[1] "Dolo circumventum," says Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 4.

[2] Johannes Vasaeus places this persecution (by a manifest
error) in 950, under Abdurrahman III., stating at the same time
that some writers placed it in 850, but, as it appeared to him,
wrongly: "Abdurrahman Halihatan rex Cordobae movit duodecimam
persecutionem in Christianos."

[3] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct." ii., ch. i. sec. 5.

The example set by Perfectus did not bear fruit at once, but no doubt
the evidence which it gave of the ease and comparative painlessness,
with which a martyr's crown could be obtained, was not lost upon the
brooding and zealous spirits living in solitary retreats and trying by a
life of religious devotion to cut themselves off from the seductive
pleasures of an active life.

The next victim, a little more than a year later, was a petty tradesman,
named John,[1] who does not seem to have courted his own fate. He had
aroused the animosity of his Moslem rivals by a habit which he had
contracted of pronouncing the name of the Prophet in his market
transactions, taking his name, as they thought, in vain, and with a view
to attracting buyers.[2] John, being taxed with this, with ill-timed
pleasantry retorted, "Cursed be he who wishes to name your Prophet." He
was haled before the Kadi, and, after receiving 400 stripes,[3] was
thrown into prison. Subsequently he was taken thence and driven through
the city riding backwards on an ass, while a crier was sent before him
through the Christian quarters, proclaiming: "Such shall be the
punishment of those, that speak evil of the Prophet of God."