[3] Eul. (1.1), adds: "Et ipsa gentilitas tali spectaculo
stupefacta nescio quid de Christianismo indulgentius
sentiebat."

Upon this fresh provocation the fury and apprehension of the king knew
no bounds. He might well be pardoned for thinking that this defiance of
the laws, and religious fanaticism, could only mean a widespread
disaffection and conspiracy against the Moslem rule. In fact, as we
shall see, the Christians of Toledo raised the banner of revolt in
favour of their Cordovan brethren at this very time. Mohammed therefore
seems to have meditated a real persecution, such as should extirpate
Christianity in his dominions.[1] He is said even to have given orders
for a general massacre of the males among the Christians, and for the
slavery, or worse, of the women, if they did not apostatize.[2] But the
dispassionate advice of his councillors saved the king from this crime.
They pointed out that no men of any intelligence, education, or rank
among the Christians had taken part in the doings of the zealots, and
that the whole body of Christians ought not to be cut off, since their
actions were not directed by any individual leader. Other advisers seem
to have diverted the king from his project of a wholesale massacre by
encouraging him to proceed legally against the Christians with the
utmost rigour, and by this means to cow them into submission.[3]

These strong measures apparently produced some effect, for no other
executions are recorded for a period of nine months; when Fandila, a
priest of Tabanos,[4] and chosen by the monks of St Salvator's monastery
to be one of their spiritual overseers, came forward and reviled the
Prophet: whereupon he was imprisoned and subsequently beheaded (June 13,
853). His fate awakened the dormant fanaticism of Anastasius,[5] a
priest of St Acislus' church; of Felix, a Gaetulian monk of Alcala de