Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe

Christian Century, August 2, 2000 by Ellen L. Babinsky

Conflicts arose on how doctrines were to be understood and interpreted. Martyrs and their persecutors both understood the risen Christ to be present to his followers in the Eucharist, but conflict surfaced over how Christ was present and what this presence meant. The embrace or denial of the doctrine of transubstantiation was the occasion for both killing and dying. All claimed baptism as a central element of their practice. Conflict came over the meaning of baptism, and over infant or adult baptism.

Thus, the content of belief overlapped, but the interpretations of belief were mutually exclusive. There was no common ground, no point at which agreement might have been reached. "The only way to persuade people that someone was a true martyr was to convince them that he or she had died as a true Christian--that is, to convert them. But Protestants, Anabaptists, and Roman Catholics alike grew up with the stories of their respective martyrs, men and women who had shed their blood for the truth.... As a result, collectively and over the long term, martyrdom militated against conversion and reinforced confessionalization."

Gregory weaves his analysis together so tightly that it is difficult to fathom what sort of conclusions might be drawn for our time. Resolving disputed points into "things indifferent" (adiaphora) solved nothing, for those involved in the contested areas of scripture and interpretation were not willing to have their beliefs reduced to something of indifferent consequence. To lift up religious toleration in the attempt to understand contrarily held conviction whitewashes the disagreements with "blatant anachronism." The irony is apparent when Gregory carefully notes that unresolved religious disagreement played a role in bringing about the Enlightenment, which has placed us in a context in which dying for religious belief seems unfathomable, perhaps even fanatical.

Nonetheless, I ponder the reports of courageous persons in explosive settings who seem willing to be in harm's way for a constellation of values larger than their particular lives. Would I, could I, ever imagine diminishing myself for the sake of the well-being of others? Is the laying down of one's life for others indeed so unfathomable? So fanatical?

Reviewed by Ellen L. Babinsky, associate professor of church history at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.