ans serving in the army. Leovigild, who had been away on the
King's business, now returns, and escorts them to Toledo. The approach
of the army having cleared away the brigands who infested those parts,
the monks with their precious freight got safely away to Saragoza, and
returned with their booty to France, where the relics worked numbers of
astonishing miracles.

Let us return from this digression to the steps taken by the moderate
party among the Christians, and by the Moslem authorities, to put an end
to what seemed so dangerous an agitation. That Reccafredus was not the
only ecclesiastic of high position who took exception to the new
movement we learn clearly enough from Alvar,[1] who tells us that
"bishops, priests, deacons, and 'wise men' of Cordova joined in
inveighing against the new martyrdoms, under the impulse of fear
wellnigh denying the faith of Christ, if not in words, yet by their
acts." We may, therefore, conclude that the greater part of the
ecclesiastical authorities were heart and soul with the Bishop of
Seville, while the party led by Eulogius and Saul was a comparatively
small one. However, strong measures were necessary, and Reccafredus did
not hesitate to imprison several priests and clergy.[2] Eulogius
complains that the churches were deprived of their ministers, and the
customary church rites were in abeyance, "while the spider wove her web
in the deserted aisles, tenanted only by a dreadful silence." In this
passage the writer doubtless gives reins to his imagination, yet there
must have been a certain amount of truth in the main assertion, for he
repeats it again and again.[3]

The evidence of Alvar is to the same effect: "Have not those who seemed
to be columns of the church, the very rocks on which it is founded, who
were deemed the elect of God, have they not, I say, in the presence of
these Cynics, or rather of these Epicureans, under no compulsion, but of
their own free will, spoken evil of the martyrs of God? Have not the
shepherds of Christ, the teachers of the Church, bishops, abbots,
priests, the chiefs of our hierarchy, and its mighty men, publicly
denounced the martyrs of our Church as heretics?"[4]

[1] "Life of Eulog.," ch. i. sec. 4.

[2] Alvar, "Life of Eulog.," ii. sec. 4--"Omnes sacerdotes quos
potuit carcerali vinculo alligavit." Eul., "Doc. Martyr," sec.
11--"Repleta sunt penetralia carceris clericorum catervis,
viduata est ecclesia sacro praesulum