There is a well-known story about Ignatius of Loyola.
He was a soldier and, like Don Quixote, his favorite reading was books of chivalry. After he was wounded and recuperating all that he had to read was lives of the saints, and this reading led to his conversion.
After his conversion he was travelling to Montserrat on a donkey and met a Moor who scoffed at Mary’s perpetual virginity. What I had forgotten was that of course by this time there were no Moors left in Spain; they had all been expelled, so it must have been a morisco, an imperfectly converted Moslem. I just learned that moro also meant a sodomite.
Ignatius was seething, and the Moor went ahead. Ignatius was mulling whether to kill the Moor with his dagger for insulting Mary. Ignatius came to a crossroad and let the donkey choose the way. If the donkey chose the road that the Moor had taken, Ignatius would catch up with him and kill him. If they donkey chose the other way, Ignatius would let the matter go.
Fortunately for the Moor, the donkey chose the other path.
What I just learned was the last episode in this story.
When he finally arrived at Montserrat, Ignatius once and all for exchanges the dagger for a pilgrim’s staff at the altar of Our Lady.
Ulrike Strasser explains the significance of this:
The contrasting phallic images of dagger and staff are emblematic of a shift in masculine identities. The dagger stands for a life of warfare, aggression, and the defense of women’s honor. The pilgrim’s staff stands for a life of service to God, wandering the earth, forgoing violence. By trading one for the other, Ignatius is changed from a soldier to a soldier of Christ. He will continue to be brave but will now be brave on behalf of God. He will no longer think of “a certain lady” but pledge all his loyalty to the Queen of Heaven.
(Ulrike Strasser, “’The First Form and Grace’: Ignatius of Loyola and the Reformation of Maculinity” in Scott H. Hendrix and Susan C. Karant-Nunn, eds., Masculinity in the Reformation Era, p. 60)
What Strasser does not mention, but which must have been prominent in Ignatius’s mind, and which I could scarcely miss, having recently walked 500 miles on the Camino Frances, is that Ignatius is exchanging the model of Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moor-Slayer) for Santiago Peregrino (St. James the Pilgrim).
No longer Ignacio Matamoros, but now Ignacio Peregrino, taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
I have heard this story before, and it certainly says a lot about Ignatius’ attitude towards sex. Specifically, why did he think it an affront to Mary’s honor, or an insult to her, to say that she was not ever-virgin?
Some Catholics seem to think that Mary, although a properly married woman, would be less holy if she and her husband had had sex after the birth of Jesus.
Crowhill, my guess is that the Romantic attitudes of the Middle Ages affected most warriors of later centuries, since they were part and parcel of feudal existance…especially among squires and knights.
Perhaps a lot of the pacifism within Catholicism can be traced to the kind of thinking that resulted in Ignatius’ switch. This is why you rarely hear about the Siege of Vienna, or San Juan Matamoros or the legitimate threat the Muslims made to European Christianity in the 17th century. Now, everything is “indulgent ecumenism,” as Alain Becancon rightfully put it.
What kind of evangelism was this? People either by choice or by force convert to Christianity and then are called Marranos (pigs) or Moriscos (sodomites). Given the choice to convert or leave almost everything behind you when you are forced to leave the county, people who wanted their families to survive did not have any real choice but to go underground with their religious practices. No wonder Christianity is so unpopular in these places.
Janice Fox: “No wonder Christianity is so unpopular in these places.” Janice, you’re not serious!
The perpetual virginity was solid dogma of the Catholic (and Orthodox) Church when Ignatius encountered the Moor. Tradition was so strong on this that even Luther and Calvin- exemplars of the reformation- wrote about the perpetual virginity of Mary long after their break from Rome. Evangelicals may be surprised to know that even Wesley wrote that Mary “continued a pure and unspotted Virgin” after the birth of Christ. So I doubt that this incident says anything about ” Ignatius’ attitude towards sex.” I think it has to do more with his attitude towards faith: that just as the soldier defends the homeland, so must the Christian defend his beliefs. I would propose that had the Moor insulted the divinity of Christ, Ignatius would have had a similar inclination towards violence. In fact, they are likely linked. Denial of the perpetual virginity of Mary is a stepping stone for some (and yes, I know full well that there are protestants who believe in Christ as Lord but not in Mary, ever Virgin) to deny the divinity of Christ. If I were not a believer, I would logically ask that if Mary did have sexual relations with Joseph, who is to say that Jesus’ conception wasn’t the result of such a relation? Perhaps this is the type of erroneous thinking that Ignatius was opposing in this story. And perhaps, seeing sex as the major theme of this story says more about our attitudes towards sex than Ignatius’ attitudes.
Rick, Once the Crusades and the Inquisitions came along, Christianity became very violent. It is really depressing. The forced conversions in Spain and Portugal did not win any friends for the Church. We must remember that when we criticize the militancy of other religions. We have a lot to atone for.
This is one reason that I do not put much confidence in doctrine. I have met too many people who claim to believe every doctrine and follow every ritualistic rule, but they violate the Ten Commandments. So, I wonder what good are these doctrines such as the Perpetual Virginity of Mary. Does believing in this doctrine improve anyone’s behavior? Ignatius was ready to kill someone who did not believe in it and gambled on the life of the Moor. Thank Goodness the donkey turned the other way.
Janice Fox: On the issue of “forced conversions”. You do not seem to know the history of the Iberian peninsula. It was the Muslims who invaded and occupied the southern districts and forced conversions. The Spanish tribes were in a defensive posture for over 400 years. In the year the Ignatius let his donkey take the turn, Sulieman the Magnificent (another Muslim) was positioning himself to lay siege to all of southeastern Europe. This fact was known to Ignatius who was rather well informed when it came to military matters.
On the issue of “these doctrines”. I know many mathematicians who believe in the basic postulates of the various mathematical systems. They would be the first to admit that they don’t always follow the rules, either out of forgetfulness, carelessness, and perhaps in a few cases out of anger. This doesn’t make the postulates irrelevant, it simply makes the practitioner fallible. Not sure I see any persuasiveness (dare I say force?) in your position.
Rick, Janice’s point in her last post has to do with moral living, not mathematics (which is not moral, in any case). I know at least one prominent Catholic apologist, Mark Shea, who believes in Mary’s perpetual virginity yet treats people who disagree with him like garbage.
The ultimate question is, “What does God want?” The prophet Micah put it best: to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Millions of non-Catholic, non-Orthodox Christians do that without believing in Mary’s perpetual virginity. OTOH, thousands of Catholic and Orthodox priests believe in Mary’s perpetual virginity…and have sexually violated the innocent. Which do you think God prefers…especially since St. James said that true religion is caring for widows and orphans?
Rick, I admit that I do not know the details of the Reconquista and Iberian History as well as I should. Since I have recently found a Portuguese name among my ancestors, I have become more attentive to that part of the world and hope to become more learned.
However, I do remember this much history from my time at the University: Various Muslims conquerors swept across North Africa taking over governments and forcing people to convert or be killed except for some locations where Christian and Jews were considered “People of the Book” and allowed to live in a state of second class citizenship. The Muslims went into Spain and ruled until the native populations managed to drive them out. Christian warriors also defeated the Muslim Navy in 1565 (The Great Siege of Malta) and 1571 (Lepanto). These were great victories. I am glad they won. I wear a Maltese Cross for which I have been insulted by an ignorant religious person who thought it was a Nazi decoration.
I know that the story of the Reconqista is not one of simply the good guys versus the bad guys. Even the Cid switched sides and fought for the Moors at one point. He never converted to Islam.
However, after the final conquest there was no excuse for the persecution of ordinary hardworking people who were of Jewish or Moorish ancestry. They were forced to convert or face deportation. Those who stayed were persecuted by the Inquisition because they were suspected of performing some of their previous religious rituals. If this was not evil enough, the persecution was also racially motivated. The Limpieza de Sangre (cleanliness of the blood) laws starting in Toledo in 1449 were meant to put Marranos and Moriscos into the same second class citizenship that the Moors had practiced.
Surely the Spanish religious authorities were reading the New Testament. Jesus says if someone slaps you on one cheek, then turn the other. He teaches us to love our enemies. We should not return evil for evil. Evidently St. Ignatius came to realize these teachings and that is one factor which makes him a recognized holy person.
In any case the agriculture and the economy of Spain were damaged by these deportations. Similarly, the economy of France was set back by the flight of the Huguenots after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
It was by the grace of God that I managed to pass College Algebra and graduate. Maybe that is why I do not understand all these doctrines.
Joseph D’Hippolito and Janice Fox: “has to do with moral living, not mathematics (which is not moral, in any case)” Of course. You missed my point, which is that doctrine in the Faith are like postulates in math; to wit, they are first principles with a truth claim that are used to guide decisions. My point was to show that in any area of life, you do not discard a doctrine any more than you would discard a postulate simply because the practitioners don’t follow them all the time. The truth of the doctrine does not rest on how well the practitioner adheres to it.
As to the your outrage towards forced conversions, we have the benefit of hindsight. I’m not so quick to judge a people who were subjected to unreletenting religious persecution for several centuries. Yes, these things are mistakes for which there is not ultimate justification, but this was the way things were done in those days (and which is happening today in Pakistan, Iraq, and Egypt.)
I seem to remember Pope St. Gregory the Great wrote “Orthodoxy in doctrine is important, but more important still is orthodoxy of life.”
Was it not Pope St. Gregory the Great who identified the seven deadly sins? I do not know if those sins have the status of doctrine, but they are easy to understand and a sure guide to examining one’s conscience.
Remember that every time we use the excuse “this was the way things were done in those days” we have to extend that excuse to our enemies. Sometimes it just leads to pot calling the kettle black.
Jesus taught Leviticus 19:34.
At this point I do not think it off topic to recommend the story of one man and his family who were the descended from Marranos. This is the account of the actions of the Portuguese consul at Bordeau, France in 1940. I refer to Aristides de Sousa Mendes who has a memorial at Yad Vashem for saving 30.000 people, 10,000 of them Jews, from the Nazis by granting them illegal visas to Portugal through Spain. Google him and read his entire struggle. He was shunned and impoverished for his good works. He wrote,
“I would rather be with God against men than be with men against God.” It is a story of real courage.