MARTYRDOM AND PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH

Author(s): HAROLD B. MATTINGLY

Source: History , 1967, Vol. 52, No. 175 (1967), pp. 168-171
Published by: Wiley

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24405834

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 REVIEW ARTICLES

MARTYRDOM AND PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY

CHURCH*

already noted as an authority on the Donatist Church

has tackled an even more formidable subject with conspic
It is not an easy book to read, but anyone really intereste
blems of Christianity in the Roman Empire should find
excellent and fascinating guide through the complexities o
source material and modern bibliography. There is mer
index, but more help could perhaps have been given in
detailed breakdown of chapter contents at the front.
ideally demands mastery of many disciplines—theolog
Roman History and Roman Law, comparative relig
aeology—and no scholar can claim to be equally ade
Frend is certainly an impressive allrounder and it would b
review of this length to fasten on specialist points of crit
incidentally made his task harder by deciding to g
Maccabean period and trace the 'prehistory' of Christia
in Jewish life and literature. This choice is fully justified
Christianity was demonstrably deeply imbued with Judai
Why were the Christians persecuted? Dr. Frend caref
the three main elements in the situation—(<z) public op
attitude of the local Roman governor and (c) the policy of
himself. His narrative of itself forces the conclusion that
was sporadic and haphazard until the reign of Decius
only where the Christian community was seriously unpop
governor weak or hostile did more than isolated incidents
tion occur. Dr. Frend rightly plays down the 'Domitian
and sets Pliny's action in Pontus in its very special hist
But when he comes to Severus his touch is less happy.
persecution', he writes, 'was the first coordinated wor
against the Christians.' This view is contradicted by the c
evidence of Tertullian and is based on the mid-fourth cen
Augusta and a doubtful dating of Hippolytus' Comment
Persecution in this reign was virtually limited to two
Alexandria and Carthage, and its causes were again lo
evidently a general smouldering resentment of these odd,
sectaries in the Early Empire, which was liable to bec
times of natural disaster or when the Christians sudde
make themselves felt in a new area, as in Gaul in the 1
* By W. H. C. Frend. Oxford: Blackwell. 1965. xx + 625 pp. 92s.
108

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 REVIEW ARTICLES l6g
a decade later. This hostility was rationalized by
zeal for the defence of their own traditions and the
uncompromising Christian attack. Dr. Frend may be
that this was decisive with most governors who allo
with the Emperor Decius who ordered it.
The legal ground of procedure surely lay elsewhere
charge of treason or refusal of Emperor worship, as
emphasizes. The 'sacrifice test' was a means for th
prove his credentials, for the apostate to prove his
authorities had been forced to distinguish in practice
and Jews, Christians lost all the Jewish privileges a
had no standing in law. They were not thereby o
status was precarious and they were liable to suffer
Roman suspicion of secret associations—of a soc
maintaining its own rules and discipline. The pen
Christians, I agree, go far beyond the normal punis
activity or 'civil disobedience', but these crimes
discretionary powers which all classes of governo
death sentences on Roman citizens needed the Empe
By the early third century, when Caracalla exten
ship almost universally, the right of appeal for t
atrophied and in the event of serious crime they wer
and the most savage punishment imaginable. Th
still basically lower-class, had the worst of this une
even wealth or birth did not necessarily give protec
or in the 'Great Persecution'.
Dr. Frend's treatment of these two crises is admirably balanced.
Despite some astounding heroism repression caused lapse on the widest
scale and the resulting recriminations came near to completing the
enemy's disruptive work after the storm passed in a.d. 251, and led to the
permanent schism between Catholic and Donatist in the early fourth
century. But by then the Church's victory was assured. The persecu
tion had failed through a failure of will. The Christians had become too
numerous and too necessary to be destroyed or cowed. Constantine
offered them cooperation and favour. Old Christian objections to
service in local government, the army and the administration had
largely been swept away in the third century, especially in the long
peace (a.d. 260-303) whose importance Dr. Frend emphasizes for the
spread of Christianity among people increasingly disillusioned with the
pagan cults.
Dr. Frend brings out very well the difference in view about Christian
witness that developed between East and West. The East proved in
general laxer in the question of readmitting apostates. There the ascetic
had become widely accepted as the true Christian hero, witnessing
continually against evil and not just at the moment of death. Later
the ascetic would merge into the monk. In the West the martyr's

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170 REVIEW ARTICLES

preeminence remained virtually unchallenged

and resistance survived under the Christian
was to discover. Full justice is done to such
Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Cypria
bishop, is seen as reconciling the prophetic sp
martyrs' with the 'church of the organized c
Voluntary martyrdom is one of the most tr
the Early Church. Many Christian leaders
Dr. Frend gives it much attention. But I t
tinguish sharply between the will to mart
courting of death. Certainly there were exhibi
hysteria, but even some who offered them
found sense of outrage against injustice a
lonely and seemingly God-forsaken victim. Ig
quoted as one whose desire for martyrdom
Dr. Frend shares this view which is mainly b
Romans. 'He had been condemned', he wri
citizen, to fight the beasts in the amphith
should give one pause. Such punishment f
conceivable in Trajan's reign and Dr. Frend h
at Lyons in a.d. 177 of the governor's action
beasts, instead of beheading him with his fell
to the Romans be genuine, at least in its prese
is radically different from the other letters
its MSS. history. The few references to 'be
letters, if not metaphorical as in 1 Cor. 15
interpolated.
The question of the sources, which Dr. F
vital, perhaps should have been treated in
than piecemeal throughout the notes. In ge
balanced, but he can be strangely conserva
regard the Pastoral Epistles as nearly conte
on page 88 1 Timothy is dated 'perhaps a.d.
a very good case for regarding them as essent
ι and 2 Thessalonians are attributed to Pau
the early fifties. 1 Peter is awkwardly given
date, though Dr. Frend is clearly impre
whelming case for making it contemporary
Pontus (c. a.d. i 10). For Revelations Dr. Fre
orthodox Domitianic date, but there is
publication under Trajan—with a 'dramatic
for the reported prophecy. The hatred, exalt
tion of the Last Days would then spring fr
Ignatius, 1 Peter and Pliny abundantly test
from presumed Asiatic troubles in the 90s. In
on dating and there are many later documen

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 REVIEW ARTICLES 171
far from satisfactory solution. The circumst
not always as near-contemporary as moder
this is one of the useful lessons taught by the
But I must not end on this note of rathe
disappointment that Dr. Frend has not
approach. He has illuminated his subject fr
it in a new perspective. His book will certain
and wide disagreement as its predecessor on
surely the mark of any really live contribut
Univemty of Nottingham harold b. mattingly
HAROLD Β. MATTINGLY

ROYAL JUSTICE IN ENGLAND IN THE TWELFTH

CENTURY1

it is unthinkable that Pollock & Maitland's, or rathe

History of English Law before the time of Edward I will
superseded. Yet four years before the publication of tha
Maitland himself, in founding the Selden Society, had p
studies which would in time at the very least redraw th
presented. For over forty years a quiet revolution h
transforming our understanding of the darkest period in
the English Common Law—the twelfth century. Am
notable workers in the field none had done more to lay
actual workings of the law than Doris Mary Stenton.
Invited to deliver the Jayne Lectures of the American
Society in 1963, Lady Stenton chose 'to look again at t
the twelfth century', drawing together the threads of ha
research, tracing the lines of development in the earlies
Common Law, and reviewing the dark problems upo
glimmers of light now fall. In publishing the three
Stenton has added a reprint of her British Academy L
John and the Courts of Justice', and an appendix of litt
material (with a facing translation) to illustrate her the
The theme of the first lecture is the deep indebtedness
Law to its Anglo-Saxon inheritance. She throws her weig
behind those who have questioned the conclusions of Bru
numerous disciples. The finalis concordia, the jury, royal
the litigation of subjects through the medium of a writ,
have their roots in Anglo-Saxon practices. In the arra
in the tenth century to settle disputes between Welshm
men in the border country can be seen 'a habit of mind f
to undertake the experiments which were to issue in th
jury'. 'The rich stream of English case-law flowing throu
1 ENGLISH JUSTICE BETWEEN THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE G
1066-1215. By Doris M. Stenton. London: Allen & Unwin. 1965. 238 p

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