[51] Of the two men who witnessed and wrote about the martyrdoms, Eulogius is by far the more important source. Though Alvarus' works occupy somewhat more of the corpus muzarabicorum, he devoted no more than a single treatise to the martyrs. In sharp contrast, everything that Eulogius wrote dealt directly with some aspect of the martyrdoms.

Eulogius is also the more historically accessible of the two. We have no biography of Alvarus. Aside from the references to his social status and educational achievements to be found in the introductions of letters addressed to him, we are left with nothing more than Alvarus' own writings which reveal little about their author. Alvarus did, on the other hand, have something to say about his childhood friend and lifetime correspondent. His Vita Eulogii, together with the bits and pieces of information that we can extract from the works of Eulogius, provide the necessary biographical framework for determining Eulogius' exact role in the events of the 850s.

Still, the information that we have is of rather inconsistent quality. Our knowledge of Eulogius' birth and ancestry is a case in point. According to Alvarus, Eulogius was of aristocratic stock, "born into a line of senators in the noble city of Córdoba."⁽¹⁾ But the biographer noted neither the date of this birth nor the exact significance of "senator" in ninth-century Córdoba. We also know that Eulogius' mother was named Elizabeth and that he had at least five siblings,⁽²⁾ but there is no mention of his father. On the other hand we know that he had a grandfather named Eulogius who used to cover his ears and murmur a psalm whenever he heard the muezzin's call to prayer.⁽³⁾ It is possible that Eulogius had some Arab blood in his veins. One of the three confessors to whom Eulogius [52] claimed some sort of family tie was Christophorus, whom Alvarus separately described as Harabs genere. But Eulogius admits no mixed blood, nor does Alvarus ever ascribe such an ancestry to him, suggesting that the relative that Eulogius and Christophorus shared was a Latin Christian one.⁽⁴⁾

Eulogius' parents dedicated him to the church of St. Zoylus, where he came under the highly formative influence of Abbot Speraindeo.⁽⁵⁾ We know very little about Speraindeo outside of what can be distilled from the praise heaped upon him by his pupils. The only one of his works that has survived in anything but a fragmentary state is a brief response to one of Alvarus' letters describing a local Trinitarian heresy.⁽⁶⁾ But all indications point to his example and instruction as seminal in the formation of Eulogius' later attitudes.

Under the tutelage of this man, who was "enriching all of Baetica with the rivers of his wisdom," Eulogius learned the responsibilities of the priesthood and studied the patristic authors available in Córdoba at that time. But Speraindeo's program of instruction also included lessons in the doctrinal differences that separated Christianity from Islam, lessons designed to prepare an Andalusian clergyman for the peculiar demands of a religiously pluralistic environment. By chance a portion of what was probably one of Eulogius' "textbooks" has survived in one of his later polemical assaults on the Islamic conception of the afterlife. Quoting from the sixth chapter of one of Speraindeo's works, Eulogius wrote:

"In the next life," they say, "all the fortunate shall be born into paradise. There God will give us beautiful women, more comely than usual, and ready to serve our pleasure." Response: By no means will they obtain the state of blessedness in paradise if both sexes partake freely in the flow of desire. This is not paradise but a brothel, a most obscene place. The Lord, responding to the Pharisees who had asked whose wife the woman would be upon resurrection who had married seven brothers so that, according to the Mosaic law, she might raise up the seed of the next of kin, said: "You err, not knowing the scripture, nor the power of God. The children of this world marry and are given in marriage. But they who shall be as angels of God in heaven shall neither marry nor be given in marriage upon resurrection."⁽⁷⁾

It was in the company of Speraindeo that Eulogius first met Paulus Alvarus, at the time a fellow student. Years later Alvarus would recall his and Eulogius' reckless habit of debating doctrinal issues which they were not yet qualified to discuss, and composing self-congratulatory verse in honor of their naive erudition.⁽⁸⁾ As it turned out, neither ever outgrew his love for poetry or his willingness to leave accepted authority behind for the sake of winning an argument.

Although the language of instruction at St. Zoylus' was no doubt Latin, we can be fairly certain that Eulogius could speak some Arabic. Many of the confessors relied upon a speaking knowledge of Arabic to kindle the anger of the magistrates, and it is doubtful that Eulogius was any less exposed to the language than they. At one point the priest even transliterated and translated, for the benefit of his Latin readers, an Arabic prayer used by the Muslims who arrested Perfectus.⁽⁹⁾

When Eulogius achieved juventus, he was promoted first to the diaconate, then to the priesthood.⁽¹⁰⁾ Later he became a magister, apparently serving in the same capacity as Speraindeo, responsible for the training of young clerics.⁽¹¹⁾ The only details that we have of this pre-martyrial phase of his priestly life are those relating to two long journeys, neither of which he was able to complete. As Alvarus tells us, Eulogius had always dreamed of making a pilgrimage to Rome, but his responsibilities at home proved far too pressing.⁽¹²⁾ He did, however, find time to undertake an expedition north, one which took him to Christian Spain. In a letter of thanks to one of his hosts, Bishop Wiliesindus of Pamplona, Eulogius revealed that his original intention had been to locate two of his brothers who, for some unrecorded reason, had been detained in Bavaria.⁽¹³⁾ Upon reaching the Pyrenees, the priest found his route blocked by bandits and the military machinations of one William who, in alliance with ^cAbd ar-Rahmân II, was fighting Charles the Bald. Carolingian chronicles permit the identification of William as the son of Count Bernard of the Spanish March who had been executed in 844 for supporting Charles' rival Pepin. Following closely in his father's [54] footsteps, William managed, in 848 or 849, to appropriate Barcelona, which he held until succumbing to forces sympathetic to Charles early in the year 850.⁽¹⁴⁾

Hoping to find a safer passage to the west, Eulogius made his way to Pamplona only to encounter more political instability. This time it centered around Count Sancius Sancio, whom Eulogius also described as a rebel against Charles' authority in that region.⁽¹⁵⁾ Despairing of ever connecting with his brother, Eulogius decided to make the most of his Navarrese detour by visiting the great monasteries of the region. He also took the opportunity to collect some books that were apparently hard to find in Córdoba. Not surprisingly, given his love of poetry, the titles included many works by Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal. Far more remarkable a deficiency of the Cordoban library, however, was that which Eulogius remedied with his acquisition of Augustine's City of God. Historians of Muslim Spain have almost unanimously pointed to the absence of this patristic standard as symptomatic of the slipping hold that Andalusian Christians had on Latin Christian culture.

The letter to bishop Wiliesindus, particularly valuable as a source for students of Spanish monastic history, poses a slight problem for anyone interested in the precise chronology of Eulogius' life. Based on the correspondence between the priest's references to William's civil war and the dated chronicle entries, Elie Lambert and Léonce Auzias picked 848 and 849 respectively as the most likely years of Eulogius' expedition.⁽¹⁶⁾ But Colbert has rightly argued that the year 850, which witnessed the reconquest of Barcelona by Caroline forces, would fit equally well.⁽¹⁷⁾ It might even fit better, since the chroniclers both note that William took Barcelona "through trickery," but lost it in battle, making 850 appear more war torn in the Barcelona area than either of the two previous years.⁽¹⁸⁾ The determination of the exact year of the journey is, as Colbert has indicated, important for figuring out where Eulogius was at the time of the first martyr's death on April 18, 850. If the priest's problems crossing the Pyrenees were the result of Charles' efforts to regain control of the Spanish March then Eulogius was not present when Perfectus was executed.⁽¹⁹⁾

If Eulogius missed the execution of Perfectus, he seems to have been back in time to witness Isaac's. He reported to Wiliesindus that, upon arriving in Córdoba, he "found all things safe and [55] sound," except that his youngest brother had been removed, for some unknown reason, from the principatus by ^cAbd ar-Rahmân II. But between the time of his return and mid-November 851, when he composed his letter, the situation had changed quite radically:

We want you, dear father, to be aware of our tribulation, which we suffer these days on account of our sins, so that, defended by the shield of your prayers, we may be led out of this labyrinth of weariness by the unassailable merit of your intercession, which we are confident is worth a great deal in God's estimation. For in the present year, which is 889 era [851 C.E.], a fierce, tyrannical madness, rising up against the church of God, has subverted, laid waste and dispersed everything, dragging bishops, priests, abbots, deacons and the entire clergy to prison, consigning them, shackled in iron, to subterranean caves as if they were dead to the world. Among whom I, your beloved sinner, am also confined, suffering all of the horrid squalors of prison like everyone else.⁽²⁰⁾

This fury. . . has widowed the church of its sacred ministry, deprived it of its oracle, and alienated it from its office, to the point that at this time we have access to no oblation, incense, sacrifice or first fruits through which we might be able to placate our Lord.⁽²¹⁾

Eulogius did not explain to the bishop why he and the other equally unfortunate members of the Cordoban clergy had suffered such a sudden turn of fortune. Nor did he mention Bishop Reccafredus, whom Alvarus fingered as the one directly responsible for the arrests. He simply proceeded to describe the heroic efforts of a handful of confessors who, "armed with zeal," had descended into the forum to denounce Muhammad and his followers, without any explicit attempt to connect them to nostra tribulatio. Only toward the very end of his letter did he suggest why they had been arrested:

We believe that we remain bound and shackled for this reason: they think that it was by our instigation, and they ascribe to our instruction, that which these illustrious ones have done as a result of divine inspiration.⁽²³⁾

In his letter to the bishop of Pamplona, Eulogius neither admitted nor denied any personal involvement with the martyrs, but he certainly did not temper his adulation for them. Apparently confident that the new saints could, along with Acisclus and Zoilus, be enlisted to aid the struggling Christian community, he ended his letter with a list of their names and the dates of their deaths, thereby providing the bishop with the minimal biographical information required for the establishment of a new cult.⁽²⁴⁾

Eulogius' letter to the bishop of Pamplona was only one of the literary products of his prison months. As Alvarus tells us, the captive priest passed the hours praying, reading, and composing a hortative treatise entitled Documentum martyriale.⁽²⁵⁾ Its purpose was to encourage two fellow prisoners, the condemned virgins Flora and Maria, to maintain their resolve to die for their faith.⁽²⁶⁾

Eulogius' prison term also provided him with the forced leisure he needed to complete a project he had begun before his arrest: the Memoriale sanctorum. In a cover letter written at some point during his incarceration, Eulogius introduced a copy of this combination apology and martyrology to Alvarus:

This work was almost finished when an insane decision on the part of the authorities landed me in prison . . . I thought that it would end up dispersed all over the place. But having been preserved at that time by the Lord, now with his help, amidst the anxieties of prison life, it has not only been completed but delivered to you, whom the Lord chose to see it before anyone else.⁽²⁷⁾

It is difficult to determine precisely when the Muslim authorities first began to single Eulogius out as a dissident supporter of the martyrs. He had been arrested as one of a large body of clerics whom the authorities seem to have regarded more as convenient pressure points for controlling the Christian community as a whole than as actual instigators of the confessors' actions. And he was released on November 29, 851, along with the rest of the detained clerics. As a precautionary measure, the authorities required Eulogius to give sureties that he would remain in Córdoba, but there is no reason to suspect that he was the only one among the prisoners obliged to do so.⁽³¹⁾ The "publication" of the Memoriale sanctorum after his release was, as far as can be ascertained, his earliest public statement of support for the martyrs. But we have no way of knowing how the work was received by his Christian or Muslim opponents, if indeed anyone other than Alvarus even read it.

Eulogius drew more attention to himself in the months after his release when Reccafredus and the emir began again to apply pressure on the Christian community.⁽³²⁾ Eulogius, "seeing the deceitful strategy of the bishop spreading around him," bemoaned the lack of effective avenues of protest open to him. In an effort to [58] relieve his friend's consternation, Alvarus arranged to have a letter of the fourth-century bishop Epiphanius of Cyprus read in the presence of the Cordoban bishop, Saul. In this letter Epiphanius praised two priests for abstaining in protest from the celebration of the eucharist. Eulogius seized upon the incident as a precedent for suspending himself from performing the sacrament as a means of dramatizing his discontent with the leadership of the Cordoban church. Had the bishop not threatened him with censure, he had, according to Alvarus, every intention of going through with his threat.⁽³³⁾

No matter how short-lived, Eulogius' refusal to perform the mass was a symbolically pregnant gesture. More than any other ritual, the eucharist symbolized the unity of the Christian community as a whole and the community of clerics in particular. By suspending himself from its performance, Eulogius sought to detach himself from the policies of Reccafredus and those clerics who supported him. Eulogius perhaps expected more support for his action than he actually received. Alvarus was apparently the only one present who could, like Epiphanius, appreciate such a ploy.

This episode was only the first in a series of confrontations between Eulogius and the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the course of the practically martyrless winter and spring of 852.⁽³⁴⁾ Alvarus recorded that, upon the death of Archbishop Wistremirus of Toledo, the metropolitans and suffragans elected Eulogius to be his successor.⁽³⁵⁾ But Eulogius never assumed his prestigious new post for "divine providence placed obstacles in his path."⁽³⁶⁾ Alvarus never let on as to the exact nature of these obstacles. But given Eulogius' outspoken criticism of the ecclesiastical policies of Reccafredus, his apparently open support of the martyrs, and his legal confinement in Córdoba, it is not hard to guess what prevented him from going to Toledo.

The conflict between Eulogius and the authorities erupted once again in the summer of 852. The executions of Aurelius, Sabigotho, Felix, Liliosa, and Georgius on July 27 broke a months-long moratorium on martyrdom and prompted ^cAbd ar-Rahmân II to consider a new general incarceration. Eulogius, recounting this episode, wrote:

Learning of this deplorable plan we fled, we departed, we wandered, we hid, and having changed our clothes we made our way in timid flight [59] through the nocturnal silence. We were frightened by falling leaves, we frequently changed our place of residence, we searched for safer places, and we constantly trembled, fearing death by the sword.

Though Eulogius was able to ride out this particular storm in hiding, he became a target of reproach during the episcopal council that the emir had convened that summer to consider measures for squelching the new outbreak of martyrdoms.⁽³⁸⁾ As Eulogius later reported, the exceptor reipublicae, who presided over the council, "moved his tongue against me, heaping insults upon me."⁽³⁹⁾ Recalling the same incident, Alvarus noted more generally that Eulogius was "attacked and irritated by threats" because "he was seen to be the inspirer of martyrdom in those days."⁽⁴⁰⁾

Not long after the council, ^cAbd ar-Rahmân II suffered a sudden illness which deprived him first of his speech and then, on September 22, of his life. The fact that the attack came when the bodies of Rogelius and Servus Dei were being committed to the flames attested, in Eulogius' opinion, to the "wondrous power of the savior." But his euphoria over what must have seemed to him an all too rare exercise of divine justice was cut short by the accession of the emir's son, who, as we saw in the first chapter, proved to be much more of a persecutor Christianorum than his father.

Eulogius regarded the subsequent nine-month hiatus in the martyrdoms as a sign that the new emir's hardline approach had worked. In mid-spring of 853 Eulogius decided to bring the Memoriale sanctorum up to date by recording the passions of Aurelius, Sabigotho, and the nine others who had died in the course of the previous summer. He then formally closed the work for the first time with a long invocation to Christ.⁽⁴¹⁾

Eulogius could not have predicted that within two months he would have five more martyrs to add: Fandila on June 13, Anastasius, Felix, and Digna a day later, and Benildus on the fifteenth. Apologizing to his readers for violating not only the [60] rhetorical rules against prolixity, but those which frowned on choppy narrative, the priest reopened his hagiographical record.⁽⁴²⁾ There is no way of knowing exactly when Eulogius composed the third book of the Memoriale sanctorum. But the lack of any formal ending suggests that this time he decided to leave the register open in the event of more unforeseen executions. Indeed after the five Christians killed in June 853, the martyrdoms did become increasingly sporadic, but Eulogius would never see them subside altogether.

At some point in or after the year 857 the priest composed the Liber apologeticus martyrum. Like the Memoriale sanctorum, it combined a general defense of the martyrs' claim to sanctity with specific hagiographical narratives, in this case involving the passions of Rudericus and Salomon who died on March 13, 857. In the course of this work Eulogius made passing reference to a new persecution launched by Muhammad I, made possible by an uncharacteristic lull in the provincial rebellions that plagued the emirate. But the priest did not elaborate.⁽⁴³⁾

We also know from an independent source that in the spring of 858 Eulogius met Usuard and Odilard, two monks from Paris in search of relics. They had come to Spain hoping to secure the remains of St. Vincent, but were disappointed when the Christians of Zaragoza proved reluctant to hand over such a precious spiritual treasure. Hearing reports of an enormi fidelium interfectione in process in Córdoba, the two monks decided to make their way south rather than return to France empty-handed. Once in Córdoba, they made contact with Samson, the former translator, who had recently assumed the abbacy of the monastery at Pinna Mellaria. There, as Samson informed them, the bodies of Aurelius and Georgius, as well as the head of Sabigotho, had been deposited almost six years before. The two relic hunters were impressed with what they read in the passio and heard from the mouth of Eulogius himself, whose personal knowledge of Aurelius made him an ideal source for additional information about the martyr. Though the monks were very reluctant to part with the relics, Samson and the Cordoban bishop Saul saw to it that the Parisians' detour was not in vain.⁽⁴⁴⁾

As far as we know the Liber apologeticus martyrum was the last of Eulogius' literary efforts.⁽⁴⁵⁾ In late winter, 859, the authorities arrested Eulogius for harboring and encouraging the apostasy of [61] the fugitive Leocritia. When questioned as to his motives, Eulogius responded:

The order of preaching is enjoined upon us and it befits our faith that we extend its light to those who seek it from us, that we deny no one who hastens along those paths of life, which are holy. This befits priests, this the true religion demands, this Christ our Lord has taught us: that anyone who is thirsty and wants to drink from the rivers of faith may find a draught double that which he sought. And since this virgin sought from us a rule of the holy faith, it was necessary that we freely give her our attention, that her inclination might be fully ignited. Nor is it right to reject such petitioners, especially for those selected for the service of Christ. Therefore it was fitting that I, inasmuch as I was able, instruct, teach and present the faith of Christ as the way to the celestial kingdom. I would most readily do the same for you if you were inclined to seek the same from me.⁽⁴⁶⁾

If stupid and idiotic individuals have been carried away to such lamentable ruin, what is it that compels you, who are outstanding in wisdom and illustrious in manner of life, to commit yourself to this deadly ruin, suppressing the natural love of life? Hear me, I beseech you, I beg you, lest you fall headlong to destruction. Say something in this the hour of your need, so that afterward you may be able to practice your faith. We promise that we will not bother you again anywhere.⁽⁴⁷⁾

1. Vita Eulogii 1.2 (PL 115:707 CSM 1:331).

2. Eulogius' letter to bishop Wiliesindus mentions two sisters, Niola and Anulo, and three brothers, Alvarus, Isidorus, and Joseph. Epistula 3.1, 5, 8 (PL 115: 845, 847, 848; CSM 2:497, 499, 500).

3. Liber apologeticus martyrum 19 (PL 115:862; CSM 2:487).

4. Vita Eulogii 4.12 (PL 115:714; CSM 1:337). There is no reason why either Eulogius or Alvarus would have attempted to hide the former's mixed heritage if such had indeed been the case. Alvarus admitted in a letter that his own ancestry was Jewish, and neither he nor Eulogius had anything but praise for the martyrs who were of mixed blood. Colbert, p. 349, mistakenly assumes that if Eulogius were related to Christophorus, both would have had to have Arab blood, and therefore treats the Christophorus that Alvarus mentioned as a completely different one than Eulogius' contribulis. Morales, in the notes to his edition of Eulogius' works (PL 115:726, n. 2), treated the two as one and the same without, however, drawing any conclusions about Eulogius' ancestry.

5. Toledo 4.24 (633) established the procedure by which young men were to be prepared for ecclesiastical service: ". . . If among the clerics there are any adolescent or pubescent boys, let them all dwell in one room of the atrium, so that they might pass through these treacherous years not in lust but in ecclesiastical discipline under an approved elder whom they shall have as both a master of doctrine and a living example." Vives, p. 201. We have already, in chapter 2, encountered many examples of Christians coming from all over southern Spain to study under the masters of the various basilicae in Córdoba. Some came of their own accord and some were dedicated by their parents. Apparently the latter had the option of returning to lay life when they reached the age of discretion. Alvarus, who, as we shall see below, was Eulogius' schoolmate, did not follow his friend into the priesthood. Similarly, both Emila and Hieremias studied together at the basilica of St. Cyprian, but only the former died an ecclesiastic.

6. Alvarus, Epistula 8 (CSM 1:203-10). The calendar of 961 lists Speraindeo under May 7, and uses the word "interfectio" to describe his death. Dozy, Calendrier. But it is extremely unlikely that he would have died a martyr without some indication in the writings of Eulogius and Alvarus. That he did not survive to see the martyrdoms of the 850s is evident from Alvarus' reference to his master as "bone recordationis memorie." Vita Eulogii 1.2 (PL 115:708; CSM 1:331).

7. Memoriale sanctorum 1.7 (PL 115:745; CSM 2:375-6). Deuteronomy 25.5, Matthew 27.29, and Luke 20.34-5.

8. Vita Eulogii 1.2 (PL 115:708; CSM 1:331).

9. "Zalla, Allah, Halla, Anabi. V. A. Zallen. Quod Latine dicitur, Psallat Deus super prophetam, et salvet eum." Memoriale sanctorum 2.1.3 (PL 115:767; CSM 2:399).

10. Isidore defined juventus as between the ages of 28 and 50. Etymologies 11.2. Toledo 4.20 (633) set the minimum age for deacons at 25, and for priests at thirty. Vives, p. 200.

11. Vita Eulogii 1.3 (PL 115:708; CSM 1:332). Eulogius described the martyrs Sanctius and Christophorus individually as "auditor noster," suggesting that they may have been students of his at one time.

12. Vita Eulogii 1.3 (PL 115:709; CSM 1:332).

13. Epistula 3 (PL 115:845; CSM 2:497).

14. Annales Bertiniani, ed. G. Waltz, MGH, Scriptores rerum germanicorum in usum scholarum . . . (Hanover, 1883), pp. 36, 38. Fragmentum chronici Fontanellensis, ed. George H. Pertz, MGH, Scriptores 2 (Hanover, 1829), pp. 302-3.

15. Epistula 3.1 (PL 115:845; CSM 2:498). Independent confirmation of this rebellion is not available.

16. Léonce Auzias, L'Aquitaine carolingienne (778-987), Bibliothèque Méridionale,

series 2, vol. 28 (Toulouse, 1937), p. 264. Elie Lambert, "Le voyage de Saint Euloge dans les Pyrénées en 848," Estudios dedicados a Menéndez Pidal, vol. 4 (Madrid, 1953), pp. 557-67.

17. Colbert, p. 185.

18. Annales Bertiniani, pp. 36, 38. Fragmentum chronici Fontanellensis, pp. 302, 303.

19. Colbert's observation that Eulogius seems to have relied on second hand accounts of Perfectus' martyrdom and therefore must have been away from Córdoba at the time, would have been stronger had not Eulogius also credited others for his information about Pomposa. Memoriale sanctorum 3.11.3 (PL 115:812; CSM 2:453).

20. Epistula 3.10 (PL 115:849; CSM 2:501).

21. Ibid.

22. Epistula 3.9 (PL 115:848: CSM 2:500).

23. Epistula 3.12 (PL 115:850; CSM 2:502). Here, as elsewhere, it is difficult to determine whether or not Eulogius' use of the first person plural is rhetorical.

24. Epistula 3.13 (PL 115:852; CSM 2:503).

25. Vita Eulogii 2.4 (PL 115:709; CSM 1:332-3).

26. Ibid.

27. PL 115:733; CSM 2:364.

28. Memoriale sanctorum 2.1.5 (PL 115:769; CSM 2:401).

29. Memoriale sanctorum 1.9 (PL 115:747; CSM 2:377).

30. Memoriale sanctorum 1.17 (PL 115:751; CSM 2:381). Colbert, p. 218, regards this as a later insertion. But, as we shall see in the next chapter, there is no reason to suppose that Eulogius composed the apologetic portion of the work before recording the passions of the first group of eleven spontaneous martyrs.

31. Vita Eulogii 2.7 (PL 115:711; CSM 1:334).

32. Vita Eulogii 2.6 (PL 115:710; CSM 1:333-4).

33. Vita Eulogii 2.7 (PL 115:710-11; CSM 1:334).

34. We hear no more about Reccafredus after Eulogius' eucharistic threat. Given the way Alvarus referred to the "times of Reccafredus," he may well have died between the spring of 852 and the time Alvarus wrote the Vita Eulogii.

35. Though the date of Wistremirus' death has provoked considerable debate in the past, the fact that Eulogius, in his letter of November 851 to Bishop Wiliesindus of Pamplona, referred to Wistremirus as "adhuc vigentem" at the time of Eulogius' trip a year before, suggests that he died sometime in 851 prior to Eulogius' letter. Based on the chronology of the Vita Eulogii, the election most likely took place in early 852, not long after Eulogius' release from prison. Epistula 3.7 (PL 115:848; CSM 2:500). See Colbert, pp. 322-8, for a summary of the controversy.

36. Vita Eulogii 3.19 (PL 115:713; CSM 1:336). Possibly the political tensions that existed between Toledo and Córdoba at the time led to Eulogius' election in absentia as a form of protest. Dozy 1:354.

37. Memoriale sanctorum 2.14 (PL 115:795; CSM 2:433-4).

38. There has been little agreement among historians as to the precise date of this council. Eulogius tells us that the exceptor fell from the emir's grace post bisseno mense after the council met and post aliquos menses after the accession of Muhammad I. Given that the council was intended to find a way of preventing future martyrdoms, it would make the most sense for it to have been convened immediately after a significant number of executions. The middle to late summer of 852, after the group of martyrs that died on July 27, fits best. It also makes the most sense in terms of the order of events that Eulogius described, placing, as he did, the council on the eve of ^cAbd ar-Rahmân II's death. The exceptor's disgrace, then, would have occurred twelve months later, or roughly August, 853. It does not make as much sense to interpret post bisseno mense as "after the twelfth month," or December, as Colbert would have it (p. 249). Memoriale sanctorum 3.2 (PL 115:801; CSM 2:440).

39. Memoriale sanctorum 2.15.2 (PL 115:796; CSM 2:434-5).

40. Vita Eulogii 2.5 (PL 115:710; CSM 1:333), 3.8 (PL 115:711; CSM 1:335).

41. Eulogius tells us that he composed the passio of Aurelius, Sabigotho, et al., at the request of their youngest child nine months after the execution, that is, about May of 853. Memoriale sanctorum 2.10.17 (PL 115:784; CSM 2:423). We can assume that the others that followed in the summer of 852 were recorded at about the same time. At some point after Eulogius first terminated his martyrology with the account of Theodemirus' death and before the inclusion of the victims of the summer of 852, that is between November 851 and May 853, he incorporated the passio of Nunilo and Alodia, two Christians executed for apostasy in Bosca, the news of which he had received secondhand from Venerius, the bishop of Alcalá. He began the episode with an apology for his lack of prescience in ending his martyrology prematurely. Memoriale sanctorum 2.7 (PL 115:775 CSM 2:406). The passio of Flora and Maria was also composed sometime in this interim period. But its structure indicates that it was originally designed as a separate work, perhaps intended to accompany the Documentum martyriale, and was only later added to the rest of the passiones. Memoriale sanctorum 2.8 (PL 115:835-42; CSM 2:408-15).

42. Memoriale sanctorum 3, pref. (PL 115:799; CSM 2:438-9).

43. Liber apologeticus martyrum 22 (PL 115:863; CSM 2:488-9).

44. Aimoin, De translatione I (PL 115:941-8). Nathalia is, for some unknown reason, the name that Sabigotho assumed in the passio that accompanied the remains to Paris. The meeting between the monks and Eulogius is mentioned specifically in Aimoin 1.8 (PL 115:944-5).

45. Raphael Jiménez Pedrajas has made a case for regarding Eulogius as the author of the revised passio that Usuard and Odilard brought north with them, perhaps making this his last work. "San Eulogio de Córdoba, autor de la pasión francesa de los mártires mozárabes cordobeses Jorge, Aurelio y Natalia," Anthologica Annua 17 (1970).

46. Vita Eulogii 5.15 (PL 115:716; CSM 1:339).

47. Vita Eulogii 15 (PL 115:717; CSM 1:340).