Death's DominionPower, Identity, and Memory at the Fourth-Century Martyr Shrine
Power, Identity, and Memory at the Fourth-Century Martyr Shrine
Nathaniel J. Morehouse [+–]
John Carroll University
Nathaniel Morehouse (PhD, University of Manitoba, Early Christianity). In addition to his work on the uses of intentional memory creation in the Fourth-Century Christian context, Nathaniel dabbles with the idea of evil and the history of Christmas. His first book, Death’s Dominion: Power, Identity, and Memory at the Fourth Century Martyr Shrine, was published by Equinox in 2016. He lives in NorthEast Ohio where he teaches courses in Religious Studies and Philosophy at John Carroll University and Lakeland Community College.
Through a discussion of power dynamics with a critical eye towards the political situation of influential Christian leaders including Constantine, Damasus, Ambrose, and Augustine, Death’s Dominion demonstrates the ways in which these individuals sought to craft Christian identity and cultural memory around the martyr shrine. Other recent scholarship on the martyr cult has conflated issues of the early fifth century with those from the early fourth, with little discussion of the development of the martyr cult during the intervening decades. Death’s Dominion corrects that omission by presenting a diachronic focus on the development of the martyr cult in the pivotal fourth century. During this period the martyr cult was repeatedly a decisive tool for the augmentation and solidification of civil and religious authority.
Late in the fourth century pilgrimage created a network within Christianity which ultimately led to a catholic Christian understanding of the martyrs’ graves by broadening the appeal of regional practices to disparate audiences. This simultaneously reinforced and subverted the desired message of those who sought to craft the meaning associated with the martyrs’ remains. Pilgrims helped manufacture a homogenized understanding of the martyr cult ultimately enabling it to become one of the most identifiable features of Christianity in subsequent centuries.
Table of Contents
Prelims
Acknowledgements [+–] vii-viii
Through a discussion of power dynamics with a critical eye towards the political situation of influential Christian leaders including Constantine, Damasus, Ambrose, and Augustine, Death’s Dominion demonstrates the ways in which these individuals sought to craft Christian identity and cultural memory around the martyr shrine. Other recent scholarship on the martyr cult has conflated issues of the early fifth century with those from the early fourth, with little discussion of the development of the martyr cult during the intervening decades. Death’s Dominion corrects that omission by presenting a diachronic focus on the development of the martyr cult in the pivotal fourth century. During this period the martyr cult was repeatedly a decisive tool for the augmentation and solidification of civil and religious authority. Late in the fourth century pilgrimage created a network within Christianity which ultimately led to a catholic Christian understanding of the martyrs’ graves by broadening the appeal of regional practices to disparate audiences. This simultaneously reinforced and subverted the desired message of those who sought to craft the meaning associated with the martyrs’ remains. Pilgrims helped manufacture a homogenized understanding of the martyr cult ultimately enabling it to become one of the most identifiable features of Christianity in subsequent centuries.
Introduction
Through a discussion of power dynamics with a critical eye towards the political situation of influential Christian leaders including Constantine, Damasus, Ambrose, and Augustine, Death’s Dominion demonstrates the ways in which these individuals sought to craft Christian identity and cultural memory around the martyr shrine. Other recent scholarship on the martyr cult has conflated issues of the early fifth century with those from the early fourth, with little discussion of the development of the martyr cult during the intervening decades. Death’s Dominion corrects that omission by presenting a diachronic focus on the development of the martyr cult in the pivotal fourth century. During this period the martyr cult was repeatedly a decisive tool for the augmentation and solidification of civil and religious authority. Late in the fourth century pilgrimage created a network within Christianity which ultimately led to a catholic Christian understanding of the martyrs’ graves by broadening the appeal of regional practices to disparate audiences. This simultaneously reinforced and subverted the desired message of those who sought to craft the meaning associated with the martyrs’ remains. Pilgrims helped manufacture a homogenized understanding of the martyr cult ultimately enabling it to become one of the most identifiable features of Christianity in subsequent centuries.
Chapter 1
Chapter one sets the stage for the development of the Christian usage of the martyr’s grave in the fourth century. To that end, it provides a basic understanding of several pertinent features of Roman burial practices: the polluting nature of the corpse, the desire of the deceased to be remembered, the importance of location, and the intentional creation of meaning through the tomb structure. I also examine the various groups that are responsible both for the care of the dead as well as for their commemoration: the family and voluntary associations. This is the antecedent for an understanding of Christianity’s adaptation of these practices in the second and third century, especially the modification of the Church’s role as a new family of Christ and how that related to their concern for their dead.
Chapter 2
Chapter two moves on to examine how two seminal early fourth-century figures, Constantine and Damasus, helped determine the development of the veneration of the martyrs. Constantine was responsible for the construction of numerous church structures, and explicitly developed the basilica as a seat of Christian power. Many, if not all of these structures incorporated pre-existent martyr veneration, which Constantine sought to harness for his own purposes. Ultimately Constantine would design his own funerary monument in Constantinople and, through his translation of the relics of Stephen and Luke, lay the foundation for a trans-local understanding of the remains of the important dead. Damasus, the bishop of Rome, following Constantine, sought to deal with his own issues of control by presenting a unified image of the church though the inscriptions that he placed around the tombs of the martyrs.
Chapter 3
Chapter three examines how later bishops, following Constantine and Damasus, sought to control the martyr cult as it developed elsewhere in the empire during the late fourth century. Some of those bishops had their own issues of control to address (e.g. Augustine, Ambrose) and approached the cult of the martyrs in ways that addressed those issues of authority. Other contemporary bishops who did not have nearly the same political situations to contend with (e.g. Paulinus of Nola) embraced the martyr cult with less concern for their personal power.
Chapter 4
To Reject: Not Everyone Loves a Corpse [+–] 126-145
Chapter four examines how various groups rejected the martyr cult, as well as typical Christian responses to that rejection. The martyr cult was not universally embraced during this period. Proponents of the martyr cult faced significant criticism from those outside Christendom who saw devotion to the martyr’s corpse as a macabre and potentially polluting practice. Opposition also came from Christians who felt that the practices at the martyr shrines during the all night vigils (which involved loud music, drunken revelry, and the comingling of the sexes) were extreme enough to warrant the prohibition of martyr veneration in its entirety. Others felt that implicit in the cult was worship of the martyrs themselves, which was too similar to the polytheism of the non-Christian gentiles.
Chapter 5
To Accept: Unification Through Travel [+–] 146-171
Christians traveled to specific places associated with the history of their tradition prior to the fourth century; Palestine drew Christian travelers by the late second century. It was only by the end of the fourth century, however, that there was a significant rise in the number of Christians who could be classified collectively as “pilgrims.” Initially most pilgrimages were to the “Holy Land,” to visit sites associated with the life and death of Jesus. Chapter five traces the development of the pilgrims’ interest surrounding such prestigious locations as those associated with the life of Jesus, but quickly also focused on martyr shrines. Pilgrimage to martyr shrines could range from traveling to the shrines outside the walls of the city on feast days, to significant journeys to visit important shrines hundreds of miles away. Consequently pilgrimage created a network of memory associated with the martyrs. Ultimately it was the pilgrims who solidified Christian cultural identity and memory at the graves of the saints. This new genus of Christians determined meaning for themselves and for those to whom they wrote concerning their travels, promoting more travel to the shrines of the saints.
Conclusion
Conclusion [+–] 172-178
Through a discussion of power dynamics with a critical eye towards the political situation of influential Christian leaders including Constantine, Damasus, Ambrose, and Augustine, Death’s Dominion demonstrates the ways in which these individuals sought to craft Christian identity and cultural memory around the martyr shrine. Other recent scholarship on the martyr cult has conflated issues of the early fifth century with those from the early fourth, with little discussion of the development of the martyr cult during the intervening decades. Death’s Dominion corrects that omission by presenting a diachronic focus on the development of the martyr cult in the pivotal fourth century. During this period the martyr cult was repeatedly a decisive tool for the augmentation and solidification of civil and religious authority. Late in the fourth century pilgrimage created a network within Christianity which ultimately led to a catholic Christian understanding of the martyrs’ graves by broadening the appeal of regional practices to disparate audiences. This simultaneously reinforced and subverted the desired message of those who sought to craft the meaning associated with the martyrs’ remains. Pilgrims helped manufacture a homogenized understanding of the martyr cult ultimately enabling it to become one of the most identifiable features of Christianity in subsequent centuries.
End Matter
Bibliography [+–] 179-190
Through a discussion of power dynamics with a critical eye towards the political situation of influential Christian leaders including Constantine, Damasus, Ambrose, and Augustine, Death’s Dominion demonstrates the ways in which these individuals sought to craft Christian identity and cultural memory around the martyr shrine. Other recent scholarship on the martyr cult has conflated issues of the early fifth century with those from the early fourth, with little discussion of the development of the martyr cult during the intervening decades. Death’s Dominion corrects that omission by presenting a diachronic focus on the development of the martyr cult in the pivotal fourth century. During this period the martyr cult was repeatedly a decisive tool for the augmentation and solidification of civil and religious authority. Late in the fourth century pilgrimage created a network within Christianity which ultimately led to a catholic Christian understanding of the martyrs’ graves by broadening the appeal of regional practices to disparate audiences. This simultaneously reinforced and subverted the desired message of those who sought to craft the meaning associated with the martyrs’ remains. Pilgrims helped manufacture a homogenized understanding of the martyr cult ultimately enabling it to become one of the most identifiable features of Christianity in subsequent centuries.
Index [+–] 191-203
Through a discussion of power dynamics with a critical eye towards the political situation of influential Christian leaders including Constantine, Damasus, Ambrose, and Augustine, Death’s Dominion demonstrates the ways in which these individuals sought to craft Christian identity and cultural memory around the martyr shrine. Other recent scholarship on the martyr cult has conflated issues of the early fifth century with those from the early fourth, with little discussion of the development of the martyr cult during the intervening decades. Death’s Dominion corrects that omission by presenting a diachronic focus on the development of the martyr cult in the pivotal fourth century. During this period the martyr cult was repeatedly a decisive tool for the augmentation and solidification of civil and religious authority. Late in the fourth century pilgrimage created a network within Christianity which ultimately led to a catholic Christian understanding of the martyrs’ graves by broadening the appeal of regional practices to disparate audiences. This simultaneously reinforced and subverted the desired message of those who sought to craft the meaning associated with the martyrs’ remains. Pilgrims helped manufacture a homogenized understanding of the martyr cult ultimately enabling it to become one of the most identifiable features of Christianity in subsequent centuries.
Religious Studies Podcast interview (May 3, 2021)
