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Scripture as an Element of Social Control: Two Martyr Stories of Christian North Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Maureen A. Tilley
Maureen A. Tilley
Affiliation:
Florida State University
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Extract

The martyr stories, the earliest hagiographical writings, were not composed simply as memorials to the courage of those who preferred death to apostasy. Their authors recorded the stories both to preserve beliefs and to enforce norms of behavior. The authors of the martyr stories often provided explicit testimony to why they wrote. They expected the stories to proclaim the validity of the charismatic authority of the martyrs, to manifest martyrs as exemplars of virtue, and to show people how to react during interrogation by Roman authorities. Thus the readers were inscribed in the narratives as potential martyrs. They came to know the attitudes they ought to have, the phrases they should use to parry the insults of their tormentors, and the prayers they should offer for endurance. In this way those who promulgated the martyr stories achieved or attempted to achieve some control over the behavior and beliefs of readers by assigning value to community standards. In doing so the stories provided cohesion and stability for their churches.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 83 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 383 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1990

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References

1 Passio ss. Perpetuae et Felicitatis, in Musurillo, Herbert, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972) 1.1; 21.11; 106; 130Google Scholar.

2 Passio ss. Montani et Lucii 23.7, in Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 238Google Scholar; Passio Marculi PL 8. 760; Passio Maximiani et Isaac PL 8. 767, 774; Passio ss. Dativi, Saturnini presb. et aliorum 1.4 (PL 8. 690A), hereafter Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 1.

3 Vita Cypriani 1, in Hartel, William, ed., S. Thasci Caecilli Cypriani opera omnia (CSEL 3.3; Vienna: Geroldi, 1871) xc–xciGoogle Scholar; Passio ss. Mariani et lacobi 1.3, in Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 194Google Scholar; Passio ss. Montani et Lucii 1, edited by Dolbeau, François, Revue des Études Augustiniennes 29 (1983) 67Google Scholar; Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 1 (PL 6. 689C).

4 Cf. Riddle, Donald W., The Martyrs: A Study in Social Control (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931) 25Google Scholar. The Bible was an acknowledged authority in the Christian community. Early Christian literature outside the acta provides ample testimony to the use of stories and quotations from the Bible as material inciting to martyrdom, comforting and strengthen- ing the confessors of North Africa, and as a pedagogic tool in Christian education in general. See Tertullian, Mart. 4Google Scholar, in Dekkers, E., ed., Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani opera (CChrSL 1; Turnholt: Brepols, 1953) 6–7Google Scholar; Cyprian, De Lapsis 23Google Scholar, in Webber, R., ed., Sancti Cypriani epsicopi opera (CChrSL 2-3; Turnholt: Brepols, 1972) 3. 234Google Scholar, and, Cyprian, Ad Fortunatum (CChrSL; Turnholt: Brepols, 1972) 3. 183–216.Google ScholarCf. Alex, Clement. Strom. 4.6, 25.1–4.9Google Scholar, 75.4; 4.11, 78.1-80.5 (GSC, ed. Stählin); Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.10.2-5 and 10Google Scholar(ET, : Eccle-siastical History [trans. Lake, Kirsopp; 2 vols.; LCL; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: Heinemann, 1980] 2. 280-82; 284)Google Scholar; and the quotations from and comments on patristic views of the Bible in Christian education from the Didascalia Apostolorum and John Chrysostom to Augustine and Isidore of Seville in Marrou, H. I., A History of Education in Antiquity (trans. Lamb, George; Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982) 314–21Google Scholar.

5 See the examination of the apocryphal acts as elements of social control in Burrus, Virginia, Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of the Apocryphal Acts (Studies in Woman and Religion 23; Lewiston, NY/Queenston, Ontario: Edwin Mellen, 1987Google Scholar) especially the theoretical work on pp. 83-84. On the internalization of community standards, see Hickey, Anne Ewing, Women of the Roman Aristocracy as Christian Monastics (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987) 70Google Scholar.

6 The text of the Passion of Saints Montanus and Lucius with an English translation is found in Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 214–39Google Scholar. His Latin text is based on the editions of Cavalieri, Pio Franchi de', “Gli Atti SS. Montano, Lucio e compagni,” Römische Quartalschrift 8 Supp. (1898) 71–86Google Scholar and idem, “Nuove osservazione critiche ed esegetiche sul testo del Passio Sanctorum Montani et Lucii,” in Note agiografiche III, in Studi e Testi 22 (1909) 3–31Google Scholar. François Dolbeau produced another edition with a history of the manuscript tradition and a critical apparatus, “La Passion des saints Lucius et Montanus,” Revue des Etudes Augustiniennes 29 (1983) 39–82.Google Scholar These two editions agree very substantially in their wording in the sections that quote the Bible and in the surrounding material that influences the interpretation of the uses of scripture. The only significant difference occurs at 10.6. Dolbeau reads, “Simus filii Dei.” This is the reading of the earlier manuscripts and it conforms well with the hortatory setting in the Passion. Musurillo's text has, “Sumus filii Dei,” a harmonization with the Vulgate that does not function as smoothly in the rhetoric of the surrounding speech.

English quotations from the Passion are from Musurillo's edition.

7 The text of the Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs occurs in PL 8 as “Acta Martyrum Saturnini Presbyteri, Felicis, Dativi, Ampelii et Aliorum.” PL gives two editions, one Donatist (8. 689-704) and one Catholic (8. 704-13). The Donatist version appears to be the earlier of the two. The “critical” edition of Cavalieri, de', “Passio SS. Dativi, Saturnini Presb. et Aliorum,” in Note Agiografiche VII, in Studi e Testi 65 (1935) 47–71Google Scholar, is a conflation of the Donatist and Catholic editions that obscures the elevated status accorded to the martyrs in the Donatist community. My comments are based on the Donatist text. English translations are my own.

8 While these two acta are exemplary models of my thesis and offer many more verses than most acts, all of the other acts that I have examined are amenable to this method. Some outstanding examples are mentioned at the end of this article.

9 Passion 3.2; 12.4-5; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 214; 224Google Scholar.

1 1 Cor 15:55-57; Ps 118:105, and Eccl 1:7 in Passion 4.5; 5.2; 7.4; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 216; 218Google Scholar.

11 Matt 28:20 in Passion 7.4; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 218Google Scholar.

12 Passion 1.1; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 215Google Scholar.

13 See Passion 2.1; 3.1; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 214Google Scholar.

14 Rev 20:4 (cf. 2 Tim 2:12) and Rom 8:17 in Passion 10; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 222Google Scholar.

15 Eccl 12:7 and Gen 28:12 in Passion 1.6-7; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 218–20Google Scholar.

16 Matt 28:20 and Ps 118:105 in Passion 5.2; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 216Google Scholar.

17 Dan 3:1-30 in Passion 3.4; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 214Google Scholar.

18 Luke 23:42 in Passion 13.5-6; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 226Google Scholar.

19 2 Cor 6:9 in Passion 19.5-6 and John 14:2 in Passion 17.1; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 232; 230Google Scholar.

20 Passion 9.2; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 221Google Scholar.

21 2 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 2:4 in Passion 19.6; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 233Google Scholar.

22 Gen 28:12 in Passion 7.6-7; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 218–20Google Scholar.

23 Passion 7.7; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 220Google Scholar.

24 Passion 10.1; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 223Google Scholar.

25 For information on third-century persecutions and the contemporary divisions in the church of Carthage over the readmission of the lapsi, see Cyprian, De Lapsis (CChrSL 3. 221–42)Google Scholar and Cyprian, Epistulae 20Google Scholar; 24-27; 30 (CSEL 3.2. 527-29; 536^*4; 349-56); Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.43.1–22Google Scholar; and Frend, W. H. C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus (New York: New York University Press, 1967) chap. 13Google Scholar.

26 I John 2:4-7; Col 3:14; Matt 7:7; 18:19; 2 Tim 2:12; Matt 5:9; and Rom 8:17 in Passion 10.1-8; Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 222Google Scholar.

27 Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.8.11Google Scholar. For the repeal, see Codex Theodosianus 15.14.1 in The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions (trans. Pharr, Clyde; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952) 437Google Scholar.

28 For a precedent of a Christian bishop limiting access to members of his flock who were imprisoned, see Cyprian, Epistulae 5.2.1Google Scholar(CSEL 3.3. 479).

29 Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 1 (PL 8. 689B-C).

30 Acts 1 (PL 8. 689B).

31 See Acts 5:38-39 reflected in Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 2.2; 6.5 (PL 8. 690B; 692C).

32 Acts 1; 2 (PL 8. 689C; 690A, B).

33 Eph 6:14 in Acts 3 (PL 8. 691B).

34 1 Cor 15:52 and Revelation passim in Acts 2.6 (PL 8. 690C).

35 2 Mace 6:23 in Acts 6 (PL 8. 693D).

36 2 Maccabees 7 in Acts 16 (PL 8. 700B).

37 “ColIectam facere” (2 Chr 7:9; cf. Deut 16:8 and Lev 23:36) in Acts 4 (PL 8. 692A, B, C); 6 (PL 8. 693C; 694A); 8 (PL 8. 694D-95A); 9 (PL 8. 695C); 10 (PL 8. 695B); 11 (PL 8. 695C; 696D); 15 (PL 8. 699B); 16 (PL 8. 700A).

38 2 Cor 3:3 in Acts 9 (PL 8. 695D); 11 (PL 8. 696C-D); 12 (PL 8. 697C).

39 2 Cor 6:13-18 in Acts 19 (PL 701D-2D); cf. Hos 9:4, and Hag 2:12-13.

40 Rev 22:18-19 in Acts 18 (PL 8. 701B-C); cf. 2 Mace 7:9.

4 For the Catholic side, see Optatus 1.15-20 in Ziwza, Carolus, ed., S. Optati Milevitani libri VII (CSEL 26; Prague/Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1893) 17–22Google Scholar; for the Donatist construction of events, see the comments of Fulgentius in Augustine, Liber contra Fulgentium Donatistam 26Google Scholar, in Petschenig, M., ed., Sancti Aurelii Augustini scripta contra Donatistas (CSEL 53; Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1910) 309–10Google Scholar.

42 PL 8. 767A-71C.

43 PL 8. 760C-66D.

44 See “Passiones Tres Martyrum Africanorum,” Analecta Bollandiana 9 (1890) 106–16Google Scholar.

45 Musurillo, , Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 302–9Google Scholar.