Ronchey, S. “Il Martirio di San Policarpo e gli antichi Atti dei martiri da Baronio a oggi: dottrina ufficiale e realtà storica.” The Christian East: Its Institutions and Its Thought: A Critical Reflection. Papers of the International Scholary [sic] Congress for the 75th Anniversary of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. Rome, 30 May – 5 June 1993. Ed. Robert F. Taft, S.J. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 251. Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1996. 651-70.

The first half of the contribution is devoted to the role of the Acta martyrum in the 16th century clashes between protestant and catholic churches. To the Protestant project of revival of the martyria, launched by the reform intelligentsia, witnesses to a “pure,” primitive, pre-hierarchical Christianity, Catholic culture reacted by reducing the literature of martyrology.  The reconstruction of the Martyrologium Romanum, carried out by Cardinal Cesare Baronio, who seems to lean toward maintaining very few “sincere acts,” aims at demonstrating the historical nature of a harmony between church and earthly power as already existing in early Christianity.  The second half of the contribution is dedicated to the Martyrium Polycarpi (Martyrdom of Polycarp) (the so-called Epistola Ecclesiae Smyrnensis de martyrio S. Polycarpi, the Epistle of the Smyrniote church on the death of Polycarp), which Baronio considered to be the oldest Greek martyrological document, showing the “sincere” proto-Christian animus.  Historical and textual analysis of the work considers the literary genre (epistle), trial strategy, behaviour and language of the martyr, ideological significance, and actual date of composition.  The conclusions have repercussions for all of the martyrological literature of the first five centuries of Christianity and reveal analogies (in primis pro-State attitudes) between the Martyrium Polycarpi and the Acta of the post-Severian Era.

 

CITED BY

Polycarpiana: Studies on Martyrdom and Persecution in Early Christianity. Collected Essays, by B. Dehandschutter, Ed. by J. Leemans, Leuven, University Press, 2007, p. 85

 

EXTERNAL LINKS

complete text of the Tractatio de Martyrologio Romano