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SPAIN'
eindo, Rodrigo, Solomon, and the virgin Aurra in the
following year. St. Eulogius, who had encouraged
the martyrs, himself suffered on 11 March, S59, and
the virgin Leocridia followed him. Distinguished as
writers among the Mozarabs were St. Eulogius and
Alvar Cordobcs, and their master, the .\bbot Spera-
indeo; also the Abbot Samson, who combated the
anthropomorphism of the perverse Bishop Hoste-
gesis and others. But the IVIozarabs gradually died
out in their Mohammedan environment, so that St.
Ferdinand found hardly any traces of them in the
cities he conquered.
After stifling an insurrection of the national party, the .\rab aristocracy, and the Berbers, and reducing Toledo to obedience, .\bderraman III established an absolute monarchy, the Caliphate of Cordova (929). His son, Al Haken II, distinguished himself by foster- ing the arts of peace; he collected a vast number of
Tolosa (1212); from the Beni Merines, in the reign of
Alfonso XI, who vanquished them in the battle of El
Salado. From that time the Spanish Mussulmans
were confined to the Kingdom of Ciranada, which had
been founded by Mohammed .\lhamar in 1238, and
lasted until 1492, when Boabdil was conquered by
Ferdinand and Isabella.
(2) The Reconquest. — All the elements of the Spanish People already existed in the kingdom of the Catholic Goths: the Latinized Coltiberian race, or Hispano-Romans, the Gothic element, and the Catho- lic Faith. These elements, however, were as yet un- combined, and still lacked that thorough fusion which was to make one peojile out of them, with a character and historical tlestiny of its own. The agency em- ployed by Divine Providence to effect this fusion was the terrible force of the Mussulman invasion. Under its immense pressure the Goths and Hispano-Romans,
books, and founded schools and academies. In the
reign of Hixem II, both the home government and the
armies were directed by his haschih .\lmanzor (the
Victorious), who, by dint of almost annual ineur.-iions
into the Christian kingdoms, well-nigh reduced them
to the condition of the first days of the Reconquest,
and indeed threatened them with total destruction.
He took and burned Barcelona, mastered Leon, Za-
mora, and Pamplona, and razed Santiago de Compos-
tela (997). At last the Christians, united, crushed
him at Calataiiazor (1002), and he went to Medina
Celi to die. After its fleeting day of glorj', the Cali-
phate fell into a rapid decay, until it was broken up
into more than twenty states known as the King-
doms of Taifas. Thus was the progress of the Re-
conquest favoured by circumstances; it would have
been completed in the thirteenth centur>', had not
divisions and discords among the Christians impeded
it. The Spanish Mussulmans then sought aid from
the Moors of Africa. This they received chiefly on
three occasions; from the Almoravids, after the tak-
ing of Toledo by Alfon.so VI (lOS.'x; from the Almo-
hads, in the time of Alfonso VIII, who Wiis defeated by
Iheni at Alarcos and defeated them at Las Xavas de
in the mountains of the North, became one people
with one religion and one national aspiration, to re-
conquer their Spanish fatherland and make the Cross
triumph over the Crescent. Though already morally
a unit, the Spanish people were still eight centuries
away from political unity, and the Reconquest was
begun from four distinct centres. Chief among these
four centres was Asturias. The fugitive Goths found
a retreat in those mountains where the Romans had
never been able to effectively establish their authority;
only a few years after the rout of Guadalete, they
gained a victory over Alkama, the lieutenant of EI
Horr, in the portentous battle of Covadonga, where
popular faith saw Divine aid fighting for the Chris-
tians. Here was erected a sanctuary of the Blessed
Virgin which afterwards became a collegiate church
ami still exists. Don Pelayo, or Pelagius, the Gothic
chieftain who was victor at Covadonga, was ac-
claimed king, and took up his residence at Cangas.
His son Favila was killed whil<' hunting, torn to pieces
by a bear, and wa.s succeeded by .\lfonso I, son-in-law
of Don Pel.ayo, who set about pushing the Recon-
quest as far as Galicia and Tierra de Campos (the
"Gothic Fields" or Campus Gdlicos). Frucla 1 (727-
