An interval of only a little more than a month elapsed before
Gumesindus, a priest of the district called Campania, near Cordova, and
Servus Dei, a monk, suffered death in the same way (January 13, 852).[4]

[1] Eulog. to Alvar, i. sec. 2; "Life of Flora and Maria," by
Eulog., sec. 12.

[2] _Ibid._, sec. 13, and Eulog., "Doc. Mart.," sec. 4.
Eulogius tried to lessen the terror of this threat by pointing
out that "non polluit mentem aliena corruptio, quam non foedat
propria delectatis,"--a poor consolation, but the only one! He
does not seem to have known--or surely he would have quoted
it--the express injunction of the Koran (xxiv. verse
35):--"Compel not your maidservants to prostitute themselves,
if they be willing to live chastely ... but, if any shall
compel them thereto, verily God will be gracious and merciful
unto such women after their compulsion."

[3] Eulog., letter to Alvar, Florez, xi. 295. Fleury, v. 100.

[4] Eulogius, "Mem. Sanct.," ii. c. ix.

There was now a pause for six months in the race for martyrdom, and it
seemed as if the Church had come to its right mind upon this subject.
This, however, was far from being the case. Hitherto the victims had
been almost without exception priests, monks, and nuns; but the next
martyrs afford us instances of married couples claiming a share in this
doubtful honour. These were Aurelius, son of a Moslem father and a
Christian mother, and his wife Sabigotha (or Nathalia), the daughter of
Moslem parents, whose father dying, her mother married a Christian and