October 20, 2006
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Fine Art Friday – Gérôme
The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer by Jean-Léon Gérôme
You can see a larger scale of this print here. We’ve almost finished Eusebius’ The Church History, which is full of stories about martyrs. Eusebius not only paints pictures of the brave, courageous martyrs; he tells of those who escaped martyrdom, who under the strain “sacrificed” [to the Roman god]. This was a time of great unrest with a reign of an emperor lasting 2-5 years. Because there were alternating periods of persecution and peace, there were folks who denied their faith under pressure and then repented and came back to the church.
The response of church leaders to those who had recanted and subsequently returned to the church became a major point of dissention. Some bishops required rebaptism and some sort of purification; some bishops [incuding Novatus] refused to offer any forgiveness and with contempt damned the repentant recantors with no hope of salvation. The orthodox bishops disagreed. A synod convened and
“It was decreed unanimously that Novatus, his companions in arrogance, and all who supported his hatred and inhumanity to the brethren should be considered outside the church, but that those brothers who had fallen should be treated and restored with the medicine of repentance.” p. 239Another divisive issue involved which day to celebrate Easter. One side favored strict adherence to the precise date on the Jewish calendar for Passover and celebrated on whichever day of the week it fell on [absolute date]. The other side believed strongly that Easter should be celebrated on the day of the resurrection (Sunday) [absolute day]. This was no small quarrel: strong words were used to describe the opponents and whole dioceses were excommunicated. Polycarp and Anicetus, two leaders, provided a great example.
“And when the blessed Polycarp visited Rome in Anicetus’s time, though they had minor disagreements on other matters, they made peace immediately, having no wish to quarrel on this point. Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp…nor did Polycarp persuade Anicetus… Nevertheless, they communed with each other, and in church Anicetus yielded…to Polycarp, obviously out of respect. They parted from each other in peace, and peace in the whole church was maintained both by those who observed and those who did not.” p. 199
Comments (4)
These stories of martyrdom are heartwrenching…I cant read more than one every so often.
The truth divides….as I was telling DD#4.
Ya know, I usually choice some art I would like to have in my home, but I’m not sure that I would want to pay money for this Thomas Cole. I chose it simply because it is in a museum I want to visit and because it was *seasonal*
I love your blog. Your writing is just brilliant and I love that you are willing to stretch the perimeters of our minds and remind us of such things as would enlarge our hearts and endure to us the brethren gone before us.
Have you read of the Easter debate between the Irish and Roman-influenced English Churches during the Augustinian transformation of Great Britian?
Thank you for your kind words, roseteacup! No, I haven’t read about debate in Great Britain. But I’ll be reading more in that time period and geographical area soon. Do you recommend a particular book (I already know you are a Bede fan!)?