The Cid of romance, the Cid of a thousand battles, legends and dramas, the Cid as apotheosized in literature, the Cid invoked by good Spaniards in every national crisis, whose name is a perpetual and ever-present inspiration to Spanish patriotism, is a very different character from the historical Rodrigo Diaz - the freebooter, the rebel, the consorter with the infidels and the enemies of Spain.
In other directions, too, the teachings of Maholnet were to be judiciously revised, on the principle that the Prophet himself would never have allowed observance of any of his precepts to put his followers at a permanent disadvantage in competition with infidels.
By his will he founded the Boyle lectures, for proving the Christian religion against "notorious infidels, viz.
Coming forward as the champion of Islam against the infidels, Abd-el-Kader was proclaimed amir at Mascara in 1832.
The Holy Office continues, however, to deal with mixed marriages and marriages with infidels.
