Martyrs and Martyrologies by Diana Wood (review)

BRIEF NOTICES1 49 Subculture: Boston Catholicism, 1900-1920. Robert E. Sullivan (St. John's Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts) Wood, Diana (Ed.). Martyrs and Martyrologies. Papers read at the 1992 Summer Meeting and the 1993 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society. [Studies in Church History, Volume 30.] (Cambridge, Massachusetts : Blackwell Publishers. 1993- Pp. xviii, 497. »64.95.) Most readers of this journal are probably familiar with this British series. This volume, one of the longest, comprises some thirty-three contributions which, as in the past, study the subject indicated in the title in all periods of church history. Four papers study the patristic period, ten the medieval, nine the Reformation and early modern period, and ten the last two centuries. About half of the papers deal with British church history, if we include one on St. George. Ofcourse, the spectrum ofsubjects studied necessarily involves a flexible treatment of the matter indicated in the title. Thus the longest essay in the volume treats British fundamentalism in the first half of the twentieth century, a period in which no one was killed. Some of the most noteworthy essays include one on Roman law and the execution of women in the ancient persecutions by Chris Jones; the attitude of Reformation martyrologists toward medieval dissenters by Euan Cameron, and the relationship between religion and politics in John Foxe's writings by David Loades. Of particular interest to Catholics are treatments of Margaret Clitherow by Claire Cross; Japanese martyrs and "hidden Christians" by Stephen Turnbull, and of English Benedictine Bede Camm by Dominic Bellenger. A theme that runs through most of these papers is the question of how to verify whether a martyr has died for religious reasons only. The fact that in very many cases, it is not possible to specify an exclusively religious cause of the martyrdom is not viewed as disqualifying the victim for the title ofChristian martyr. As with every such compilation, there are substantial papers and some that are more modest either in intent or in result. But, with this volume, the Ecclesiastical History Society of Great Britain continues to make a significant contribution to the study of church history. Robert B. Eno, S.S. (The Catholic University ofAmerica) ...