MARTnt
740
MAftTnt
virerescoiu^ged with whips, with straps, or with ropes: or
again they were stretched on the rack and their Dodies
torn apart with iron rakes. Another awful punish-
ment consisted in suspending the victim, sometimes for
a whole day at a time, by one hand; while modest
women in addition were exposed naked to the gaze of
those in court. Almost worse than all this was the
penal servitude to which bishops, priests, deacons, lay-
men and women, and even chudrenj were condemned
in some of the more violent persecutions; these refined
personages of both sexes, victims of merciless laws,
were doomed to pass the remainder of their days in the
darkness of the mines, where they dragged out a
wretched existence, half naked, hungry, and with no
bed save the damp ground. Those were far more for-
tunate who were condemned to even the most dis-
graceful death, in the arena, or by crucifixion.
HoNOUKs PAID THE Martyrs. — It is casy to under- stand why those who endured so much for their con- victions should have been so greatly venerated by their co-reli^onists from even the first days of trial in the reign otNero. The Roman officials usually per- mitted relatives or friends to gather up the mutilated remains of the martyrs for mterment, although in some instances such permission was refused^ These rehcs the Christians regarded as more valuable than gold OT precious stones" (Martyr. Polycarpi, xviii). Some of the more famous martyrs received special honours, as for instance, in Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul, whose *' trophies ", or tombs, are spoken of at the bepnning of the third century by the Roman priest Caius (Eusebius, " Hist, eccl.", II, xxi, 7). Numerous crypts and chapels in the Roman catacombs, some of which, like the capella grcecay were constructed in sub- Apostolic times, also bear witness to the early venera- tion for those champions of freedom of conscience who won. by dying, the greatest victory in the history of the numan race. Special commemoration services of the martyrs, at which the holy Sacrifice was offered over their tombs — the origin of the time-honoured custom of consecrating altars by enclosing in them the relics of martyrs — were held on the anniversaries of their death; the famous Fractio Pants fresco of the capella orcecaf dating from the early second century, is probably a representation (see s. v. Fractio Panib; Eucharist, Symbols of) in miniature, of such a celebration. From the age of Constantine even still flreater veneration was accorded the martyrs. Pope Damasus (366-84) had a special love for the martyrs, as we learn from the inscnptions, brought to li^ht by de Rossi, composed by him for their tombs m the Roman catacombs. Later on veneration of the mar- tyrs was occasionally exhibited in a rather undesirable form * many of the frescoes in the catacombs have been mutilated to gratify the ambition of the faithful to be buried near the saints (retro sancloa)^ in whose com- pany they hoped one day to rise from the grave. In the Middle Ages the esteem in which the martyrs were held was eaually ^reat; no hardships were too severe to be endured in visiting famous shrines, like those of Rome, where their reb'cs were contained.
Allard, Ten Lectures on the Martyrs (New York, 1907); BmK8 in Diet, of Christ. AnUq. (London, 1876-80), s. v.; Healt, The Valerian Persecution (Boeton, 1905); Leclercq, Le9 Martyrs, I (Paris, 1906); Duchesne, Hidoire ancienne de Vfglise, I (Paris. 1906); Heuser in Kraus. Realencykloplidie LChristlichen AltenthUmer (Freiburg, 1882-86), s. v. M&Hurer; BoNWETCH in RealencyklopOdie /. prot. Theol. u. Kirche (Leip- Bg, 1903), 8. V. Mdrtyrer u. Bekenner, and Harnack in op. cit., 8. V. Christenverfolgungen. _ _ •«, -r-r
Maurice M. Habsatt.
Martyr d'Anghiera, Peter, historian of Spain and of the discoveries of her representatives, b. at Arona, near Anghiera, on Lake Maggiore in Italy, 2 Februarv, 1457; d. at Granada in October, 1526. He went to Rome at the age of twenty, and there made the acquaintance of Pomponius LsBtus, the antiquarian. Cardinals Arcimbolo and Sforza became his patrons, find under Pope Innocent VIII he was made secretary
of the prothonotary, Francesco Negro. He became
acquainted through the Spanish prothonotary, Geral-
dlnOy with the Ambassador Don Ifiigo Lopez de Men-
dosa, Count of Tendilla, whom he accompanied to
Saragossa in August, 1487. He soon became a notable
figure among the Humanists of Spain, and in 1488
gave lectures in Salamanca on the invitation of the
university. The new learning was under high patron-
age. King Ferdinand was a pupil of Vidal de Noya;
Queen Isabel bad studied under Beatrice Gidindo,
sumamed The Latina: EIrasmus has praised the
learning of Catherine ot Aragon, who married Henry
Vin of England: and Luis Vines relates that the
daughter of Isabel the Catholic, Dofia Juana La Loca,
could converse in Latin with the ambassadors from
the Low Countries. Italians were spreading the
Renaissance movement throughout Spain, and the
intelligence of Castile sat at the feet of^ Peter Martyr
d'Ani^iera. His chief task, however, after 1492 was
the education of young nobles at the Spanish court,
and a great number of noted men issued from his
school. In 1501 he was sent to Egypt on a diplomatic
mission to dissuade the Sultan from taking vengeance
on the Christians in Eg^t and Palestine for the de-
feat of the Moors in Spam. Following on the success-
ful issue of this mission, he received the title of maes-
tro de los caballeros". In 1504 he became papal
prothonotary and prior of Granada. In 1511 he was
given the post of chronicler in the newly formed State
Council of India, which was commissioned b^ the
Government to describe what was transpiring in the
New World. In 1522 his old friend, Aarian of Lou-
vain, now Pope Adrian VI, a(>pointed him archpriest
of Ocana. Cnarles V gave him in 1523 the title of
Count Palatine, and in 1524 called him once more
into the Indian State Council. At last he was in-
vested by Clement VII, on the proposal of Charles V,
with the di^ty of Abbot of Jamaica. Martyr never
visited the island, but as abbot he had built there the
first stone church.
As chronicler he performed notable Uteranr work, which has preserved his name to posterity. The year of his appointment (1511), he published, with other works, the first historical account of the great S^mish discoveries under the title of "Opera, Legatio, Babv- lonica, Oceanidecas, Poemata, Epigrammata " (Seville. 1511). The "Decas" consisted of ten reports, of which two, in the form of letters describing the voy- ages of Columbus, had been already sent by Martyr to Cardinal Ascanius Sforza in 1493 and 1494. In 1501 Martyr, at the urgent request of the Cardinal of Aragon, had added to these eight chapters on the third voyage of Columbus and the exploits of Nifio and Pinzon, and in 1511 he added a supplement giving an account of events from 1501 to 1511. Jointly with this " Decade ", he published a narrative of his ex- periences in Egypt with a description of the inhabi- tants, their country, and history. By 1516 he had finished two other "Decades", the first of these being devoted to the exploits of Ojeda. Nicuesa, and Balboa, the other giving an account of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa, of the fourth voyage d Columbus, and furthermore of the expeditions of Pedrarias. All three appeared together at Alcaic in 1516 under the title: Ve orbe novo decades cum Legatione Babylonica ". The " Enchiridion de nuper sub D. Carolo repertis insulis" (Basle, 1521) came out as the fourth "Decade" treating of the voyages of Hernandez de C6rdoba, Drijalva, and Cort&. The fifth "Decade" (1523) dealt with the conquiest of Mexico and the circumnavigation of the worid by Magellan; the sixth " Decade " (1524) gave an account of the discoveries of Davila on the west coast of America; in the seventh "Decade" (1525) there are collected together descriptions of the customs of the natives in South Carolina, as well as Florida. Haiti, Cuba, Darien; the eighth "Decade" (1525) gives for
