Augustine of Hippo, in his treatise On the Works of Monks, stigmatises vagabond monks selling false relics of martyrs. Written in Latin in Hippo Regius or Carthage (both central North Africa), in c. 400.
E05498
Literary - Other
Augustine of Hippo
On the works of monks 36
[Hostis]... tam multos hypocritas sub habitu monachorum usquequaque dispersit, circumeuntes provincias, nusquam missos, nusquam fixos, nusquam stantes, nusquam sedentes. Alii membra martyrum, si tamen martyrum, venditant; alii fimbrias et phylacteria sua magnificant; alii parentes vel consanguineos suos in illa vel in illa regione se audisse vivere et ad eos pergere mentiuntur.
'[The enemy] spreads everywhere so many impostors dressed as monks, who go around provinces, nowhere sent, nowhere settled, nowhere standing, nowhere sitting. Some offer for sale limbs (membra) of the martyrs, if these are really martyrs; others boast of their fringes (?) and amulets; again others lie that they have learned that parents or kinsmen live in this or that region and that they go to visit them.'
Text: Zycha 1900, 585.
Translation: Robert Wiśniewski
Scepticism/rejection of specific relics
RelicsTransfer, translation and deposition of relics
Other activities with relics
Bodily relic - unspecified
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Source
Augustine wrote the treatise On the Works of Monks c.400 at the request of Bishop Aurelius of Carthage and in response to what he identified as aberrations of monastic life. He particularly emphasised that monks should earn their living and conduct their life in one fixed place.Discussion
This is a very early testimony to the practice of selling relics, though signs of scepticism toward relics of uncertain origin are relatively common in contemporary evidence.Bibliography
Edition:Zycha, J., De opere monachorum, ed., CSEL 41 (Vienna, 1900), 531-595.
Translation:
Browne, H., Augustine, On the Works of Monks, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 3. (Buffalo, NY, 1887).
Robert Wiśniewski
23/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Certain |
|---|
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