tus and Pastor, and of St
Sebastian.

We have given the names of these churches and monasteries[2] at or near
Cordova, both to shew how numerous they were, and also because from one
or other of them came nearly all the self-devoted martyrs, of whom we
are about to consider the claims. Except in cases like that
above-mentioned, the Christians were not allowed to build new
churches,[3] but considering the diminution in the numbers of the
Christians owing to the conquest, and the apostasy of a great many, this
could not be reckoned a great hardship. Moreover the Christian churches,
it was ordained, should be open to Moslems as well as Christians, though
during the performance of mass it seems that they had to be kept closed.
The Mosques were never to be polluted by the step of an infidel.[4]

[1] Dozy, ii. 162.

[2] Monasteries were established in Spain 150 years before the
Saracen conquest. They mostly fared badly at the hands of the
Arabs, in spite of the injunctions of the Khalif Abubeker (see
Conde, i. 37, and Gibbon), but that of Lorban at Coimbra
received a favourable charter in 734 (Fleury, v. 89; but
Dunham, ii. 154, doubts the authenticity of the charter).

[3] Cp. the stipulation of Omar at the fall of Jerusalem.

[4] See Charter of Coimbra, apud Fleury, v. 89.

The religious ferment, which manifested itself so strongly at Cordova,
did not extend to other parts of Spain. For instance, at Elvira, the
cradle of Spanish Christianity, it was shortly after the Cordovan
martyrdoms (in 864) that the mosque, founded in the year of the
conquest, and left unbuilt for 150 years, was finally finished. What we
hear about the Christians at Elvira at this time is not to their credit,
their bishop, Samuel, being notorious as an evil liver.[1] It is in
Cordova that the main interest at this period centres; and to Cordova we
will for the present confine our attention.

There is abundant evidence to show that the party of enthusiasts, both
those who offered themselves for martyrdom, and those who aided and
abetted their more impulsive brethren, were a comparatively small body
in the Church of Spain; and that their proceedings awakened little short
of dismay in the minds of the more sensible portion of the Christian
community, both in the Arab part of Spain, and perhaps in a less degree
in the free North.[2] The chief leaders of the party of zealots--as far
as we find mention of them--were