Module Directory

Martyrs remain important political figures. The most egregious examples are suicide bombers, but it is important to also remember that more pacific leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela wielded enormous international influence not only because of the righteousness of the causes that they championed but also because of what they had personally suffered on doing so. This module will examine the development of conceptions of martyrdom in Britain and the USA. The focus will be on the shifts in the perception of the martyr, most notably from the idea of him or her as exclusively a religious actor to the perception of the martyr to a political actor. Another paradigmatic shift examined in the module is the expansion of the category of martyr to include as martyrs not only those died for a cause but those who suffered for it, whether through physical mutilation, torture or imprisonment, exile or even loss of livelihoods as martyrs. These concepts have been of considerable global significance. In earlier times they have been about the only methods of resistance (in contrast to riot, rebellion or assassination) that were morally approved. And they democratised dissent; pollical or material weakness was actually an asset in martyrological terms.

The reason why this module examines Britain and the US, even though the politicization of martyrdom is universal, is that it was especially strongly developed in Britain, and following the lead of British, the US. There are several reasons why this is the case, one of which is that continual shifts in religious policies from the monarchs of England and Scotland meant that there was virtually no religious group in Britain that did nit suffer persecution or have its own cherished martyrs. Other more specific country that reasons include the persecution of Catholics as traitors rather than religious dissidents in England and civil wars in each country that merged secular and religious objectives.

The aims of this module are:

• To instruct students in historiography and historical methodology, in the study of history in tandem with religion and provide students with important insights into the development of Britain and the US.


• To increase student understanding of issues regarding disobedience, oppression, resistance and religious conflict that remain central to comprehending today’s world.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Have gained a knowledge of the different global traditions of martyrdom and, in particular, with the evolution of ideas of martyrdom in Britain and the United States from the Middle Ages to the present.


2. Have aquired familiarity with a wide range of primary sources on the political, social and religious history of Britain the United States as well as various theoretical and methodological approaches to interpreting them.


3. Use and critically interpret literary and visual materials such as drama, print pictures, paintings and films as historical sources.


4. Have gained an insight into the changing forms of political and social dissent and opposition throughout British and American history.

Indicative syllabus:

• Classical, Jewish, Islamic and early Christian traditions of martyrdom examined. Primary sources include Plato’s Last Days of Socrates, extracts from 2 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees and from Eusebius’ account of the martyrdom of Polycarp.


• Medieval conceptions of martyrdom. Primary sources include the martyrdom of St Oswald in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, the martyrdom of St. Winifred in The Golden Legend, Aelfric of Eynsham’s ‘Life of St Edmund’ and possibly John Blacman’s hagiography of Henry VI. I also plan to use Thomas Monmouth, The Life and Passion of William of Norwich (this is the hagiography and miracles of William of Norwich, a 12 year old boy putatively murdered by Jews as a ritual sacrifice).


• Thomas Becket and the political martyrs. The political martyrs are medieval soldiers,prelates and nobles (e.g. Simon de Montfort, Edmund of Lancaster and Archbishop Scope of York) who were widely honoured as saints because of their violent deaths while rebelling against the English kings. Primary sources will include Guernes’ life of Becket and the ‘Liber Miraculorum’ (available online in an English translation) of Simon de Montfort.


• Reformation martyrdoms. This period saw both Protestants and Catholics agree on martyrdom as being death suffered only for defence of true doctrine. Primary sources will include extracts from John Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’, Nicholas Harpsfield’s life of Thomas More and William Allen’s ‘Martyrdom of 12 Reverend Priests’. We will also be examining woodcut illustrations of martyrdoms from Foxe and from Richard Verstagen’s ‘Theatre of Cruelty’.


• Martyrdom and the English Civil War, This period saw important shifts in conceptions of martyrdom to moving from death to include imprisonment, mutilation and even expulsion from clerical livings. Even more importantly, especially with the execution of Charles I, martyrdom definitely moved to being a political as well as a religious category. Primary sources will include Eikon Basilke (attributed to Charles I) and John Tutchin’s Western Martyrology.


• The influence of the classical tradition on martyrology. Primary sources will include Poggio Braccioline’s letter describing the execution of Jan Hus, Joseph Addison’s drama Cato and possibly possibly John Mi8lton’s Samson Agonistes.


• Abolitionism and the American Civil War. This section provides clear examples of political martyrs being hailed in religious terms. The veneration of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as martyrs will be discussed. But the bulk of the seminar will be in discussing the case of John Brown as illustrating the complexities of political martyrdom. Brown spent his life and sacrificed it trying to end slavery in the US. He also murdered six people in cold blood simply because they were slaveholders and led an insurrection against the Federal government. He was hailed by abolitionists as a Christ-like martyr and has been praised by the great black historian W.E.B. Dubois as the ‘only completely righteous white man in American history’. He also been cited as a role model by Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, and by Paul Hill, who was executed in Florida for the premeditated murder of a doctor providing abortions as well as the doctor’s bodyguard. We will be discussing the ethical complexities of resistance and political martyrdom.


• The martyr as a victim of judicial injustice. We will look at veneration of Edith Cavell and Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.as martyrs. (There have been other cases from about the same period, notably the conviction of Alfred Dreyfuss for treason and the Scottsboro men for rape, that inspired equal international outrage, but the defendants in these cases were not widely honoured as martyrs. However Cavell, Sacco and Vanzetti were widely hailed as martyrs). Primary sources will include the letters of Sacco and Vanzetti and contemporary newspapers and magazines. We will also examine Ben Shahn’s magnificent painting series, ‘The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti’ (1932).


• Martyrdom and Civil Disobedience. We will look in particular at Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Bobby Sands. We may also discuss, in comparison, at the White Rose, Oscar Romero and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Primary sources will include Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’. We will also discuss Richard Hamilton’s painting ‘The Citizen’, which depicts one of the ‘blanket protesters’ as Christ and a mural of Bobby Sands in Belfast. If the White Rose is included, then primary sources will also include the letters and diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl.


• Martyrdom in modern literature and popular culture. Primary sources will include T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as well as either the film ‘A Man for all Seasons’ (1966) or the film ‘Romero’ (1989).

The module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour seminar per week.