From 'Passio Perpetuae' to 'Acta Perpetuae'

Petr Kitzler

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9783110418811
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

While concentrated on the famous Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis, this book focuses on an area that has so far been somewhat marginalized or even overlooked by modern interpreters: the recontextualizing of the Passio Perpetuae in the subsequent reception of this text in the literature of the early Church. Since its composition in the early decades of the 3rd century, the Passio Perpetuae was enjoying an extraordinary authority and popularity. However, it contained a number of revolutionary and innovative features that were in conflict with existing social and theological conventions. This book analyses all relevant texts from the 3rd to 5th centuries in which Perpetua and her comrades are mentioned, and demonstrates the ways in which these texts strive to normalize the innovative aspects of the Passio Perpetuae. These efforts, visible as they are already on careful examination of the passages of the editor of the passio, continue from Tertullian to Augustine and his followers. The normalization of the narrative reaches its peak in the so-called Acta Perpetuae which represent a radical rewriting of the original and an attempt to replace it by a purified text, more compliant with the changed socio-theological hierarchies.

1 Fortissimi martyres: The Passio Perpetuae etFelicitatis as a pre-text

1.1 The Passio Perpetuae in the context of the earliestChristian martyr literature

The origins of early Christian Latin literature are closely associated with the environment of Roman North Africa, a province that was to play a crucial role in the further evolution and sophistication of early Christian thought and writing – let us not forget that Africa was home to doctores of the stature of Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, and Augustine. It comes as no surprise that the first literary records from this territory that relate to the Christian religion are accounts of martyrs, the athletae Christi or champions of Christ,² who willingly took it upon themselves to “fight the good fight”³ on behalf of their celestial Lord, even at the cost of their own lives. Martyrdom, viewed as a second baptism, a baptism in blood, was seen as an instant guarantee of a place in heaven at Christ’s right hand, and of the forgiveness of all sins.⁴ To a greater extent than in the other parts of the Roman Empire, North African Christianity was marked by a “protest against the world”⁵ and by the confessors’ uncompromising desire to prove their faith even if they paid the price in their own blood. This desire was further fuelled by the widespread notions of the approaching end of the world and the second coming of Christ, during which all persecuted and martyred Christians would triumph over their torturers.⁶ As William Frend succinctly sums up: the church of North Africa was always a church of the martyrs.⁷

The oldest preserved Christian Latin text is a brief report on the martyrdom of Christians from the village of Scilli, the precise location of which is today unknown. According to the account in the Acta Scillitanorum, the reported events took place on 17 July 180 under proconsul Vigellius Saturninus. The second oldest surviving text is none other than the famous Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (Passio sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis),⁸ which will be the focus of detailed investigation over the following pages. Before continuing with the analysis of the text itself, at least a highly condensed literary and historical exposition of the earliest martyr texts may be appropriate to facilitate understanding of the position that the Passio Perpetuae occupies among them.⁹

The very titles of the Acta Scillitanorum and Passio Perpetuae reflect the two branches of martyr narratives, which paralleled the tradition of Greek texts on similar themes that started to appear as early as the latter half of the 2nd century A.D. Martyr literature never constituted a homogeneous corpus, and all attempts at its strict categorization are theoretical constructs imposed by later interpreters in the field of early Christian writing. Nevertheless, with some simplification,¹⁰ we may distinguish two broad groups into which the texts on the early Christian martyrs can be classified. In the first group, we have the so-called acta, usually brief reports imitating the official documents written by Roman officials (acta proconsularia), which were kept in archives accessible to the public. This meant that all citizens were able to peruse them, including Christians who could then use them in writing their own accounts of the martyrdom of their fellow confessors.¹¹

These types of texts are generally characterized by their comparatively fixed structure. The Acta Iustini, dating to approximately 160 A.D. and preserved in Justin’s second Apologia, are generally considered to be the oldest Greek exemplar of this first group, while the Acta Scillitanorum are seen as the Latin prototype of the group. At the start of these texts, the individual accused Christians are introduced by name, as is the Roman magistrate before whom they are tried. The core of the acta is then formed by the interrogation conducted by the magistrate and the answers given by the Christians, culminating in their repeated confession to Christianity (Christianus sum),¹² followed by the sentencing and execution of the accused.

Though at first glance some of the acts of the martyrs may appear to be mere imitations of official administrative documents,¹³ mainly as a result of the formalized language with its lack of rhetorical adornment and little narrative intervention, the fact is that even with the simplest martyr acts, in our case the Acta Scillitanorum, the apparent lack of style is a premeditated narrative strategy adopted by the Christian editors, designed to imbue the text with authority and significance through a meticulous imitation of the official report.¹⁴

The second broadly defined group of early Christian martyr texts includes the so-called passiones, sometimes also referred to as martyria, which are distinguished from the acta by their more extensive and elaborate narrative passages. These passages treat in detail areas such as the circumstances of the arrest of the Christians, their martyrdom (passio) itself, and the miraculous events surrounding it. In later texts of this genre, this narrative component often grows into fantastical accounts full of improbable miracles that resemble more than anything the novels of antiquity, to which they often provide a Christian alternative.¹⁵ These passion narratives, which are often not lacking in literary ambition, are frequently styled as accounts written by eyewitnesses or friends of the protagonists and rendered from the perspective of that persona, while still preserving the sections of dialogue that are characteristic of acta: the questions of the magistrate and the responses of the accused.

The simplified categorization of martyr accounts into acta and passiones is of course rather formal and does not do justice to the variety of early Christian martyr literature. This is well exemplified by the fact that the first extant martyr text (with the exception of the New Testament account of the death of St Stephen) ¹⁶ is the Martyrium Polycarpi from the middle of the 2nd century A.D.,¹⁷ a work that does not easily fit into either category outlined above.¹⁸

Although the linguistic features and genres employed by the anonymous editors or compilers of the early Christian martyr texts were varied and extensive, the degree of schematization and convention described above was one of the integral and defining aspects of these texts and very likely formed the contemporary readers’ horizon of expectation. This becomes evident in some of the later texts and even in those written after the triumph of Christianity and the end of persecution, where these time-tested formal patterns are utilized in order to impart a stamp of authenticity on the narratives, giving them the flavour of the early centuries, or even, as was the case with certain Donatist accounts,¹⁹ to incorporate them into the tradition of “orthodox” martyr texts. The Passio Perpetuae, however, breaks away from these conventional patterns to a large degree, and right from the beginning of martyr literature establishes a tradition of its own, one that later texts would come to draw upon extensively.

1.2 The structure and composition of the Passio Perpetuae

Modern interpreters of the Passio Perpetuae have repeatedly commented on its originality and exceptionality – and justifiably so. This view is common in particular when Perpetua’s account, which forms the core part of the entire Passio, is perceived as the only surviving autobiographical text from the entire period of antiquity written by a woman.²⁰ However, the exceptionality of the text must not be overestimated,²¹ and the modern reader should assess it in the context of other literary works of late antiquity or early Christianity, especially with regard to the characteristics of martyr literature described above. Despite this qualification, the Passio Perpetuae does stand out from other texts of its kind and forms a sort of hybrid genre, combining autobiographical passages narrated in the first person with the anchoring and unifying commentary ...