rvances, or even disguised his Christianity from
motives of interest. However, he fell sick, and thinking that his life
was near its end, he called together his Moslem friends, and thanking
them for showing their concern for him by coming, he proceeded, "But I
desire you to be witnesses of this my last will. Whosoever believeth not
on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Consubstantial Trinity,
is blind in heart, and deserveth eternal punishment, as also doth
Mohammed, your false prophet, the forerunner of Antichrist. Renounce,
therefore, these fables, I conjure you this day, and let heaven and
earth witness between us." Though greatly incensed, as was natural, the
hearers resolved to take no notice of these and other like words,
charitably supposing the sick man to be light-headed; but Peter, having
unexpectedly recovered, repeated his former condemnation of Mohammed,
cursing him, his book, and his followers. Thereupon he was executed, and
we cannot be altogether surprised at it.[1]

Besides these two isolated cases of martyrdom, we do not find any more
recorded until the reign of Abdurrahman II. (May 822-Aug. 852). In the
second year of this king's reign, two Christians, John and Adulphus,
making public profession of their faith, and denouncing Mohammed, were
put to death on Sept 17, 824.[2]

[1] We give the account as Fleury, v. 88 (Bk. 42), gives it,
but with great doubts as to its genuineness, no other writer
that we have seen mentioning it.

[2] Florez, x. 358: Fleury, v. 487. They were buried in St
Cyprian's Church, Cordova. See "De translatione martyrum
Georgii etc.," sec. 7.

This is the first definite indication we have that the toleration shown
by the Moslems was beginning to be abused by their Christian subjects;
and there can be no reasonable doubt that this ill-advised conduct on
the part of the latter was the main cause of the so-called persecution
which followed. But besides this fanaticism on the part of a small
section of the subject Christians, there were other causes at work
calculated to produce friction between the two peoples. During the
century which had elapsed since the conquest, the Christians and
Mohammedans, living side by side under the same government, and one
which, considering the times in which it arose, was remarkable no less
for its equity and moderation than for its external splendour and
magnificence, had gradually been drawn closer together. Inte