"Never give up." ~ A review of Pelayo: King of Asturias by James Fitzhenry

Detail from a 19th century engraving of Pelayo, king of Asturias.

Almost exactly 15 years ago, I received a book in the mail entitled El Cid: God's Own Champion. When first flipping through this book, I remember thinking to myself, "This probably won't be very good." After all, it was a work by an unknown author, meant for young readers, and self-published to boot. But as it turned out, I loved it. My kids have read it—even the one with dyslexia read and enjoyed it. Since I wrote the above-linked review in 2008, I have recommended El Cid to hundreds of people.

A few years later, Mr. Fitzhenry published another equally admirable book—Saint Fernando III: A Kingdom for Christ. Much like his first book, Fitzhenry's second endeavor delved into the epic life of a Spanish hero that almost no one knows about today. Again, I found myself enchanted with the book and have recommended it numerous times. 

Shortly thereafter followed Defenders of Christendom, offering a collection of excellent capsule biographies of forgotten Catholic heroes from the crusading period. 

Click for more info.

By this time, I have come to have very high expectations for Mr. Fitzhenry's work, so when I received a copy of Pelayo: King of Asturias, I was ready to tear into it straight away. 

And Pelayo did not disappoint. 

Much like Fitzhenry's previous books, Pelayo tells an ancient story that is rarely heard today. It is the sobering tale of the end of Visigothic Spain—a state whose leaders had become corrupt, corpulent and cowardly. They had largely abandoned their Christian ethic and had little remaining loyalty to God or man. When confronted with a zealous, powerful enemy who wished to impose an alien culture upon them, their internal dissensions proved stronger than their desire to preserve their heritage.

Fitzhenry does a brilliant job setting the stage for Pelayo's heroism. Starting with the collapse of Visigothic Spain under the beleaguered King Roderick, Fitzhenry emphasizes the treason of those closest to the king as a contrast to the steadfast loyalty of Pelayo. At the Battle of Guadalete, the Visigoths are catastrophically defeated when part of their army commanded by renegade nobles and an apostate bishop turn on their own Christian countrymen. Following the battle, the Muslim emir, Tariq, overruns the whole kingdom. Pelayo and a remnant of loyal Visigoths retreat into the mountains of northern Spain. There, he begins his exploits—escaping from an assassination attempt, rescuing his kidnapped sister, and building up the solid core of a Christian army to resist Islam.

After finishing Pelayo: King of Asturias, I immediately began searching for the ancient sources underpinning Fitzhenry's inspiring biography. I quickly discovered that Pelayo is the hispanicized version of the name Pelagius. He is considered a Visigothic noble, but given that Pelagius is not a typical Gothic name, he likely had a Greco-Roman strain somewhere in his lineage. This makes sense given that the Spanish Visigothic kingdom was built upon the foundation of the Roman provinces of Hispania. My search eventually led to a 10th century source called The Chronicle of Alfonso III. While reading it, I discovered that Fitzhenry stayed true to the history. His description of the events surrounding the history-changing Battle of Covadonga was drawn faithfully from this ancient historical work. 

Fitzhenry's Pelayo joins El Cid and Saint Fernando III among the growing list of exceptional historical books meant to educate young Catholic men about their heritage. Angels in Iron and Crown of the World are two other examples of this counter-cultural trend—portraying distinctly Catholic heroes as what the world desperately needs. I hope that my own books about the late Roman general Belisarius are serving a similar function. 

Toward the end of the book, the author lays out the message of Pelayo's life for those of us today: 

"Never give up. Even if it seems that you struggle in complete isolation, know that you are not alone....Follow closely in the footsteps of Christ. There are many who have trod the narrow path before you, and for those who do not give up the fight, eternal glory awaits in a kingdom that is not of this world!"

During a time when many Catholic institutions have failed and our leaders seem content to bury their talents in the ground, such a message is badly needed.

The Roman Emperor Who Had Books about “Chemeia” Burned in Alexandria

A fanciful modern engraving of the Library of Alexandria aflame.

It is a common theme these days to hear folks opine about how the glories of ancient science were snuffed out ignominiously by triumphalist, fanatical Christians sometime in the Dark Ages. Normally, specific instances of this destruction are not called out, save for the case of Hypatia of Alexandria who has been elevated by modern audiences to a sort of proto-feminist demi-goddess of science for her slaying at the hands of a Christian mob. 

Yet, for those who maintain the trope that Christianity was responsible for the destruction of centuries of amazing scientific advancements wrought by Greco-Roman civilization, please allow me to present this interesting tidbit.

There is a great, encyclopedic work of the Byzantine middle ages called the Suda. The Suda is a lexicon of Greek terms which was compiled in about the 10th century AD. Far from a mere word-list, the Suda contains definitions and context for the terms listed (over 30,000 of them all told) and includes toponyms, the names of persons, and biographies of numerous ancient and medieval figures. It seems to have been created from a variety of ancient sources, many of which are now no longer extant. For more about this massive work of ancient scholarship, and the brilliant efforts of many dedicated contemporary scholars to make it accessible to everyone, see The Suda Online. 

I recently ran across a random passage in James Partington’s 1957 book entitled, A Short History of Chemistry. In this book, Partington explains that little is known today about ancient chemistry because much of what was written down did not survive antiquity. He says that the word “Chemistry” first appeared in a Roman edict in which all books of the Egyptians in Alexandria on the topic of chemeia are ordered to be burnt. Partington explains that the chemeia refers to the making of gold and silver, or what we would think of today as alchemy, which Partington points out is nothing more than the word chemeia with the Arabic article al affixed to it. Partington intimates that his source for this information is the Suda.

So off to the Suda Online I went. Lo and behold, here’s the entry for chemeia (χημεία) ~ 

[Meaning] the preparation of silver and gold. Diocletian sought out and burned books about this. [It is said] that due to the Egyptians' revolting behavior Diocletian treated them harshly and murderously. After seeking out the books written by the ancient [Egyptians] concerning the alchemy of gold and silver, he burned them so that the Egyptians would no longer have wealth from such a technique, nor would their surfeit of money in the future embolden them against the Romans.

So did you get that? The Roman emperor who mandated that books on chemeia be burned was not Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian or any other Christian emperor. It was Diocletian, the architect of the Great Persecution of Christians himself. Recall that it was also Diocletian who decreed that Christian books should be burned, so this is certainly not out of character for him.

And yes, as we can find in other sources, there was a serious rebellion in Egypt during Diocletian’s reign. This insurrection caused him such distress that when he finally re-conquered the city after a siege of eight months, he determined that he would put everyone who supported the rebellion to the sword and would not stop killing until the blood reached up to his horse's knees. Read more in Diocletian and the Roman Recovery.

Finally, I will point out that the works of at least two authors writing on alchemy post-Diocletian have survived antiquity, largely thanks to the preservation efforts of Christian Byzantine and Muslim Arabic scholars of the Middle Ages. The first is Zosimus of Panopolis in upper Egypt of the 4th century AD. The second is Stephanos of Alexandria, a philosopher who later migrated to Constantinople in the early 6th century AD.

"Don John of Austria is going to the war." ~ October 7, feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

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October 7 is the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary, formerly the feast of Our Lady of Victory. The date marks the 448th anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, AD 1571.

The Battle of Lepanto was a miraculous victory in which the combined ships of the Christian Holy League under Don John of Austria, defeated the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in a decisive battle that blocked Turkish imperial aggression from the western Mediterranean. Six years before in AD 1565, the Knights of Saint John had gained a similarly miraculous victory over the Turks at the Siege of Malta which prevented the invaders from establishing a base from which to attack Italy. With the triumph of Lepanto, Turkish sea-power would never again threaten western Christendom on such a scale and with such high hopes of success.

Prior to the Battle of Lepanto, Pope Pius V had enjoined all of Christendom (sadly fractured by the Protestant revolution) to pray the Rosary for the success of campaign. The sailors of Don John also recited the Rosary prior to the battle. The resulting victory was attributed completely to the intercession of our Lady.

The quote on this image is taken from G. K. Chesterton's poem, Lepanto, which reads in part:

But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still--hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar."

Read this entire work here at the American Chesterton Society website.

Or listen to a nice reading of the poem here done by the folks at Unam Sanctam Catholicam.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for the Church which is in distress!

The Ottoman Turkish practice of Devshirme

Devshirme ~ Click to enlarge.

A particularly nefarious and brutal practice of the Ottoman Turks was known as Devshirme, or "Blood Tax". Devshirme involved the collection of male children from Christian families for service in the Ottoman army and court. In the early days of the empire, the collection took place only in newly conquered territories. As time went on, the practice was expanded throughout the empire, and was executed with particular ferocity in majority Christian regions such as the Balkan peninsula.

The targets of Devshirme were boys between the ages of 10 and 14. These would be forcibly taken from their homes to be circumcised and trained in Istanbul. Conversion to Islam was coerced, and some were made into eunuchs. Most became slave-soldiers in the Janissary corps, elite troops under the direct command of the Sultan. They were expected to forget everything about their previous lives and do the Sultan's bidding, even when it included the conquest and destruction of his Christian enemies.

What is most mystifying in our time is the willingness of some Western scholars to excuse the Devshirme system, or to approach the subject by making it morally equivalent with some of the most infamous practices of Christian princes. Worse, some have attempted to portray this forcible enslavement and gradual genocide as a legitimate and even benevolent means to advancement within the empire because some few of the captives were able to work their way into high positions within the Ottoman government. Personally, I do not understand this attitude. The Devshirme system was a barbaric atrocity that should be universally condemned without qualm or second thought.

To understand the impact of the Devshirme system on the subject Christian populations, here are a few excerpts from primary sources. First, we have a passage from a 1395 AD sermon of Isidore Glabas, bishop of Thessalonika. He offers a vivid description of the blood tribute which had been imposed on his city after its 1387 conquest by the Turks. This passage is taken from an article by Prof. Speros Vryonis Jr. entitled, Isidore Glabas and the Turkish Devshirme (1956):

"What would a man not suffer were he to see a child, whom he had begotten and raised…carried off by the hands of foreigners, suddenly and by force, and forced to change over to alien customs, and to become a vessel of barbaric garb, speech, and piety and other contaminations, all in a moment? … Shall he lament his son because a free child becomes a slave, because being nobly born he is forced to adopt barbaric customs? Because he who is rendered so mild by motherly and fatherly hands is about to be filled with barbaric cruelty? Because he who attended matins in the churches and frequented the sacred teachers is now, alas, taught to pass the night in murdering his own people, and in other such things?"

Here is another passage about the Devshirme during the time of Suleiman the Magnificent (Sultan from AD 1520-1566) from Bartholomew Georgiewitz, a 16th century Hungarian adventurer who spent 13 years as a Turkish slave. This passage is taken from The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule (1990) by Ivo Andric:

"Apart from the other tax burdens which the Christians had to bear under Turkish rule, from time to time their handsomest offspring were seized from them. Separating the children from their parents, the Turks would instruct them in the martial arts. These children, abducted by force, never returned to their parents. Alienated from the Christian religion, little by little they forgot faith, parents, brothers and sisters, and all their blood relatives, so that when they later encountered their parents they no longer even recognized them.

I can find no right words to picture the pain and sorrow, the weeping and wailing of these parents when their children are torn from their bosoms and out of their grasp by those fiends. To parents who had just barely begun to instruct their children in Christian teaching, the hardest thought was that the evildoers would soon succeed in seducing them away from the religion of their forebears and in turning them into dreadful enemies of the Christian religion and Christian people.”

Profiles in Cowardice -- Random House

Check this out. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, publishing giant Random House has pulled the plug on novel it had under contract (The Jewel of Medina by journalist Sherry Jones) because the company received "from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

It is to laugh.

Keep in mind, Random House is the parent company of Anchor Books, the publisher of--you guessed it--The Da Vinci Code.

So what have we learned today, children? Simple--big publishing will spinelessly change its business practices if threatened with actual physical harm. There's a word for people who surrender their supposed priciples under threat--cowards.

Watch it and make up your own mind

A politician in the Netherlands named Geert Wilders has made a film entitled Fitna. It's basically a polemic against Islamization, playing the words of the Koran off against images of terrorist attacks and clips of radical imams ranting. Regardless of what you think about Islam, you should watch it so you can make up your own mind. Is Mr. Wilders nothing more than a xenophobic stooge? Or does he have a point?

FITNA.

The film is 15 minutes long. Warning, it's graphic in sections. No matter which side of the argument you're on, it will make you angry.

One of the bravest public acts

Western politicians, Church leaders, and all of us could learn a thing or two from Magdi Allam, a high-profile Italian Muslim. Mr. Allam did one of the most courageous things I have ever seen on the Easter Vigil at St. Peter's Basilica. He was baptized into the Catholic Church--publicly--by the Pope. Then, he offered a mild criticism of the Church, saying that up to now, the Church has been "too prudent" when it comes to converting Muslims.

Wow.

In an article from the Catholic News Agency, Allam clearly recognizes the dangers inherent in what he has done. Writing to the editor-in-chief of an Italian newspaper, Allam said: "You have asked me if I fear for my life. You are right. I realize what I am going up against, but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith."

Wow again.

Allam also indicates that there are thousands of Muslims who have secretly converted to Catholicism who live in hiding and fear, for in Islam, the punishment for apostasy is death. May God bless and protect all these brave souls whose sheer courage can be a great example to us comfortable Catholics in the West