Perhaps the admiration and veneration which Chris- tian martyrdom secures has had a great tendency to excite many to court martyrdom. "We must not lose sight of the fact, however, that martyrdom in itself is no proof of the goodness of our cause, but only that we our- selves are persuaded that it is so. '• It is not the hlood, but the anise that makes the martyr" (Mead). Yet we may consider the number and fortitude of those who have suffered for Christianity as a collateral proof at least of its exceUencj^; for the thing for which they suffered was not a point of specidation, but a plain mat-
ter of fact, in which (had it been false) they could not have been mistaken. The martyrdom, therefore, of so many wise and good men, taken with a view of the whole system of Christianity, wiU certainly afford some- thing considerable in its favor.
In the early days of Christianity it was no unusual occurrence to build a church over the grave of a mar- tyr, calling the church after his name, in order to pre- serve the memory of his sufferings. See Martyrium. But soon every Church wished to possess a saint's tomb for an altar. Mere cenotaphs did not suffice. Thus, according to Augustine, Ambrose was delayed in the consecration of a new church at Jlilan tiU a seasonable dream helped him to the bones of two martyrs, Gerva- sius and Protasius. And the second Council of Nice (A.D. 787) went even so far as to threaten bishops with deprivation if they should undertake to consecrate churches without relics. The consequence was that a supply was produced hy such a demand, and frauds of every kind were perpetrated and overlooked. Each Church also had its own Fasti, or calendar of martyrs. See Calendar; Church.
The festivals of the martyrs are also of verj' ancient date. On the first establishment of their religion, it was natinal that Christians should look back from a condition of unexpected security on the sufferings of their immediate predecessors with the most vivid senti- ments of sympathy and admiration. They had wit- nessed those sufferings, they had beheld the constancy with which they were endured ; the same terror had been suspended over themselves, and their own preservation they attributed, under the especial protection of divine Providence, to the perseverance of those who had per- ished. The gratitude and veneration thus fervently excited were loudly and passionately expressed; and the honors which were due to the virtues of the depart- ed were profusely bestowed on their names and their memory. Enthusiasm easily passed into superstition, and those who had sealed a Christian's faith by a mar- tyr's death were exalted above the condition of men, and enthroned among superior beings. The day of martyrdom, moreover, as being held to be the day of the martyr's entering into eternal life, was called the " natal" or " birth" day, and as such was celebrated with peculiar honor, and with special religious services. Their bodies, clothes, books, and the other objects which they had possessed, were honored as Relics (q. v.), and their tombs were visited for the purpose of asking their inter- cession. See Martyrs, Festivals of the.
Of the sayings, sufferuigs, and deaths of the martyrs, though preserved with great care for the jnirposes above alluded to, and to serve as models to future ages, we have but very little left, the greatest part of them hav- ing been destroyed during the Diocletian persecution ; for a most diligent search was then made after all their books and jjapers, and all of them that were found were committed to the flames. Some of those records since compiled have either never reached us at all, or, if they have, their authority is extremely suspected. See Mar-
TY-ROLOGY.
The appropriate homage to be rendered to the mar- tyrs by the Protestant world, as a reason why our re- spect of these sainted dead should not degenerate into martyr-worship, by the exhibition of an enthusiasm which witli the early Christians was quite natural, but with us would be artificial, has been well commented upon by Gieseler {Church History, i, 108, 282), who says: " The respect paid to martyrs still maintains the same character as in the 2d century, differing only in degree, not in kind, from the honor shown to other esteemed dead. As the churches held the yearly festivals of their mar- t}TS at the graves of the latter, so they willingly as- sembled frequently in the burial-places of their deceased friends, for which they used in many places even caves (cryjotce catacttmhn'). At the celebration of the Lord's Supper, both the living who brought oblations, as weU as the dead, and the martyrs for whom offeruigs were
MARTYRS, CANONIZATION OF 832 MARTYRS, FESTIVALS OF
presentoil, especially on the anniversary of their death, were included by name in the prayer of the Church. Inasmuch as the readmission of a sinner into the Church was thought to stand in close connection with the for- giveness of sin, an opinion was associated with the older custom of restoring to Church communion the lapsed wlio had been again received by the martyrs, that the martyrs could also be serviceable in obtaining the for- giveness of sins. In doing so thej^ set out in jiart with tlie idea, which is very natural, that tlie dead prayed for the living, as the living prayed for the dead, but that the intercession of martyrs abiding in the captivity of the Lord would be of peculiar efficacy on behalf of their brethren ; while they also thought that the mar- tyrs, as assessors in the last decisive judgment, were particularly active (1 Cor. vi, 2, 3). Origen attributed very great value to that intercession, expecting from it great help towards sanctification ; but he went be- yond the ideas hitherto entertained in attributing to martyrdom an importance and efficacy similar to the death of Christ. Hence he feared the cessation of per- secution as a misfortune. The more the opinion that value belonged to the intercession of martyrs was estab- lished, the oftener it may have happened that persons commended themselves to the martyrs yet living for intercession."