The role of St. Martin of Braga in the development of ecclesiastical attitudes toward alternative religious beliefs and practices in 6th century Gaul and northern Iberia
Creators: name: Muntean, Fredrick Dean
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: The purpose of this thesis is to determine the role played by St Martin, bishop of Braga, in the development of ecclesiastical attitudes toward alternative religious practices and beliefs during the course of the 6th century. In recent years, several scholars, most notably Alberto Ferreiro and E. Kim Follis, have credited Martin with a greater degree of leniency toward irregular religious activities than the other bishops of his day, and both of these writers have sought to uncover the source of this tolerant attitude. In a more recent work, however, Ferreiro has stated that although he had once argued in favour of Martin's 'tolerance,' his earlier views might have to be qualified. Both Ferreiro and Follis provide us with a comprehensive overview of both Martin's life and the circumstances surrounding his work, and together they will serve as a point of entry for this study. Ferreiro is a social historian, and Follis approaches the material from the perspective of the history of theology. By contrast, I shall apply a textualhistorical method to the written evidence, examining it in terms of its traditional context, its cultural milieu and its intended audiences. In order to evaluate the importance of Martin, I shall consider at his work in the larger framework of the entire century, first giving his own writing a careful reading, and then comparing his work with that of two other better-known ecclesiastical voices: Caesarius, bishop of Aries, whose writings span several decades at the beginning of the 6th century, and Gregory, bishop of Tours, who wrote in the generation following Martin. In the course of this paper, I shall argue that Martin's 'leniency' or 'tolerance' has been overstated, and that, at least in this matter, Martin's position does not differ significantly from that of Caesarius. A number of 20th century writers, from Stephen McKenna in the 1930s to Joyce Salisbury in the 1980s, appear confident that compilations made of those religious activities which are inveighed against as being 'rustic' or 'pagan' by our 6th century bishops can be relied upon to mirror the religious beliefs and practices of the peasants and other indigenous peoples of Gaul and Northern Iberia. A close reading of the material at hand will reveal what is perhaps an insufficiently nuanced interpretation by these scholars of the way in which paganus and rusticus are used in their original context. Rather than viewing the writings of the 6th century as a continuous polemic against the various 'survivals' of traditional folk magic and pre-Christian festive behaviour, we shall come, at the end of this paper, to regard the works of these bishops as steps along the pathway to accommodation and assimilation. It is my thesis that Martin modified, with considerable tact and discretion, the more militant, and monastically oriented, position taken earlier in the 6th century, notably by Caesarius of Aries, in a way that not only recognized and accommodated the needs of the laity more effectively, but also opened up the possibility of a broader, more expansive version of Christianity to emerge, as it did later in the century under Gregory of Tours. It is Martin's style, I shall maintain, that sets him apart, and I shall demonstrate that Martin's style is predicated by the cosmopolitan nature of his experiential and educational background.