efeated
the kings of Navarre and Leon, one of the two fighting bishops, who were
taken prisoners on that occasion, gave, as a hostage for his own
release, a youth of fourteen, named Pelagius. The king, it is said,
smitten with his beauty, wished to work his abominable will upon the
boy, but his advances being rejected with disdain, the unhappy youth was
put to death with great barbarity, refusing to save his life by
apostasy.[4] A different version of the story is given by a Saxon nun of
Gaudersheim, named Hroswitha, who wrote a poem on the subject fifty
years later. She tells us that the king tried to kiss Pelagius, who
thereupon struck him in the face, and was in consequence put to death by
decapitation (June 26, 925).[5]

[1] See "Life of Argentea," secs. 3, 5.

[2] Dozy, ii. 287.

[3] Val du Junqueras, 920 A.D.

[4] Johannes Vasaeus ex Commentariis Resendi. Romey, iv. 257,
disbelieves this version of the story. Perhaps Al Makk., ii.
154, is referring to the same Pelagius when he mentions the
king's liking for a handsome Christian page.

[5] Sampiro, secs. 26-28.

In the death of Argentea (Ap. 28, 931) we have the last instance in
Spain of a Christian seeking martyrdom. She was the daughter of the
great rebel Omar ibn Hafsun,[1] and his wife Columba, and was born at
that chieftain's stronghold of Bobastro. Upon her mother's death Omar
wished her to take up her mother's duties in the palace, for Omar had
become a sort of king on his own domain. She declined, asking only for a
quiet retreat, where she might prepare her soul for martyrdom; and she
wrote to a devout Christian, whose wishes inclined him in the same
direction, suggesting that they should seek the crown of martyrdom
together.[2] On the destruction of Bobastro by Abdurrahman in 928, she
went to Cordova.[3] She there met with a Gaul named Vulfura, who had
been warned in a dream that in that city he should find a virgin, with
whom he was to suffer martyrdom. However, his object becoming known,
Vulfura is cast into prison by the governor of the city. Argentea goes
to visit him there, and is stopped by the guards, who, finding she is a
Christian, take her before the judge as a renegade, and she is
imprisoned with Vulfura. The alternative of Islam instead of death being
refused, they are both executed, but Argentea, as being an "insolens
rebellis," is first scourged with 1000 stripes, and her tongue cut out.
Her body was bu