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99-512: The Migetians were not Adoptionists, but were opposed to the Spanish ecclesiastical hierarchy, declaring absolute loyalty to Rome. They tended towards and may have been influenced by Donatism in their rigorous standards for priests. They preached separatism from Muslims and imposed dietary restrictions to uphold separation. They may have held unorthodox Trinitarian views. The names "Migetians" and "Cassianists" are contemporary, but originate with

198-690: A synod of the Spanish church, in Seville . This is known from a letter that Elipand wrote to an abbot named Fidelis in October 785, in which he also informs Fidelis that he has received help from Bishop Ascaric of Braga against the Migetians. This letter was known in Rome by early 786 and sealed the fate of Egila. In a third letter addressed to "all the orthodox bishops living throughout the whole of Spain", Hadrian confirms that Egila and John had fallen in with

297-465: A bishop named "Agila of Ementia" and who still had adherents in some parishes, mainly in the Egabrense (the region around Egabro ), particularly the village of Epagro. The Cassianists only considered as valid the ordinations performed by Agila (Egila). Saul of Córdoba , writing to Paul Albar in 862, lumps the Migetians together with Donatists and Luciferians as rigorists, but this is not proof that

396-486: A boy Pelagius in 925 (for refusal to convert to Islam and submit to the caliph's sexual advances), and Argentea in 931. According to Wolf, there is no reason to believe that they stopped even then. Eulogius's writings documenting stories of the Córdoba martyrs of 851–59, encouraged by him to defy Muslim authorities with blasphemies and embrace martyrdom , contrast these Christians with the earlier official Christianity of

495-502: A copy to Elipand, who mentions it in his letter. It is now lost . Elipand accuses Migetius of four errors in his letter addressed to him. First, he accuses him of holding priests to an exceedingly high standard of moral purity and of referring to himself as free from sin. The precise nature of Migetius' claims is difficult to discern in Elipand's letter, but it has been likened to Donatism , an ancient African heresy. African influence on

594-688: A hearing, ruled in favour of Caecilian and warned against unrest. A delegation from Rome travelled to Carthage in a vain attempt to seek compromise. The Donatists fomented protests and street violence, refusing to compromise in favor of the Catholic bishop. After the Constantinian shift , when other Christians accepted the emperor's decision, the Donatists continued to demonize him. After several attempts at reconciliation, in 317 Constantine issued an edict threatening death to anyone who disturbed

693-404: A religion and not merely a threat. Spanish Christians sought to discourage apostasy from Christianity and to defend Christian beliefs, but they increasingly became connected to the dar al-Islam (land of Islam), through shared culture, language, and regular interaction. A few were Arab and Berber Christians coupled with Muslim converts to Christianity who, as Arabic speakers, felt at home among

792-435: A response to a now lost letter from Egila in which the bishop protested his orthodoxy against rumours of heresy. When Hadrian's first letter (c. 784) failed to reach is addressee, Charlemagne requested that he send a second one (c. 785). In both, the pope rejects the charge of heresy against Egila and his assistant, a priest named John. Sometime between 782 and October 785, Migetius was condemned by some formal process, possibly

891-456: A yearly cash payment supplemented with specific agricultural products. In exchange, Theodomir received Abd al-Aziz' promise to respect both his property and his jurisdiction in the province of Murcia . There was no change in the composition of the people on the land, and in cases like this one, even their Visigothic lords remained. In the Moorish controlled region of Al-Garb Al-Andalus to

990-524: Is first documented in Christian sources from the 11th century; the term Mozarab was not used by Muslims to describe Christians. Contemporary Arabic sources described Christians as naṣārā ( نصارى ' Nazarenes '), or imprecisely by their legal-religious status: ahl adh-dhimma ( أهل الذمة 'people of the covenant ') or mu‘āhidūn ( معاهدون 'contractual partners'). The term Mozarab , now sometimes applied broadly to all Christians in al-Andalus,

1089-533: Is imprecise; many Christians living in Islamic Spain resisted Arabization , for example. Christians and Jews were designated as dhimmi under Sharia (Islamic law). Dhimmi were allowed to live within Muslim society, but were legally required to pay the jizya , a personal tax, and abide with a number of religious, social, and economic restrictions that came with their status. Despite their restrictions,

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1188-558: Is still active in Toledo . Since Toledo was the most deeply rooted centre where they remained firm, the Gothic rite was identified and came to be known as the "Toledan rite" . In 1080, Pope Gregory VII called the council of Burgos, where it was agreed to unify the Latin liturgical rite in all Christian lands. In 1085, Toledo was reconquered and there was a subsequent attempt to reintroduce

1287-414: Is unlikely. At least three explanations for "Casiani" have been advanced: The name Migetius is misspelled Mingentius in the papal letters. The sect had its origins in the teaching of Migetius in the early 780s. The earliest reference to the teaching is in a letter Elipand wrote to Migetius between 782 and 785 (probably closer to 782). Migetius is mentioned in two more of Elipand's six surviving letters. He

1386-549: The Codex epistolaris Carolinus (nos. 95–97), shed light on Migetian belief and on the political ramifications of Migetianism. According to Hadrian, the mission of Egila was proposed to him by Wilchar. For this Wilchar required the permission of the Frankish king, Charlemagne . Some scholars have even seen Charlemagne as the likely initiator in an endeavour to secure control over the Spanish church. Hadrian's first two letters were

1485-733: The Anglo-Norman historian, Orderic Vitalis , some 10,000 Mozarabs were sent by Alfonso for settlement on the Ebro. Mozarabs were scarce in Tudela or Zaragossa , but were more common in a place such as Calahorra , conquered by the Kingdom of Navarre in 1045. During the early stages of Romance language development in Iberia , a set of closely related Romance dialects was spoken in Muslim areas of

1584-660: The Christians of al-Andalus , or the territories of Iberia under Muslim rule from 711 to 1492 . Following the Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania , the Christian population of much of Iberia came under Muslim control. Initially, the vast majority of Mozarabs kept Christianity and their dialects descended from Latin . Gradually, the population converted to Islam —an estimated 50% by

1683-528: The Eucharist do not celebrate a valid Lord's Supper . [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Donatists". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Mozarabs The Mozarabs (from Arabic : مُسْتَعْرَب , romanized :  musta‘rab , lit.   'Arabized'), or more precisely Andalusi Christians , were

1782-713: The Gospels and the Psalms , anti-Islamic tracts and a translation of a church history . To this should be added literary remains in Latin which remained the language of the liturgy. There is evidence of a limited cultural borrowing from the Mozarabs by the Muslim community in Al-Andalus. For instance, the Muslims' adoption of the Christian solar calendar and holidays was an exclusively Andalusi phenomenon. In Al-Andalus,

1881-463: The Martyrs of Córdoba were martyred between the years 850 and 859, being decapitated for publicly proclaiming their Christian beliefs. Dhimmi (non-Muslims living under Muslim rule) were not allowed to speak of their faith to Muslims under penalty of death. Wolf points out that it is important to distinguish between the motivations of the individual martyrs, and those of Eulogius and Alvarus in writing

1980-580: The Memoriale . Jessica A. Coope says that while it would be wrong to ascribe a single motive to all forty-eight, she suggests that it reflects a protest against the process of assimilation. They demonstrated a determination to assert Christian identity. The Mozarab population was badly affected by the hardening of relations between the Christians and the Muslims during the Almoravid period. In 1099,

2079-782: The Mozarabic Rite . The Christian kingdoms of the north, though, changed to the Latin liturgical rites and appointed northerners as bishops for the reconquered sees. Nowadays, the Mozarabic Rite is allowed by a papal privilege at the Mozarab Chapel of the Cathedral of Toledo , where it is held daily. The Poor Clare church in Madrid , La Inmaculada y San Pascual, also holds weekly Mozarabic masses. A Mozarab brotherhood

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2178-465: The Nicene method, which was almost certainly the method in use by Elipand. Pope Hadrian's first letter to Egila confirms that the issues being disputed by Migetius were the date of Easter, dietary regulations concerning pork, the compatibility of predestination and free will and practices that represented a compromise with Islam, such as living in common with Jews and Muslims, marrying unbelievers and

2277-479: The Trinity — Father , Son and Holy Spirit —were incarnated as David , Jesus and Paul , respectively. This claim has often been dismissed as too bizarre to be accurate and treated as a distortion or misunderstanding on the part of Elipand. In his letter to Fidelis, Elipand also accuses Migetius of miscalculating the date of Easter . Pope Hadrian I was also informed that Migetius did not date Easter according to

2376-586: The Vandals conquered North Africa. Donatism may have also gradually declined because Donatists and orthodox Catholics were equally marginalised by the Arian Vandals, but it survived the Vandal occupation and Justinian I 's Byzantine reconquest. Although it is unknown how long Donatism persisted, some Christian historians believe that the schism and its ensuing unrest in the Christian community facilitated

2475-461: The practice of Jesus . Third, Elipand accused him of exaggerating the importance of the city of Rome . According to Elipand, Migetius saw it as the city in which Christ dwells, whose diocese was without blemish. He interpreted Matthew 16:18 as a reference to Rome and regarded it as the New Jerusalem of Revelation . Fourth, Elipand accuses Migetius of teaching that the three persons of

2574-522: The taifa kingdoms; there were several parishes in Toledo when the Christians occupied the city in 1085, and abundant documentation in Arabic on the Mozarabs of this city is preserved. An apparently still significant Mozarab group, which is the subject of a number of passages in the Arabic chronicles dealing with El Cid 's dominion over Valencia , was also to be found there during this same period. Similarly,

2673-470: The 13th century, it was an exclusively Christian concern. There were frequent contacts between the Mozarabs in Al-Andalus and their co-religionists both in the Kingdom of Asturias and in the Marca Hispanica , the territory under Frankish influence to the northeast. The level of literary culture among the northern Christians was inferior to that of their Mozarab brethren in the historic cities to

2772-568: The 9th century. Evidence points to a rapid attrition in the North. For instance, during the 1st centuries of Muslim rule, the Mozarab community of Lleida was apparently ruled by a qumis (count) and had its own judiciary, but there is no evidence of any such administration in the later period. Although Mozarab merchants traded in Andalusi markets, they were neither influential nor numerous before

2871-781: The Almoravids. Other Mozarabs fled to Northern Iberia. This constituted the end of the Mozarabic culture in Al-Andalus. For a while, both in North Africa and in Northern Iberia, the Mozarabs managed to maintain their own separate cultural identity. However, in North Africa, they were eventually Islamized. Over the course of the 12th and 13th centuries, there unrolled a steady process of the impoverishment of Mozarab cultivators, as more and more land came under control of magnates and ecclesiastical corporations. The latter, under

2970-547: The Christians paid the jizya tax, the only relevant Islamic law obligation, and kept Roman-derived, Visigothic -influenced civil Law. Most of the Mozarabs were descendants of local Christians and were primarily speakers of Romance varieties under Islamic rule. They also included those members of the former Visigothic ruling elite who did not convert to Islam or emigrate northwards after the Muslim conquest. Spanish Christians initially portrayed Muslims primarily as military or political enemies, but with time, Islam came to be seen as

3069-574: The Donatists as the imperial church. The Donatists were persecuted by the Roman authorities to such a degree that Augustine protested their treatment. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) taught that in the divine sacrifice of the Holy Mass " is contained and immolated, in an unbloody manner, the same Christ that offered Himself in a bloody manner upon the altar of the Cross. Hence, it is the same victim,

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3168-461: The Donatists, sacraments administered by the traditores were invalid. Whether the sacrament of Penance could reconcile a traditor to full communion was questioned, and the church's position was that the sacrament could. The church still imposed years- (sometimes decades-) long public penance for serious sins. A penitent would first beg for the prayers of those entering a church from outside its doors. They would next be permitted to kneel inside

3267-540: The Emperor Charlemagne 's major offensives was to annihilate the Moorish frontier by taking Zaragoza, which was an important Mozarab stronghold. However, the offensive failed because the Mozarabs of the city refused to cooperate with the Catholic emperor. Vives concludes that the Mozarabs were primarily a self-absorbed group. They understood that they could gain a great deal by remaining in close contact with

3366-571: The Islamic lunar calendar was supplemented by the local solar calendar, which were more useful for agricultural and navigational purposes. Like the local Mozarabs, the Muslims of Al-Andalus were notoriously heavy drinkers. Muslims also celebrated traditional Christian holidays sometimes with the sponsorship of their leaders, despite the fact that such fraternisation was generally opposed by the Ulema . The Muslims also hedged their metaphysical bets through

3465-485: The Islamic administration under some rulers. A prominent example being that of Rabi ibn Zayd, a palace official, who, sometime between 961 and 976, wrote the famous Calendar of Córdoba for Abd ar-Rahman III , undertook various diplomatic missions in Germania and Byzantium , and was rewarded with the bishopric of Elvira (present-day Granada ). Furthermore, in 1064, Emir Al-Muqtadir of Zaragoza sent Paternus ,

3564-411: The Islamic law. By the mid-9th century, as the episode of the Córdoba martyrs reveals, there was a clear Christian opposition against the systematic pressure by a variety of legal and financial instruments of Islam, resisting their conversion and absorption into Muslim culture. The initial official reaction to the Córdoba martyrs was to round up and imprison the leaders of the Christian community. Towards

3663-463: The Migetians and were preaching false doctrines. He also implies that Egila had usurped a diocese, possibly Elvira or Mérida , although he had been expressly forbidden to take a permanent see when he was commissioned as a peripatetic bishop. A synod held at Córdoba in 839 remembered Egila as the founder of the Migetian sect. It condemned the " Acephali called Cassianists" who had been founded by

3762-514: The Moors. There was a steady rate of decline among the Mozarab population of Al-Andalus towards the end of the Reconquista. This was mainly caused by conversions, emigration towards the northern part of the peninsula during the upheavals of the 9th and early 10th centuries and also by the ethno-religious conflicts of the same period. The American historian, Richard Bulliet , in a work based on

3861-576: The Mozarabic bishop of Tortosa , as an envoy to king Ferdinand I of León in Santiago de Compostela , while the Christian Abu Umar ibn Gundisalvus, a Saqaliba (a Slav ), served the same taifa ruler as the Wazir (Vizier, or the equivalent to prime minister). Conversion to Islam was encouraged by the Umayyad caliphs and emirs of Córdoba . Many Mozarabs converted to Islam to avoid

3960-462: The Mozarabs at Córdoba in which Christians martyred themselves to protest against Muslim rule. However, Kenneth Baxter Wolf concludes that Eulogius was not the instigator of these persecutions but merely a hagiographer. This is consistent with other historical records of two Christians executed in 860, and shortly after a third one. The subsequent executions were in 888–912 and 913–920. Still more executions were recorded in Córdoba in 923 (Eugenia),

4059-463: The Muslim world with the intention of protecting Muslim settlers from corrupting indigenous influences. The Arab and mostly Berber immigrants who settled in the existing towns were drawn into broad contact with natives. Their immigration, though limited in numbers, introduced new agricultural and hydraulic technologies, new craft industries, and Levantine techniques of shipbuilding. They were accompanied by an Arabic-language culture that brought with it

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4158-565: The Peninsula by the general population. These closely related historic dialects are today known as the Mozarabic language , though there never was a common standard. This archaic Romance language is first documented in writing in the Peninsula in the form of choruses ( kharjas ) in Arabic and Hebrew lyrics called muwashshahs . As they were written in Arabic and Hebrew alphabets

4257-499: The Russian bishops acquiesced to Patriarch Nikon 's reforms they (and the other patriarchs) forfeited any claim to apostolic succession . Accusations of Donatism remain common in contemporary intra-Christian polemics. Conservative Lutherans are sometimes called Donatists by their liberal brethren, referring to their doctrine of church fellowship and their position that churches which deny that Jesus’ body and blood are eaten during

4356-485: The Visigoths, by Reccared, the previous bishop of Córdoba, who counseled tolerance and mutual forbearance with the Muslim authorities. However, since then Christians became increasingly alienated not only because they could not build new churches or ring church bells, but primarily because they were excluded from most positions of political, military, or social authority and suffered many other indignities as unequals under

4455-427: The bishop controversy. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to the non-Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists; Constantine was apparently not fully aware of the seriousness of the dispute, which his gift exacerbated. The Donatists appealed to Rome for equal treatment; Constantine tasked Miltiades with resolving

4554-564: The church and the Donatists failed, and by 321 he asked the bishops to show moderation and patience to the sect in an open letter. During the brief reign of Julian , the Donatists were revitalized and, due to imperial protection, occupied churches and carried out atrocities. Laws against the Donatists were decreed by Valentinian I after the defeat of the Donatist usurper Firmus in North Africa. Augustine of Hippo campaigned against Donatism as bishop; through his efforts, orthodoxy gained

4653-459: The church during the Liturgy . After being allowed to stand with the congregation, the penitent would finally be allowed to receive the Eucharist again. According to Donatists, apostasy would permanently disqualify a man from church leadership. The validity of sacraments administered by priests and bishops who had been traditores was denied by the Donatists. According to Augustine, a sacrament

4752-594: The church in Spain was high under the Visigoths and at least one Donatist work, a commentary on Revelation by Tyconius , was in circulation at precisely this time, since Beatus of Liébana cites it in his own Commentary on the Apocalypse . Second, Elipand accuses Migetius of prohibiting eating with pagans (i.e., Muslims) or eating food associated with paganism. Elipand considered this command to be contrary to

4851-464: The clergy was extremely widespread. Some Christian authorities ( Álvaro and Eulogius of Córdoba ) were scandalized at the treatment of Christians, and began encouraging the public declarations of the faith as a way to reinforce the faith of the Christian community and protest the Islamic laws that Christians saw as unjust. Eulogius composed tractates and martyrologies for Christians during this time. The forty-eight Christians (mostly monks) known as

4950-400: The decade after 850, it was apparent that at least four Christian basilicas remained in the city, including the church of Saint Acisclus that had sheltered the only holdouts in 711, and nine monasteries and convents in the city and its environs; nevertheless, their existence soon became precarious. It is supposed that the Mozarabs were tolerated as dhimmi and valued taxpayers, and no Mozarab

5049-513: The defense of the thaghr (front line fortress towns), participating in raids against Christian neighbours and struggles between Muslim factions. For instance, in 936, a significant number of Christians holed up in Calatayud with the rebel Mutarraf, only to be massacred in a desperate stand against the Caliphate forces. There is very little evidence of any Christian resistance at Al-Andalus in

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5148-520: The dhimmi were fully protected by the Muslim rulers and did not have to fight in case of war, because they paid the jizya. As the universal nature of Roman law was eroded and replaced by Islamic law in part of the Iberian Peninsula , Sharia law allowed most ethnic groups in the medieval Islamic world to be judged by their own judges, under their own law: Mozarabs had their own tribunals and authorities. Some of them even held high offices in

5247-589: The ecumenical standards of Rome. The reaction of the Toledan people was such that the king refused to implement it, and in 1101 enacted the "Fuero (Code of laws) of the Mozarabs" , which awarded them privileges. He specified that it applied only to the Castilians, Mozarabs, and Franks of the city. During both his first marriage to Agnes of Aquitaine and his second marriage to Constance of Burgundy , both of whom were devout Catholics, King Alfonso VI of Castile

5346-690: The end of the 11th century, many of them Muladí ( ethnic Iberians previously converted to Islam), are totally distinct from the Mudéjars and Moriscos who converted gradually to Christianity between the 12th and 17th centuries. Separate Mozarab enclaves were located in the large Muslim cities, especially Toledo , Córdoba , Zaragoza , and Seville . Mozarab ( Spanish : mozárabes [moˈθaɾaβes] ; Portuguese : moçárabes [muˈsaɾɐβɨʃ] ; Catalan : mossàrabs [muˈsaɾəps] , from Arabic : مُسْتَعْرَب , romanized :  musta‘rab , lit.   'Arabized')

5445-479: The end of the decade of the martyrs, Eulogius's martyrology begins to record the closing of Christian monasteries and convents, which to Muslim eyes had proved to be a hotbed of disruptive fanaticism rather than a legitimate response against a slow but systematic elimination of Christianity. As previously with the Muslims, so as the Reconquista advanced, the Mozarabs integrated into the Christian kingdoms, where

5544-552: The fourth and fifth centuries. Donatism mainly spread among the indigenous Berber population, and Donatists were able to blend Christianity with many of the Berber local customs. The Roman governor of North Africa, lenient to the large Christian minority under his rule throughout the Diocletianic Persecutions , was satisfied when Christians handed over their scriptures as a token repudiation of faith. When

5643-480: The hands of Jewish and Muslim traders until the dramatic shifts initiated by European commercial expansion throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. With the development of Italian maritime power and the southward expansion of the Christian Reconquista , Andalusi international trade came increasingly under the control of Christian traders from northern Iberia, southern France, and Italy. By the middle of

5742-437: The heavy jizyah tax which they were subjected to as dhimmi. Conversion to Islam also opened up new horizons to the Mozarabs, alleviated their social position, ensured better living conditions, and broadened scope for more technically skilled and advanced work. Apostasy , however, for one who had been raised as a Muslim or had embraced Islam, was a crime punishable by death. Until the mid-9th century, relations between Muslims and

5841-451: The higher learning and science of the classical and post-classical Levantine world. The emir of Córdoba , Abd ar-Rahman I 's policy of allowing the ethnic Arab politico-military elite to practice agriculture further encouraged economic and cultural contact and cohesion. Moreover, the interaction of foreign and native elements, fostered by intermarriage and contact in day-to-day commercial and social life rapidly stimulated acculturation between

5940-463: The householder said to his servants, 'Whomsoever ye shall find, compel them to come in. ' " In 409, Emperor Honorius 's secretary of state, Marcellinus of Carthage , issued a decree which condemned the Donatists as heretical and demanded that they surrender their churches. This was made possible by a collatio in which St. Augustine legally proved that Constantine had chosen the Nicene church over

6039-501: The imperial peace; another edict followed, calling for the confiscation of all Donatist church property. Donatus refused to surrender his buildings in Carthage , and the local Roman governor sent troops to deal with him and his followers. Although the historical record is unclear, some Donatists were apparently killed and their clergy exiled. Outside Carthage, Donatist churches and clergy were undisturbed. Constantine's efforts to unite

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6138-529: The influence of the Benedictine bishop of Cluny Bernard , and the Archbishop of Toledo Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada , who was himself the principal buyer of Mozarab property in the early 13th century fomented a segregationalist policy under the cloak of religious nationalism. Jiménez de Rada's bias is symbolized in his coining of the semi-erudite etymology of the word Mozarab from Mixti Arabi , connoting

6237-418: The integrity of their culture, and they never lost personal and cultural contact with the Christian world. In the generations that followed the conquest, Muslim rulers promulgated new statutes clearly disadvantageous to dhimmi . The construction of new churches and the sounding of church bells were eventually forbidden. But when Eulogius of Córdoba recorded the martyrology of the Martyrs of Córdoba during

6336-433: The issue, which led to the 313 commission. The Donatists refused to abide by the decision of the Roman council, demanding that a local council adjudicate the dispute and appealing directly to Constantine. In a surviving letter, a frustrated Constantine called for what became the first Council of Arles in 314. The council ruled against the Donatists, who again appealed to Constantine. The emperor ordered all parties to Rome for

6435-412: The kings privileged those who settled the frontier lands. They also migrated north to the Frankish kingdom in times of persecution. Significantly large numbers of Mozarabs settled in the Ebro valley . King Alfonso VI of Castile induced Mozarab settlers by promising them lands and rewards. His importation of Mozarab settlers from Al-Andalus was very unusual because of its startling nature. According to

6534-410: The latter had partially distanced themselves from Wycliffe's theology to avoid such a charge). Magisterial Reformers like Ulrich Zwingli labeled radical Reformers , such as the Anabaptists , as Donatists; Catholics were portrayed in Reformation rhetoric as Pelagian , another early Christian heresy. In Eastern Orthodoxy , the Bezpopovtsy (priestless) strain of Old Believers believed that because

6633-535: The local Arabic lexicon ( Lubb and Fortun ), and others were adopted in translated form (such as Sa'ad for Felix ). In the witness lists, Mozarabs identified themselves with undeniably Arabic names such as al-Aziz , and Ibn Uthman . Several Mozarabs also used the name Al-Quti (The Goth), and some may have been actual descendants from the family of the Pre-Islamic Visigothic Christian king, Wittiza . There are but few remains of Christian scholarly discourse in Muslim Iberia. What remains in Arabic are translations of

6732-399: The long-established Christian community of the Roman province Africa Proconsularis (present-day Tunisia , the northeast of Algeria , and the western coast of Libya ) and Mauretania Tingitana (roughly with the northern part of present-day Morocco ), in the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian . Named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus , Donatism flourished during

6831-474: The majority Christian population of Al-Andalus , were relatively cordial. Christian resistance to the first wave of Muslim conquerors was unsuccessful. In Murcia , a single surviving capitulation document must stand for many such agreements to render tribute in exchange for the protection of traditional liberties; in it, Theodomirus ( Todmir in Arabic), Visigothic count of Orihuela , agrees to recognize Abd al-Aziz as overlord and to pay tribute consisting of

6930-419: The many regional revolts that formed the great fitna or unrest in the late 9th century. The ability of the Mozarabs to assimilate into Moorish culture while maintaining their Christian faith has often caused them to be depicted by Western scholars as having a strong allegiance to Catholicism and its cause. However, the historian Jaume Vicens Vives offers another view of the Mozarabs. He states that one of

7029-502: The marriage of priests. Hadrian responds to the predestinarian controversy by quoting the African theologian Fulgentius , who was especially popular in Spain. Donatism Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the church in the region of the Church of Carthage , from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Donatism had its roots in

7128-807: The memoirs of the emir of Granada clearly indicate the existence of a relatively large rural Christian population in some parts of the Málaga region towards the end of the 11th century. Until the reconquest of Seville by the Christians in 1248, a Mozarab community existed there, though in the course of the 12th century Almoravid persecution had forced many Mozarabs in Al-Andalus to flee northward. Christians did not enjoy equal rights under Islamic rule, and their original guarantees, at first fairly broad, steadily diminished. They were still allowed to practice their own religion in private, but found their cultural autonomy increasingly reduced. Mozarabs inevitably lost more and more status, but they long maintained their dignity and

7227-511: The middle of the 12th century. This stemmed from commercial disinterest and disorganization in the early Middle Ages, rather than any specific or religious impediments set up by the Muslim rulers. Unlike Andalusi Muslims and Jews, Mozarabs had little interest in commerce because of their general perception of trade as lowly and despicable. This was in stark contrast to the greater respect accorded to merchants in Jewish and Muslim societies, where trade

7326-408: The middle of this century, he asserts, the population of Al-Andalus was still half Christian. The expansion of the Caliphate had come primarily through conversion and absorption, and only very secondarily through immigration. The remaining Mozarab community shrank into an increasingly fossilized remnant. Relatively large numbers of Mozarab communities did, however, continue to exist up to the end of

7425-560: The moral corruption of priests invalidated their offices and sacraments, a belief characterizing Donatism. Hus similarly argued that a prelate's moral character determined his ecclesiastical authority, a position his contemporaries compared to Donatism and condemned as heresy at the Council of Constance . During the Reformation, Catholic Counter-Reformers such as Johann Eck accused the magisterial Reformers of Donatism (although

7524-425: The north was stimulated by the learning of Mozarab immigrants, who helped to accentuate its Christian identity and apparently played a major role in development of Iberian Christian ideology. The Mozarab scholars and clergy eagerly sought manuscripts, relics and traditions from the towns and monasteries of central and southern Iberia that had been the heartland of Visigothic Catholicism. Many Mozarabs also took part in

7623-438: The original Mozarabs. A prominent example of a Muslim who became a Mozarab by embracing Christianity is the Andalusi rebel and anti-Umayyad military leader, Umar ibn Hafsun . The Mozarabs of Muslim origin were descendants of those Muslims who converted to Christianity following the conquest of Toledo , and perhaps also following the expeditions of King Alfonso I of Aragon . These Mozarabs of Muslim origin who converted en masse at

7722-527: The people of Granada , by order of the Almoravid emir, Yusuf ibn Tashfin , acting on the advice of his Ulema , destroyed the main Mozarab church of the Christian community. The Mozarabs remained apart from the influence of French Catholic religious orders , such as the Cistercians – highly influential in northern Christian Iberia, and conserved in their masses the Visigothic rite, also known as

7821-406: The persecution ended, Christians who did so were called traditores —"those who handed (the holy things) over"—by their critics (who were mainly from the poorer classes). Like third-century Novatianism , the Donatists were rigorists ; the church must be a church of "saints" (not "sinners"), and sacraments administered by traditores were invalid. In 311 Caecilian (a new bishop of Carthage )

7920-406: The quantitative use of the onomastic data as furnished by scholarly biographical dictionaries, concluded that it was only in the 10th century when the Andalusi emirate was firmly established and developed into the greatest power of the western Mediterranean under Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III , that the numerical ratio of Muslims and Christians in Al-Andalus was reversed in favour of the former. Prior to

8019-488: The rest of the Catholic Church. The Donatists were still a force during the lifetime of Augustine of Hippo , and disappeared only after the seventh- and eighth-century Muslim conquest . The Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of priests and bishops who were traditores during the persecution. The traditores had returned to positions of authority under Constantine I ; according to

8118-433: The same sacrificing-priest who offers Himself now through the ministry of priests and who once offers Himself upon the Cross." The worth of the sacrifice does not depend on the celebrating priest (or bishop), but on the "worth of the victim and on the dignity of the chief priest - none other than Jesus Christ Himself". The effects of Augustine's theological success and the emperor's legal action were somewhat reversed when

8217-487: The sect was still active at that date. The Migetians were ritual and ethical rigorists who advocated separation from Muslims and were hostile to the Mozarabic church. Scholars disagree about whether the Migetians were motivated by specific abuses in the church, by political opposition to collaboration with Islamic rule or by apocalypticism. No works by adherents survive, although Migetius wrote at least one work. He sent

8316-522: The sect's critics. Elipand in one letter refers to the "sect (heresy) of the Migetians" ( Migetianorum haeresis ) and in his letter to Migetius refers to the latter's "followers" ( socios ). In his "letter [on behalf] of the bishops of Spain to the bishops of France", Elipand calls Migetius the "teacher of the Casiani and Salibanii" ( Casianorum et Salibaniorum magister ). Neither term is clear. The second has been taken to be an error for Sabellians , but this

8415-857: The seventh-century Muslim conquest of the region. Donatism is associated with a number of other groups, including: In Mauretania and Numidia , the Catholic Encyclopedia claims that the splinter groups were so numerous that the Donatists could not name them all. The Donatists followed a succession of bishops: For several centuries during the High Middle Ages and the Reformation , accusations of Donatism were levelled against church-reform movements which criticized clerical immorality on theological grounds. The early reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were accused of Donatism by their theological opponents. Wycliffe taught that

8514-452: The south, due to the prosperity of Al-Andalus. For that reason, Christian refugees from Al-Andalus were always welcomed in the north, where their descendants came to form an influential element. Though impossible to quantify, the emigration of Mozarabs from the south was probably a significant factor in the growth of the Christian principalities and kingdoms of northern Iberia. For most of the 9th and 10th centuries, Iberian Christian culture in

8613-503: The two groups. The heterodox features of Mozarabic culture inevitably became more prominent. However, Christian women often married Muslim men and their children were raised as Muslims. Even within Mozarab families, legal divorce eventually came to be practised along Islamic lines. Some Mozarab men were even circumcised . Ordination of the clergy ultimately drifted far from canonical norms, breaking apostolic succession , and various Muslim sources claim that concubinage and fornication among

8712-734: The upper hand. According to Augustine and the church, the validity of sacraments was a property of the priesthood independent of individual character. Influenced by the Old Testament , he believed in discipline as a means of education. In his letter to Vincentius, Augustine used the New Testament Parable of the Great Banquet to justify using force against the Donatists: "You are of opinion that no one should be compelled to follow righteousness; and yet you read that

8811-468: The use of Roman Catholic sacraments. In the earliest period of Muslim domination of Iberia, there is evidence of extensive interaction between the two communities attested to by shared cemeteries and churches, bilingual coinage, and the continuity of late Roman pottery types. Furthermore, in the peninsula the conquerors did not settle in the amsar , the self-contained and deliberately isolated city camps set up alongside existing settlements elsewhere in

8910-808: The vernacular by the Moorish conquerors led the Christian polemicist Petrus Alvarus of Córdoba to famously lament the decline of spoken Latin among the local Christians. The use of Arabic cognomens by the Mozarab communities of Al-Andalus is emblematic of the adoption by the Christians of the outward manifestations of Arab-language Islamic culture. The Mozarabs employed Arabic-style names such as Zaheid ibn Zafar , Pesencano ibn Azafar , Ibn Gafif , Ibn Gharsiya (Garcia), Ibn Mardanish (Martinez), Ibn Faranda (Fernandez), in purely Christian contexts. This demonstrates that they had acculturated thoroughly and that their Arabic names were not mere aliases adopted to facilitate their movement within Muslim society. Conversely, some Christian names such as Lope and Fortun entered

9009-489: The vowels have had to be reconstructed. Mozarab had a significant impact in the formation of Portuguese , Spanish and Catalan , transmitting to these many words of Andalusi Arabic origin. The northward migration of Mozarabs explains the presence of Arabic toponyms in places where the Muslim presence did not last long. The cultural language of Mozarabs continued to be Latin , but as time passed, young Mozarabs studied and even excelled at Arabic. The implantation of Arabic as

9108-415: The west of Al-Andalus, which included the modern region of Algarve and most of Portugal, Mozarabs constituted the majority of the population. The Muslim geographer Ibn Hawqal , who visited the country in the middle of the 10th century, spoke of frequent revolts by Mozarab peasants employed on large estates, probably those of the ruling aristocracy. There is also substantial evidence that Mozarabs fought in

9207-478: The year 951 —and was influenced, in varying degrees, by Arab customs and knowledge, and sometimes acquired greater social status in doing so. The local Romance vernaculars , with an important contribution of Arabic and spoken by Christians and Muslims alike, are referred to as Andalusi Romance , or the Mozarabic language . Mozarabs were mostly Catholics of the Visigothic or Mozarabic Rite . Due to Sharia and fiqh being confessional and only applying to Muslims,

9306-587: Was active in Baetica , then part of the Emirate of Córdoba . Judging from a comment by Elipand, he may have been a priest. Sometime before 786, probably in 780 or 781, Archbishop Wilchar of Sens , with the approval of Pope Hadrian, consecrated a Goth named Egila as a peripatetic bishop in Spain. Despite the catechetical examinations which Wilchar had him undergo, Egila soon came under the influence of Migetius. Three subsequent letters from Pope Hadrian, preserved in

9405-409: Was condemned to death until the formation of the party led by the Christian leaders Eulogius (beheaded in 859) and Alvaro of Córdoba , whose intense faith led them to seek martyrdom by insulting Muhammad , and criticizing Islam. The Arabization of the Christians was opposed by Eulogius himself, who called for a more purely Christian culture stripped of Moorish influences. To this end, he led a revolt of

9504-563: Was consecrated by Felix of Aptungi , an alleged traditor . His opponents consecrated Majorinus , a short-lived rival who was succeeded by Donatus. Two years later, a commission appointed by Pope Miltiades condemned the Donatists. They persisted, seeing themselves as the true church with valid sacraments. Because of their association with the Circumcellions , the Donatists were repressed by Roman authorities. Although they had local support, their opponents were supported by Rome and by

9603-551: Was frequently combined with other callings, such as politics, scholarship, or medicine. It is often mistakenly assumed that Mozarab merchants forged a vital commercial and cultural link between the north and south across the Iberian frontiers. Mozarab refugees may have had influence in northern Iberian trade at places like Toledo, but there is no reason to believe that they engaged in commerce with their abandoned homeland. Most traffic between Al-Andalus and Christian regions remained in

9702-544: Was from God and ex opere operato (Latin for "from the work carried out"). A priest or bishop in a state of mortal sin could continue to administer valid sacraments. The Donatists believed that a repentant apostate priest could no longer consecrate the Eucharist. Some towns had both Donatist and Orthodox congregations. The sect developed and grew in North Africa, with unrest and threatened riots in Carthage connected to

9801-433: Was under constant pressure to eradicate the Mozarabic Rite. A popular legend states that Alfonso VI submitted the Mozarab liturgy and its Roman counterpart to ordeal by fire, putting the fix in for the Catholic rite. Hence, the Mozarab liturgy was abolished in 1086. The Mozarabic Chapel in the Cathedral of Toledo still uses the Mozarabic Rite and music. In 1126, a great number of Mozarabs were expelled to North Africa by

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