Religion and violence

It was the Protestants who produced the first martyrologies, and it is significant that these appeared in the mid sixteenth century. After a rapid blossoming, the different sects suffered setbacks and went through a moment of crisis. The second generation were already asserting the need to look back in order to better prepare for the future. In showing the horror of persecution, the martyrologies sought to revive and strengthen the spirit of resistance and struggle. They quickly became the greatest guarantor of Protestant memory. The historian Auke Jelsma, who is noted for the study of the importance of women in the literature of martyrology, summarises this dual function: “The first editions of the martyrologies are guns, the latter are monuments.”

The three most successful Protestant martyrologies were those of Jean Crespin, Adrien van Haemstede, and John Foxe. Adrien van Haemstede's^[1] , less voluminous than the others, appeared in Dutch in 1559. It is notable for its genuine pastoral concern and brings the Protestant martyrs into the long history of Christianity. It was reprinted twenty times before the seventeenth century and it was an important propaganda tool in the context of the Dutch Revolt and the formation of the United Provinces. The Livre de Martyrs (book of martyrs) of Jean Crespin, who was its author, editor, printer and bookseller, was published in 1554 in Geneva. It was adapted and translated many times, notably into German, at the end of the sixteenth century. Its influence in France and the Netherlands, where there were large scale sectarian clashes in the second half of the sixteenth century, was enormous and widespread, as can be seen from the works of Jean-François Gilmont. It aimed to reach both the Protestant minorities whose cohesion and endurance in the face of adversity needed reinforcement, and the Catholic population which it hoped to move through the depiction of the cruelties of religious persecution.

For Jean Crespin, the persecuted have to fulfil a number of criteria to be considered martyrs: notably it is necessary for a tribunal to rule on the doctrine for which the person of faith is condemned; the reason must be exclusively spiritual. For example, the execution of the burghers of Valenciennes who refused to open the gates to the Spanish garrison during the siege of 1566-67 is not martyrdom. The martyr must also prove his/her constancy through suffering. The recognition of a martyr therefore rests on a paradoxical legalistic formula: there is no martyrdom without judgement. Jean Crespin distinguishes the victims of massacres, the persecuted faithful, from authentic martyrs condemned by legal process. Agrippa d'Aubigné gives an account of the theft of court records by pious zealots, a heroic gesture with a history going back to antiquity. This same author puts more importance on the ‘time of fire', when victims were able to bear witness to their faith, than on the ‘time of guns', a time of confusion and uprisings. For Jean Crespin, there are no martyrs in the strict sense before the outbreak of the wars of religion.

The Protestant martyrologies continued to be published after the wars of religion, but as time went on their purpose evolved. The 1556 edition of Crespin's martyrology is entitled The Acts of the Martyrs, a title with connotations both apostolic (the Acts of the Apostles^[2]) and judicial (judicial ‘actions') which reinforced the idea of witness. The 1564 edition was more in line with the humanist tradition in including poems. The work became The History of the Martyrs from 1570, anchoring it in nostalgic commemoration rather than the immediate past; here the emphasis is on the history of the Reformed Church in France and the inheritance of the founding fathers of Christianity. From 1582, Simon Goulart^[3] followed Jean Crespin in bringing the project up to date, including new victims, those of the ‘guns' alongside those of the ‘fires'.

Many people were put to death during the wars of religion, but this did not correspond to the definition of martyrdom in its traditional sense; those who died in massacres could not offer up from the pyre the witness which condemned them on earth and saved them in Heaven. To justify his approach, Simon Goulart based his work in particular on L'Histoire ecclésiastique attributed to Théodore de Bèze^[4] , which made no distinction between authentic ‘witnesses' and simple victims of persecution for their faith. Now, “the cause, and not the penalty, makes the martyr” (martyrem non facit poena, sed causa).Above all, one must discriminate between true martyrs and false martyrdom, those who die for a true cause , and those whose sacrifice is in vain and do not die for their faith.

The martyrology of John Foxe^[5] , entitled Actes and Monuments of these latter and perilous dayes, touching matters of the Church, best known as the Book of Martyrs, first appeared in Latin (1554/1559) during the author's exile in Basel, then in English from 1563, after the re-establishment of the Protestant regime under Elizabeth I^[6]. His main aim as to denounce the religious persecution carried out under Mary Tudor^[7] and, at least implicitly, to glorify the new queen and her policy of confessional unification under the Church of England. John Foxe was first known through his humanist training and writings. In his Book of Martyrs he adopted an historical approach and looked to antiquity to support his thesis. Numerous new editions and later adaptations included accounts of the sufferings of the Protestants in France, the Netherlands and elsewhere. But Foxe's martyrology has come down to us as a classic of Anglican culture and a foundation of English identity. For decades he fostered and justified anti-Catholic policy within and outside the kingdom. Thus he contributed to a strong Protestant tradition in England and, beyond that, in the whole Anglophone world [Documents 3 and 4. Extracts from Foxe's martyrology, with illustrations].