The Memorial of the Saints

Eulogius of Córdoba, Memoriale Sanctorum

Eulogius, priest and elect archbishop of Córdoba

His grandfather, hearing the muezzin call the hours from the minarets, used to cross himself and recite Psalm 83: “Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace!”

Catch rate: 46 / 255
Base research: 148
Stat total: 288

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina74

Contend80

Defend66

Popularity68

Total288

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 74

Three books, written to answer the Christians who said his friends were suicides, not saints.

Contend 80

He does not describe the executions gently. He wants the reader as angry as he is.

Defend 66

He was in the room for some of this and heard the rest from men who were.

Popularity 68

Written in the middle of the events it describes, without knowing how the decade would end.

Cited for this book

A priest named Perfectus was asked what he thought of Muhammad by men who swore not to betray him. He told them, and they betrayed him. On 18 April 850 he was beheaded in Córdoba in front of a festival crowd. Eulogius began recording every martyrdom that followed, and every argument other Christians made against them.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	I Curse Him Now	Experience	Argument	78	100%	15
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
23	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
32	We Are Commanded to Preach	Ecclesiology	Argument	70	100%	15
35	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
39	Know Ye, at the Last Day	Bible	Argument	90	100%	5
50	Speak Latin	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“Yea, I did curse your prophet, and I curse him now! I curse him as an impostor, an adulterer, a child of Hell! Your religion is of Satan! The pains of Gehenna await you all!”
Perfectus of Córdoba, 18 April 850, as recorded in Eulogius, Memoriale Sanctorum, quoted in Dozy, Spanish Islam (trans. Stokes, 1913), public domain.public domain

I Curse Him Now

ExperienceArgument · power 78 · 100% accurate

In the gamePerfectus was condemned for saying in private what he thought of Muhammad. Once he was betrayed, he stopped hedging. He said it again in public at his execution, knowing what it would cost.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

“We are commanded to preach and to expound our religion to those who seek us. This damsel wished to be instructed by me in our faith; I acceded to her wishes as well as I could, and I would do the like for you, Kady, if you made the same request.”
Eulogius of Córdoba, before the qadi, 859, quoted in Dozy, Spanish Islam (trans. Stokes, 1913), public domain.public domain

We Are Commanded to Preach

EcclesiologyArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameEulogius’s answer when a magistrate asked why he had sheltered a girl who wanted instruction in the faith. He does not deny it. He states it as a duty, and offers to do the same for the man asking.

“Know ye,” he says to his opponents, “miscreants that ye are, who dare to belittle the glory of the Saints, know ye that at the Last Day ye shall be confronted with them and answer for your blasphemies before God!”
Eulogius of Córdoba, Memoriale Sanctorum, quoted in Dozy, Spanish Islam (trans. Stokes, 1913), public domain.public domain

Know Ye, at the Last Day

BibleArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameTurns the council’s own charge back on the men who convened it. You call this belittling the glory of the Saints — remember that the Saints will be standing there too, at the Last Day, when you are asked to answer for having said so.

Strong against

×3These Are Not Martyrsan argument · why?

He answers from the same Scriptures the council claims — the Saints will be there at the Last Day, and so, he says, will you.