Early Christian and Medieval Martyrdom Let s start by reminding ourselves of the terrain we re attempting to delineate Review: martyr vs. saint At the end of Week 3, we talked about some of the criteria that might be used to determine martyrdom: - suffering/death - devotion to a (religious) cause - willingness to suffer/die - fame/transcendence/immortality after death - others? Remember that Amjad and I pointed out that each of these criteria is subjective, and is evaluated from within the individual s own community. Outside that community, the martyr can easily be labeled a fanatic, a fraud, or a terrorist. Authority is always sought from outside the martyr story, but applied within the community of belief. In the stuff we re reading this week, we re talking about a (relatively) coherent community of believe beginning during the early Christian period and stretching through to the medieval period. The stories you read this week in the Golden Legend selections are written about early Christian martyrs, for medieval people. The secondary readings we ll be covering in class on Thursday also straddle that line: Shaw talks about early Christian martyrs and Rubin talks about what martyrdom looked like for medieval Europeans. Early Christian martyrs [Roman empire map] As we discussed week 1, Christian martyrs were persecuted by the Romans, both systematically and less systematically, in the centuries after Christ s death and before Christianity was made the official religion of the empire. [Justin Martyr] Though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but, the more such things happen, the more do others in larger numbers become faithful. -- Justin Martyr [GL 2 slides] "Legenda aurea", a collection of legends of the saints, written by Jacobus da Voragine in 1264, printed 1275 b. 1230, member of the Dominican order. Where did this stuff come from? In part, it came from Eusebius, a Roman historian, of Greek descent, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea about
the year 314 A.D. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon and is regarded as an extremely well learned Christian of his time. He wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel, and On Discrepancies between the Gospels, studies of the Biblical text. As "Father of Church History" he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs. Read p. xv, explain feast days (holi-days) For whom? Xvii (originally for preachers, but became a book for private reading and devotion (xviii) These are all saints; they are also martyrs [h-m] The stories told here can be described as either hagiography or martryology [standard narrative] Preaching/Refusal of sex/idolatry Arrest Trial/argument Torture/temptation Vision/miracles/conversions Death Conversion of/revenge on the killer [passion] Ask them to recall parallels with passion narrative? Remember, these are stories that serve a theological purpose. [Andrew] Andrew s story, the first one in your packet, follows the basic pattern - preaching - miracles&conversions - temptation/intervention by devil - defense of doctrine - torture - willingness to die - miracles after death -- talk about the woodcut as something that might well have accompanied a less expensive edition of the saints stories (what s a woodcut and how did it go with printing) -- [Lucy x 2] the imitatio Christi was not limited to men; Lucy s narrative foregrounds her voice in her interrogation, in ways that directly evoke Christ s interrogation I m showing you two slides of Lucy here because it s a reminder about the choices the artist makes, and also the difference between genre and tone. Even when you don t know
everything about the context in which the work is produced, you can tell a lot about how the image is inviting your gaze. [sources] Hagiographies and martyrologies rely on various sources of authority - theology - first hand witnesses - testimony of the martyr herself [Augustine] Augustine (major authority source in the GL, himself struggled with justifying persecution of Donatists) [2 fold problem] His sermons introduce a 2-fold theological problem: he solves both by determining his own ability to choose the correct object for his affection/imitation [2 passages] When Augustine talks about his affection for Cyprian, he is referring in part to the semitheatrical re-telling of the stories of martyrdom that developed around the 4 th c. see Armstrong 57 But he did not solve the problem permanently, and these questions have to be wrestled with continually, in what Rubin calls fields of authority and dissent (153) Voraigne, for his part, is deeply aware of contradictions and holes in his sources This, at any rate, is what we are told, but I find the story very hard to believe (14) In the account of the passion of Christ, he tells the story of Pilate, and frames the entire thing as admittedly apocryphal!! Sometimes he ll pause and say, I m not sure which reason is right both may well b true (212). During Margaret s story: What is said here, however, about the beast swallowing the maiden and bursting asunder is considered apocryphal and not to be taken seriously. (369) Even the basic etymologies are multiple Images play a role in supporting the martyrologist s claim; they also draw on and support popular worship of these martyrs as saints. [modes] I m going to show you a bunch of images of saints from the GL, and I want you think about how these images might contribute to the martyr s reputation or usefulness within approved church narratives and/or popular practice. [questions]
These questions are designed to move from observing formal details to interpreting function I ve put a quote from the GL on each slide; pay attention to how these influence your reading of the paintings Stephen p. 45-6 St. Thomas, p. 61 We ve talked about St. Sebastian, p 100 I ll talk more about Agatha Thursday, p. 155 Longinus, p. 184 [I will leave the Passion of the Lord section for you to chew on in seminar, but pay attention to the play of sources in here he s continually quoting Anselm, our friend Bernard, and Augustine, to explain and justify his account of THE MOST IMPORTANT FIGURE IN THE CHURCH. How can this narrative not yet be stable?] George, p. 240 A Virgin, p. 250 (doesn t even get a name, but gets an extraordinary narrative; clothing swap) Apollonia, p. 268 Patron saint of dentistry (how important sickness and the curing of is important to these narratives) Talk about this as a depiction of a play back to Augustine Margaret, p. 370 The story is amazing; don t forget to re-read it But this painting emphasizes a kind of female sorority of faith, one that does not require male figures [show entire painting] Christina (x 2 385) There are things you can represent, and things you can t The other Christina how stories shift and bend; blindness is always a good metaphor Saint Christina of Bolsena stands on a millstone to which she was tied and thrown into a lake, but she miraculously survived because the stone floated. Her companion, Saint Ottilia of Alsace displays her eyes, to show her blindness was cured; she was a Benedictine nun. This painting and 'Saints Genevieve and Apollonia' were the outsides of the shutters of 'The St Catherine Altarpiece' in Dresden. It was one of the first works Cranach painted after having entered the service of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony in Wittenberg in 1505.
Medieval martyrs Ok, so we ve been looking at MEDIEVAL representations of EARLY CHRISTIAN martyrs, stories codified in the GL. But were there new martyrs being made in medieval Europe? Not many people apart from the crusaders were dying for their faith, which is why the definition of martyrdom had to expand to inform more aspects of daily life and ritual life Read Rubin, p. 154 [map] What dates are we talking about? End of the crusades (Armstrong, p. 450 Louis s failed crusade ended 1254) In this time period, Rubin argues, martyrdom became a) a metaphor b) part of everyday life [dealing with death and natural disaster] c) a ritual The new paradigm was not martyrdom per se but the idea of living a life of perfection A new form of imitatio Christi [slides x 3] Some exceptions: Becket (1118-70) Peter Martyr (1206-52) And all those Franciscans on their missions (Rubin 160) 5 Franciscan friars are martyred by sultan (=Arbaldus?), who splits their skulls with scimitar & beheads them But there was also some democratization of the impulse to cultivate martyrs Rubin talks in particular about child martyrs, like William of Norwich (Rubin 165 -- Robert, martyred boy of bury st. Edmunds) And then there were some Dog martyrs (Rubin 162) These martyrs were not recognized by the church, but they were part of popular religious practice, sainthood took on a local flavor intercession got closer to home But the three key categories Rubin talks about are: Mystics/jews/heretics these are the identities that seem to provoke the greatest anxiety and attention from the inquisition 1) Heretics: e.g. Hus a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer and master at Charles University in Prague. After John Wycliffe, the theorist of ecclesiastical Reformation, Hus is considered the first Church reformer, as he lived before Luther, Calvin and Zwingli.
2) Jews, persecuted throughout the medieval period as scapegoats, especially around periods of great sickness or natural disaster NB how important a role sickness and earthquakes play in the GL stories 3) Female mysticism Margery Kempe Born at Lynn in Norfolk in about 1373, Margery married and had fourteen children. After she had received several visions, she and her husband went on a pilgimage to Canterbury. Her fervent denunciations of all pleasure aroused stiff opposition and she was accused of Lollardy. In 1413 she and her husband took vows of chastity before the Bishop of Lincoln. She also made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Book of Margery Kempe, which is almost the sole source of information about the author, describes her travels and mystical experiences. It also shows her closeness to the passion of Christ for the sins of the world. The last reference to her is on a pilgrimage to Danzig in 1433.