to rejoice the Church of God by your penitence, else you will oblige me, with the greatest grief, to unsheath over your head the sword of S. Peter." The meaning of unsheathing the sword of S. Peter had been already explained as follows : — '^ If he does not repent of his sin I will excommuni- cate him and will raise his subjects against him ; and if they are disobedient to me and unfaithful to S. Peter, I will go myself to stir up his kingdom and to prosecute him with fury as the enemy of the Chris- tian religion." Alonzo VI. was no match in courage for Gregory VII. Very soon the Pope was able to write to him that *' he had heard with great joy of soul that he had given orders to employ the old rite of the Holy Roman See, mother of all the rest, in the churches of his kingdom, and that he had banished the Spanish office." THE MO Z ARABIC LITURGY. 347 There was no power either in Aragon or in Castile to resist the resolute will of Gregory, nor was there any learning left in Spain to contradict the audacious assertion which Gregory did not shrink from making that " from the earliest times Spain had been the special property of S. Peter." Writing to the kings, counts, and lords of Spain, he calmly stated that, ''according to ancient constitutions, the property and ownership of the kingdoms of Spain belonged to S. Peter and to the Holy Roman Church, but that the memory of these pontifical rights had been lost, partly through the carelessness of his predecessors, and partly because the Moslems had refused the ancient homage due to the Apostle S. Peter, which belonged by Divine gift to the Roman Church." -^ The natural person to resist and to expose such preposterous claims was the Metropolitan of Toledo ; but Toledo was still in the hands of the Moors, and was soon to fall before the victorious arms of that very Alonzo who had been terrified into submission by Hilde- brand, and cared little for the traditions of the old Gothic and Mozarabic Church. Aragon and Barce- lona yielded in the year 107 1, Navarre in 1076. Alonzo's subjects were not so submissive. Writing to Hugo, Abbot of Cluny, the king acknowledged ^ Florez gravely examines Gregory's statement, and shows that the Pope had no authority before the Gothic invasion nor during tlie Gothic rule or the Saracenic domination, and that there never was such a person as Count Ebolo de Roceyo, who, according to Gregory, re- conquered the lands for S. Peter. Florez is convinced that Gregory was deceived by Hugo Candidus, his legate : — "Candidas facie, nigerri- mus mente, de cujus reprehensibili vita et morum perversitate tacenduni potius duximus quam loquendum." But he cannot understand how Baronius could propagate such a story {Esp. Saqr., xxv. 130). 348 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. that his people were perfectly disconsolate (adniodum desolatuni) at the prospect of the loss. In 1077 the king and the people chose each a champion, who fought in single combat in behalf of the Toledan and the Roman rites. The champion of Toledo won the duel, but his success gained only a brief delay from the king. The very next year the Pope sent a legate named Richard, under whom the work of substitution began in earnest. In 1085, at a Council of Burgos, the Churches of Castile and Leon were ordered to con- form to Rome. This left the Mozarabic Church alone faithful to the tradition of Hosius, Leander, Isidore, and Julian. In the same year, that of 1085, Toledo fell before Alonzo. The representatives of the old Spanish Church had no head under whom they might fight their battle. Yet so strong was their resistance to parting with their National Liturgy and rites that the king consented to another appeal being made to God. Two Missals were brought out into the square of Toledo, a bonfire was lit, and it was agreed that whichever of the two Missals thrown into the fire should be the least injured by it, the liturgy that it contained should be accepted as the national liturgy. The Roman Missal was reduced to ashes. The Toledan is said to have remained unconsumed in the fire, and to have come out from the trial uninjured ; but the king, with his French queen, and the Pope were too strong for the success of the trial by single combat or by fire.""^ All that the advocates of the ^ " In Castile there was a notable resistance made, which proceeded as far as a public duel, in which the Castilian side won in 1077 5 but, with all that, the will of the king, helped by the bishops and Cardinal THE MOZARABIC LITURGY. 349 National Liturgy could obtain was that it should be still used as before in the Churches of S. Justa, S. Luke, S. Eulalia, S. Mark, S. I'orquatus, and S. Sebastian, within the city of Toledo Elsewhere the Roman use was to prevail. By degrees, even in the churches named, the Mozarabic Liturgy came to be used only on certain days, and at last it was almost dropped. In the year 1436 the Bishop of Segovia established a college of eight clergy, who were to keep alive the Gothic office, but the foundation only served this purpose for a few years. At the begin- ning of the sixteenth century Cardinal Ximenes ap- pointed a chapel in the Cathedral of Toledo, with thirteen chaplains attached, to prevent the ancient rite from altogether perishing, and feeble efforts were made in the same direction in Salamanca and Valladolid. Cardinal Ximenes took great pains in collecting and revising the old books of prayer, which he placed in the hands of Dr. Ortiz, with instructions to arrange them properly. Ortiz was a man of sufficient capacity, but he had already composed services for the Festivals of Eugenius, Ildefonso, and Leocadia, and to him we probably owe an entire reconstruction of the old liturgy in conformity with Richard, whom Pope S. Gregory sent into Spain for the purpose, pre- vailed, and the Roman office was introduced in 1078 " (Florez, Esp. Sagr., x\y\. ^yj). "A violent sedition broke out among the soldiers and the populace, but the king, being hauglity and resolved on carrying out his own will, neither frightened by the miracle nor yielding to prayers, but threatening death and confiscation to all who resisted him, gave orders that the Gallican {i.e., the modern Gallican or Roman) office should be observed throughout his dominions ; and hence, amid the tears and lamentations of all, came the proverb, *' Quo volunt reges vadunt leges " {RodcTui Archicpiscopi C/ironicoHy vi. 26, Granada, 1545)- 350 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the Roman Missal. We know that he introduced the confession and the prayers before the Introit and the Salve Regina with the avowed purpose of as- similating the Mozarabic to the Gregorian office, and a number of festivals of saints, ancient and modern, were added. We cannot be sure of any prayer in any extant liturgy being earlier than the seventh or eighth century, but we can have no assurance of any- thing in Ximenes' Mozarabic Liturgy being earlier than the fifteenth century, except when it differs from the Roman office-books or is confirmed from the genuine writings of Isidore of Seville. ''What are we to say of our liturgy," exclaims Masdeu, " which was the single object of all the per- secutions of the Italians and Frenchmen, and the cause why Popes Alexander II., a Milanese ; Gregory VII., a Tuscan ; and Urban II., a Frenchman, led astray by false and malignant information, so unjustly gave us the odious title of impious and heretical Christians? "^ The assault on the liturgy was some- times conducted on the plea of its containing heretical tenets, but this was no more the true cause of super- seding the Spanish than it was of superseding the Gallican Liturgy two centuries earlier. The main charge brought against the Mozarabic office was the use of the word " adoption " in relation to the Human Nature of our Lord, which word, however, is fre- quently used innocently in the sense of " assump- tion," and does not in any way involve the Adop- tionist heresy. It was not because it differed in doctrine from the Roman that Gregory VII. so pas- ^ Hist. Crii., xiii. 279. THE MOZARABIC LITURGY. 351 sionately sought its overthrow, but because it served as a symbol of the independence of the National Church and a possible centre round which the Pri- mate of Toledo might gather Spanish ecclesiastics. After the fall of Toledo, in the year 1085, there re- mained neither primate in the old sense of the word, nor liturgy in its old form, to serve as an obstacle to the ambition of the Italian Primate. CHAPTER XXVI. FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF TURMOIL AND LICENCE. From the time of the recovery of Toledo in the eleventh century to the accession of Fernando and Isabel in the fifteenth, the history of Spain consists for the most part of wars, not only between Chris- tians and Mohammedans, but between Christians and Christians, Moslems and Moslems. Members of the same nation, city, and family fought fiercely and treacherously one against the other. There was no peace, no faith, no morality, save in a few excep- tional cases. Had the Christians concentrated their forces the Moors could not have resisted them for one year, for the internal divisions of the Moslem were as great as those of their adversaries ; but there was no thought of Castile, Leon, Galicia, Por- tugal, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, combining together against the common foe. Christians dreaded Chris- tians more than the infidels. Each petty kingdom looked alone to its own interests, and civil war often wasted the strength which was already so divided. ■'• Portugal was consolidating itself. Its ^ " In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the chronicle of Spain stands out confused, troubled, and unrequiting. A historian has counted one hundred and seventy-nine revolutions which then took place in the Christian states by the side of sixty-one in Moslem 352 TURMOIL AND LICENCE. 353 separate existence arose from a gift made by Alonzo VI. to his natural daughter, Teresa, and her husband, Henry of Lorraine. Her son Alonzo took the title of king on the occasion of a great victory won over the Moors at Ourique in the year 1 139, and in the year 1254 Portugal was declared for ever free from homage to the kings of Castile. For fifty years of the period under consideration Navarre and Aragon were united, but they separated in 11 34, and continued indepen- dent and hostile principalities, until Navarre was finally swallowed up by Aragon in the latter part of the reign of Fernando. Aragon, into which Cata- lonia and Valencia were also absorbed, became the most notable Christian power in the North-East of the Peninsula, as the united kingdom of Castile, Leon, and Galicia was in the North- West. The Spanish Moslems, suffering even more from the allies whom they invited to their help from Africa than from their professed and hereditary foes, had to withdraw into the single territory of Granada, and to do homage to the King of Castile for the shrunken dominions which, like those of their Christian rivals, were torn by internal dissension. Never was a country in a more lamentable state than Spain during the three hundred years that preceded the fall of Granada. Prescott's description of Castile under Henry IV. might be that of any of the Christian principalities under almost any of their kings : — " Dis- membered by faction, her revenues squandered on states. It is a discreditable feature of the history of that comfortless period, that the pugnacity of tlie nobles and citizens was displayed more against their fellow-religionists than against the enemy of the faitli " (Dollinger, Political and Reli^ipus PcTc^opnioit of Sj^iiin). 354 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. worthless parasites, the grossest violation of justice unredressed, public faith became a jest, the treasury bankrupt, the court a brothel, and private morals too loose and audacious to seek even the veil of hypocrisy." -^ The foreign Church, which had sup- planted the native Church in the eleventh century, had lost all power, except that of keeping up an uncharitable hatred of infidels and heretics. Occa- sionally a Papal legate intervened, and sometimes for good, but the Primate of Italy was too distant for his intervention, even when well-intentioned, to be effectual, and the Archbishops of Toledo had be- come rather great nobles who could fight in the field and intrigue in the court than men to exer- cise spiritual influence over a nation. Many of the prelates, like Archbishop Bernard, were foreigners intruded by the Pope, according to a practice which prevailed until restrained by the firmness of Queen Isabel. Unchecked by the Church, the nation, from the highest to the lowest, became demoralised, and substituted superstition, bigotry, and outward acts of devotion for faith, charity, and spiritual religion, accepting at the best military honour, at the worst sheer brutality and barbarism, in the place of Christian morality. A glance at the contemporary sovereigns in the middle of the fourteenth century will be suffi- 1 Ferd. and Isabella^ c. 4. To have at once twenty mistresses was considered a feather in the cap of one of the courtiers of Joao II. of Portugal, 1481-1495. A privilege which Rodrigo, Archbishop of Toledo, brought back from the Fourth Lateran Council, a.d. 121 5, was that, contrary to the canons, he might ordain and promote to benefices three hundred bastards — apparently the bastards of clerical parents. To receive a king's base-born daughter in marriage was considered an honour to a prince. TURMOIL AND LICENCE. 355 cient to show this. The King of Castile and Leon was Pedro, the only legitimate son of Alonzo XI., who left a large family of illegitimate children. His first act was to put to death his father's mistress, after pledging his faith for her security. The next year he made his bodyguard of club-men beat out the brains of Garcilasso, Adelante of Castile, in his presence. In the next year he took Maria de Padilla as his mistress, and at the same time married Blanche de Bourbon, whom he left two days after his mar- riage, that he might return to Maria, consigning his bride to perpetual imprisonment, followed in a later year by assassination ; and he had the Grand Master of Calatrava murdered to make way for Maria's brother. The next year he married Juana de Castro, two of his prelates, the Bishops of Avila and Sala- manca, having assured Juana that the marriage with Blanche was null. The next day he deserted her for ever. A few years later he murdered his half- brother, Fadrique, Master of Santiago. Having re- ceived him in the most friendly manner, he caused the doors of the palace to be closed, and ordered his club-men to beat out his brains, as he vainly ran from door to door, in the royal presence ; then having poniarded one of his brother's attendants with his own hand, he dined in the room where the corpses lay. These murders were followed by those of his cousin, the Infante of Aragon, and his aunt, the queen-dowager of that country. He seized the King of Granada at a banquet to which he had invited him, paraded him through the streets of Seville, and stabbed him with his own hand. Shortly 2 A 356 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. afterwards he had the Archbishop and the Dean of Santiago murdered at the church-door in his pre- sence, for the sake of the wealth of the See and Chapter. These are but specimens of his acts. Finally, he was murdered by his half-brother Enrique, who attacked him, when he was unarmed, in a tent into which he had been beguiled. His namesake and contemporary, Pedro of Portugal, while still Infante, at once married a wife and took a mistress, by the last of whom he had four children. On the death of his wife he married the mistress by Papal dispensation and Episcopal licence. Having solemnly denied on oath that the woman he had married was his wife, his father put her to death ; and thenceforward the object of Pedro's life was to take vengeance on all whom his father had employed in the perpetration of the deed. Having treacherously got them into his power by an arrangement with Pedro of Castile, he conveyed them into a torture- chamber, gloated over their sufferings, added to them with his own hands, and finally watched the execu- tioner tear their still beating hearts from their bodies. The contemporaneous King of Aragon, another Pedro, spent his life in feuds with his stepmother and half-brother until they were murdered by Pedro of Castile, in civil war with his barons and estates, in war with his neighbours. '' The duplicity of this monarch," says Dunham, '' was only equalled by his violence ; of sincerity and justice he was wholly destitute, and in savage barbarity he was scarcely exceeded by his namesake of Castile." ^ ^ History of Spain and Porlttgal, iii. 143. TURMOIL AND LICENCE. 357 The contemporary monarch of Navarre, Charles II., called the Bad, was a man ''all of whose actions were characterised by the basest perfidy or cupidity, yet it may be doubted whether he was not, on the whole, the best Peninsular sovereign then living, at least among the Christians." ^ Like kings, like people. Unless Christianity con- sists in hating unbelievers and stiffly maintaining a set of external observances, while practising perfidy and indulging in unbridled lust and barbarous cruelty, there was little Christianity in Spain. Nor could interdicts, whether few or many, arbitrarily imposed, not as a penalty for hideous immorality, but as the political and ecclesiastical interests of individual Popes demanded, bear any good fruit. Sometimes the Papal interfer- ence was plainly an encouragement of vice. Jaymc of Aragon, called the Conqueror, would carry off by force matrons or maidens whose faces pleased him. When the Bishop of Gerona reproved him for his extraordinary licentiousness and debauchery, he cut out the bishop's tongue. The prelates of Catalonia excommunicated him for this act, but he appealed to Rome, and received absolution on condition of his completing the erection of a monastery, assigning it an income of 200 marks per annum, giving an income of 600 marks to a hospital, and building a chapel. Sometimes the absence of an interdict is unaccountable. When the Archbishop of Zaragoza was spirited away by the King of Aragon and secretly murdered, no questions seem to have been asked, no penalties inflicted. Probably '' a benedic- ^ History of Spai)i and Portugal , iii. 37. 35S HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. tion " to the Pope had hushed the matter up. The usual occasion of imposing an interdict was the marriage of sovereigns within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity or affinity. Political reasons caused these marriages frequently to be made, the royal families being connected with one another, and any connexion, however distant, being sufficient to dis- qualify for marriage, except by Papal licence. When once made, the king was in the hands of the Pope, who could at any time separate him from his wife, and who exerted this power or left it dormant accord- ing to his pleasure. CHAPTER XXVII. THE MILITARY ORDERS AND THE EARLIER INQUISITION. Two quasi-religious institutions grew up during this period, which were characteristic of the time and of the nation in which they originated and were domiciled. The first of these was the Military Orders, the second was the Inquisition. The first of the Spanish military orders to be established was that of the Knights of Calatrava. The town of Calatrava had been put into the hands of the Templars for defence against the Moslem, and they had abandoned it as untenable. The King of Castile gave it to be understood that he would be- stow the fortress and town on any knights who would occupy it. Two monks, Raymond and Velas- quez, accepted the king's offer. They collected round them 20,000 men, took possession of the town, and instituted the Order of Calatrava, which received the sanction of Pope Alexander III. in 1154, and from it sprang, about two centuries later, the Order of Mon- tesa in Valencia. The second of the Spanish orders was that of S. lago, which was established for the purpose of protecting pilgrims on their way to Compostela. The first members of the institution were men who had 359 36o HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. been leading a freebooter's life in Leon, and were desirous of making reparation for the evils that they had done. It received the Papal sanction in 1175. The third order, that of Alcantara, was established a few years later, and was at the beginning attached to that of Calatrava. Those who first constituted these orders were men of earnestness and religious zeal. They took the usual vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. They were first soldiers and then monks. Each order was ruled by a grand master, under whom there were comendadores or commanders, who were the heads of the large districts which were soon acquired by the orders. As usual, the institutions in their corporate capacity became very wealthy, great gifts being made to them by the sovereigns of Leon and Castile, and any lands which they recovered from the infidels passing into their own possession. The Order of S. James could number 400 knights and 1000 lances, and the grand-mastership was worth no less than 60,000 ducats, while it gave an absolute mastery over the whole force of the order. It was only to be expected that the grand-mastership and the comman- deries should be objects greatly coveted, and when they carried with them wealth and power, they be- came filled by worldly and ambitious men. More than this, corruption of manners and dissoluteness of life invaded the military orders of Spain, as well as the Knights Templars and Hospitallers, with even greater rapidity and thoroughness than the other monastic orders. When Don Jayme, son of Jayme II. of Aragon, resigned his prospects of a kingdom MILITARY ORDERS: EARLIER INQUISITION. 361 in order that he might the more freely indulge himself in swinish debauchery, he selected first the Order of Calatrava, and then that of Montesa, into which to retire in order to gratify his debased passions with- out disturbance. By a wise act of Queen Isabel, the mastership of these orders was attached to the crown. The two great military orders of the Templars and the Hospitallers also had great possessions in Spain. When the storm burst upon the Templars in the year 1309, Pope Clement appointed the Archbishops of Toledo and Santiago, the Bishops of Valencia and Zaragoza, and other prelates to be judges of their cause in Castile and Aragon. A Synod met at Sala- manca for the kingdom of Castile, and acquitted the Templars of the charges brought against them. Nevertheless, the order was abolished by the Pope in the following year, and King Fernando IV. took possession of their lands and castles. In Aragon the Knights Templars stood on the defensive, but they made their submission to King Jayme II. on his marching against them. Having heard their defence, the king restored them their possessions, and when the order was abolished, the knights were treated with less rigour than elsewhere. The history of the Inquisition comprises two periods. In its modern form it was established in the reign of Fernando and Isabel, but in its earlier phase it origi- nated at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and owes its existence to Pope Innocent III. In the early Church the only punishment for heresy was 362 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. separation from the body of the faithful. It was Spain that first spilt the blood of an heresiarch, when the Emperor Maximus, at the instance of two bishops, put to death Priscillian, causing thereby a thrill of horror in the Christian Church, which found its expression in Martin of Tours and Ambrose of Milan ; and it was an emperor of Spanish blood, Theodosius, who was remarkable for the severity of his laws against heretics. We have seen that the Councils of Toledo, from the time of Reccared to Roderic, gave the reins to passion and persecuted the Jews with savage cruelty. Nevertheless, it was not in Spain nor for Spain that the Inquisition was primarily instituted, but in France, for the purpose of opposing the spiritual revolt of Provence. In the year 1204 Innocent III. appointed three monks as legates of the Apostolic See for the destruction of heresy, the recovery of heretics to the Catholic faith, the excommunication of the impenitent and their de- livery to the secular power for punishment. The legates were sent into the South of France, and there associated with themselves two Spaniards, one the Bishop of Osma, the other Dominic de Guzman, afterwards known as S. Dominic. One of the legates was assassinated by the Albigenses, sub- jects of Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse, who embraced their cause. The Pope proclaimed a crusade against them, which was pitilessly con- ducted by Simon de Montfort, and thousands of the Albigenses were burnt by the Papal legate and Dominic. In 121 5 Innocent III. held the Fourth Lateran Council, which ordered that heretics should MILITARY ORDERS: EARLIER INQUISITION. 363 be given over to the secular arm and their goods confiscated ; that all who were suspected of heresy were to purge themselves by oath or be regarded as heretics; that princes were to take oath to drive out all heretics from their dominions ; that if they neglected to do so they were to be excommunicated, their sub- jects were to be forbidden to obey them, and their lands to be given to faithful Catholics ; that those who engaged in a crusade against the heretics should enjoy the privileges granted to the crusaders of Palestine ; that all who gave assistance to heretics should them- selves be treated as heretics, and that every bishop should compel the leading citizens in his diocese to give information as to the existence of heretics in it. The Count of Toulouse was not powerful enough to maintain the cause of liberty against the Pope, and against the King of France urged forward by the Papal legates. Peace was granted him on the condition of his driving all heretics out of his dominions, and Councils held at Toulouse, Nar- bonne, and Beziers firmly established the Inquisi- tion in France by the year 1233. Pope Honorius had already established it in Italy. Gregory IX. succeeded in introducing it into Spain. In 1232 he addressed a letter to Esparrago, Archbishop of Tarragona, desiring that heretics and favourers of heretics should be sought for and punished. Espar- rngo's successor in the See of Tarragona was the first Spanish bishop to execute the Papal commands, with the help of a Dominican monk ; and a few years later a Council was held at Tarragona, which ordered that all who were impenitent should be handed over 364 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SPAIN. to secular justice. In 1254 Innocent IV. ordered the Dominicans of Lerida, Barcelona, and Perpignan to supply Jayme I. with inquisitors in number sufficient for the whole kingdom of Aragon, which became the headquarters of the inquisition in Spain. Castile was still free from it, though Fernando III. is said to have shown his religious zeal by bringing faggots with his own hands to burn heretics seized in his dominions. The inquisitors took cognisance of all cases of heresy or suspicion of heresy, and could demand the assistance of the civil power, the refusal to grant which made a magistrate himself suspected. At first they were unpaid officers ; then the bishops were ordered by the Pope to supply the necessary funds ; but by-and-by it was found that the confis- cations imposed by the tribunals easily covered the necessary expenses, including the salaries of the judges. When the inquisitor arrived at a town he summoned the chief magistrate. If the magistrate disobeyed the summons the inquisitor suspended him, and, if necessary, proceeded to excommunication. Generally the magistrate yielded without difficulty. Then the inquisitor issued an order to all the inhabi- tants of the town desiring them to secretly denounce such heretics as there might be among them. As soon as any one was denounced he was arrested and sent to prison. No information was given him as to his accusers, but he was interrogated by the inquisitor, and if condemned, as was usually the case, he was handed over to the civil authorities to be burnt, having previously undergone such tortures as the inquisitors thought proper to submit him to. MILITARY ORDERS: EARLIER INQUISITION. 365 Those who were not burnt were imprisoned for life, or banished, or deprived of their goods. Ab- juration did not avail for much. The Council of Tarragona held in 1242 ordered that all who had once been found to be heretics should, although con- verted, be imprisoned for life, while those who had favoured heresy should for two years do penance in a white sheet and with naked feet, and be struck with a whip by the bishop or a parish priest as they walked in procession on every Sunday in Lent and other festivals. Other regulations of the same kind were made by the same Council. Such was the Inquisition in its primary form. It succeeded in crushing and annihilating the Albigensian uprising against Rome in France. It established itself in Italy ; it was domiciled in Aragon, including Barce- lona and Valencia, becoming the recognised instru- ment by which the Roman See exercised discipline over National Churches, displacing the primitive system of episcopal and synodical jurisdiction. But it was still kept out of Castile, and had not made much way in Portugal. The marriage of Fernando of Aragon with Isabel of Castile brought it into the latter kingdom. It was represented to Queen Isabel that the institution was necessary for the purpose of dealing with the Jews, especially with those Jews who had professed themselves Christians but in their heart adhered to their own religion. Idle stories were told of the murder of Christian children by the Jews, and of insults offered by them to the images of Christ. Isabel shrank from admitting the terrible machinery of the Inquisition into her 366 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. realm, but she was told by her confessor that it was her duty to introduce it, and under this pressure she solicited a Papal Bull for the establishment of the tribunal in Castile. The Bull arrived at the end of the year 1478, but Isabel would not at first allow it to be put into execution. She tried other means. She desired Cardinal Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, and Fernando of Talavera, afterwards Archbishop of Granada, to write books which, she hoped, might convert men to the faith ; but her woman's pity was not able long to resist. Fernando was in favour of its admission, both because he was an Aragonese and also because he saw in the Inqusition a means of getting money by confiscations. The Pope's nuncio and the Dominicans did not cease to urge it, and in September 1480 the two sovereigns nominated two Dominicans as inquisitors.'^ The in- quisitors proceeded to Seville. The magistrates re- fused to co-operate with them, and the inhabitants of the towns and villages fled for protection to the lands of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia and the Marquis of Cadiz. An angry ordinance was addressed to those noblemen by the king, and the inquisitors declared the flight of the people to be a proof of their guilt, whom they commanded, therefore, to return under penalty of the sequestration of their goods. A short period was fixed during which confession of guilt might be voluntarily made. At the end of that time the inquisitors published a second ordi- ^ A Portuguese Jew named Samuel Usgue, in a book published in 1553, called Z>e Cofiso/afao de trihilafocns de Israel^ declares Isabel to have been more disposed to persecute than Fernando. MILITARY ORDERS: EARLIER INQUISITION. 367 nance ordering, on pain of mortal sin and excom- munication, the denunciation of every one known or supposed to be a heretic within three days. They issued a book containing a number of indications of Judaism, any of which were sufficient to make denunciation obligatory. If the converted Jew paid respect to the Sabbath by putting on a clean shirt and better clothes on that day ; if he did not keep the Christian fast-days, or did keep the Jewish fast or feast days ; if he sat at table with Jews ; if he did not add the Gloria Patri in reciting the Psalms ; if he had a Hebrew name ; if he invited his friends to dinner before taking a journey according to a Jewish custom ; if he turned his face to the wall when dying ; a presumption was caused that he was still a con- cealed Jew, and he must be denounced as such. The reign of terror began. On January 6, 1481, six men were burnt as concealed Jews ; on the 26th of March, seventeen ; a larger number in April. By the beginning of November 298 had been burnt and seventy-nine imprisoned for life in the town of Seville alone. In the district round Seville 2000 were burnt alive, more than 2000 burnt in effigy, and 17,000 degraded and otherwise punished. The Prefect of Seville was obliged to construct a vast scaffold made of stone and brick for the execution of the condemned, called the Burning-place, which was not destroyed till the beginning of the present Century, in the French war. Multitudes ffed the country. The work went on steadily and rapidly, and its greater thoroughness was guaranteed by the appointment of Thomas de Torquemada as the first 368 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. inquisitor-general for Spain — a man who seemed made for tlie post, being at once sincere, devout, ascetic, and pitiless on principle, if not naturally devoid of pity. Torquemada, having completed the organisation of the Holy Office by a new set of regulations so framed as to make it almost impossible for any accused person to escape, established four inferior tribunals at Seville, Cordova, Jaen, and Ciudad Real. He also sent inquisitors into the kingdom of Aragon — one of whom was named Peter Arbues d'Epila. Aragon had been the home of the earlier Inquisition, and, perhaps, for that reason it resisted to the utmost the reintroduction of it in its new form. Zara- goza, Valencia, Lerida, Barcelona, as well as Majorca, Sardinia, and Sicily, raised an opposition which almost took the form of an insurrection. Arbues began the work of burning at the stake. Pressed beyond bounds, the Aragonese formed a conspiracy for his assassination. Knowing the feelings of hatred enter- tained towards him, Arbues wore armour under his dress and a helmet of iron. The conspirators watched him into the cathedral, where matins were being said, about midnight, and as he knelt by one of the columns they fell upon him, and in spite of his coat- of-mail, left him in a dying state. The Archbishop of Zaragoza was at this time a boy of thirteen years of age, a natural son of King Fernando. He mounted his horse, and galloping from spot to spot, calmed the partisans of Arbues, promising them full vengeance. That vengeance was taken without mercy. One of the conspirators, named Uranso, turned king's evidence, MILITARY ORDERS: EARLIER INQUISITION. 369 and on his information two hundred citizens were seized by the inquisitors and dragged through the streets of the city, and after having their hands cut off, they were hanged. Their corpses were cut in pieces, which were placed along the public streets. The only mercy shown to Uranso was that his hands were cut off after, instead of before, his death. The combined power of the king and the Pope riveted the chains of the Inquisition alike on Castile and Aragon. In 1492, the year in which Granada was reduced, a royal edict was issued by Fernando and Isabel ordering the expulsion of the Jews from Spain at the end of four months. The victims had known their danger, and to escape their fate had offered Fernando 30,000 ducats for his military expenses, promising at the same time a complete obedience to the laws. Fernando and Isabel had been willing to accept these terms, but Torquemada presented him- self before them with a crucifix in his hand, saying, ''Judas sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver; your highnesses are intending to sell Him again for 30,000 pieces. Here He is ; take Him ; sell Him quickly." Isabel could never hold her ground against a man who spoke in the name of religion. She gave way, and the edict was issued. A few Jews allowed themselves to be baptized; 170,000 fled the kingdom. Innocent VIII. published a Bull commanding all Governments to seize the fugitives and give them up to the inquisitors. But, to the honour of human nature, his orders were in no case obeyed. Strong in the support of the Pope and the king. 370 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Torquemada did not hesitate to strike at the Spanish bishops. Davila had been Bishop of Segovia for thirty years, and his father had been long since dead. Torque- mada charged the latter with having died in Judaism, and therefore demanded that his remains should be exhumed and burnt and his goods confiscated. His son had to journey to Rome to lay the case before Alexander VI. Aranda was Bishop of Calahorra, Torquemada commenced a process against his father. The bishop went to Rome, with a less fortunate re- sult. His natural son, whom he took with him, became a favourite with Pope Alexander VI., but the bishop himself was degraded and imprisoned. In 1498 Torquemada died, after having been grand- inquisitor for eighteen years. Llorente calculates that during these eighteen years 10,220 persons were burnt alive and 6860 in effigy, and that 97,321 suffered confiscation of goods, imprisonment for life, or disqualification for holding any office.'^ Torque- mada raged against books only less than against men. In 1490 he burnt in Salamanca 6000 volumes, including Hebrew Bibles, which were regarded as Jewish. The second inquisitor-general was Diego Deza. The Jews had hitherto been the object of the Inquisition's persecution. Deza persuaded Fernando and Isabel to use the same instrument against the Moors in the kingdom of Granada, which had passed into their hands in 1492. It was true that the royal word had been passed that the Inquisition should not be ^ Prescott holds that Llorente's numbers are exaggerated, owing to a fault in his method of calculation {Ferd. and Is., ii. ch. xxvL). MILITARY ORDERS: EARLIER INQUISITION. 371 established in Granada, but the queen was persuaded, against her own judgment, that she would still keep her promise if she allowed the inquisitors 0/ Cor- dova to exercise authority in the principality of Granada. Fernando de Talavera had been appointed the first Bishop of Granada after the conquest of the country. He was a man of singular gentleness for the age in which he lived, so much so that, at a later time, he became himself the subject of persecution by the Inquisition. This gentleness had its effect in inclining the minds of numerous Moors towards Christianity. Ximenes de Cisneros, now Archbishop of Toledo, impatient of the slow progress made, associated himself with Talavera in his work, and succeeded, partly by zeal and partly by bribery, in bringing many of the Moslems to baptism. Meet- ing at length with opposition, he had recourse to harsher measures, which led at last to an insur- rection. Unabashed, the archbishop reminded the sovereigns that all was well, for that they had now an excuse for breaking the promise of protection which they had given/ B^ernando easily, Isabel with greater difficulty, were persuaded, and in the year 1502 they commanded all Moors to depart from Spain, forbidding them to cross to Africa, and de- siring them to find a domicile elsewhere. Those who submitted to baptism and remained behind were given over to the care of the Inquisition. Deza was grand- ^ " Que sus Altezas y sus sucesores para .-icinpie jamas tlejaran vivir a todo el comun, chicos y grander, en su ley, y no les conscnliidn quitar sus mesquidas. . . . Que ningun Moio ni Mora setan apienii;uios a ser cristianos contra su vulunlad " (Marniol., Ilisloria licl Kcbelion del reyno de Granada ; ([uoted in l)e CasUo's lutolcwitcc in Spain, p. 27). 2 B 372 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. inquisitor for eight years, and during this time he is supposed to have burnt 2592 persons aHve and 896 in effigy, and to have imposed the penalty of im- prisonment or confiscation of goods on 34,952. Deza having resigned. Cardinal Ximenes de Cis- neros was the third inquisitor-general. Ximenes was a great minister, a great bishop, and a patron of literature. The reputation which he bears in the world does not depend upon his character and acts as inquisitor, else he would hardly rise above the level of Torquemada. It is supposed that in his early years he was inclined to reform the processes of the Inquisition, and so diminish its influence and change its character ; but when he found himself the despotic master of an almost omnipotent institution, he altered his views and showed himself a stubborn maintainer of the privileges of the Holy Office, going so far as to find vast sums of money for Fernando, to prevent his reforming the institution by doing away with the secrecy under which its proceedings were concealed ; and, again, he exercised a similar malign influence over Charles V., when the latter was disposed to abolish the Inquisition throughout his dominions. He was inquisitor-general for eleven years, during which period 3564 persons are said to have been burnt alive, 1232 in effigy, and 48,059 otherwise made to suffer. CHAPTER XXVIII. CARDINAL XIMENES DB CISNEROS. XiMENES appears in his worst light as a proselytiser and an inquisitor. Regarded in other aspects, he hardly appears to be the same man. His two prede- cessors in the See of Toledo left their mark in history : Ximenes made history. Alonzo Carillo, who had been Archbishop of Toledo in the reign of Henry IV. and the earlier part of Isabel's reign, was a turbu- lent, self-willed noble, who took his full share in the political intrigues and rebellions of his time and lost his ecclesiastical in his secular character. He and his nephew, the Marquis of Villena, were two of the greatest men in the Castilian aristocracy, and they took their part in a scene which has scarcely its parallel in history. A scaffold was erected in the plain of Avila, and on it was seated an effigy of the king in his royal robes, with sword, sceptre, and crown. Before this figure a declaration was read de- claring Henry's deposition on account of his tyranny and heresy.^ At its conclusion Archbishop Carillo mounted the scaffold and tore the crown from the ^ His heresy was proved by liis not having confessed twice in forty years: — "Vinieron al rey don Enrique dicendo como era creje y che en quaranta anos ne se falhiva averse confesado dos veces " (Fray Pedro de Roxas, Repertorio de algiinos Actos y C<'sas Sitigulares ; quoted by De Cas'ro, Intolerance in S/ain, ]->. oV 373 374 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. head. The Marquis of Villena and others snatched away, one after the other, the sceptre, the sword, and the other insignia ; after which the image was thrust from the throne, and Henry's young brother, Alonzo, was placed on it. Shortly afterwards the archbishop headed the army of Prince Alonzo in the battle of Olmeda. He favoured Isabel's claims to the throne, and was influential in establishing her in it. Then he threw himself on the opposite side through jealousy of Mendoza, and ended his turbulent life in disgrace, occupying his later days in the study of alchemy. His successor in the See of Toledo was Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza. He too was a great Castilian noble rather than an archbishop, but a noble of a different stamp from Carillo. Licentiousness was at this time the rule among the Spanish clergy ; or rather, the priests and bishops, being forbidden mar- riage, gave themselves up to loose amours, which were hardly considered to be a reproach. Mendoza left behind him children born of different noble- women, whose birth was not regarded as a shame either to him or to them, but he was a man who had all the virtues of a great noble as well as the vices. He was munificent in his liberality, and never descended to a mean act for the sake of injuring another or revenging himself. He and Archbishop Carillo both fought bravely in the battle of Toro, dressed in full armour. He was on the side of mercy in dealing with the Jews, and if he could have had his own way, would have preferred to con- vert them by persuasion, or even to leave them alone CARDINAL XIMENES DE CISNEROS. 375 in their perversity, to burning them in the autos-da-fe. Having no personal interests to serve, he was a favourite at court, and on one occasion smoothed over a serious rupture between the Catholic kings and the Pope, arising from the Pope's encroach- ing on the royal rights of patronage. On his death- bed he is said to have suggested to the queen the name of Ximenes as his successor. Ximenes was born in the year 1436, and sent to the University of Salamanca. Thence he proceeded to Rome and obtained a Papal Bull promising him the first valuable benefice which became vacant in the diocese of Toledo. When the vacancy occurred Ximenes took possession of his living, but Arch- bishop Carillo had destined the post for a follower of his own, and on Ximenes refusing to give it up the archbishop put him in prison, where he remained for six years. Not long after his release he joined the Franciscans, and led a life of severe asceticism. On Talavera's becoming Archbishop of Granada, Ximenes was made confessor to the queen, and with her car- ried out a much-needed reformation of the Spanish monasteries. It was with difficulty that he could be persuaded to accept the Archbishopric of Toledo. Yet he was a man who loved power and who exercised it despotically. His monastic reforms raised him a host of enemies ; no fewer than a thousand Francis- cans were said to have deserted Spain and gone to Africa rather than submit to them. The iVugustinians sent a canon to Rome to make complaint, but Ximenes pursued him, overtook him in Italy, brought him back, and sent him to prison for two years for his pre- 3/6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. sumption. Ximenes was equally powerful under Isabel, Philip I., and Fernando. Early in the six- teenth century, at Fernando's request, he was made a cardinal by Pope Julius II., and on Deza's retire- ment he became, as we have seen, inquisitor-general. No other ecclesiastic wielded such powers. His ambition grew with his dignity. In 1508 he made an offer of conducting an expedition at his own cost and in his own person against Oran, on the African coast. His expedition was successful, and leaving a lieutenant to complete the military work, he returned to Spain. Here he occupied himself with measures more suitable for an archbishop. He had long pro- posed to establish a new university at Alcala. In 1508 he completed the erection of the necessary building. Out of the enormous revenues which he received from the richest See in Christendom and his other ecclesiastical posts he was able to endow the university liberally. Forty-two professors or lecturers were appointed, and at the end of twenty years there were as many as 7000 members.-^ About the same time he occupied himself with the great undertaking of the Complutensian Polyglot, by which Ximenes has for ever earned a first place among Biblical critics. It consisted of six volumes folio, and its compilation occupied fifteen years. In all respects it is an astonishing performance. That a Spanish archbishop and a Roman cardinal and an inquisitor should have been the first to conceive the idea of a critical edition of the Holy Scriptures appears to ^ We cannot forget that it was the founder of the University of Alcala that burnt 2000 Arabic MSS. at Granada. CARDINAL XIMENES DE CISNEROS. 377 be altogether out of place. We know that Xiinenes objected to the use of the Bible for the conversion of the Moors, and it was probably the good of his university that he was specially contemplating when he commenced the gigantic undertaking. Another work highly becoming his archiepiscopal office was his edition of the Mozarabic Liturgy and the establish- ment of a chapel in the Cathedral of Toledo where it could be used. Laudable as this act was, it would have been still more praiseworthy had his scholar's instincts, overcoming those of the theologian, allowed him simply to reproduce the old office instead of adapting it, in its doctrine and in its contents, to the Breviary and Missals of the Church of his own day. The death of Fernando brought Ximenes once more to the front in politics. He was appointed regent until the arrival of Fernando's grandson, Charles V., and, old as he was, he exhibited his accustomed vigour in that capacity. In 15 17 Charles took upon himself the government of the kingdom, and coldly told the regent that he might retire to his diocese. Ximenes' death followed so closely after this letter that it has been usual to regard the shock caused by its receipt as in part the cause of the old statesman's death. Ximenes was the third of the great bishops which Spain has produced. The first was Hosius of Cor- dova, the contemporary of Constantine ; the second, Isidore of Seville, under the Gothic monarchy ; Ximenes makes the third. They all lived in Spain, but they are the representatives of three Churches, 378 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the primitive Spanish Church, the Gothic Spanish Church, and the modern Spanish Church, each of which is connected by certain Hnks with the other, but they can hardly be regarded as different forms of one National Church. The primitive Spanish Church did indeed run into the Gothic Church, and after a time the old believers absorbed the new Gothic element into themselves. But in the eleventh century that old Church died out in Mozarabic de- cadence, and a new Church, with a new centre and new doctrines and new methods of discipline, was introduced by the sovereigns of Leon, Castile, and Aragon. It was of this last Church that Ximenes was the glory. He had high qualities, noble aspira- tions, intense self-sacrifice, and yet it may be doubted whether he did not do more harm by his supposed virtues to his Church and country than Carillo by his political turbulence or Mendoza by his laxity of morals. The effects of the example of Carillo and Mendoza might quickly pass, but to Ximenes Spain owed the expulsion of the Moriscos, the retention of the Inquisition, and the extension to the New World of that terrible institution. Can any benefits derived from asceticism, which was only personal, from refor- mation of monastic corruption, which soon reverted to its pristine laxity, from the institution of a university in rivalry of the already existing University of Salamanca, or even from the advance in Biblical criticism promoted by the Complutensian Polyglot, make up for the horrors which the Spanish Inquisi- tion has inflicted on the Spanish nation and Christen- CARDINAL XIMENES DE CI SN EROS. 379 dom in Europe, Africa, India, South America, and the Spanish West Indies ? ^ ^ " Le jour ou dans I'ordre politique, la royaute, avec I'aide de I'in- quisition, a tout absorbe, tout ecras^ ; le jour ou I'Eglise victorieuse a voulu abuser de la victoire ; excluire et proscrire d'abord les Juifs, puis les Maures, puis les Protestants ; puis toute discussion, tout exa- men, toute recherche, toute initiative, toute liberie ; ce jour-lk tout a ete perdu" (Montalembert, V Espagne et la Liberli). CHAPTER XXIX. THE LATER INQUISITION. The Inquisition appeared to have been successful in suppressing Judaism and Mohammedanism in Spain. Might it not now die out for lack of further material on which to act ? Twice Charles V., being a German, not a Spaniard, was on the point of abolishing it. The first time he was restrained by Ximenes ; the second time by Adrian, afterwards Pope Adrian VI., who succeeded Ximenes as the fourth inquisitor- general of Spain. The argument by which Charles was finally won over to be a strenuous supporter of the institution was this. New opinions were spring- ing up within the Church which Charles detested, and Adrian made him understand that the most effi- cient instrument for crushing these opinions was the Inquisition. Castile, Aragon, Catalonia, the whole of Spain, in vain petitioned for such reforms in its pro- ceedings as would enable its victims to know what the charges made against them were and to obtain justice. The Pope, the king, and the inquisitor- general, the three powers which ruled Spain, re- solved on increasing, not curtailing, its powers, that it might resist the Reformation which was now loom- ing large before them. The first care of the new inquisitor, Cardinal Manrique, who succeeded Adrian 380 THE LATER INQUISITION. 381 as inquisitor-general, was to keep any books out of the Peninsula which might be regarded as favourable to the views of Luther. Erasmus' writings were condemned, and a long list of prohibited books was made out. No book was to be admitted into Spain or into the New World except it were approved by authority. Paul III., who became Pope in 1534, forbade even archbishops and bishops to read books suspected of heresy, and in 1558 Philip II. denounced death and confiscation of goods on any one who sold, bought, or kept any books prohibited by the Holy Office. The first professed Protestant in Spain was Rodrigo de Valero. He had been an idle young man, loung- ing away his time at Seville in the fashionable world, when he suddenly gave himself up to the study of the Bible and a life of religion. But he did not become devout in the orthodox Spanish manner. He worked out for himself a system similar to that of Luther, and regardless of his life, began to propa- gate it amongst his countrymen. At first men said that he must be mad, but this supposition did not long save him from the Inquisition. He was sum- moned before the tribunal, and all his goods were confiscated. He was again summoned, and was con- fined in a monastery for life, where he might see no one outside the walls of the convent. Here he died at the age of fifty. Before his imprisonment he had been brought much into contact with Dr. Juan Gil or Egidius, preacher at the Cathedral of Seville. It had been noted that after Valero's intimacy with him, Egidius's sermons had changed their cliaracter, 382 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN and he had become the most popular preacher in Seville. He gathered round him a school of followers, amongst whom were Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, and Dr. Vargas. Suspicion was not yet aroused, and Charles V. nominated Egidius for the Bishopric of Tortosa. This led to a closer examination into his doctrine, and he was denounced to the Inquisi- tion of Seville as heretical on justification, purga- tory, auricular confession, worship of images and relics, and the invocation of saints, and on these charges he was consigned to the secret prisons of the Holy Office, though the Emperor and the Chapter of Seville wrote in his favour. Egidius proposed a conference between himself and an orthodox theo- logian. Soto, a Salamanca doctor, was selected for this purpose. The two theologians came to a perfect agreement, and they arranged each to write their views and read them in public to show their identity. A conference was called by the inquisitors for this purpose in the Cathedral of Seville, which was filled by a vast crowd ; but Soto, instead of expressing the views that had been agreed upon, made a profession of faith of a quite different character. Egidius was condemned, on suspicion of being a Lutheran, to three years* imprisonment, and he was forbidden to preach or expound theology for ten years. He survived his imprisonment only one year. Four years after his death he was declared a heretic, and it was ordered that his body should be exhumed and burnt and his goods confiscated. Egidius lived long enough to constitute a Protestant Church in Seville which in a short time embraced eight hundred members. THE LATER INQUISITION. 353 The condemnation of Egidius had the same effect on the Protestants of Seville as S. Stephen's martyr- dom on the first Christians. Many of his associates were scattered abroad. Among these were Cassio- dorus de Reina, Juan Perez de Pineda, and Cyprian de Valera. These men, having got into a place of safety, occupied themselves with preparing tracts and books suitable for propagating their faith in Spain. Another of the company, Julian Hernandez, ingeniously con- trived to introduce them into the country by packing them in a small barrel contained in a larger one, the space between the two barrels' sides being filled with wine. The man who took the place of Egidius as leader was Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, who with Dr. Vargas had been a fellow-student with Egidius at Alcala. Vargas died early. Constantine was ap- pointed almoner and preacher to Charles V., and was ordered to accompany the emperor into German3\ He returned to Seville a little before Egidius' death, and was elected canon of Seville. He became popu- lar as a preacher, but meantime his name had been given to the inquisitors as suspected of Lutheranism by several prisoners when put to the torture.^ Con- ^ The tortures by means of rack and pulley are sufficiently known. Some forms used in the Inquisition were of a rarer character. The following is Baker's description of one of them, taken from the account of the Secretary to the Inquisition (Llorente, xiv. 20) : — "'I'here is a wooden bench, which they call the wooden horse, made hollow like a trough, so as to contain a man lying on his back at full length about the middle of which there is a round bar laid across, upon which the back of the person is placed, so that he lies upon the bar, instead of being let (down) into the bottom of the trough, and with his feet much higher than his head. As he is lying in this posture, his arms, thighs, and shins are tied round with small cords or strings, which, being drawji with screws at proper dislanrc-; from each other. 384 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. stantine was preparing his defence, when an unhappy chance delivered him into the hands of his enemies. He had written books of a Protestant character, and for the sake of safety he had entrusted these to a Protestant lady, and she had concealed them in her cellar, where they were securely walled up. The lady was arrested on a charge of Lutheranism, and her goods sequestered. The inquisitors, believing that some valuable effects had not been delivered up, sent an officer to demand them. The lady's son, struck with terror at the appearance of the officer, immediately made a declaration of the existence of the concealed books, and taking down part of the wall, handed them to the officer, who carried them to the Holy Office. Constantine's books dealt with the subjects of the Church, the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Mass, justification, purgatory, indulgences, merit, auricular confession. It was all over with him. The Inquisitors did not even think it worth while to put him to the torture. They threw him into a dark and dripping underground cell full of foul air and accumu- lating filth that was never removed. Accustomed as he had been to living as a gentleman at the emperor's cut into the very bones, so as to be no longer discerned. Besides this, the torturer throws over his moutli and nostrils a thin cloth, so that he is scarce able to breathe through them, and in the meanwhile a small stream of water like a thread, not drop by drop, falls from on high upon the mouth of the person lying in this miserable condition, and so easily sinks down the thin cloth to the bottom of his throat, so that there is no possibility of breathing, his mouth being stopped with water and his nostrils with the cloth, so that the poor wretch is in the same agony as persons ready to die and breathing out their last. Wiien this cloth is drawn out of his throat, as it often is, that he may answer to the questions, it is all wet with water and blood, and is like pulling his bowels through his mouth." THE LATER INQUISITION. 385 court, he was horrified at the den to which he was consigned. '' O my God ! " he cried, " were there no Scythians or cannibals, or men more cruel still, into whose hands I might have been delivered, before permitting me to fall into the power of these bar- barians ? " Such an imprisonment could have but one result. Constantine soon perished. At the next auto-da-fe ^ a figure was exhibited with arms stretched out in the attitude which Constantine used when preaching, dressed in priestly robes ; he was condemned for heresy, and his bones were burnt. It was not to be expected that any of the Protes- tant leaders in Seville would escape, for the three lords of Spain, Pope Paul IV., King Phihp II., and the Inquisitor-General Valdes, had determined on stamping out the sect. The Pope ordered by his Bull that all Lutherans should be handed over for execution, whether relapsed or not, whether profess- ing repentance or not. He ordered all confessors to refuse absolution to any who did not denounce to the Holy Office the existence of any Lutheran books of which they had knowledge, and the confessors themselves were to be excommunicated if they were not urgent on the point. Philip renewed the ancient law that the informer (whose name was always kept concealed) should receive the fourth part of the goods of the person condemned. The number of informations thus brought about was enormous. Valdes had to send a special delegate to Seville, and another to Valladolid, to receive them. A singular 1 Literally, an act of faith. It is usual to call it by its Portuguese title auto-^/a-fc, instead of the Spanish aiito-(/t'-fc. 386 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. circumstance gave to the inquisitors a full knowledge of the names of their victims at Seville. Francisco de Zafra was incumbent of the parish of S. Vincent in that city, and he was in secret a Protestant, and had received into his house a lady holding the same sentiments as himself. In the terrible excitement of the time, she went out of her mind, ran to the Holy Office, and denounced her co-religionists. The in- quisitors hesitated to accept her evidence, as she was plainly mad. They had as yet no suspicion respecting Zafra, and they accepted for the moment his repre- sentation that the stories which the poor lady had told were the result of a disordered imagination. Nevertheless, they kept an eye on those whose names had thus been betrayed to them, and when the time for the next auto-da-fe at Seville came near, they swept them all into their prisons. The poor lady, having recovered her mind, returned to her former faith and her former companions, and a few years later she died at the stake with her sister and her three daughters.'^ Seville required two autos-da-fe to burn Protes- tantism out of it. They were held in the years 1559 and 1560 by Valdes' delegate, the Bishop of Tarra- gona, three other bishops, and the inquisitors of the district ; the judges, the cathedral chaplain, and a ^ The manner in which evidence was obtained against these unhappy women was the following : — Torture having no effect upon them, the inquisitor took one of the girls apart, assured her of his affection for her, and promised to save her mother and sisters if she would make confession to him. No sooner had she done so than he made her repeat her confession in public, and the five women were burnt together. THE LATER INQUISITION. 387 number of grandees and court ladies being present.-^ At the first auto-da-fe twenty-one victims were " re- laxed/' that is, handed over to the secular authority for death, and eighty were condemned to other pun- ishments. Zafra, whose name has been just men- tioned, had escaped in the confusion arising from the capture of eight hundred suspected persons, and, therefore, the Holy Office was only able to burn his effigy. Among those actuall}' burnt were Isabel de Baena, who had lent her house for some Protestant meetings ; Juan Ponce de Leon, cousin of the Duke" of Arcos ; Juan Gonzalez, a priest of Seville, together with his two sisters. The sisters, being pressed to conform, replied that they would do as their brother did. The gag was removed from Gonzalez' mouth in order that he might persuade them to save their lives. Instead, he encouraged them to be constant, and all three died singing the 11 6th Psalm. One of the best-known figures among the victims was that of Garqia de Arias, who bore the name of Doctor White, in consequence of the whiteness of his hair. For a length of time he had concealed his true views, and had often been called in by the inquisitors to ^ A description of the ceremonies of an aiUo-da-fi will be found in Prescott's History of Philip II., bk. ii. cliap. iii. ; in De Castro's Spanish Protestants, cliap. vi. ; in ^VCxWs History of the Reformation i}i Spain, chap. vii. p. 274. A very exact account is also given in Histoire de r Inquisition de Goa, published at Amsterdam in 1697 by a French- man who himself went through all the ceremonies, except that of being burnt, in the Inquisition of Portuguese India. The story is illustrated by copperplates representing the various scenes, such as the sermon, the processions, and the burning at the stake, the distinctions in the san-benito dress, &c. Baker's History of the lHqiiisitio)i, printed in 1736, contains (p. 4S4) a particular account of the auto-da fe oi 16S0 at Madrid. 2 C 388 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. give his opinion on books of a Protestant tendency. Belonging to the Convent of S. Isidore, he quietly spread Protestant doctrines within its walls, and as long as he was able to deceive the inquisitors, he condescended to extreme dissimulation elsewhere. As soon as he was seized he threw off the mask, and died bravely at the stake without a sign of distress. Two other monks of the same convent perished with him, Christobal d'Arellano and Juan de Leon. The last was on his way to England, where Elizabeth was now on the throne, when he was seized by some spies of the Inquisition in Zealand as he was on the point of embarking. The officers of the Inqui- sition put him in irons, gagged him, and forced a sort of iron helmet over his head and face, and in this state hurried him off to Seville. At the stake the gag was taken out of his mouth to see if he would make profession of the Roman Catholic faith, but he preferred the fire. A medical man, named Chris- tobal de Losada, a disciple of Egidius, suffered the same fate. A schoolmaster, Fernando de S. Juan, was also burnt alive, his pupils being handed over to the Jesuits. Three young ladies of Seville were also burnt. One of them, being very young, was told that her life should be given her if she would recite the Creed. She did so, but added to it a Protestant commentary on the article, " The Holy Catholic Church," on which she was at once garotted and her body burnt. The second auto-da-fe took place the year follow- ing. Fourteen were burnt at the stake, three in effigy, and thirty-four otherwise sentenced. It was THE LATER INQUISITION. 389 now that the figures and bones of Egidiiis and Con- stantine were burnt, and together with them the figure of Juan Perez de Pineda, who had contrived to escape. Hernandez, who had succeeded in introducing so many books into Spain, was burnt. An Enghshman named Burton, who had come to Spain on business and let his tongue wag too freely, was seized and burnt, and a British sailor named Brook, and a Frenchman from Bayonne. Hearing of Burton's arrest, a Bristol merchant hastened to Seville to see if he could save Burton and recover the goods with which he had been entrusted. The result was, that he was himself seized as a Protestant, con- demned to lose his goods and to wear the san- benito habit for a year. A Dutchman was com- mitted to prison for an indefinite time at the pleasure of the inquisitors for having said that he thought that his wife's conduct would serve as a sufficient purgatory for him. Such a statement was deroga- tory to one of the dogmas of the Church. Juana Bohorques, sister of one of the ladies burnt last year, had been thrown into prison owing to her sister's confession. She was delivered of a child in prison, which was taken from her at the end of eight days. Happily for her there was a young Protestant girl in the prison, who carefully tended her in her sickness. A few weeks later this girl was sum- moned to the torture-room, and returned so maimed that Juana had now to nurse her. Scarcely was she beginning to get better, when Juana was herself sum- moned to the torture-chamber. She had not yet recovered her natural strengtli, and the result of the 390 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. torture was to burst some internal vessel. She re- turned to the ceil to die. Her companion was shortly afterwards committed to the flames.-^ Protestantism organised itself in Valladolid about the same time as at Seville. The primary instru- ment in introducing it was a native of Burgos, named Francisco San-Roman, who had gone to Antwerp and Bremen on mercantile business, and there embraced Protestantism. Having written letters home respect- ing his change of faith, he was seized on his return and thrown into prison. On his release he made his way to Ratisbon and besought Charles V. to restrain the cruelty of the inquisitors and admit the doctrines of the Reformation. The emperor ordered him into confinement, and delivered him over to the Inquisition of Valladolid. Refusing to recant, he was brought to the stake in the year 1544. After the faggots had been lighted he was pulled out of the fire in hopes of drawing from him an acknow- ledgment of his errors. " Did you envy my happi- ness ? " said he to the friars surrounding him, where- upon he was at once thrust back into the flames. The first Protestant minister of Valladolid was Dominic de Roxas, son of the Marquis de Posa and a pupil 1 At the time that the Protestants were burnt at Seville the moral life of the priests was so bad that, the Inquisition having decreed that every woman who had been tempted to sin in the confessional should denounce the author of the temptation to the Holy Office, so many denunciations were made that it was found necessary to hush up the matter ( Valera, Tratado de los Papas ; De Castro, Spanish Protestants^ ch. xxiv. ; Montanus, Inquisitionis HispanicB Aries, p. 184). Paul IV. issued the first Bull commanding these denunciations in 1561, addressed to the Inquisitor Valdes, and many other Popes found it necessary to follow his example. THE LATER INQUISITION. 391 of Archbishop Carranza. For some time he was unmolested, though watched by the spies of the In- quisition. In 1558 he disguised himself as a layman and attempted to escape, but he was seized and thrown into the prison of the Holy Office of Valla- dolid. When brought into the torture-chamber he prayed for death, and was told that he should have his life if he would reveal the names of his associates. He yielded through present terror, but afterwards denied his words. At the stake he turned to Philip II. and cried out that he was about to die for the defence of the true faith of the Gospel, which was that of Luther. Philip ordered him to be gagged, and in that state he died. The ablest leader of the Protestants in Valladolid was Augustin Cazalla. He too had been a pupil of Carranza's, was a canon of Salamanca, and preacher to the emperor. Urged by Roxas, he took up his residence in Valladolid, and the house of his mother, Leonora de Vibero, became the Protestants' place of meeting for worship. In 1558 he was seized and threatened with the torture. He acknowledged him- self a Lutheran, but denied that he had exercised proselytism. Up to the eve of the auto-da-fe he was led to believe that his Hfe would be spared. Being told that his plea was insufficient, "Then," said he, '' I must prepare for death, for I can say no more." The confessor who attended him declared him peni- tent, and he was therefore strangled before his body was given to be burnt. There were two antos-da-fc celebrated at Valla- dolid in the year 1559. The first was on Trinity 392 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Sunday, May 21, in the presence of Juana, regent in the absence of Philip II., and of Prince Carlos, who occupied seats in the chief plaza of Valladolid, sur- rounded by a vast crowd of the highest-born men and women of Spain. As soon as all had taken their positions, the sermon customary on the occasion was preached by Melchior Cano, Bishop of the Canaries ; after which the chief inquisitor present, placing him- self before Don Carlos and Juana, administered to them an oath to defend the Inquisition and to reveal to it anything spoken, to any person whatsoever, in its depreciation or contrary to the faith. The young prince took the oath, but it is said that the events of that day inspired in him a mortal hatred of the Inquisition, which was afterwards fatal, not to the Inquisition, but to himself. In the present auto-da-fe there were two families which were made to suffer most, the Cazallas and the Roxas. The death of Augustin Cazalla has been already mentioned. With him were burnt his brother Francisco and his sister Beatriz, together with the bones of his mother, Leonora de Vibero.^ Leonora had died, having received the Eucharist and Extreme Unction, and had been buried as a good Catholic, but some of the Protestants had confessed under torture that she had allowed Protestant meetings to be held in her house. On this her memory was declared infamous, the goods she had left were confiscated, her corpse was brought to the burning-place with a figure of herself dressed in a san-benito and pasteboard mitre and thrown into the fire. Her house was ordered to ^ Spanish wives at this time did not take their husbands* names. THE LATER INQUISITION. 393 be razed and a monument of her crime to be erected on the spot. This monument stood till the year 1809. The three Cazallas who were burnt were her children. Two more of her children, a son and daughter, brother and sister of Augustin, were con- demned to perpetual imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and the infamy of wearing the san-benito as long as they lived. Five belonging to the family of Roxas were punished in like manner by confiscation of goods, perpetual imprisonment, and perpetual san- benito. A goldsmith named Garcia was burnt. He had been denounced by his wife, who had watched him to the place where the Protestants met for wor- ship. In return for her service she received an annuity from the public funds. Another man burnt was Herrezuelo, a lawyer. He and his wife Leonora had been carried off at the same time to the prisons of the Inquisition, and they met at the stake. Leonora's san-benito had no figures of devils upon it ; by that Herrezuelo saw that she had recanted, and he tossed some words of scorn at her as he passed. Finding that her husband perished while she was saved, Leonora refused to be comforted, and a few years later was herself burnt. In this aiito-da-je fourteen persons were burnt and sixteen otherwise condemned. The second auto-da-fe of Valladolid, held in the autumn of the same year, was graced by the presence of King Philip IL, who brought with him his son Carlos and his sister J nana, together with a host of grandees. Philip, without any of the reluctance which Carlos had felt, took the oath administered to him, and drew his sword to show that he was the defender 394 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. of the Inquisition. At this auto-da-fe another Cazalla, brother of Augustin, and another Roxas were burnt. The most important victim was Carlos de Seso, a Veronese by birth, who had married a Castihan wife. For fifteen months he had been in the prisons of the Inquisition, and the day before his execution he had consigned to paper the statement of his faith, which was pronounced by the Inquisition unsatisfactory. As he passed Philip's seat on the day of the auto-da-fe, he turned to him and said, '' Is it thus that you allow your innocent subjects to be persecuted ? " *' If my own son," replied Philip sternly, '^were in like case, I would fetch the wood to burn him " — words which were remembered at the time of the mysterious and tragical fate of Don Carlos. On this occasion thirteen persons were '' relaxed," that is, delivered to the flames, and sixteen '* reconciled," that is, condemned to degradation and other punishments. The Inquisition had not yet brought down its noblest quarry. Bartolome Carranza was a man of good family, and began life as a Dominican monk. Charles V. appointed him confessor to his son Philip, and sent him to the Council of Trent. He accom- panied Philip to England, and was active in the per- secution of the English Protestants. On Philip's nomination, he became Archbishop of Toledo in 1558. He belonged to what was regarded as the more moderate school among the Roman Catholics, the school of Pole and Contarini rather than of Caraflfa. His elevation to the richest See in Christendom after that of Rome sharpened the jealous eyes of his THE LATER INQUISITION. 395 enemies, and he was accused to the Inquisition as a favourer of Lutheranism. At the beginning of August 1559 he was living at Alcala, when he was sum- moned to Valladolid by the Regent Juana. He set off on his journey, ridiculing the idea that any one should venture to arrest him who had been instru- mental in the conversion of two millions of heretics and was the second prelate of Europe, subject to no one but the Pope. On August 20 he reached Tor- delaguna, and Don Rodrigo de Castro, the regent's messenger, supped with him. At midnight, after the archbishop had retired to rest, Diego Ramirez, the inquisitor-general of Toledo, summoning Rodrigo to accompany him, knocked at the door of the arch- bishop's antechamber. '' Who calls ? " cried the friar who was occupying the chamber. ^' Open to the Holy Office," was the answer. Immediately the door flew open, and that of the archbishop's room as well, for none dared resist that terrible summons, and Ramirez and Rodrigo entered. The archbishop raised himself in his bed and demanded the cause of the intrusion. Rodrigo fell on his knees, and with tears in his eyes declared that he was commanded by the Holy Office to take him prisoner, in proof of which he read an order signed by Valdes, inquisitor-general for Spain. The archbishop claimed his privilege of being subject only to the Pope. Ramirez drew forth a Papal brief authorising his arrest ; the archbishop submitted and yielded himself prisoner. A lawyer, a friar, and a priest who, one after the other, besought to see their patron were dismissed from the town under a penalty of 10,000 ducats fine and arrest 396 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. unless they immediately left it. None but Rodrigo and Ramirez were permitted to attend the prisoner at his dinner-table. All the household was dismissed. At nine o'clock at night proclamation was made that none of the inhabitants of the town should appear in the streets or at their windows until daylight. At midnight the archbishop was made to mount on a mule, and to proceed towards Valladolid, Ramirez and Rodrigo on each side of him, and the servants of the Inquisition behind. He was introduced into Valladolid with the same secrecy with which he had left Tordelaguna, and was lodged in the prisons of the Inquisition. The archbishop refusing to be judged by Valdes, who was his ecclesiastical inferior and a personal enemy, the Pope authorised Philip to nominate another judge ; but the archbishop did not benefit by the change. He lingered for seven years in prison, to the scandal of the Roman Catholic world, till in 1566 Pius V. evoked the trial to Rome, threaten- ing Philip and Valdes with excommunication if they disobeyed. He was lodged in the Castle of S. Angelo, and the Pope entered on the examination of the case. At the end of six years Pius V. died, without having pronounced any decision in public, though he had forwarded to Philip the draft of an acquittal, which Philip refused to accept. Pius V. was succeeded by Gregory XIII., who delivered sentence in 1576. Car- ranza was declared to have derived false doctrine from Luther, OEcolampadius, and Melancthon. The Catechism which he had published was condemned, and he was obliged to abjure sixteen propositions that were pronounced heretical. He was suspended THE LATER INQUISITION. 397 for five years, was confined to a Dominican convent at Orvieto for the same period, and was desired to do penance by visiting the seven chief churches of Rome. The old man was broken by his eighteen years' im- prisonment, and he received his sentence with tears and submission. His abjuration took place on Palm Sunday, and he visited the seven churches in Easter week, but the fatigue and grief that he had undergone killed him ; sixteen days after his sentence, on May 2, 1576, he was no more. The case of Carranza proved two things in the eyes of all Christendom. The first, that no moderate Roman Catholic, although he had exhibited his zeal by the persecution of Protestants, was safe in any land where the Inquisition was dominant ; the second, that the Primate of Spain was only a cipher as com- pared with the Primate of Italy. Julian, Bishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain, stood on a level with the Bishop of Rome in the seventh century, and wrung an apology from him when he ventured to impugn his orthodoxy. But Bernard accepted from Urban II. in the eleventh century the fatal gift of a primacy derived from Rome instead of from the old Spanish Church, and from that time forward no primate of Spain could stand up against the Roman Prelates. Is the Inquisition answerable for the fate of another of still higher rank than Archbishop Carranza ? Pro- bably the m^^stery surrounding the tragical death of Don Carlos, Prince of the Asturias, will never be cleared up. It has been seized upon by poets and romancers as a theme for their imagination, and facts have been concealed through the fear and respect 398 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. entertained by Spanish historians and annalists for PhiHp II. and his successors. Don Carlos was, no doubt, a youth of violent and uncontrolled temper, and no love ever existed between the father and the son. When he was fourteen years old he had been engaged by treaty with France to marry Isabel, but Philip's wife, Mary Tudor, having died at the critical time, Isabel was married to Philip instead of to his son. We have no indication of any resentment being felt by Carlos at the loss of his bride, though such a thing was not unlikely. That his relation to Isabel had anything to do with his death is a conjecture which rests on no foundation. His tem- per was the very opposite to that of Philip. Philip was grave, stern, inflexible, and pitiless ; Carlos was violent and reckless. The two men could not live together without giving offence each to the other, and Carlos offended his father's ministers with no regard to consequences. He personally assaulted the Duke of Alva. He insulted Cardinal Espinosa, Philip's prime minister, and afterwards grand-inquisi- tor. He drew his sword against Don John of Austria. On the other hand, he made friends with Count Egmont, and ventured to remonstrate with his father for attempting to introduce the Holy Office into the Netherlands, asking to be himself appointed governor of that country. As his son grew older, Philip looked upon him with a less and less favourable eye. The toil of his life had been to establish a permanent despotism, spiritual and secular, by his own resolute will, with the help of the chief inquisitor and the Pope. Was this headstrong boy to overthrow all his THE LATER INQUISITION. 399 policy as soon as he should himself have passed away ? Carlos hated the Inquisition, detested his father's policy, and was ready to put himself at the head, not, indeed, of a Protestant party, but of a party of toleration. The Duke of Alva was sent to the Low Countries, and arrested Egmont and Horn. Carlos had wished to go there and carry out a con- trary policy. He would not remain at his father's court. If he did not go to the Netherlands, he would fly to Vienna to his uncle Maximilian, or to Italy, or anywhere, and he began collecting money for the expenses of his journey. The night before he was going to set out Philip entered his bedroom in full armour accompanied by soldiers. Carlos' weapons were seized while he was still asleep, and he himself was delivered over as a prisoner to the Duke of Feria. He was watched day and night, and it soon appeared that he was never to be restored to liberty. The end came before long. The prince was said to have brought about his own death by using ice and snow and cold water, to relieve the fever from which he was suffering, and by carelessness of diet. This was what was said aloud, but sotto-voce his death was attributed to his father. A Council of ministers had declared him to be guilty of treason which the king might punish or pardon as he chose. Philip had replied that, for the good of his people, he must let the law take its course, unless, indeed, this extremity might be avoided by allowing the prisoner to cause his own death by indulging in unwholesome dict.-^ ^ This is in tlie spirit of the Jesuit Mariana's teachini^, contained in his treatise on king-killing, Dc rcgc ct regis iustitutiotic, i. 6. 4o6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. It was not necessary for a king to speak more plainly. Antonio Perez states that Carlos, having been condemned to death by casuists and inquisi- tors, died by administration of poison.^ Giustiniani, who was then in Spain, told De Thou that Carlos was adjudged to death, and that poison was mixed in his broth.^ It can hardly be questioned that Carlos met with foul play ; but it was not at the hands of the Inquisition, but of the Council of ministers which advised the king that the prince had incurred the penalty of death, at the head of which Council sat Cardinal Espinosa. There is an antecedent im- probability that a father should put to death his son, but that Philip II. should put to death a son who favoured liberalism in politics and toleration in religion has nothing improbable about it. He had already said to the noble Carlos de Seso, who was charged with Lutheranism, " I would fetch the wood to bum my own son were he such as thou," and the enormous number of executions by sword and by fire that he had caused must have made him callous to the thought of inflicting death for opinions which he counted dangerous to the State or the Church ; nor should we expect Philip's conscience to be troubled, even had it still been tender, at carry- ing out in his own manner, by his sovereign will, a sentence which he would have regarded not only as just and necessary, but also as legally awarded and approved by ecclesiastical authority. ^ Letter of Antonio Perez, quoted in Prescott's Philip II., book iv. chap. vii. ^ De Thou, Histoire Universelle, torn. v. ; quoted by Prescott. THE LATER INQUISITION. 40I Whether one victim more or less died at the hands of the Spanish Inquisitors can make no alteration in the judgment to be passed on the institution that they administered. By its agency, from 148 1 to 1798, there perished in the flames 32,000 persons, there were burnt in effigy 17,000, and 296,000 were de- graded, imprisoned, stripped of their goods, ruined, and subjected to pain and ignominy. In all 345,000 human beings in the Peninsula alone suffered at its hands, and to that sum of misery is to be added the further sum made up by the suffering of an untold number in India, South America, and all the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.^ ^ This institution the Dominican monk Monsabre defended in the year 1882, in the pulpit of Notre Dame, as *'a tribunal of legitimate surveillance for discussing the intrigues of an enemy that conspired against the public good ; a tribunal of high protection for society, which was menaced, and for innocent persons falsely accused ; a tribunal of equity and indulgence for the guilty. . . . What is the black injustice," cries the Dominican, " or the horrible cruelty that you see in it ? " {Cojiference siir V Inquisition, p. 19). Monsabre does not stand alone. Menendez y Pelayo, Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Madrid and author of Historia de los Heterodoxos Espa- noles, toasted the Inquisition at a public dinner given a few years ago on the anniversary of Calderon's death, and in his speech declared that " Spain must be for ever grateful to the House of Austria and the House of Bourbon, which had saved her from German barbarism " (see Field, Old and New Spain, p. 250). CHAPTER XXX. THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. The same day that the Catholic kings, Fernando and Isabel, entered Granada there was born, in the pro- vince of Guipuscoa, liiigo de Loyola. When he grew up he entered the army, which he had to leave on account of a wound. During the fever which fol- lowed this wound there unrolled itself before the imagination of the young enthusiast the prospect of a nobler warfare than that in which he had hitherto been engaged, and of a more spiritual chivalry than that to which, as a young Spanish noble, he had been addicted. He had visions of S. Mary, who appeared to him holding the infant Jesus in her arms. He threw himself before her image and vowed to be her knight, and to consecrate himself to her service. As a Spaniard the constitution of the military orders was familiar to him. He would establish a band of warriors like them, but instead of fighting against Moors in behalf of earthly kings, they should fight against the enemies of the Church for the honour of their divine lady. He went through all those combats with the devil which enthusiasts have to fight, and, like most originators of a new thing, he had to undergo persecutions and imprisonments at Alcala and at Sala- manca. He gathered round him his first companions, 402 THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 403 the nucleus of the famous Company, at the University of Paris. Lefevre was his first follower, a Savoyard ; the second, Francisco Xavier, a Spaniard. Four other young men joined them, and they resolved on going to Palestine for the spiritual conquest of that country. They appointed a rendezvous at Venice, where they met after Inigo or Ignatius had paid a short visit to his native country of Spain. Arrived in Venice, they found that the state of politics prevented their proceeding to the Holy Land, and they determined, therefore, to go to Rome instead. They were favour- ably received by Paul III., and in 1538 the company had grown sufficiently large to hold a formal meeting, at which Ignatius assured them that they were knights called by God to the spiritual conquest of the universe, and that they must be enrolled in a regiment which should last to the end of the world. He bade them call themselves the Company of Jesus, for God had twice told him that that was to be their name. Paul III., being asked for his approval, referred the ques- tion to three theologians, whose recommendation was unfavourable to the institution of the company. Ignatius is said by Ribadeneira to have promised God three thousand Masses if He would make them come to a different conclusion. The three theologians changed their minds, and Paul III. issued his Bull of approbation, September 27, 1540, in favour of such as would carry arms for God under the standard of the Cross, and serve the Lord and the Roman Pontiff. It was understood that their arms were chiefly to be directed against the Protestants. Ignatius became the first general, April 17, 1 541, and in his oath oil 2 D 404 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. admission he promised a special obedience to the sovereign Pontiff. The first prince who established Jesuits in his realm was Joao III., king of Portugal. Xavier and Rodriguez had already been sent into Portugal, and from thence Xavier had proceeded to Portuguese India. Rodriguez founded at Coimbra the first Jesuit college ; another sprang up at Oporto. In six years the Company was spread through the kingdom. The means that they adopted for attract- ing notice were often sensational. Rodriguez formed processions of the novices in the streets, carrying torches and deaths'-heads, who cried out as they marched, " Hell, hell for those who are in mortal sin ! Earth, earth, come and hear the words of salva- tion." The attention of the masses was drawn to them by these proceedings, while at the same time Rodriguez induced young men of the highest birth to join their ranks. Rodriguez became tutor in the royal family, and gained an entire mastery over Joao's mind. The people of Coimbra, Oporto, and Evora in vain petitioned the Court against the new-comers. The Archbishop of Evora, who was brother to the king and grand-inquisitor for the country, built a college for them at his own expense at Evora. In 1543 Maria, daughter of Joao III. of Portugal, became the first wife of Philip II. of Spain. Joao sent with her two Jesuits, one of whom gained to the cause of the Company Francisco de Borgia, Viceroy of Catalonia and Duke of Gandia. Under the patron- age of Borgia and of Cardinal Mendoza the Jesuits spread rapidly through Spain. They established colleges at Alcala, Gandia, Malaga, Placentia, Com- THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 405 postela, Oviedo, Leon, Granada, Medina-del-Campo, Cordova, Seville, Burgos, Avila, Cuen^a, Simancas, Barcelona, Murcia, Monte- Regio, Origuello, Ognato, and Salamanca. Proud of their success, and already aiming at the overthrow of national authority, the Jesuits did not deign to ask of the Archbishop of Toledo and the Spanish bishops sanction for their proceedings. The archbishop interdicted them, and threatened them with excommunication, forbidding all priests in his diocese the use of Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises, and prohibiting any one at Alcaic to receive the sacraments at their hands. Under these circum- stances the Jesuit author of the Life of Ignatius says that their first step was " to propitiate the heavenly Deity, as their custom was, by a voluntary flogging of their bodies/' and the next to try to win over the archbishop. These measures not succeeding, Igna- tius desired an appeal to be made to the king, while he himself petitioned the Pope. The Papal and the royal power combined was too great for the arch- bishop. He had to withdraw his opposition, and a house which he had built himself for a body of clergy of different views was assigned on his death to the Jesuits. Matters took much the same course in Aragon. Invited thither by men high in office, the Jesuits established themselves without any respect to the rights of jurisdiction belonging to other orders and clergy. They built a church, the consecration of which the grand-vicar of the Archbishop of Zara- goza forbade, and he excommunicated the Company. The Aragonesc took side with the grand-vicar 4o6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. against the new-comers. Fearing to be massacred, the latter fled from Zaragoza and appealed to their patrons, who threatened the archbishop with the king's indignation if he did not repudiate his grand- vicar's act. The terrified prelate at once did so, and the Jesuits returned in triumph to Zaragoza. At Salamanca, Melchior Cano, professor of theology, declared the Jesuits to be the precursors of Antichrist, and publicly applied to them S. Paul's words in Timothy iii. By Jesuit intrigue or good fortune Cano was removed from the University of Salamanca and sent into honourable exile as Bishop of the Canaries. Xavier had gone to Portuguese India in the year 1 541. Having passed the winter at Mozambique, he proceeded to Goa, which he made the centre of his activity. He was a man of warm heart and of a simple spirit, but the reputation which he enjoys as a missionary and propagator of Christianity is un- deserved. He had two methods of bringing about conversion. One was to make a progress through the streets of the several towns which he visited, ringing a hand-bell, which soon brought the children about him. His first lesson to them was to make the sign of the cross, which the children did with great satisfaction ; the next was to get them to learn by heart the Pater, Ave, Credo, Confiteor, and the Salve Regina, which was probably as much of the language as he knew himself; then he sent them away and told them to teach their parents and friends. As soon as they could say these formulas they were baptized. His other method was to employ his influence with the Viceroy de Souza and his authority THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 407 with the Portuguese soldiers to destroy the heathen temples and to compel the idolaters to profess them- selves Christians. Having thus converted a country, he went elsewhere. On his return it is not sur- prising that he found his converts as much heathen as they had been before his arrival. What was he to do ? We may smile when we find him making his friends, the children, set fire to the houses of the renegades, but we cannot smile when we find his system leading the way to the establishment in Goa of the tribunal of the Inquisition. If the Jews and Moors had not been compelled by force to renounce their faith Fernando and Isabel would not have required the Inquisition in Spain, and if Xavier had really converted the heathen it would not have been found necessary to call in the same hateful in- strumentality in India. It was introduced with all its formalities and rules. Its severity was as great as in Portugal — even greater, perhaps, than in Spain. In the Histoire de r Inquisition de Goa, published at Amsterdam in 1697, the author gives an account of his apprehension, and of the manner in which he was treated in the prisons of the Office and on the day of the auto-da-fe. He describes the fate of two natives handed over on that occasion by the Holy Office to the secular arm to be burnt, with the usual prayer, that "clemency and mercy might be shown them, and that, even if they were put to death, their blood should not be shed." With them were burnt four boxes containing the bones of men dead. He was himself fortunate enough to be among those condemned to punishment less than death. He was 4o8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. taken back to the Inquisition, made to promise on his knees secrecy as to all that occurred within the Holy Office, given a list of his penances, and con- ducted in irons on board a vessel about to sail for Portugal, where he was ordered to report himself at the Inquisition of Lisbon. Here he w^as again sent to prison and chained to one of its occupants. He had been condemned to spend five years as a convict in this prison, but after a time he was granted his liberty on condition of leaving the country. It was this terrible institution that Xavier's system of superficial ''conversion" led up to in India, although it was not actually established there till eight years after his death. Not finding sufficient support from De Souza, he wrote to the king of Portugal, begging him to send as viceroy ''a vigilant and courageous man whose chief interest should be the conversion of souls," and accordingly Joao de Castro was sent out with orders to pull down the pagodas, banish the heathen priests, protect the Christians, and not to tolerate any superstition. By the help of this viceroy Xavier's mission was to some extent suc- cessful, but it required the Inquisition to maintain its permanence. It was accordingly introduced in 1560.^ The relations of Joao III. of Portugal with Abys- sinia opened that country to the Order of the Jesuits. Ignatius appointed Baretto to head a mission thither ^ Besides India the other main theatre of the Inquisition, outside the Peninsula, was Central and South America. Here there were three chief tribunals: one at Mexico, established in 1570; one at Lima, in 1571 ; and one at Cartagena, which was not formally instituted till 1610. A special Inquisition was also set up for the navy and army in 1 571 liy a Papal brief demanded by Philip II. THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 409 with the title of Patriarch of Ethiopia, accompanied by twelve Jesuit priests. They proceeded to Goa, and thence sent one of their number to Abyssinia to prepare the way for them. But the king was no longer willing to receive them, and sent back their messenger. A priest named Oviedo bore the title of Patriarch of Ethiopia after Baretto's death, but no success attended the effort. Ignatius died in 1556 at Rome. His order con- tinued to expand in his native country of Spain and the neighbouring Portugal. New colleges arose at Ocana, Montella, Palencia, Segovia, and Madrid. Thirty-four of the professors at Alcala were Jesuits, and the General of the Jesuits rivalled the Inquisitor- general in his authority over the country. Towards the end of the sixteenth century a struggle for the mastery between these two powers seemed likely to take place. A Jesuit, contrary to his rule, accused other Jesuits to the Inquisition. The Holy Office arrested the accused and demanded to examine the constitutions of the company. Aquaviva was at that time General, and he sought the protection of the Pope, Sixtus V. desired his nuncio at Madrid to forbid further proceedings ; but the Inquisition continued the pro- cess, ordered the delivery of documents belonging to the Company, and threw one of the fathers, who refused to yield them up, into prison. Sixtus V., in great anger, commanded the restoration of the books belonging to the Jesuits, writing with his own hand to Cardinal Quiroga, the grand-inquisitor, and ending his letter with the words, " If you do not obey me this moment, I, the Pope, will depose you from your office of grand-inquisitor, and will take away your 4IO HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. cardinal's hat." Quiroga submitted, and the battle of giants did not take place. But it required all the in- genuity and authority of Sixtus V. to prevent it. The Inquisition condemned Ignatius Loyola's letter on the blind obedience required of the members of the Com- pany. Sixtus v., on appeal being made to him, sub- mitted the question to a commission of theologians, and Bellarmine's talents and learning alone saved the letter from being censured at Rome as well as in Spain. The Inquisition was gagged by the Pope, but the Dominicans who were identified with the Holy Office commenced a fierce attack on Molina, the Spanish Jesuit, professor at the University of Evora, for the semi-Pelagianism taught in his book on the ^' Harmony of Free Will with Gifts of Grace." ^ A Portuguese theologian, Henrique, though a Jesuit, joined in the assault, declaring that Molina was "preparing the way for Antichrist by setting up the natural power of the free will against the merits of Christ." Quiroga, the inquisitor-general, after con- sultation with the universities, bishops, and theolo- gians of Spain, charged Molina with heresy under sixteen heads before the Pope, who was now Clement VIII. The Jesuits as a body supported their accused brother, and as the Dominican party called them Pela- gians, they fixed on the Dominican party the name of Calvinists.^ Quiroga died ; Manriquez, who suc- ceeded him as inquisitor-general, was on the point of 1 " De Concordia gratiae et liberi aibitrii." ^ By the advice of Ripalda, a Jesuit : ** Bannez et ses disciples ayant appele pelagienne la doctrine de Molina, les notres pour Eloigner d'eux cette note de pelagianisme donnaient comme calviniste la doctrine de leurs adversaires" (Gnettee, Histoire des Jesuites, i. 308). THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 411 condemning Molinism when he was prevented by a sudden death, and his successor, Portocarrero, was forbidden to proceed with the case by Clement VIII., who enjoined silence on both parties. Lanuza, Pro- vincial of the Dominicans in Aragon, protested in a letter to Philip II. against the silence thus imposed on the maintenance of the old doctrine. Philip sent Lanuza's protest to Pope Clement, and Clement nomi- nated the congregations known under the name of De Auxiliis to discuss the question of free will and grace, and to examine Molina's work. After eighteen sessions the congregations proposed the condemnation of Molina's doctrine as semi-Pelagianism. Clement desired them to reconsider their judgment ; they did so, and persisted in it. The Pope dared not give a decision, for both parties were too powerful. Sixty- eight congregations were held during Clement's life, and he died, leaving the question to his successor, Paul v., who could solve it no more than he. After ten years of disputation the matter was left as it stood, the semi-Pelagianism of the Jesuits and the Augustinianism of the Dominicans being both tolerated. Not long afterwards Augustinianism was condemned in Jansenius, since which time the semi-Pelagianism of Molina has pervaded the Latin communion. The disputes in the De Auxiliis congregations led incidentally to the Spanish Jesuits taking under their patronage the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, on which a fierce conflict was taking place between the Dominicans and Franciscans. The reason for the Jesuits siding with the Franciscans is naively de- scribed in a letter written from Rome by Cardinal 412 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. de Lugo to a brother Jesuit at Madrid: — "Let your reverence see that you and yours take pains to re- awaken the devotion of the Conception, which is very popular in Spain, in order that by this means we may turn off the attacks of the Dominicans, who are press- ing us hard here, having taken up the defence of S. Augustine. If we don't occupy them with some other matter, they will beat us on the principal points of the controversy in the De AuxiliisP ^ In obedience to this command, the Jesuits in Spain issued a form called an Act of Consecration, by which their dis- ciples were made to promise to defend and propagate the belief in the Immaculate Conception. A furious contest at once arose between them and the Spanish Dominicans, descending so low that they broke one another's windows.^ Philip II. was still king when the fray began, and he was induced to join in it by issuing a royal ordinance commanding all preachers before beginning their sermons to declare belief in the immaculate conception of S. Mary and the real (meaning, material) presence in the Eucharist. The Dominicans, refusing to use this formula, lost their popularity with the Spanish masses, as Cardinal de Lugo had anticipated, while the Jesuits appeared as the champions of the people's favourite dogma. De Lugo's plan was successful. ^ Quoted by Guettee, Histoire des Jesuites, ii. 209. 2 ** By Saint James ! " said the Jesuit Father Aquele, preaching to the mob that had attacked the houses of the Dominicans at Alcala, *' we must defend the immaculate conception of the Virgin with sword and dagger, by blood and fire ; for the Virgin would rather be damned eter- nally and live with the devils than have been conceived in original sin." The Dominicans made answer by hurling stones through the father's windows (Ibid,, 210). THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 413 About the same time lived the Spanish Jesuit Escobar, whose name is identified with the system of lax moral teaching which met with the scathing satire of Pascal, and has since that time been adopted by S. Alfonso de' Liguori, and through him by the whole Latin communion. In Portugal the Jesuits continued to be powerful, even more than in Spain. It was in that country that they first began their role of being royal con- fessors and tutors to the heir to the throne. The young King Sebastian was their pupil, and they ruled in his name. They had filled his mind with romantic and chivalrous imaginations, such as might have become the Cid of Spanish legend, but which were an anachronism in a sovereign of the sixteenth century. There were no Moors left in Europe, but Morocco was not far off; and on Muley Hamet's soliciting his aid, the young king resolved to grant it, not so much with a view of helping a deposed prince as of making the conquest of Morocco. Philip II., who, to set against his many bad qualities, possessed the virtue of prudence, tried to dissuade his kinsman, but being unsuccessful, he supplied him with 2000 troops. At the same time he was joined by 600 men from Italy, who had been despatched by Pope Gregory XIII. to make a descent on Ireland under the command of Stukelcy, on whom the Pope had bestowed the titles of Baron of Ross, Viscount Morough, Earl of Wexford, and Marquis of Leinster. These Italian levies had been organised out of the brigands that infested Italy by James Fitz-Maurice, with the sanction of the Pope, who had granted 414 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. them remission of all their sins on the condition of their joining the Irish rebellion against Elizabeth. Fitz-Maurice ordered Stukeley to conduct them to Lisbon, and there wait for himself. King Sebastian was delighted at their arrival, and persuaded Stukely to join in the expedition against Morocco on the condi- tion that he would himself afterwards supply troops for the reduction of Ireland. The expedition sailed in 1578. A landing was effected in Africa, and a battle ensued, in which the Portuguese and their allies were utterly defeated and King Sebastian killed. The few Italians who returned to Lisbon found James FitzMaurice now arrived, and sailed with him for Ireland, accompanied by Cornelius, titular Bishop of Killaloe, and Dr. Sanders. Gre- gory's chief interest in this invasion is said to have been the hope of setting his son Jacopo di Buoncom- pagno on the throne of Ireland. Cardinal Henrique, now an old man, succeeded his nephew, Sebastian, as King of Portugal. He proved to be, like his predecessor, a tool in the hands of the Jesuits, who prepared the way, on his decease, for the accession of Philip II. of Spain. By that act the whole Peninsula was united under one sceptre, but it did not so continue long. In the reign of Philip's grandson — Philip IV. of Spain and III. of Portugal — a revolution placed on the throne of Portugal the Duke of Braganza, who took the name of Joao IV„ During the reigns of Philip III. and Philip IV., the united kingdom of Spain and Portugal was governed by the Jesuits by means of royal confessors. When the two kingdoms again separated the Order was THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 415 still equally powerful in each country ; in Spain, through the influence of Father Nithard, confessor to the Regent Maria Anna until his expulsion from the kingdom ; ^ in Portugal, by the instrumentality of three Jesuit fathers who succeeded one another in directing the conscience of Joao IV. King Joao had three sons — Theodosius, who at- tached himself formally to the Jesuit company, but died before his father, Afifonso VI. and Pedro II., who succeeded to the throne in turn. The Queen-Regent Luisa, who held the reins of government during the minority of Affonso, was ruled by her Jesuit con- fessor, Nunez, and by the late prince's tutor, Fer- nandez, also a Jesuit, who became a bishop in Japan. Affonso was a rude, coarse-natured man, and a con- spiracy was formed against him by his mother, his wife (who, like the elder lady, had a Jesuit for her confessor), and three Jesuits named Vieira, Da Sylva, and Da Cunha. The result of this court intrigue was that Affonso was deposed and Pedro substituted in his place. Afifonso's Queen Isabel divorced herself from her dethroned husband, and married his brother, with the sanction of the Cardinal Vendome, Papal legate, confirmed by Pope Clement. ^ "The inhabitants tumulluously assembled before the palace, ex- claiming, ' Deliver us from the Jesuit ; dismiss the Jesuit, or the city will be abandoned to pillage.' In an agony of indignation and de- spair the queen threw herself on the ground and bewailed her situation. * Alas, alas ! ' she cried, ' what does it avail me to be queen and regent if I am deprived of this good man, who is my only consola- tion ? ' After a short negotiation, conducted by the Papal nuncio, she was compelled to dismiss her favourite. In 1669 he retired to Rome, where the favour of his royal mistress offered him the title of ambas- sador and the dignity of cardinal" (Coxe, Memoirs of the House of Bourbon, i. 22). 4i6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. This intrigue once more brought into colhsion the two great powers within the Peninsula which had substituted themselves for the legitimate authority of the National Church — the Inquisition ^ and the Company of Jesus. The Portuguese inquisitors had laid hands on one of the leading conspirators, Father Vieira, not on account of the conspiracy, but because he was charged with astrology and with claiming predictive powers. As soon as Affonso VI. was deposed and Dom Pedro and Father Fernandez were in authority, he was at once released from their prisons, but an unpardonable insult had been offered to the Societ}^, and Pedro, tutored by Fernandez, wrote to Pope Clement X. to complain of the action of the Inquisition, Vieira himself, after being de- livered from prison, went to Rome with the same object. On a similar occasion the Pope had threat- ened the Spanish inquisitor-general to remove him unless he at once delivered up his Jesuit prisoner. The Portuguese Inquisition might be treated more cavalierly. Clement X. in 1674 suspended its action throughout the whole of Portugal. It would be well if we were able to regard this step as an expression of a feeling of repugnance, if not of horror, for the proceedings of the Inquisition, but this was not the case. A hundred years previously Cardinal Caraflfa and Cardinal de Toledo had persuaded the Pope to erect at Rome a supreme tribunal of the Inquisition, to hold ^ The Inquisition was formally established in Portugal by Clement VII. and Paul III. in 1534 and 1536. The first inquisitor-general for Portugal was Da Silva, Bishop of Ceuta ; the second, Dom Henrique, uncle of Sebastian, who became King of Portugal on his nephew's death ; the third was Da Almeida, Archbishop of Lisbon. THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 417 authority on questions of faith on both sides of the Alps and throughout the Latin communion, consist- ing of six cardinals. At first the energies of this body of inquisitors were occupied in crushing Protes- tantism in Italy, but it was not contented to confine itself to Italy. As the Roman Church elbowed out the various National Churches, so the Roman Inquisi- tion would supersede all National Inquisitions. The Jesuits appealed to the jealousy of local independence entertained at Rome, and thus succeeded in revenging the blow struck them by the Inquisition of Portugal. Under Pedro the power of the Jesuits at the court of Portugal was overpowering. Absolute authority was granted them over the Portuguese dependencies in Brazil and elsewhere, where they behaved to the natives as benevolent despots, regarding them as their serfs, whom it was their duty to treat with kindness and to baptize as Christians. Joao V., who succeeded Pedro II., had been educated by Jesuit tutors, and his court was at first filled with members of the Society, but after a time the king broke away from their control. He selected an Oratorian for his con- fessor, and began to take measures against the Jesuit fathers in concert with Benedict XIV. He had not yet shaken himself free from their fetters when he died, and was succeeded by his son Jose. Jose con- tinued the later policy of his father, and on his peti- tion Benedict XIV. sent Cardinal Saldanha to reform the Company in the kingdom of Portugal. Saldanha prohibited the colonial trading by which the Jesuits enriched themselves ; and the bishops of Portugal, encouraged by finding a division between the Pope 4i8 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. and the Jesuits, forbade the latter to officiate in any of their dioceses. But Benedict died in 1758, and was succeeded by Clement XIII., a warm friend and patron of the Company. Just at this time an attempt was made to assassinate the King of Portugal by the Marquis Tavora, and it was supposed that he was instigated by the Jesuits. A commission of investi- gation was appointed, which pronounced against them. All the bishops declared against them. Some of their number were handed over to the Inquisition and exe- cuted, and in 1759 the whole body was banished from the kingdom by the influence of Pombal, and trans- ported to the States of the Church. Similar events were occurring in Spain. On the accession of the Bourbon family in the person of Philip v., grandson of Louis XIV. (secured by the adhesion to his cause of Cardinal Portocarrero, Arch- bishop of Toledo), P^re D'Aubenton became royal confessor and a ruling influence at court. Dissatis- fied at finding his authority over the king shared by the Princess Orsini, he contrived to get her banished from Spain ; but she soon returned, and was able to expel her opponent, who was, however, succeeded in his office of confessor by another Jesuit named Robinet, until the king could be induced to recall D'Aubenton. Philip's son, Fernando VI., was as devoted to the Jesuits as his father, and his con- fessor. Father Ravago, was a Jesuit ; but the Society had outlived its popularity in Spain. The Due de S. Simon reports a misadventure which made them — a fatal thing — an object of ridicule. Large boxes of chocolate arrived at Cadiz from the Colonies addressed THE JESUITS IN SPAIN. 419 to the Company. The weight of these boxes so sur- prised the porters that one of them was examined. It was full of sticks of chocolate, but the weight was not accounted for until an attempt was made to break one of the sticks, when it was found to be pure gold overlaid with chocolate.'^ Popular opinion declared that the Jesuits were at the bottom of a revolt of the natives of South America, and of an insurrection which took place in Madrid, and they so lost their prestige that in the reign of Fernando's successor, Carlos III., the government felt itself strong enough to rid the Peninsula of them. In 1767 Carlos wrote to Clement XIII. declaring himself to be under the necessity of immediately expelling from his kingdom and possessions all the Jesuits found in them, saying that he proposed to send them at once to the Papal States, granting them a pension to support them as long as they lived. At the same time he wrote to all the royal officers as follows : — '' I invest you with my whole authority and royal power to proceed imme- diately to the houses of the Jesuits. You will seize them all, and conduct them as prisoners to such-and- ^'^ The cliarge of amassing wealth for the society and denying that they did so is amply proved against the Jesuits in all the dependencies of Spain and Portugal. 'M. Martin, the head of the French East Indian Company, reported that the Jesuits made more out of India than any nation except the British, and that to conceal their traffic they wore shoes with high heels, containing within them little boxes in which they carried diamonds and other precious stones, which enabled them to report to Europe without falsehood that tliey trampled under foot the riches of India : — " Se c'est ainsi qu'ils rcntendcnt lorsqu'ils assurent, dans les relations qu'ils envoient en Europe a leurs credules devots, qu'ils foulcnt aux fieds Ics richesscs des Indes, ils ont certaine- ment raison et Ton ne pent pas mieux prali(juer leur morale pratique. O sainte restriction mentale ! bienheurcux est le Jcsuite Escobar qui vous a inventee ! " (quoted by Gucttee, //istoiir dcs /csiiifcs, iu 42). 2 E 420 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. such a port within twenty-four hours. There they are to be made to embark in ships prepared for the purpose. You are to seal up the archives and papers, allowing them only their Prayer Books and change of linen. If after this one single Jesuit be found in your department, even though he were sick or dying, you shall be punished with death. (Signed) I, the King." These orders were opened on the same day and at the same hour at every spot, however distant, and the Jesuits were seized and sent off by sea to the Papal States. The Pope wrote a piteous letter of entreaty to the king, but without effect. The king submitted the letter to his Council of State, and replied coldly that He assured his Holiness that he had sufficient proof of the necessity of banishing the whole Company from his States. The Pope seemed little willing to welcome his involuntary guests. The Governor of Civita Vecchia refused to admit them, saying that he had no orders to do so, and they were kept tossing at sea till Clement was shamed into receiving them. After their admission many disguising themselves as laymen returned to the Peninsula, but only one Portuguese bishop had sided with them, and for the present their day was past. Very soon came the Brief of Clement XIV., dated 1773, suppressing the Company altogether. Clement's death, however, as we know, quickly followed this courageous act, and the Jesuits began to recover the ground that they had lost. In Portugal, Queen Maria I., as a dutiful daughter, paid Pope Pius VI. 1,080,000 scudi to reimburse the Papal treasury for the expense that it had been put to by the transportation of the Portuguese Jesuits, and THE JESUITS IN SPAIN, 421 she tried her utmost to efface the marks of the late rupture of the country with the Company and the Pope. She Hved on to 18 16, but as she became im- becile, her son Joao VI. was appointed regent in 1799. When Napoleon let loose his troops into the Peninsula in 1807, Joao fled with his family to Brazil, where he remained till the storm of the French invasion was passed ; and on his return he left, as governor of the dependency, his son Pedro, who became first Emperor of Brazil in 1822. On Joao's death in 1826 his daugh- ter Isabel was declared regent in behalf of her younger brother, Miguel; the elder brother, Pedro, being regarded as incapacitated by having accepted the sovereignty of Brazil. Pedro refused to acquiesce in this arrangement, and claimed the throne of Portugal for his daughter, Maria da Gloria. The Cortes declared Miguel king, and in return for being recognised by the Pope he restored the Jesuits to power in 1832. But the claims of Maria II. were backed by France and England, and Maria's father, Pedro, having succeeded in obtaining the throne for his daughter, drove out Miguel and after him, once more, the Jesuits. The result was a breach between Portugal and the Pope, to whose court Miguel withdrew; but as soon as Maria was firmly settled on the throne the Pontiff found it his interest to ignore the Pretender and acknowledge the c/d facto sovereign. In 1841 the queen and the Pontift' came to terms, and the temporary schism between the Churches of Rome and Portugal was healed, Miguel giving up his residence at the Papal court and withdrawing to Bavaria. From that time the Jesuits and the various monastic bodies have had free scope in the kingdom. 422 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. In Spain the Jesuits were re-established together with the Inquisition by Fernando VI I. as one of the first acts of his reign in 1 8 1 5. In 1 820 they were again driven out by the people. In 1822 Fernando again recalled them. In the Carlist wars they sided with the Pretender. In 1835 they were again expelled. Since the Bourbon restoration of 1875 they have spread through the country in increasing numbers, but they are regarded as irreconcilable enemies by the constitu- tionalists both of Spain and Portugal, who jealously and angrily watch their progress. Their ro/e is not played out in either division of the Peninsula.^ ^ " On the return of a king the Orders began to creep back again, at first very quietly, but afterwards more openly, until now (1886) hundreds and thousands of monks who have been expelled from France and from Italy find a secure resting-place this side the Pyre- nees " (Field, Old and A^etv Spain, p, 164). CHAPTER XXXI. THE SPANISH MYSTICS. In 1559 there were at least a thousand Protestants in Seville, a thousand in Valladolid, and a proportionate number in all the towns of Spain.^ In 1570 there were none. They were all burnt, or driven by the fear of being burnt into professing themselves Roman Catholics. The Inquisition continued its hateful work with as great vigilance as ever through the reigns of the later Aus- trian and Bourbon kings, but it had to go back to its earlier prey, the Jews, and to find new victims in the Freemasons, for lack of Protestants to burn. Protes- tantism did not dare to lift its head again in Spain until the revolution of General Prim in the year 1 86S. But Luther's Reformation in Germany could not be without its effect on the Spanish and Portuguese Churches, though it was not permitted to bring forth its legitimate fruit in those countries. The first result was the Counter-Reformation which took place throughout the Roman communion. One form of this movement was Jesuitism, but not the noblest form. There was a stir and a shaking throughout the Roman Catholic ^ Gonzalo de Ilesca?, in Ins Illstoria Pontifical, vol. ii., says that "if two or three nionilis more had been suffered to elapse before applying a remedy to this mischief (Lutheranism), the conflagration would have spread itself all over Spain and brou<;ht upon her the most dire misfor- tunes she had ever seen." Cazalla is reported to have said, before his martyrdom at Valladolid, that four more months would have been enough to have made the Protestants a match for the Roman Catholics. 423 424 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. world, which led to a reformation of abuses and an increase of zeal, if it led at the same time to a more resolute grasp and a more dogged maintenance of mediaeval in place of primitive doctrines. An emotional school sprang up in Spain, the object of which was to kindle the flame of piety in the heart while still jealously keeping within the lines laid down by the authority of the Church and its hierarchy. The prin- ciples of this school find expression in the person of S. Teresa. She was born two years before Luther de- nounced Tetzel and his sale of indulgences and pardons. Her father was Alonzo Sanchez de Cepeda of Avila, but in her early life she was known by a name which she derived from her mother, Teresa de Ahumada ; her conventual name was Teresa de Jesus. After her mother's death her father sent her to the Convent of our Lady of Grace, in displeasure at her having held meetings and correspondence with a young man to whom she believed herself attached. Here she made up her mind to become a nun, and after returning home was admitted into a Carmelite convent in 1533 against her father's will. She is described at this time as being beautiful and attractive, with dark curling hair, a bright complexion, and brilliant dark eyes that sparkled when she was excited. The conventual life broke down her health, and her father had to take her to a place called Bezeda for change. Here she con- verted her confessor, who was leading a life that was not unusual in celibate priests. Her health getting better, through the intercession, as she supposed, of S. Joseph, she returned to her convent, and soon she began to have visions and ecstasies of prayer, which her confessor commanded her to look upon as delu- THE SPANISH MYSTICS. 42^ sions of the devil. She had cataleptical seizures, which deprived her of consciousness, so much so that on one occasion she lay for four days without moving, and was on the point of being laid in the grave when she recovered her senses. In 1555 Francis of Borgia, the Jesuit General, came to Avila, declared that her raptures proceeded from God, and desired her confessor to encourage her in them. In one of her visions, of which she now had many, she had a revelation of the place that she de- served in hell, a foul dark cell, like an oven, in which she could neither sit nor lie down, full of vermin and stinking, where the hot walls crushed her in and stifled her, and she could do nothing but torment herself by the thought of being lost. In another, the devil appeared as a very ugly little negro, gnashing his teeth at her, till she got rid of him by sprinkling holy water ; but he left behind him an odour of brimstone, which two of the nuns smelt. At another time she saw the devil sitting on her breviary. Her Divine Bridegroom frequently appeared to her, showing her His hands, " of exceeding great and ineftable beauty," afterwards His face, and ^' at Mass His most sacred Humanity." ' On one occasion He drew out the nail from His left Hand with His right Hand before her; three times He showed Himself to her in the Bosom of the Father. One day she had a vision of her own soul, in the centre of which she saw Christ, " as I am accustomed to see Him," though He pervaded the whole of it. Once Christ gave lier a precious cup ; at another time He visibly filled her mouth with His blood, which ran over her dress. On another occasion a large white dove fluttered over her. The best known of her 426 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. visions, often represented in paintings, is that of an angel with a beautiful and burning face, who holds in his hand a long golden iron-pointed spear. This he thrust into her heart, and drew out with it her heart and all that was within her, leaving her on fire with the love of God. She felt that thenceforward her soul could be satisfied with nothing less than God. In 1560 her ecstasies were still further encouraged by S. Pedro de Alcantara, an ascetic who lived in a cell only four feet long, ate only once in three days, wore sackcloth, and is said for forty years to have given himself only an hour and a half of sleep out of the twenty-four hours. She was not contented with her nun's life ; she wanted to do something more than dress and adorn the images in the chapel ; and while she was in this disposition of mind one of her companions suggested the foundation of a new and stricter convent. She grasped at the idea, and secretly bought a house with money sent her by her brother and given by other friends. She applied at the same time for a Papal Bull to sanction the foundation of a new convent, taking care that the prioress should know nothing of what she was doing. The desired permission came, and in 1562 she began the Convent of S. Joseph with four novices, who were to be supported by alms. The prioress sent for her in high anger, but Teresa pacified her, and was per- mitted to return to her own convent. The nuns grew from four to thirteen, from thirteen to twenty. Her rule, based on that of the Carmelites, was very strict, and she was much occupied in writing spiritual books. She was now in a position to take her part in efforts to reform the Spanish Church, for that it needed refor- mation and a return to greater spirituaHty of Hfe all THE SPANISH MYSTICS. 427 religious-minded people felt, though what most of them desired was a return to mediaeval, not to primitive, doc- trines and practices. The '* Friar of Burgos," quoted by Sandoval,^ com- plains that the great care of the bishops was to " create estates for their children, whom they call nephews and nieces," and prays those in authority, '^ for the love of Jesus Christ, to be careful whom you appoint to serve the cathedral and parochial churches." Fray Fran- cisco de Ossuna in 1 542 laments over the way in which the bishops and prelates of Spain make their dignities serve them instead of serving their dignities.^ Friar Pablo de Leon, in his G7na del Ciclo, 1553, declares the pastors of souls to be ^' wolves, enemies, tyrants, robbers." He says that it is scarcely " possible to find either cathedral or collegiate church in which all or most of the clergy are not living with concubines, by whom they have a numerous offspring, who are pro- vided for out of the propert}^ of the Church. All this accursed evil," he adds, ''comes from whence we expect perfection, namely, from Rome. From hence all wickedness proceeds. Unhappily, by our sins in Rome, that city has become the very abyss of these and other attendant evils; and as the majority of our cathedral clergy go to Rome, almost all of them are struck with this pestilence, which never leaves them till they die. The inferiors learn of the superiors, and so everything is lost in the Church of God. The Church is full of ignorance — everything is pomp, parade, folly, malice, lewdness, and pride. Nothing is under- stood but how best to aggrandise and exalt families. ^ Historia del Emperador Carlos V., toni. i. ^ Abeceda7'io Espirittial, ii. 2. 428 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. There are canons and archdeacons who hold from ten to twenty benefices, and serve none. What account will these men give to God ? " Cristoval De Villalon bears like testimony.^ So, too, does De Lugo, Bishop of Calahorra, in his Aviso de Cnras, A.D. 1543. Dr. Poras pleads for a knowledge of Holy Scripture.^ Sepulveda contrasts the primitive sanctity of the bishops and clergy with modern laxity.^ Canon Ciruelo denounces formality in devotion.* Bishop Virues writes against persecution.^ Malon de Chale, an Augustinian monk, born about 1530, complains that a revengeful man, a manslayer, a robber of the poor, thinks himself a good Christian if he goes to confession and has a fashionable confessor. Men called so loudly for reform that the inquisitors began to scent Lutheranism. Juan de Avila, one of the most celebrated preachers and writers of his day, had to defend himself before them. Luis de Granada's *' Guide of Sinners " was put in the Index. Luis de Leon, who spoke plainly of the igno- rance of the clergy, was imprisoned for five years, and threatened with the rack and with suspension. S. Juan of the Cross and S. Teresa both trembled before the dread tribunal. But the Inquisition needed not to be suspicious. It was mysticism, not Lutheranism, to which these pious men and women were looking for the remedy of the laxity and formalism of their age. In 1567 Teresa determined on enlarging her institu- tion. She established convents for women at Medina del Campo, at Alcala, at Malaga, and at Valladolid, and ^ Tratado de Cambios, A. d. i 546, ^ Tratado de la Oracion, A.D. 1552. 3 Democrates, A.T). 1541. 4 Reprovacion de las Supersticioiies, A.D. 1559. ^ Dispuiaciojtes, A.D. 1541. THE SPANISH MYSTICS. 429 with the help of S. John of the Cross, the great mys- tical writer of Spain, she founded her first convent for men. John was her first friar, and he was joined by Fray Antonio de Heredia from Medina. Don Luis de Toledo built a small monastery for them at Mancera, of which they took possession in 1 570. Seventeen convents for women and fifteen for men were founded in Teresa's lifetime, sometimes with, sometimes with- out, the sanction of the local ecclesiastical authority. In 1 57 1 she returned to her original convent, not now as a simple nun, but as prioress. She held that office three 3'ears, and then returned to S. Joseph's. Soon after this she established a new house in Seville, where the archbishop publicly asked for her blessing when she knelt to him for his. Here she was brought into conflict with the Inquisition, and was imperi- ously ordered to make no more foundations. Ill blood arose between the '^ reformed" and the *' unreformed " branches of the Carmelite Order. The new convents separated from the others. The nuncio imprisoned her chief supporters, and confined Teresa to a con- vent. But Phihp II. stood her friend. The separa- tion between the reformed and unreformed orders was carried out, and Teresa, released from confinement, became the unrestricted ruler of the reformed order which she had originated. In 1582 she died at Alba, in the sixty-eighth year of her age. She was canonised by Gregory XV. in 1622. Before the end of the eighteenth century there were seven hundred houses of her order. Teresa and Juan of the Cross are the representatives of that form of mysticism which was sanctioned and approved by tlic Roman Church, while it condemned 430 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. another Spaniard, Molinos, to perpetual imprisonment for teaching which only differed from theirs by not exhibiting absolute submissiveness to the direction of the confessor.-^ The essence of mysticism is the doc- trine of the immediate apprehension of God by the soul, and a mysterious intercourse with Him carried on without any natural media. This contemplation and apprehension of God is designated by Teresa as prayer. There are, she says, four forms of prayer, which may be explained by the similitude of four ways of watering a garden. The first is dipping the water and watering by hand ; this is laborious, and produces comparatively little effect. The second is raising the water by a wheel and distributing it through little aqueducts; this is less toilsome and more profitable. The third is using running water from a springing well, which has only to be turned in the right directions. The fourth is receiving the rain from heaven. The first of these forms of prayer does not differ from the fervent prayer of devout souls. The second form is called the prayer of quiet or pure contemplation. ^ Fernandez de Toro, Bishop of Oviedo, was deposed for Molinism (that is, for holding the views of Molinos, not of Molina). Juan de Causadas, a close friend and disciple of Molinos, was burnt by the Inquisition at Logrogno. His nephew, Juan de Longas, was sentenced by the same authority in 1729 to two hundred strokes with a whip and ten years of the galleys, to be followed by perpetual imprisonment. Mother Agueda died under the torture, which made her confess to an incredible number of crimes. Her confessor, Juan de la Vega, who had been compared for sanctity with Juan of tlie Cross and called the Ecstatic, was charged with like crimes and imprisoned for life ; the only fault that torture compelled him to acknowledge being that of having received money for 11,800 Masses, none of which he had said. It is possible that in the last two cases mysticism and asceticism had led to licentiousness (as in the Gnostics of old), justified by the delusive plea that the acts of the flesh were indifferent in those who lived in the spirit. THE SPANISH MYSTICS. 431 Here the will is entirely absorbed in God, but the un- derstanding and memory are still awake. The third form is called the prayer of union or perfect contem- plation. In this state all the faculties of the soul are suspended. Will, understanding, and memory are all gone, in order that God may enter the heart in place of them. The fourth form is the pra^^er of rapture or ecstasy. Here the faculties, both of body and soul, liave ceased to act. You know nothing, and if the eyes are open you see nothing — neither senses nor spiritual powers operate. The body is often lifted by a giant force and kept suspended in the air.^ The soul is wholly passive, in order to be fully receptive of the divinity. This is the highest state of perfection that the human soul can attain to on earth. Its joy is beyond all joy, and beyond all comprehension. It can but silently wonder and rejoice in God and His good- ness. Such a state cannot, unfortunately, be per- manent. The human consciousness must return, but the mind is now dulled to all earthly objects, and the soul is filled with humilit}', which has been inwrought in it by the presence of God. Juan of the Cross carried the doctrine of humility into a morbid excess. He advises one who would be perfect to do things which will give him a bad name in order that he may be treated with obloquy. This, combined with every form of asceticism and self-in- flicted suffering, is supposed to be efficacious for bring- ing the soul to a state in which it may lose itself in God — understanding, knowing, willing, and loving, not ^ On one occasion this upward tendency seized upon Teresa when she was in chijrcli and while a sermon was beini,' preached. She could not keep herself down, and the nuns had to hold her down by main force. 432 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. by its own power, but by a divine comprehension; knowledge, will, and affection. The senses have first to be conquered by asceticism. Next, the spirit is to feel deserted of God and wrapt in darkness. Then a total oblivion and torpor is to succeed. After this the soul has reached its supernatural state, it is possessed by God ; God henceforth acts in it, and it dwells in a serenity of delight which can no more be disturbed by earthly things; what it thinks is no longer its own thought, what it feels is no longer its own feeling. It is absorbed in God.^ Juan carried out his doctrine of asceticism in his own person to the utmost and to the last. He was a true man, if self-deluded. Nearly three hundred mystical and ascetical writers are counted as her own by Spain, for mysticism was the resource of souls which must be religious but could not descend to the brutality of the Inquisition or the craftiness of Jesuitism. One of these was Luis de Granada, who had more sobriety than Teresa or Juan, and tempered their sublime selfishness with regard for his neighbour. He was born in Granada rather before Teresa, in the year 1504, and joined the Dominicans in that city. In 1529 he became a member of the College of S. Gregory at Valladolid, which gave him time for the study of mystical theology and the practice of asceticism. His nightly penances were such that the passers-by in the street stood in amazement at hearing the blows with which he disciplined himself and the groans with which he confessed his sinfulness. The ^ S. Terci^a's chief mystical treatises are called " The Way of Perfec- tion " and " The Castle of the Soul ; " Juan of the Cross's, " The 01> scure Nif'ht" and "The Ascent of Carmel." THE SPANISH MYSTICS. 433 book that he took for his special study was '' The Book of Wisdom," a treatise written by an Alexandrian Jew belonging to that Neo-Platonic School which was the parent of mysticism. On his return to Granada he became a great preacher. When he was forty years of age he was sent by the Dominican General to restore the Convent of Scala-Coeli, which had fallen into entire decay and consisted only of ruins. While there, he wrote his book on meditation and prayer sitting by the side of a mountain torrent on a broken rock. By his influence he rebuilt and repeopled the convent, and at the end of eight years was appointed chaplain and preacher to the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. While hold- ing this office he collected alms for building a convent at Badajos, and when that work was finished he pro- ceeded to Lisbon at the invitation of Cardinal Henri- que, who afterwards became King of Portugal. Fray Luis became provincial of the Dominican Order in Portugal, refusing the Archbishopric of Braga, which was pressed upon him by the regent, Queen CataHna. In his old age he was deceived by the imposture of the prioress of the Convent of the Anunciada at Lisbon, who professed to bear the marks of the five wounds, to receive manifold revelations, to be surrounded by supernatural light, and, like Teresa, to be suspended in the air. The prioress might have made good her claim to be an instrument for reveahng the Divine Will if she had not interfered in politics ; but she took the side of the House of Braganza, and this led to an examination of the reality of her supernatural gifts, ordered by tlie inquisitor-general of the kingdom, and conducted by a commission consisting of four ecclesi- astics and two laymen. Their report was, that tlic 434 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. whole matter was a clumsy deception, supported only by fanaticism and superstition. In the last sermon that he preached Fray Luis confessed that he had been deceived in her. In 1558 he died. He was a voluminous writer, and to this day his works are read and studied, and, happily for Spain, they are reproduced in the pulpit. Some bishops require their clergy to provide themselves with them. He differs from most Spanish devotional writers in this, that he leads by love and not by fear. Instead of frightful visions of hell and purgatory, he would have his reader meditate on our Lord's life of love and suffering; and instead of referring him to endless mediators, he brings him to the foot of the Cross. Was the reformation in morals and spirituality of life which was attempted not without success by Teresa and other devoted men and women within the Church of Spain an adequate substitute for that reformation in faith which was crushed by the Inquisition in 1559- 1 570 ? History shows that it was not. Ximenes' refor- mation of morals in the fifteenth century was effaced after the lapse of a very short time, and laxity and worldliness, again become dominant in their old forms, were not to be restrained by the passive discourage- ment offered them by the piety of mystic dreamers, absorbed for the most part in a conflict, real or imagi- nary, with self. Spain, like France, refused to tolerate Protestantism, and like France, and in the wake of France, it had in consequence to go through the fiery trial of unbelief, concealed under the specious names of liberalism and philosophy. CHAPTER XXXII. THE BOURBONS IN SPAIN. Charles V. and Philip II. found the Spaniards strong with the strength which liberty gives to a people. This strength they concentrated and focussed by means of the despotism which Charles introduced and Philip converted into an absolute autocracy; but with the children of the generation which had been free there perished the energy and high spirit which make nations great. The reigns of Philip III., Philip IV., and Carlos II. were periods of unbroken decline and swift decay, though the age of Philip III. and Philip IV. was illu- mined by the outburst of genius exhibited by Lope de Vega and Calderon in the drama, and of Cervantes in his immortal romance. The accession of the House of Bourbon in the person of Philip V. was a change for the better from the imbecility of Carlos II.i But Louis XIV. had given to his grandson advice to maintain the Inquisition in full force, and to resist all endeavours to repress or reform it. There were, it was true, no Pro- testants ; they had all been burnt or driven into con- formity. The Holy Office fell once more upon the Jews and upon the Freemasons, who had been excommuni- cated by Clement XII. in 1738. Seven hundred and ^ The bride of Carlos 11. was welcomed to Spain by a grand aufo- i/d!-/t' of 118 victims. Philip declined to have his accession honoured in the same fashion. 435 2 F 436 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. eighty-two autos-da-fc were held during Philip's reign, and an average of thirty-four" persons were burnt to death every year, and two hundred and fifty degraded and ruined. Nevertheless, the French king had brought French ideas with him. French literature spread in Spain, and, for the first time, liberalism entered the Peninsula. In the reign of Fernando VI., still more in that of Carlos III., liberalism was countenanced by the Court. Carlos III. surrounded himself with liberal ministers — D'Aranda, who not only inaugurated a reform of monastic bodies, restricted the privileges of sanc- tuary, and forbade daily religious processions, but dared to order the once terrible Inquisition to confine itself to its proper work, and to imprison innocent subjects of the Crown at its peril ; who even attempted, though un- successfully, to deprive the Holy Office of the right of confiscating and appropriating to its own use the goods of persons accused before it, and who, besides this, was the author of the expulsion of the Jesuits ; and Florida- blanca, who went still further in the matter of the Inqui- sition, forbidding it to prosecute any acting servant of the Crown without the king's permission. In this reign men who had the reputation of being Jansenists were appointed bishops. Aguiriano, Canon of Calahorra, went so far as to defend the Church of Utrecht. In such an atmosphere the power of the Inquisition almost ceased, partly for want of the support of the Crown, partly on account of the difference between sceptics and Protestants. Protestants opposed a resistance to the Holy Office, and died for their faith, but sceptics, as soon as they were examined, professed themselves perfectly orthodox, and were ready to accept any dogmas imposed upon them. No philosopher allowed THE BOURBONS IN SPAIN. 437 himself to be burnt, and only one subjected himself to the other penalties of an aiUo-da-fe. The French Revo- lution, which burst out in the reign of Carlos, drove the Court out of its dilettante toying with liberalism, though it inspired it with no firmness. Jansenism continued to maintain itself in Madrid, where it had a centre in the house of the Countess of Montijo, but the Court gravitated back towards the system of Phihp II.i When Napoleon made his invasion of the Peninsula in 1 807, and beguiled Carlos and his son Fernando into delivering up the Spanish crown, which he bestowed on his brother Joseph, a coalition was formed between the democracy and the Church of Spain to resist the French invaders. The monarchs had succumbed, the grandees were ready to submit, but the people fought for the liberty and independence of the nation, and the Church for the defence of its faith against French atheism, and for the maintenance of its position as a political and social element in the country. Everywhere the priests and the people sprang to arms. The Constitution of 1 8 1 2, drawn up by the Cortes of Cadiz, was based on the two principles of a democracy whicli declared the supreme sovereignty to reside in the nation, and of a religious sentiment which recognised the Roman Catholic faith as the sole religion of the State. The two forces re- presented by the priests and the people, acted together as long as their interests appeared identical, but their union was not destined to last. The popular party insisted on the abolition of the Inquisition, and in 181 3 solemnly declared its existence to be incompatible with ^ Jovellanos, wlio, as Secretary of State, liad soufjlit to reform the procedure of the Holy OfTice, was banished to Majorca. The ten cliief booksellers of Valladolid were fined, imprisoned, and dismissed from the city in 1799 for selling books prohibited by the Inquisition. 438 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN, the Constitution, in spite of the resistance of the clergy and of the Papal nuncio. Suppressed, it was restored again on Fernando's accession in 1814/ and it was not till after a severe struggle between the king and the people that it was once more, and finally, abolished in the year 1820.^ The last burning at the stake took place in Seville in 1781, but not the last execution for supposed heresy. The Bishops of Tarragona^ Valencia, and Orihuela having re-established the Inquisition in their dioceses under the name of Junta de la Fe, the Junta de la Fe of Valencia brought to trial a school- master, Cayetano Ripoll, on the grounds that he taught only the Ten Commandments in his school (omitting the Ave Maria, &c.), that he did not go to Mass, and did not kneel as the Host went by. He was condemned to be hanged and burnt as a persistent and perfect heretic, and his goods were ordered to be confiscated. He was hanged in Valencia, July 31, 1826, but not burnt. The fall of the monasteries followed that of the Inquisition. Joseph Bonaparte began alienating their enormous possessions, the retention of which in mort- main had been shown by Campomanes, Floridablanca, and Jovellanos to be incompatible with national pros- perity. The Cortes of Cadiz in 18 13 proceeded cau- tiously in the same course, but Fernando's return in 1 8 14 brought everything to a standstill. More sweep- ing measures were adopted in 1820, when the Govern- 1 Fernando VII., set upon his throne by English arms, declared in his royal decree of 1814 that the re-establishment of the Inquisition had for its object the reparation of the evils caused to tlie religion of the State by the foreign troops who were not Catholics, and to preserve Spain from interior dissension and from the contagion of the heresy and errors that had desolated other countries. 2 Four years only before its final abolition — in 1816 — the Pope forbade the use of torture by the Holy Office. THE BOURBONS IN SPAIN, 439 ment suppressed most of the convents and guaranteed securit}'' of possession to all purchasers of monastic property. But in 1823, Fernando, having overthrown the Constitution which he had sworn to maintain and once more made himself despotic, compelled the purchasers to restore to the monks without compen- sation the property that they had bought under the Government guarantee, and reopened the houses that had been closed. When the wheel came round again in 1835, a royal decree, issued by Mendizabal, and confirmed next year by the Cortes, suppressed all convents, colleges, and communities of monks except those of the Escuelas Pias and of S. Juan de Dios (which employed themselves in teaching and nursing) and a few missionary colleges, closed all nunneries where the numbers were less than twelve, forbade the admission of novices, and prohibited rehgious vows. The exclaiis- tradoSj numbering about fifty thousand, had a certain pension assigned them out of the proceeds of the sale of conventual property, and many of them became secular priests. They had lost public respect, and they passed away as a body unregretted and without loss to the nation. Fcrnando's one object was to make himself a despot, and in this, with the help of the clergy and the nobles, he succeeded. On his death, in 1833, his widow. Queen Cristina, who became regent for her infant child Isabel, was constrained by circumstances, against her will, to throw herself into the arms of the constitutionalists, in opposition to her husband's brother, Don Carlos, who rallied around him the party of absolutism. The sym- pathies of the Roman Catholic party in Spain there- upon passed to the Carlists, but as success smiled upon 440 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the constitutionalists, it accepted the de facto Govern- ment, and has supported the Moderados against the Progresistas. At times, however, it has been difficult on both sides for the Church and the State to co- operate or act in concert together. This was the case in the later years of the regency of Cristina and still more during the regency of Espartero, who suc- ceeded her in 1840. So great was then the strain be- tween Church and State that upwards of thirty dioceses were without bishops, the Pope refusing to accept the nominees of Government, and the Government refusing to nominate men acceptable to the Pope. The struggle at Malaga may serve as an example of what took place elsewhere. On the death of the bishop the Govern- ment appointed Manuel Ventura Gomez as vicar- capitular, with jurisdiction over the diocese during the vacancy of the See. He resigned this office in 1837, having been nominated to a bishopric elsewhere by the Government. The Chapter was ordered to elect in his place Dr. Valentine Ortigosa, whom the Government designated also as bishop of the See. The new bishop- designate began by den3dng the necessity of Papal confirmation for a bishop, and granted a dispensation in a case which by Roman Catholic law was confined to the Pontiff. In an address to the Chapter he lamented the degradation of the modern Episcopate, and urged the restoration of the independence that it enjoyed in the primitive Church, professing himself to be actuated *^by the spirit neither of the Ultramontane nor the Cisalpine school, neither by unpractical philosophical Jansenism, nor by abominable, gross, and hypocritical Jesuitism." Ortigosa was denounced to the Arch- bishop of Seville, his metropolitan, as heretical, but THE BOURBONS IN SPAIN. 441 the civil power forbade the trial, and he continued to hold office. Pope Gregory XVI, attacked him in an address to the cardinals at Rome. Ortigosa pub- lished an answer, affecting to beheve that the Pope's address was a forgery, but citing him, if it were genuine, to appear before the judgment-seat of God and answer for his injustice. Ortigosa retained his position as vicar-capitular and bishop-designate till the overthrow of Espartero in 1843, when the new Government removed him. Throughout the diocese of Guadix a protest against the Pope's allocution was read in the churches on three successive Sundays by order of the civil governor, in spite of the opposition of the vicar-capitular. Such scenes were taking place in diocese after diocese ; ^ but when Espartero's regency came to an end more peaceful relations between the secular and ecclesiastical authorities ensued. Isabel became queen in 1843, ^^^ under her the Court went back to its normal state of immorality and '^clericalism," or rather to such an approach to both as the times and public opinion would allow,^ while the strong hand of Narvaez and the vigour of O'Donnell for a time kept back insurrection.^ A confiscation of Church property had been heralded by Jovellanos in a royal decree of 1798, which ordered 1 See Cardinal Wiseman's account of Spain in No. 48, Diario di Roma, 1847, and an article by the same writer in the Dublin Rcviexv. 2 ** In the corrupt surroundings of the Spanish Court we can scarcely be surprised that tlie queen's manner of life became the scandal of Madrid and of all Europe" (Field, Old ajid Ncio Spain, p. 154). At the same time **she was completely under the control of the priests" (Ibid., p. 156). •* "Narvaez, on his deathbed, being asked if he f<.)i;;avc his enemies, naively replied that he did not think there were any left " (Ibid.. V- 155)- 442 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. the sale of lands belonging to hospitals and brother- hoods, and the investment of the amount realised in the public funds for the benefit of those institutions. In 1820 the Cortes forbade the acquisition of real property by ecclesiastical bodies, appropriated all glebe lands to the State, and abolished tithes, substituting a tax /for cidto y cleroj for the maintenance of the clergy, of which, however, a considerable part failed to reach its intended objects. In 1850 this tax amounted to ;^2,ooo,000; in 1890, to 41,304,133 pesetas, equal to about ^1,600,000. Out of it the Government pays the archbishops and bishops, the cathedral dignitaries, the parish clergy, and all the expenses connected with keep- ing up public worship and maintaining diocesan semi- naries. In return all church buildings are regarded as the property of the State. The effect of this measure, confirmed in 1835, has been enormous. Toledo was the richest See in the world after that of Rome, but the income fixed for the archbishop by the concordat of 1 85 1 is only £1600 a year. The stipend of a cura, once very high, now ranges from ;^ 100 to £^^0. By the same concordat a rearrangement of the bishoprics was made, there being now nine archbishops and forty- eight bishops in place of eight archbishops and fifty- two bishops. The bishops are nominated by the Government and confirmed by the Pope. For a parish cure three names are submitted by the bishop to the Government, which selects one of the three. Canons are nominated alternately by the Crown and the bishop. The archbishops have a seat in the Senate, and each province elects a senator, who is usually one of the bishops. Ecclesiastics cannot sit in Congress. In 1 85 1 the admission of the Orders of S. Vincent de THE BOURBONS IN SPAIN. 443 Paul and S. Philip Neri was sanctioned, in addition to those of the Escuelas Pias and S. Juan de Dios, and nuns were allowed, provided they did not exceed the number of 21,500 for all Spain. Thus a way was opened for the general reintroduction of monastic in- stitutions, which are tolerated everywhere, but, having no legal right of existence, may be abolished by a hostile Ministry without consulting Cortes. The present state of things is as follows : — An im- poverished and languid Church is supported by the nobility and by statesmen as a political instrument, but it has lost its hold on the middle classes and the shop- keepers, who are given over to scepticism and unbelief. Yet it is still an object of affection to the great majority of the peasantry, who believe whatever they are taught by their priests with a faith that is touching in its sim- plicity. The bishops and clergy have lost both the vices and the merits which belonged to them as members of a wealthy and turbulent aristocracy, but the compul- sory discipline of a universal celibacy still bears its evil fruits as of old. Among the laity the philosophy in- troduced from France contends with the inherited reverence for the priesthood, and leads men to dis- beheve the doctrines of their Cliurch, but to refrain from formally breaking away from her. Only one voice was lifted among Spanish ecclesiastics against the dogma of the Immaculate Conception,^ and at the Vatican Council there was not one bishop to show the courage exhibited by the representatives of Spain at ^ Examen Bulloe InefTabilis institutum ct concimuituni juxta regulas sanioris Theologian, a Fiatre Braulio Moryaez, rrofessore Sacrce Theo- logise in Online Pixdicatoium et in Universitale Complutensi. Paris : Iluet, 185S. The brave Dominican, for maintaining the doctrine of his Order, was thrown into prison and shut up in a madhouse. 444 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. Trent. The Protestantism which appeared, but ap- peared only, to have been burnt out of the land in the year 1 570, Hfted up its head again as soon as it was safe for men to profess that which really they believed. As early as 1850 a canon of a cathedral in the south of Spain appealed to members of the English Church for assistance in reforming the Church to which he be- longed.^ But it was not till 1868, when General Prim's revolution took place, that men dared to openly sepa- rate themselves from the National Church. The second article of the Constitution of 1868 de- clares that " no person shall be molested in the territory of Spain for his religious opinions, nor for the exercise of his particular worship, saving the respect due to Christian morality." But this clause is at once qualified by the succeeding clause : — " Nevertheless, no other ceremonies nor manifestations in public will be permitted than those of the religion of the State " — which is '' the Catholic Apostolic Roman religion." These 1 " You will find my profession of faith, to the letter, in the Apostles' and the Constantinopolitan Creeds. . . . This was ever my thought from the time that I once recognised the true faith of Christ, to place it under the powerful shadow and protection of the Anglican Church, that, strengthened by so great a support and led by so great a light, it might be propagated through the Spanish territory and bring forth fruit most abundantly. . , The true and genuine Gospel of Christ cannot be preached in Spain, but the Gospel of the Pope, which is a very different thing. The Spaniards, having this before their eyes, laugh at the mission of the Christian priesthood, are losing faith and morals, and sinking into atheism. . . . Will you, then, associate your- selves together for the work of the Gospel in these regions ? Will you, in your charity, lead this people to the true faith of Christ ? Will you recall them from atheism and indifferentism to the Church of God? You who profess the true faith of Christ, will you leave a thirsty people to perish, and give them nought out of your abundance when they ask ? . . . Your brethren in captivity salute you and the holy Anglican Church of God " (Letter to the English chaplain at Gibraltar in 1850, quoted in the Practical Working of the Church of Spain ; London, 1851). THE BOURBONS IN SPAIN. 445 two clauses enable both the political parties in the State to declare the Constitution to be on their side, whether Progresistas demand toleration in the Cortes, or Moderados permit the practice of petty persecu- tion throughout the country. The quarrel between them will have to be settled by the growth of pubhc opinion in favour of liberty, or a frank return to the sentiments of Torquemada and Loyola. There are now about 10,000 persons in the Peninsula who profess themselves Protestants. They are separated from the doctrine and fellowship of the Church introduced into Spain in the eleventh century, but it will be their own fault if they do not show themselves to be truer representatives of the old Spanish Church, the Church of Hosius and of the Goths, than their rivals, whose fathers burnt their fathers. They have a spiritual ancestry of which they need not be ashamed, running back not only to the aiitos-da-fe of the sixteenth cen- tury, but to the first ages of the Christianity of Spain ; and if they are careful to show that their faith is the faith of S. Paul and of the primitive Church, a great future may await them. Whether, through the working of the Spirit of God, the dominant Church may at last shake off its long torpor and rise to its responsibihties, has yet to be seen. Some indications seem to point in that direction. INDEX. PAGE Abderrahman I, . 226, 248 II. . . . 275 „ III. ... 252 Adoptionism 232 Adrian I., P 231 Alani, the 114, 118 Almanzor .... 7, 254-257 Almohades, the .... 295 Almoravides, the .... 294 Alonzo II., K. . . . 4, 236-23S „ HI., K 7,245 ,, VI., K. . .292, 303, 310, 345> 348 „ VII., K. . . .311,328 Alvar 262, 264. 266 Ambrose, S. . 91, 96, 97, 109 Arbues 368 Argimund, D 153 Arias, Garcia dc, M. . = . 387 Ascanius 112 Ataulphus 117 Athanasius and Theodore . 12 Augustin, S. . 53, 82, 100, 109 Aurelius and Sabigotho 272, 289 Autos -da-fS, 380-388, 391-394, 401, 407 Basilides and Martial, B. . 25 Benedict II., P 197 Berbers, the ... 221, 224 Bernard, Abp. ... 195, 332 Bohorques, Juana, M. . . 389 Bonaparte, Joseph, K. . 437, 438 Borgia, Francisco de . . . 425 Braga, first Council »>f . . 103 PAGE 359 Calatrava, Order of Calixtus II., P 327 Cano, Melchior, B. . 392, 404 Canons, Code of . . . . 177 Carillo, Abp 373 Carlos, Don . . 392, 397-400 Carlos II., K 435 „ III., K. . . .419, 436 ,, Don, Pretender . . 439 Carranza, Abp. . . . 394-397 Cassian, M 37 Catalonia 228 Cazalla, Augustin, M. . . 391 Celibacy . . 59, i5'> i59> 218 Charles V., E. . . . 377, 380 Chintila, K 180 Cid, the 292 Claudius of Turin, 1>. . . 247 Clavijo, battle of . . . 240-244 Clement XIV., P 420 Clotilda, Q 121 Columba, M 276 Compostela . . 4, 237, 242, 245, 256, 302, 339 Concordat of 1 851 Constantine, Emperor Constantine, usurper . Constantius Chlorus , Cordova .... 249 Cordovan martyrs, the Crusade, the Bull of the Cyprian, .S Dacian . , Daniasus, P. • 442 . 66 • 41 290-292 . 265 . 296 26, loS • 43 . 82, 96, 109 •147 4t8 INDEX. PAGE Deza 370 Diocletian, E 40-43 Dioecesan churches . . . 107 Dominic, S 362 Egica, K 198-202 Egidius, M 381 Egila, B 281 Elipandus, B 231 Elvira or Illiberis . . . 55-64 Emetherius and Cheli- donius, M 38 Engracias, M 44 Erwig, K. ... 172, 192-198 Escobar 413 Espartero 34, 440 Espinosa, C 398, 400 Eulalia, M 46-48 Eulogius, M. . . 264, 280-283 Euric, K 119 False Decretals, the, 178, 303 Faustus, M 45 Felix of Urgel, B. ... 233 Fernando III., K 364 „ VII., K. 422, 438-439 Fernando and Isabel . . 365, 368 Filioque 154-158 Fita, Padre, SJ ii Flora and Maria, M. . . . 271 Florence of Merida ... 77 Franks, the . . 113, 123, 207 Fructuosus, M. . . . 28-32, 308 Fuente, Const. Ponce de la, M. 383-385 Fulgentius, B 166 Galerius, E 41 Gelmirez, B. and Abp., 8, 305-338 Gerard, Canon .... 307, 327 Goths, the 117, 121 Gratian and Valentinian, E. 109 Gregory I., P 165 „ VII., P. . . .345-351 ,, of Elvira .... '](> Gundemar, K 162-164 PAGE Henry IV., K 353 Henrique, C. and K. . . 414 Hermenigild .... 127-131 Hermanric . . . . . . 117 Hernandez, M 383 Herrezuelo, Leonora, M. . 393 Hilarius IIO Himerius no Historia Compostellana . 2, 6, 7, 307-338 Hosius, B. . . 65-75, 108, 176 Hostegesis, B 285 Hugo, Aden, and B. . . 307, 328 Hugo, Candidus, Card. . 344, 347 Iago, S., Order of . . . 359 Ildefonso, B 184 Immaculate Conception, the, 411, 412 Ingunthis, Q 126 Inquisition, the, in America 408 ,, in army and navy 416 361 407 363, 416 . 416 363-411 ,, in France ,, in India . ,, in Italy . ,, in Portugal ,, in Spain . Isabel II., Q. . . . Isidore, B. . 439-441 I, 166, 180-199 James, S., the Greater i 236-247, James, S., the Less . . Jayme of Aragon, K. Jerome, S., . . 82, 88, Jesuits, the Jews, persecutions of 168 Joao VI., K. . . . Jose, K Jovillanos .... Juan de la Cruz . . Juan de Leon, M. . . Juana, Regent . . . Julian, Primate 175, 192 Julian, Count . . . , Justa and Rufina . . , 16, 177, 299, 320 • . 321 • . 357 104, 109 . 402-422 -176, 223 . . 421 . . 417 . 437. 438 . 428-432 . . 388 ■ 392, 395 -199,298 , 205, 221 - • 33 INDEX. 449 Justus and Pastor . . . 45, 8 1 Juvencus 84 KiNDASWINTH, K. I8l Leander, B. 126, 138, 154, 160, 165, 199 Leo I., P. . . . lor, iii, 214 ,, II-, P 196, 214 „ III., P. ... 4, 157, 237 „ XIII., P 5-12 Leocadia, S 186 Leocritia, M 280 Leon 25, 227, 229 Leonese or new Spanish Church . , . 284, 297-334 Leovigild, K 124-142 Loyola, Inigo do . . . 402-409 Luis de Granada . 428, 432-434 Luis de Leon 428 Luparia 16 Marcellus, M 35 Maria I., Q 420 ,, IIm Q 421 Maria del Pilar 13 Maria, S., and Ildefonso . 1S5 Marmarica . . . .2, 177, 237 Martin, S., of Tour.^ ... 97 Masona, B. . 127, 131-137, 159 Maximus, E 91, 97 Mendoza, Card, and Abp. . 374 Migetius 230 Miguel 421 Mohammed 219 Molina 410-41 1 Molinos 430 Mozarabic Liturgy . 216, 301, 340-351 Mozarabs . 229, 2S3, 301, 334, 343, 348 Musa 5, 205, 223 Napoleon, E 421,437 Naivaez 441 Navarre 227 Navas de Tolosa . Nicoea, Council of. Nunctus, Abbot . PAGB . 296 . 66 137, 141 Ommiad Dynasty, the . . 225 Orosius 100, 104 Ortigosa, Dr 440 Pacian, B 79 Paintings in churches . . 58 Pallium, the . . 166, 213, 323 Papal authority .213, 232, 298, 301, 304, 323, 351, 357 Papal Letters . . . .110, 214 Papal Vicars 213 Paul, S 18-20 Paulinus of Nola, B. . . . 81 Paya y Rico, Card. ... 11 Pedro the Cruel, K. . . . 355 „ IV. of Aragon, K. . 356 „ I. of Portugal, K. . 356 Pedro, Dom, E 421 Pedro de Alcantara . . . 426 Pelaez, B 8, 303-306 Pelayo, K 227 Peifectus, M 265 Philip II., K. . . 385, 393, 398, 412-414, 429, 435 Philip v., K 418,435 Pomposa, M 277 Portugal, kingdom of, formed 295, 353 Potamius, B 78 Prim, General . . . .423,444 Priscillian, B 93 Protestantism 401, 403, 423, 444 Prudentius .... 27, 32, 85 QUIRICLS, B 188 Quiroga, Card. . . .409, 410 Ramiro I., K 238 Raymond 362 Rcccafred, 1'- 279 Reccaied I., K. ... 143-160 Kecceswinth, K . . . 171, 1S3 45o INDEX. PAGE Rekiar, K 119 Ripoll, M 438 Roderic, K 206, 222 Roncesvalles 228 Roxas, Dominic de, M. . . 390 Royal supremacy . . .209,212 Samson, Abbot .... 286 San-Roman, M 390 Sardica, Council of . . 7i~74 Sebastian, K 413,414 Servandus, Count .... 285 Seso, Carlos de, M. . . . 394 Seven, the 15 Siricius, P no Spanish historical periods . 23 Spanish provinces 20, 69, 107, 163 Stephen, P 26 Stukely 4^4 Sue vi, the . 114-119,120,128 Sunna, B I33 Talavera, Fernando de, Abp 27s Tarik 205 Templars, the 361 Teresa, S 424-429 Theodomir, B. . . . 4, 5, 236 K 127 „ Abbot ... 248 „ of Murcia . . 222 Theodosius I.. E 89 PAGE Tillemont 13 Toledo, Councils of . . 202, 209 „ „ „ I. . . 102 „ „ III. 143-158 „ IV. . 167-171 „ See of . . 161, 164, 181, 183, 193-198, 339 Torture 383 Turribius loi, in Ulphilas, B. Urraca, Q. . . . . 121 310-317, 320 Valdes, B 385, 394 Valero, Rodrigo de, M. . . 381 Valladolid 390-394 Vandals, the . . . .112-116 Vendome, Card 415 Vibero, Leonora de . .391, 392 Vigilantius 82 Vincent, M 49^54 Wamba, K 188 Witiza, K 204 Xavier, Francisco . . 403-408 Ximenes de Cisneros, Abp. 349, 371-380 Zafra, Francisco de . . . 386 Zanelo 344 WELLS GARDNER, DARTON, AND CO., I.ONDON. '2 Paternoster Buildings^ E.C., and J^-Jp Victoria Street, S. IV. A SELECTION FROM Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co;s Catalogue of Books. -•^K>-s=*- By the Rev. A. C. AINSLIE, MA, LLD., Vicar of Langport. Instructions for Junior Classes in Sunday Schools. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth boards. Is. each. A packet of Lesson Leaflets for a class of ten. Price 5s. Vol. L The Story of the Gospels in Fifty-two Lessons. Vol. IL Fifty-two Lessons on the Acts of the Apostles. These books are specially designed to help those who have not been trained as Teachers. By the Most Rev. the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. Pastoral Letters and Synodal Charges Addressed to the Clergy and Laity in the Diocese of Lichfield. By William Dalrymple Maclagan, Archbishop of York. Crown 8vo. Cloth boards. 7s. 6d. By Lady BAKER. Friendly Words iT. ...[ V!' '^^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 12/80 BERKELEY CA 94720 ®$ U. C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CD474E3t.4S