rs.[5]

Changes, too, were made in doctrine and ritual, for which no authority
could be alleged, in contravention of established custom and the
teaching of the Church. So far was this carried that Samson was accused
by his opponents of being a heretic and an idolator because he permitted
the marriage of cousins; dissented from the view that God was ever
enclosed in the chambers of the Virgin's heart;[6] asserted the
omnipresence of God, even in idols and the Devil, and this in an actual,
not a metaphysical, sense;[7] and denied that God sat upon an exalted
throne above his creatures. From this it is clear that Hostegesis and
those who thought with him[8] were infected with the anthropomorphite
heresy.

[1] Samson, "Apol.," Bk. ii., Pref. sec. 2.

[2] See "Letter to Saul," sec. 3--"Poterant enim quovis
asserente canonice incohationis vestrae primordia comprobari,
si quadringenti solidi non fuissent palam eunuchis vel aliis
exsoluti." Dozy, ii. 140, adds that the money was guaranteed on
the episcopal revenues, but this is a conjecture.

[3] Samson, "Apol.," ii. Pref. sec 5; Dozy, ii. 268.

[4] Alvar ad Saulum, sec. 3--"Sine testimonis, sine connibentia
clericorum."

[5] _Ibid._

[6] Samson, "Apol.," ii. Pref. sec. 7 and iii.--"Cubiculum
cordis Virginei." This appears to be a quotation from the
Gothic liturgy.

[7] "Per substantiam, non per subtilitatem."--_Ibid._

[8] Romanus and Sebastianus, Samson, Pref, sec. 6.

Not only did many of the clergy hold heretical views, but their
depravity was notorious. Hostegesis did not blush to spend the produce
of the church tithes and offerings, which he had with difficulty
extorted from his flock,[1] in bribing the court officials and the
king's sons, giving them feasts at which open and flagrant vice was
indulged in.[2] The clergy were not above pretending illness in order to
avoid paying the monthly tax to their Moslem rulers.[3] Some, even in
the highest positions in the Church, denied their Saviour and
apostatized to the Moslems; one of these renegades being Samuel, Bishop
of Elvira, the uncle of Hostegesis' mother, who, with a pervert's zeal,
persecuted the Church he had deserted, imprisoning the clergy, taxing
his former flock, and even forcing some to embrace Islam.[4]

It is not surprising, therefore, that bishops and clergy were sometimes
deposed. Samson, indeed, underwent this disgrace at the hands of