Missions to Saracen lands provoke controversy over true preaching versus martyrdom-seeking

Evidence

In scholastic style, Thomas is giving both sides of the argument; his testimony shows that the Franciscan missions provoked criticism in Paris in the 1220s: the argument centers around the interpretation of Matthew 10:16, which the Regula non bullata (quoted at the beginning of this chapter) cited to justify Franciscan mission. Thomas affirms that the Saracens kill any preacher who mentions Christ. The stories of the Moroccan martyrs of 1220 and 1227 show, on the contrary, how difficult it often was for preachers to obtain the martyrdom they so fervently desired. But for Thomas these missionaries, killed before being heard out, were not fulfilling the Gospel injunction to preach to all everywhere; rather they were going to their deaths without preaching. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1173

Categorization

• XREF: Grounds the already-vaulted genealogical claim about Western depictions of Islam as closed to Christian witness (Anidjar/Aziz lineage).
• QUESTION: The ‘stories of Moroccan martyrs’ contradict Thomas’s claim Saracens instantly kill preachers — worth chasing what the martyrdom vitae actually record.