Ronchey, S. “Baronio e gli antichi Atti dei Martiri: dottrina ufficiale e realtà storica.” Baronio e le sue fonti. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Sora, 10-13 October 2007). Ed. Luigi Gulia. Sora: Centro di Studi Sorani «Vincenzo Patriarca», 2009. 301-25.

Following a methodological introduction on the problematics which emerge from the study of the Acta martyrum and the subtle distinction between the “authenticity” and “genuineness” of these texts as adopted by Catholic scholars, their role in the 16th century polemic on early Christianity between Protestants and Catholics is analysed.  For the historiography of Lutheran humanists (the Magdeburg Centuriators and in primis Matthias Flacius Illyricus), the acts of the martyrs were “testimonies of truth” of a pre-hierarchical, pure, and authentic Christianity in which the Reform intelligentsia saw itself mirrored and to which it advocated a return. The Catholic intelligentsia, also interested in the census and re-evaluation of martyrological and hagiographic literature, supplied its response in Cardinal Cesare Baronio’s work of reconstitution of the Martyrologium Romanum.  The latter selected a few “pure and sincere” acts, vigorously maintaining the loss of most of the “genuine” martyrological literature and adopting as a criterion of evaluation the “non-genuinity” of the attitude for martyrdom itself The re-evaluation of the number of Acta martyrum ran parallel to an historical and critical redefinition of the phenomenon and the significance of anti-Christian persecutions on the part of official Roman power and a minimising — already anticipated by apologists from the 3rd century on – of the subversive and anti-State content of early Christian ideology.  Baronio’s census reflects a period of conflict between the churches on topics such as martyrdom, heresy, controversy, ideology, but even more a period in which the tools of historical, antiquarian, and diplomatic criticism were not yet scientifically well defined.  Therefore, even though Baronio’s work is to be considered pre-philological, it established certain fixed criteria for subsequent evaluations of the Acta martyrum.

 

EXTERNAL LINKS

Complete text of Tractatio de Martyrologio Romano

http://www.centrodistudisorani.it  (“Vincenzo Patriarca” Research Centre website)