100.

[4] Eulogius, "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. ix.

There was now a pause for six months in the race for martyrdom, and it
seemed as if the Church had come to its right mind upon this subject.
This, however, was far from being the case. Hitherto the victims had
been almost without exception priests, monks, and nuns; but the next
martyrs afford us instances of married couples claiming a share in this
doubtful honour. These were Aurelius, son of a Moslem father and a
Christian mother, and his wife Sabigotha (or Nathalia), the daughter of
Moslem parents, whose father dying, her mother married a Christian and
was converted; and Felix and his wife Liliosa.[1] It would seem that
with all the harm that was done by this outbreak of fanaticism, some
good was also effected in awaking the worldly-minded adherents of
Christianity from the spiritual torpor into which they were sinking; for
these new martyrs were of the class of hidden[2] Christians, who were
now shamed into avowing their real creed.[3] Yet surely it had been far
better if they had been content to live like Christians instead of dying
like suicides. In their case, indeed, we find no sudden irresistible
impulse driving them to defy the laws, but a slowly-matured conviction
that it was their duty, disregarding all human ties, to give themselves
up to death. In this resolution they were fortified by the advice and
encouragement of Eulogius and Alvar,[4] the latter of whom prudently
warns Aurelius to make sure that his courage is sufficient to stand the
trial.[5] Sabigotha is persuaded to accompany her husband in his
self-destruction, her natural reluctance to leave her children being
overcome by Eulogius,[6] who recommends that they should be given over
to the care of a monastery. A seasonable vision, in which Flora and
Maria appear to her, clenches her purpose.

[1] _Ibid._, ii. ch. x., secs. 1, 2.

[2] See below, p. 72.

[3] Aurelius was roused from his religious dissimulation by
seeing the sufferings of John. See Eulog., "Mem. Sanct.," ii.
c. x. sec. 5.

[4] _Ibid._, sec. 18.

[5] This would lead us to suppose that the courage of some
_had_ failed.

[6] Eulogius comments:--"O admirabilis ardor divinus, quo
filiorum affectus respuitur!" The parents not only desert their
children, but give away most of their goods to the poor,
thereby making their own children of the number.

Meanwhile a foreign monk from Beth