Defining Martyrdom

In the mid 1700s, Pope Benedict XIV defined martyrdom and outlined the characteristics of martyr. According to the Pope, a martyr is a “believer who dies for the faith and, specifically, who’s killer (the “tyrant”) … must have been motivated by hatred of the faith” (Peterson, 93). Additionally, it is not sufficient for a martyr to simply die for a cause; rather he must have been observed, as someone who refused to recant is belief. In other words, people as someone who chose to uphold his beliefs despite the dire consequences he would face otherwise must have physically observed a martyr. Another criterion is that a martyr must have been seen as saying something along the lines of turning my soul to God or giving up my life for Christ before his/her execution. This definition parallels to the third century definition of martyr, which is that a martyr is someone who has “witnessed the truth” and through “their words or actions has the right to be called a martyr” (Peterson, 94). According to Dailey, it is the cause, not the death, that makes a martyr and that the reproduction of martyrdom depends on the legible narrative rehearsal of martyr models (Dailey, 67). This means that a person is classified as a martyr, when he fits one of the models that had been previously set by other martyrs. This essay will focus on the written accounts of John Hooper’s execution, assassination of Thomas Becket, and Edmund Campion who was hanged, drawn and quartered. In addition, the essay will analyze how the written accounts about each of these individuals show that they died as a martyr.

John Hopper was born in the late 1450’s in a county in central England. In Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs: Selected Narratives,” Hopper is described as someone who had ...

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...R 38.3 (2006): 65-83. Print.

John Foxe, The Unabridged Acts and Monuments Online or TAMO (1576 edition) (HRI Online Publications, Sheffield, 2011). Available from: http//www.johnfoxe.org [Accessed: 01.03.11].

McLetchie, Scott. "The Chronicle of "Benedict of Peterborough": The Murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 29 December 1170." Fordham.edu. Internet Medieval Source Book, Aug. 1998. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. .

Secondary Sources

Earnest, David C. "Will No One Rid Me of This Meddlesome State? Social Inequality and the New Social Contract." Department of Political Science. The George Washington University, Jan.-Feb. 2001. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. .

Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, (London: George Bell and Sons, 1910), p. 365. 18 November, 2011.