Bishops in Flight

Front matter

BISHOPS

Be

Late Antiqu

Contents

Prologue Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION The Discourse of Flight Explorations of Exile Episcopal Exile Models of Exile Heresiology and Exile Episcopal Exile and Displacement Outline of Book

1. ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA IN FLIGHT How to Construct a Model City: Alexandria If These Walls Could Talk: Defense Before Constantius A Wall-Less Desert: Defense of His Flight A Model City without Walls: Life of Antony viii CONTENTS

Prologue

For if persecution proceeds from God, in no way will it be our duty to flee from what has God as its author; a twofold reason opposing; for what proceeds from God should not be avoided and it cannot be evaded.

—TERTULLIAN, ON FLIGHT IN PERSECUTION’

The Lord commanded us to withdraw and flee from persecution, and to encourage us to it. He both taught and did so Himself.

—CYPRIAN, ON THE LAPSED’

To flee during times of persecution is to deny Christ—or so Tertullian of Carthage (ca. 155-240) argued in On Flight in Persecution. Yet flight became an important part of the Christian legacy, even well after the official imperial persecution of Christians had ended. This book explores why the discourse of Christian flight became an important part of the narrative of pro-Nicene orthodoxy that would dominate the Roman Empire. Not only does Christian flight take precedence over memories of martyrdom, but the cultural authority of those bygone martyrs is also slowly folded into new persecution narratives of episcopal exile. As Athanasius of Alexandria (ca. 293-373) argued in the fourth century, the blood of the martyrs may indeed be the seed of the church, but the bishop—particularly the bishop who survives—ensures that the seed takes root. It is not the body of the martyr but the voice of the episcopal father that ensures the survival and the legacy of the church. Despite Athanasius’s bold claims, made at a very different point in Christian history, flight during times of persecution would remain a troubling idea.

Tertullian insisted that persecution is possible only if God allows it. It is either a test for the faithful or a judgment passed on the unfaithful. In a moment of reflection, he posed a heuristic question, one that Athanasius would also ask: “Is it not be better to flee temporarily than to deny Christ and perish eternally?” Tertullian’s response is a damning one: “Are you sure you will deny if you do not flee, or are you not sure? For if you are sure, you have denied already, because by presupposing that you will deny, you have given yourself up to that about which you have made such a presupposition; and now it is vain for you to think of flight, that you

1. Tertullian, Fug. 4.1. Edition: CSEL 76. Translation: ANF 4 unless otherwise noted. 2. Cyprian, Laps. 10. Edition: CSEL 3.1. Translation: ACW 25 unless otherwise noted.

xiii xiv PROLOGUE may avoid denying, when in intention you have denied already” (Tertullian, Fug. 5). In short, the one who flees is already guilty of the denial. In Tertullian’s mind, actions speak louder than words.

As if this response was not clear enough, Tertullian anticipated a second question—should not a leader, such as a deacon, presbyter, or bishop, flee to preserve his life for the sake of his flock?—when he argued that, if one is truly a leader, it is better to give up one’s life for one’s flock than to lead the sheep astray. “But when persons in authority themselves—I mean the very deacons, and presbyters, and bishops—take to flight, how will a layman be able to see with what view it was said, Flee from city to city? Thus, too, with the leaders turning their backs, who of the common rank will hope to persuade men to stand firm in the battle? (Fug. 11). Tertullian’s critique of flight highlights two points: First, flight is not permissible for true Christians. Second, not even Christian leaders are exempt from this mandate. Christian leaders are held to a higher standard and obliged to set an example for the community of believers.

At the heart of Tertullian’s argument is the idea that flight is the external sign of an internal fault. Yet, by the fourth century, Athanasius would argue the exact opposite. He ardently defended episcopal flight, stating that it is not only evidence of Christian authenticity but also a sign of the devious nature of Christian persecution even after the imperial persecutions had ended. In a surprising move, given Tertullian’s conclusions, Athanasius looked to pre-fourth-century examples of flight to point out the symptoms of persecution and further justify Christian flight. Not all martyrdoms, he concluded, take place in the arena. Those who suffer and survive prove his case.

When viewed against Tertullian, Athanasius appears to be a watershed, introducing a very different response to Christian persecution. That said, his definition of flight was not without historical precedent. In the aftermath of the emperor Decius’s persecution in 250, the bishop Cyprian of Carthage (ca. 200-258) was faced with the challenge of rehabilitating members of the Christian community who had either denied Christ or chosen to flee rather than face torture and death. In On the Lapsed, he appears to follow the same logic set out by Tertullian above. He begins his treatise praising the memory of the martyrs and confessors who passed the divine test with their lives. He then quickly transitions into a lament for those who failed the same test (among whom he might be included): “Too many bishops, instead of giving encouragement and example to others, made no account of their being God’s ministers, and became the ministers of earthly kings; they left their sees, abandoned their people, and toured the markets in other territories on the look-out for profitable deals” (Laps. 6). We readers are meant to compare these lamentable figures with those martyrs and confessors who willingly gave their lives. Certainly, these failed leaders should be deposed and their memories condemned—and we have ample evidence for communities, such as the Donatists and Novatians, who did just that. But Cyprian takes a slightly different approach

PROLOGUE XV when he begins to argue that not all flights were for personal gain. By combining the verbs secedere, “to withdraw; and fugere, “to flee? he states that some departures are permissible, even required: “The Lord commanded us to withdraw and flee from persecution, and to encourage us to it. He both taught and did so Himself” (Laps. 10). Cyprian’s logic is as follows: If Christ fled to the desert because it was not yet his time, so too his followers ought to flee until their appointed time. Christian flight is a sign of fortitude, not of fault. True Christians, taking Christ as their example, flee.

Many early Christian martyr texts attempt to articulate the parameters around Christian flight by comparing their martyrs not only to Christ but also to exemplary heroes in classical texts. The “noble death” motif, for example, posed a significant problem for bishops like Cyprian and Athanasius, who found the charge of cowardice lurking behind their flight.? As Stephanie Cobb has noted in her assessment of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, there is a significant number of literary allusions to the death of the famous Greek philosopher Socrates. The willingness of the martyr-bishop Polycarp to die a noble death rather than to flee was an intentional literary link to shore up his legitimacy as a classical hero. As Cobb notes, this imitatio Socratis alongside the imitatio Christi was a significant link. She writes: “Both men, for instance, were described as ‘noble ([Plato,] Phaed. 58D; Mart. Pol. 2.1), and they were both charged with atheism ([Plato,] Euth. 3B; Mart. Pol. 3.2.; 12.2). Socrates refused to flee Athens in order to save his life ([Plato,] Phaed. 98E-99A). Similarly, after receiving the vision that he must die, Polycarp refused to flee (Mart. Pol. 7.1)?+ And while Polycarp did flee for a time (Mart. Pol. 5-6)—in order to stress that he did not seek out his martyrdom (unlike a failed martyr named Quintus)—this link to a longer tradition of “manly deaths” after a period of withdrawal reveals to what lengths authors must go to contextualize heroic acts of flight.’

By the fourth century, then, there was a well-established tradition that Christian authors would pull from to justify flight. And still, this new moment brought about significant challenges as the would-be martyr-bishop faced new adversaries—and ones that were no longer the imperial enemies of the earlier era. For late ancient Christian authors, this dilemma raised a pressing question: what happens when the enemies and heroes are no longer distinguishable? The one in flight could easily be seen as the hero or the enemy. A new script was handed to those Christians who

3. See L. Stephanie Cobb, “Polycarp’s Cup: Imitatio in the Martyrdom of Polycarp,” Journal of Religious History 38.2 (2014), 227n12. Many thanks to Stephanie Cobb and the other editorial readers of the “Inventing Christianity” series at Penn State Press for suggesting this article.

4. Cobb, “Polycarp’s Cup,” 227.

5. In a frequently cited passage, Polycarp is commanded to “play the man” (Mart. Pol. 9.1). This command is prevalent throughout martyrological texts. We find “manliness” here used to prop up Polycarp’s decision to flee over and against Quintus, the cowardly martyr, who willingly sought out the glory of martyrdom only to fold under pressure (Mart. Pol. 4).

xvi PROLOGUE continued to suffer imperial or, now, ecclesial persecution. How one identified the hero in the narrative of Christian triumph became its own battleground.‘

Christian flight thus took on new discursive meanings that helped to define Christian orthodoxy. It became a rhetorical tool that would rival the cultural authority of the martyrs—so much so that, by the time Athanasius, who will play a central role in this book, transformed his many flights from Alexandria into a heroic tale of sacrifice and survival, he developed an exilic discourse that was easily folded into the Nicene debates of the fourth century. In the pages that follow, the reader will discover that this process was so successful that, by the fifth century, the mere mention of Athanasius’s legacy as a triumphant bishop in flight became the standard by which Christian orthodoxy, specifically pro-Nicene orthodoxy, was measured. He both taught, and did so himself. And others would do the same.

6. This battle was particularly difficult to win, as Candida Moss has demonstrated in her assessment of martyrdom as a set of discursive practices that served early Christians as a way to articulate meaning and forge identities of persecution. See Candida Moss, Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012).

Ammianus Marcellinus, Res gest.

Athanasius, Apol. Const.

——, Apol. sec.

—— , Ep. encyl.

—, De synod.

—, Ep. Drac.

—, Ep. fest.

—, Ep. mort. Ar.

, Fug.

—, H. Ar.

, Inc.

—, Orat. C. Arian.

—, Vit. Ant.

Augustine, Civ.

—, C. Jul. op. imp.

—, Conf.

——, Op. mon.

Cicero, De re pub.

, Tusc.

CTh

ABBREVIATIONS

Res Gestae

Defense before Constantius

Defense against the Arians Encyclical Letter

On the Councils

Letter to Dracontius

Festal Letters

Letter to Serapion concerning the Death of Arius Defense of His Flight

History of the Arians

On the Incarnation

Index

Orations against the Arians

Life of Anthony

The City of God

Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian Confessions

The Work of Monks

On the Commonwealth

Tusculan Disputations

Theodosian Code xvii xviii ABBREVIATIONS

Cyprian, Laps.

Dio Chrysostom, Exil.

—, Orat.

Diodorus Siculus, Hist.

Epiphanius, Pan.

Euripides, Her.

Eusebius of Caesarea, Eccl. Hist.

—, Vit. Const.

Evagrius, Ant.

Gregory of Nazianzus, Carm.

— Ep

—, Orat.

Gregory of Nyssa, In Mel.

Gregory of Tours, Greg. Hist.

Herodotus, Hist.

Hilary of Poitiers, Contra Const.

—, De Syn.

Hippocrates, Acut.

——_, Aer.

—, Aph.

Jerome, Chron.

—, Ep.

—— , Vit. Paul.

John Cassian, Conlat.

—, De Incarn.

John Chrysostom, Bab.

—, Bab. Jul.

—— , Catech. illum.

—, Ep.

—., Hom. Matt.

— Melet.

Josephus, J. W.

Julian, Mis.

Julius, Ep.

Lactantius, Mort.

Mart. Pol.

On the Lapsed

On Exile

Orations

Library of History Refutation of All Heresies Herakles

Ecclesiastical History

Life of Constantine Refutation

Poems

Letters

Orations

On Saint Meletus

History of the Franks Histories

Against Constantius

On the Synods

Regimen of Acute Diseases Airs, Waters, Places

On Aphorisms

Chronicles

Letters

Life of Saint Paul

The Conferences

On the Incarnation

On St. Babylas the Martyr On Babylas against Julian and the Pagans Homily on the Gospel of Matthew Epistles

Homily on Matthew

On St. Meletius

Jewish War

Misopogon

Letters

Death of the Persecutors Martyrdom of Polycarp

Ovid, Her.

5 Lh Palladius, Dia.

, Laus. Hist.

Pausanias, Descr.

Plato, Apol.

, Euth.

—, Phaed.

Philo, Prob.

Philostorgius, Eccl. Hist.

Pliny, Nat.

Plutarch, Cons. Apoll.

—, Cons. ux.

Ps.-Apollodorus, Biblio.

Ps.-Martyrius, Fun. Orat.

Ptolemy, Geog.

Rufinus, Eccl. Hist.

Seneca the Younger, Dial.

—, Helv.

——, Marc

Socrates, Eccl. Hist.

Sozomen, Eccl. Hist.

Strabo, Geog.

Sulpicius Severus, Chron. II

, St. Martin

Tertullian, Fug.

Theodoret, Eccl. Hist.

ABBREVIATIONS

Heroides

Metamorphoses Lamentations

Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom Lausiac History Description of Greece Apology

Euthyphro

Phaedo

Every Good Man is Free Ecclesiastical History Natural History Consolation to Apollonius Consolation to His Wife Library

Funerary Speech for John Chrysostom Geography

Ecclesiastical History Dialogues

Ad Helviam

To Marcia

Ecclesiastical History Ecclesiastical History Geography

Chronicles II

Life of Martin

On Flight in Persecution

Ecclesiastical History xix