John S. Ott
HST 354U - Early Medieval Europe
Portland State University
(c) John S. Ott (2020, 2021, 2024)
Reading Guide 3:
Week III: Sulpicius Severus, Life of St Martin
Notes
Sulpicius Severus (d. ca. 425) composed Martin’s vita ("life," or saintly biography known as hagiography) in about 396 (Martin died in November 397; he was born in 316 or 336). Within a few years (by 400) the text seems to have been widely read and known. Sulpicius was born into aristocratic privilege and married into a consular family; like Melania's husband, Sulpicius's wife died at a young age. When he began writing, he had only just recently met Martin in 393 or 394, after learning of his reputation as a healer from a close friend, Paulinus of Nola (see section XXV.4) -- the cousin of Melania the Elder (from Week II). Paulinus was a contemporary of Martin and a consul and governor, as well as a poet, before his conversion to Christianity, and had been healed of an eye condition by Martin. By the time Sulpicius came to know him, Martin had been bishop for more than 20 years (since 371). Sulpicius was then converted by Martin, who welcomed him at his table, instructed him in the scriptures, and urged him to give away his wealth. Sulpicius largely followed suit, quitting his comfortable job as a lawyer and retiring to a single estate in southern France where he lived out the rest of his life in a kind of semi-monastic retreat.
The vita is arranged chronologically, beginning with Martin's precocious youth and distinguished piety, his long relationship with the anti-Arian Hilary of Poitiers (d. 368), a period of wandering and preaching in Italy and Pannonia (western Hungary), his confrontation with the Arian bishop of Milan, Auxentius (c. 355-374), his return to Poitiers, and finally his election as bishop of Tours. Though he lived for periods in a condition of contemplation and withdrawal, Martin offers us more of an example of an active life than the ascetic example presented by Antony.
Sulpicius makes use of information in his biography gleaned directly from Martin and also from witnesses, including a converted brigand (though in this case perhaps at second hand; ‘the story is said to have been related by him’) and Paulinus of Nola, his close friend. The vita is dedicated to Sulpicius’s ‘spiritual brother’, Desiderius, whom he begs to correct the text or, if need be, suppress from it the name of the biography’s author. He also criticizes his own quality of writing, while at the same time exhibiting his poetic and rhetorical learnedness (XXVI.3—‘not even Homer himself, if he emerged from the underworld, could give an accurate account [of Martin’s life]'), and he tells his brother that if he sees someone reading it, he should insist that they attach more weight to the subject matter than to the quality of the writing.
Questions
(1) What reliable, tangible insights does the text afford into the life of a fourth-century convert? How is Martin's story similar to -- and different from -- Antony's?
(2) What sort of bishop was Martin? How does Martin balance his monastic tendencies with his promotion to secular clerical office?
(3) What is the estimation of Sulpicius about the contemporary priesthood and its bishops? What do the author's portrayals reveal about the contemporary spiritual preoccupations of the Christian clergy? How do secular authorities (e.g., the emperor) come out looking in this text?
(4) How is the pagan Roman world portrayed? Who was the audience for this text? Why? How does Sulpicius describe traditional (pagan) Roman culture and religious practice?