Perpetua and Early Christianity

A Paper by Shoeless Wanderer

http://www.shoelesswander.net

Please do not redistribute without permission

The story of Saint Perpetua is one of the most endearing tales of Christian martyrdom from the third century. The personal account of Perpetua concerning her feelings towards her martyrdom and subsequent account written by her friend Saturus reveals a great amount of information concerning early Christianity. However, if all historians were able to recover between the first through fifth century CE was the account of Perpetua’s martyrdom, an immensely askew version of Christianity would appear, contradicting what information scholars possess about early Christianity and how the faith developed.

The story of Perpetua stands provides great insight into Christianity in the late second and early third centuries. Perpetua’s passion text describes the events prior to her martyrdom and explain the circumstances thereof. Perpetua, along with her slave Felicity and three other male companions were arrested for being Christians. The conversion of any imperial subject to either Christianity or Judaism was made illegal under the reign of Septimius Severus. At the time Perpetua was nursing an infant son and Felicity was eight months pregnant. Because the two and their companions had broken the law, they were sentenced to death. Perpeuta’s account of her imprisonment reveals that, two deacons (presumably non-Roman citizens) were able to collect enough money that “for a few hours we should be taken forth to a better part of the prison and be refreshed.”[1] The account of Perpetua’s trial is of particular interest as well. Here, Perpetua states that Roman officials tried to prevent her martyrdom by asking her to consider her infant son and her older father, saying all that she had to do was sacrifice to “the emperor’s prosperity.”[2] It is interesting to note that the officials seem to be trying very hard to get Perpetua and her fellow Christians to sacrifice to the emperor out of desperation, perhaps because they did not want to sentence the group to death. However, their attempts fail and Perpetua and her fellow Christians are sentenced to death by beasts at Carthage. Perpetua’s own writing ends with her describing a vision wherein she becomes a man and wrestles with a mighty opponent. In her vision she wins, which Perpetua interpreted as a sign that “I understood that I should fight, not with beasts but against the devil; but I knew that mine was the victory.”[3] Saturus picks up the passion account by describing Perpetua’s death. She and Felicity were made to fight a bull, only to be decapitated afterwards. All of this violence because they were imperial subjects who converted to Christianity.

In many ways Perpetua’s passion provides us with a great wealth of knowledge concerning early Christianity. It demonstrates that Christianity was not limited to the lower class urban poor, but that within the first 200 years of its conception it had spread far and wide, penetrating the upper class in the cities as well. It also shows how Rome reacted to the growing Christian movement, primarily by attempting to stamp it out by publicly executing those who professed the faith. Moreover, the dedication of the Christians shines through this account. Despite being given chances to avoid the humiliation of being thrown to the wild beasts in the arena, Christians insisted on refusing to sacrifice to the emperor and were more than willing to deal with the particular fate of being executed. Perpetua’s account demonstrates the fierce faith and devotion that the early Christians possessed. This devotion was so intense that they were willing to go against traditional Roman values, such as family. Perpetua’s account demonstrates the willful disregard for these traditional values as she both ignores her father’s pleas to consider his feelings in the situation as well as refuses to make a sacrifice to the emperor to save her son from growing up without a mother. Romans put great value on family and Perpetua’s actions blatantly contradict these social values.

However, as much insight as Perpetua’s passion provides the modern scholar, if it was to be the only written document concerning Christianity until the reign of Constantine, understanding of the faith’s earliest years would be immensely incorrect. One of the largest issues that would arise from the passion being the only Christian document would concern the frequency of persecutions. Reading Perpetua’s story without any prior knowledge of history in the late antique period, one might assume that persecution of Christians was a constant occurrence. Just the opposite is true. Roman persecution of Christians tended to vary, depending on which Roman emperor was on the throne. Emperor Nero (r. 64-68 CE) was the first to put this practice into action by blaming Christians for the fire that burned down Rome. The group was ideal for use as a scapegoat due to popular resentment of them amongst Roman citizens. Nero had Christians fed to dogs and used in gladiatorial games under his reign, but the persecution went away after his death. The next round came under Domitian (r.81-96), and then Trajan (r. 98-117), Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180), Septimus Severus (r. 193-211) and the list goes on and on, ending with the worst persecution of all during the reign of Diocletian (r. 284-305). The frequency and intensity depended entirely on who was ruling at the time. Pliny the Younger once wrote to emperor Trajan about how to handle the Christians and Trajan replied instructing him,

“They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it--that is, by worshiping our gods--even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance.”[4]

One other incorrect assumption that could be made from the text if it was our earliest surviving Christian text is that Christianity was a small, unified movement in one particular province of the Roman empire that could be taken as anti-imperial and thus a thorn in Rome’s side. Quite the opposite is true. Christianity spread quickly from Jerusalem throughout the Roman Empire thanks to the evangelical work of charismatic figures like Saint Paul. The breadth of Christianity is apparent as early as 64, as Nero decided to use Christians as scapegoats for the great fire of Rome, proving that the group had very quickly moved from Jerusalem to the capitol of the empire itself. Moreover, could in no way Christianity in the early first through third centuries be considered unified. Earliest Christianity was an immensely diverse movement with various understandings of the nature of Jesus. Many sub-sects of Christians existed including Jewish Christians, various sects of Gnostics, proto-orthodox Christians and most likely many more whose names and scriptures have been lost to the sands of time. We have evidence of this wide spread diversity through various written sources. The gospel of John provides a well developed Christology emphasizing the death and resurrection of Jesus. The figure of “doubting Thomas” also appears in this gospel. The gospel of Thomas, a Gnostic sayings gospel from the first century, was also in circulation at the same time as John was composed, suggesting that the Gospel of John was written by a proto-orthodoxy author who used his gospel to attack groups who placed a greater emphasis on the words of Jesus, such as the Gnostics. Because of finds such as the Nag Hammadi Library and the more recent Gospel of Judas, scholars have a greater insight into the variety inherent in early Christianity. These text demonstrate the various ways that the Jesus as Christ was understood not just through death and resurrection, but through his teachings as well. If Perpetua’s passion was the only Christian text handed down to modern scholars, this great understanding of how varied and wide spread early Christianity was would be lost and create an immensely askew understanding of the faith.

Perpetua’s own account reveals a great deal about early Christianity and how devoted Christians were to their faith that they were willing to die for it. However, as much information as the document gives scholars, it if it was the only document concerning the Christian tradition to have survived, modern understanding of early Christianity and the origins of the faith would be grossly misinformed and lack the knowledge of how diverse the early Christian movement truly was.

---

[1] Vibia Perpetua , “Medieval Sourcebook: St. Perpetua: The Passions of Saints Perpetua and Felicity 203,” Internet Medieval Sourcebook. 1996, 2 Feb 2008 < http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html>

[2] Vibia Perpetua , “Medieval Sourcebook: St. Perpetua: The Passions of Saints Perpetua and Felicity 203,” Internet Medieval Sourcebook. 1996, 2 Feb 2008 < http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html>

[3] Vibia Perpetua , “Medieval Sourcebook: St. Perpetua: The Passions of Saints Perpetua and Felicity 203,” Internet Medieval Sourcebook. 1996, 2 Feb 2008 < http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html>

[4] Pliny the Younger and Trajan, “Medieval Sourcebook: Pliny on the Christians,” Internet Medieval Sourcebook. 1996, 2 Feb 2008 < http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pliny1.html>