Ricoldo assessed Islam’s threat as operating through tyranny, doctrine, and moral example simultaneously

Evidence

Ricoldo saw that Islam partook of the genuine doctrinal fascination of heresy, and of that apparent moral example which enables ostensibly exemplary men, false brethren, to lead Christians into error. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1029 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Ricoldo saw it as the sum of three former ‘persecutions’ into which all the past sufferings of the Church might conveniently be grouped. There had been the rabid persecution by pagan tyrants up to the time of Constantine; directly after had arisen the persecution by heretics which the great doctors, Hilary, Augustine, Jerome and Gregory had been raised to combat; directly after Gregory’s time had arisen the third plague, the danger of false brethren, men of corrupt mind, hypocrites, a tribulation that would last until the old age of the Church. Muhammad’s persecution was above all others. It was not confined to any one mode, but functioned in all three. Sometimes it worked by tyranny, sometimes by deception in religious doctrine (per legem), sometimes by subverting the simple people by hypocrisy. This was a subtler statement and nearer to historical fact than Humbert’s. Ricoldo saw that Islam partook of the genuine doctrinal fascination of heresy, and of that apparent moral example which enables ostensibly exemplary men, false brethren, to lead Christians into error. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1029 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ricoldo categorized Islam as combining all three historical Church persecutions into one — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1029; Islam’s power over Christians lay in doctrinal appeal and apparent moral example — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1029; Islamic morality stems from performed faith rather than reasoned ethical judgment

Related

• Ricoldo categorized Islam as combining all three historical Church persecutions into one (similarity 0.93)
• Islam’s power over Christians lay in doctrinal appeal and apparent moral example (similarity 0.92)
• Ricoldo’s public polemic masked a privately favorable view of Islam (similarity 0.83)
• Ricoldo’s rationalist arguments against Islam were later turned against Christianity itself (similarity 0.82)
• Ricoldo attacked the Qur’an through Muhammad, reversing the usual polemical order (similarity 0.82)
• A medieval polemicist conceded that bad Christians violated Gospel pacifism (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as a religion of compelled violence (similarity 0.80)
• Ricoldo ridiculed the Qur’an by imputing later Islamic traditions onto its short texts. (similarity 0.80)
• Ricoldo first conflated hadith commentary with the Qur’anic text (similarity 0.80)
• Ricoldo grasped that Islam’s correction claim supersedes the Gospel entirely (similarity 0.79)
• Ricoldo mocked the Qur’an’s dreamlike style while recalling his peaceful time in Muslim Baghdad. (similarity 0.79)
• Ricoldo thought doctrine beyond reason could never persuade Muslims (similarity 0.79)
• Ricoldo stressed that nuns enslaved as concubines mothered the worst Muslim tyrants (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christian polemicists attributed to Muslims arguments the Muslims did not hold. (similarity 0.79)
• Ricoldo unfairly misrepresented the tribute-or-war choice Islam actually offered (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Islam’s power over Christians lay in doctrinal appeal and apparent moral example #corroborates (0.92) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1029
• Ricoldo categorized Islam as combining all three historical Church persecutions into one #expands (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1029
• Islamic morality stems from performed faith rather than reasoned ethical judgment #expands (0.72)