St. Martin of Braga, De Trina Mersione, and the See of Rome

Chapter 11 St. Martin of Braga, De trina mersione, and the See of Rome

Martin of Braga (c. 519/20–579), who was called the “Apostle to the Sueves,” even though his extant works are few in number, continues to inspire a steady stream of scholarly studies.1 His Formula Vitae Honestae and De Correctione Rusticorum have clearly been the most commented upon, as the bibliographies reveal.2 One of his most interesting and least studied treatises is De trina mersione, which is the focus of this chapter. Some believe that it was written be- tween 556 and 579, the dates of his episcopal ordination and death, respec- tively. It has not, however, gone entirely unstudied. The focus has been, understandably so, on the baptismal content of the work and the subsequent influence that it had on the exercise of that sacrament in Hispania. The late Portuguese scholar Luis Ribeiro Soares wrote, to the best of my knowledge, the only series of articles to date on the topic.3 What I want to accomplish is to situate Martin’s work within the larger context of the Church in Gallaecia and its relationship with the See of Rome. The tendency has been to believe, as I have argued to the contrary elsewhere, that Gallaecia and hence the Church developed in relative isolation to greater Christendom, which means there was little or no contact at all with the See of Rome.4 Martin began the De trina mersione by greeting a Bishop Boniface whom he addressed with great respect and close fraternal language.5 The identity of

1 This article was originally published in Augustinianum 47 (2007), 193–207; it has been slightly adapted for this volume. 2 Consult A. Ferreiro, The Visigoths in Gaul and Spain 418–711 a.d.: a bibliography. Leiden, 1988, pp. 555–69 and by the same author, The Visigoths in Gaul and Iberia: A supplemental bibliography 1984–2003 (The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World, 28), Leiden, 2006, pp. 579–87. 3 I am using the edition of Claude W. Barlow, Ed. Martini Episcopi Bracarensis Opera Omnia (Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome, 12). New Haven, 1950, pp. 251– 58. The most recent study by Pio G. Alves de Sousa, “O Baptismo em S. Martinho de Dume” In Homenaje al Professor Pedro Rodríguez, Pamplona, 2004, pp. 367–75 compares the baptismal content of De trina mersion and De correctione rusticorum. 4 See A. Ferreiro, “The Missionary Labors of St. Martin of Braga in 6th Century Galicia,” Studia monastica 23 (1981), 11–26. 5 Domino beatissimo ac reverentissimo et apostolicae caritatis prefectione colendo, domino et in Christo, patri Bonifacio Episcopo, 1–3, Barlow, Martini Episcopi Bracarensis, p. 257.

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Boniface has eluded scholars and I do not propose here to have resolved that problem. Some have advanced that Boniface was a bishop from outside of Vi- sigothic Hispania, while others have sought to situate him within it. A.C. do Amaral believed Boniface was bishop of Ferento and Etruria in Italy who was known to Gregory I and is remembered in the Dialogues (54, 1, 9). Soares iden- tified the discrepant chronologies of the episcopacy of the bishop of Ferento c. 520–530 with the probable dates of composition of De trina mersione, 556–579, thus rendering them wholly incompatible.6 The great editor of Martin’s works, moreover, agreed with C.P. Caspari that Boniface hailed from Hispania.7 Soares left open the possibility of the Hispania solution on the basis that episcopal lists, including the signatories of the numerous councils prior to the Third Council of Toledo (589), are incomplete. I would add there is no compelling reason to assume they are any more complete after the Third Council of Tole- do.8 In what is the most extensive discussion on the identity of Boniface, Soares concluded he was bishop of Sinigaglia near Ravenna in the years c. 562–567 who at one time was head of the papal household of Pope John iii (561–574). Therefore, he thought to have found the chronological framework which cor- responds to when he believed De trina mersione was written. This is further premised on his belief that Martin had a lengthy sojourn in Rome prior to his entry into Gallia and permanent settlement in Suevic Gallaecia, thus giving him the opportunity to forge deep friendships in Italy.9 There are at least two elements which cast doubt on this highly suggestive hypothesis, which may in fact be correct, notwithstanding the lack of indisput- able proof to support his two lines of argumentation. The De trina mersione does not give so much as a hint at Boniface residing in a region outside His- pania. Although there is no reason why Martin could not have passed through Rome in his westward journey, in fact it is most likely that he did, it is not pos- sible to place him there for any specific amount of time, much less a lengthy stay. There is no statement in De trina mersione suggesting that Boniface was a bishop from Hispania nor is any bishopric specified. At one point in the letter, Martin cited Jerome’s Contra Luciferanos, 12 [PL 23: 166–67] to defend his argu- ment for his own form of baptism. He then told Boniface that if he desired to consult the work himself, written on old papyrus, he could access a copy from a priest named Ausentius.10 Where Ausentius the priest lived is anyone’s guess.

6 Luis Ribeiro Soares. A Linhagem Cultural de S. Martinho de Dume e outros estudos dumienses, Lisboa, 2002, p. 23. 7 Barlow, Martini Episcopi Bracarensis, p. 251. 8 Soares, A Linhagem Cultural, p. 23. 9 Soares, A Linhagem Cultural, p. 32.