Military Martyrs

McGivern again, pointing to the ambivalence regarding military service evident in the accounts of military martyrs.  On the one hand: “When Maximilian, the first known conscientious objector in Christian history, declared at his trial in A.D. 295 that ‘It is not right for me to serve in the army because I am a Christian,’ his execution was seen as a glorious martyrdom that elevated him as a model of sainthood. One would have thought that the lesson was clear: the army is no place for Christians.”

On the other hand: “less than ten years later, when Julius the Veteran was martyred for refusing to offer incense to Diocletian, he boasted at his trial that he had served faithfully in the military for twenty-seven years, fought in seven major campaigns, and never had a commanding officer who found any fault with his record or conduct. He too was revered as a model.”

McGivern suggests that these manifest two different ecclesiologies operating within the early church: “In one, the model of the church is that of Origen, a people set apart, aloof, priestly, rendering spiritual service, refusing dirty or bloodied hands. In the other, the model of the Church is that of Augustine, a people called already to work toward the City of God but not yet rid of the ravages of sin. Its destiny as the spotless Bride of Christ will be achieved only in the eschaton.”

(I’m not sure that this is an accurate description of Augustine, but the point about divergent ecclesiologies stands.)