Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:17:21 EST
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject:      Martin of Tours (11 Nov)

MARTIN OF TOURS, BISHOP AND THEOLOGIAN (NOV 11)

Martin was born around 330 of pagan parents. His father was a
soldier, who enlisted Martin in the army at the age of fifteen. One
winter day he saw an ill-clad beggar at the gate of the city of
Amiens. Martin had no money to give, but he cut his cloak in half
and gave half to the beggar. (Paintings of the scene, such as that
by El Greco, show Martin, even without the cloak, more warmly clad
than the beggar, which rather misses the point.) In a dream that
night, Martin saw Christ wearing the half-cloak. He had for some
time considered becoming a Christian, and this ended his wavering.
He was promptly baptized. At the end of his next military campaign,
he asked to be released from the army, saying: "Hitherto I have
faithfully served Caesar. Let me now serve Christ." He was accused
of cowardice, and offered to stand unarmed between the contending
armies. He was imprisoned, but released when peace was signed.

He became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, a chief opponent in the
West of the Arians, who denied the full deity of Christ, and who had
the favor of the emperor Constantius. Returning to his parents' home
in Illyricum, he opposed the Arians with such effectiveness that he
was publicly scourged and exiled. He was subsequently driven from
Milan, and eventually returned to Gaul. There he founded the first
monastary in Gaul, which lasted until the French Revolution.

In 371 he was elected bishop of Tours. His was a mainly pagan
diocese, but his instruction and personal manner of life prevailed.
In one instance, the pagan priests agreed to fell their idol, a
large fir tree, if Martin would stand directly in the path of its
fall. He did so, and it missed him very narrowly. When an officer of
the Imperial Guard arrived with a batch of prisoners who were to be
tortured and executed the next day, Martin intervened and secured
their release.

In the year 384, the heretic (Gnostic) Priscillian and six
companions had been condemned to death by the emperor Maximus. The
bishops who had found them guilty in the ecclesiastical court
pressed for their execution.  Martin contended that the secular
power had no authority to punish heresy, and that the
excommunication by the bishops was an adequate sentence. In this he
was upheld by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. He refused to leave Treves
until the emperor promised to reprieve them.  No sooner was his back
turned than the bishops persuaded the emperor to break his promise;
Priscillian and his followers were executed.  This was the first
time that heresy was punished by death.

Martin was furious, and excommunicated the bishops responsible. But
afterwards, he took them back into communion in exchange for a
pardon from Maximus for certain men condemned to death, and for the
emperor's promise to end the persecution of the remaining
Priscillianists. He never felt easy in his mind about this
concession, and thereafter avoided assmblies of bishops where he
might encounter some of those concerned in this affair. He died on
or about 11 November 397 (my sources differ) and his shrine at Tours
became a sanctuary for those seeking justice.

   Lord God of hosts, who didst clothe thy servant Martin the
   soldier with the spirit of compassion, and didst set him as a
   bishop in thy Church to be a defender of the catholic faith:
   Give us grace to follow in his holy steps, that at the last we
   may be found clothed with righteousness in the dwellings of
   peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth
   with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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