cum ad
peragenda nostrae salutis mysteria nullum penitus officium
habere noscantur."--III. c. 21.

[3] Prescott.

[4] Neander says 814, Herzog 820.

[5] Neander, v. 119. The Spanish Christians were not free from
the charge of adoring the cross, as we can see from the answer
of the Khalif Abdallah (888) when advised to leave his
brother's body at Bobastro: shall I, he said, leave my
brother's body to the mercy of those who ring bells and adore
the cross. Ibn Hayyan, apud Al Makk., ii. 446.

[6] Fleury, v. 398, confesses that the case of the
image-worshippers rests mainly on tradition and the usage of
the Church--meaning that they can draw no support from the
Bible. He might have remembered Matt. xv. 7--"Ye make void the
Word of God because of your tradition."

Claudius' own defence has been lost, but we gather his views from his
opponents' quotation of them.

Briefly expressed, they are as follows:--

_(a.)_ Image-worship is really idol-worship:

_(b.)_ If images are to be adored, much more should those living beings
be adored, whom the images represent. But we are not permitted to adore
God's works, much less may we worship the work of men:[1]

_(c.)_ The cross has no claim to be adored, because Jesus was fastened
to it: else must we adore other things with which Jesus was similarly
connected; virgins, for example, for Christ was nine months in a
virgin's womb; mangers, asses, ships, thorns, for with all these Jesus
was connected. To adore the cross we have never been told, but to bear
it,[2] that is to deny ourselves. Those generally are the readiest to
adore it, who are least ready to bear it either spiritually or
physically.[3]

Claudius also had very independent views on the question of papal
supremacy.[4] Being summoned before a council, with more wisdom than
Felix, he refused to attend it, knowing that his cause would be
prejudged, and contented himself with calling the proposed assembly a
congregation of asses. He died in 839 in secure possession of his see,
and with his Iconoclastic belief unshaken.

Such were the heresies which connect themselves with Spain during the
first three hundred years of Arab domination, and which seem to have
been, in part at least, due to Mohammedan influence. One more there was,
the Albigensian heresy, which broke out one hundred and fifty years
later, and was perhaps the outcome of intercourse with the Moham