Sulpicius Severus

This article examines the development of the anonymous Old English
homily for Martinmas throughout the ninth and tenth centuries. In
particular, the work focuses on how the homily was reshaped during
its transmission to conform to the differing thematic approaches
that individual Anglo-Saxon scribes took while “copying” the text.
After situating the context of the Sulpician Martiniana in early
England, the author explores the thematic patterns evident in the
anonymous Old English homily’s selective translation of Sulpicius’s
Vita S. Martini and Epistulae. It is demonstrated that the later Anglo-
Saxon copier’s removal of the diving waterfowl episode is explicable
as consistent with his thematic retelling of Martin’s life, which
excludes the saint’s exorcist activities. In addition to offering an
explanation for the episode’s omission, the article argues that
modern editors should treat the extant versions of the Martinmashomily
as two distinct textual traditions.

Il lungo e articolato inizio della Vita sancti Martini di Sulpicio Severo è stato studiato in svariate occasioni e da vari punti di vista, ma mai nessuno ne ha indagato fino in fondo i motivi polemici. Obiettivo del presente lavoro è di metterli finalmente in piena luce, di contestualizzarli e d'indicarne il plausibile "bersaglio": Girolamo. Proprio a lui in effetti sembrano indirizzate varie espres-sioni di dissenso tra la lettera prefatoria e il primo capitolo della Vita. Il dissenso, come vedremo, è di natura ideologica e concerne lo scrivere de viris inlustribus. Ma vediamo anzitutto quali regole vigevano tra i latini per la composizione della prefazione e in che modo se ne servirono nel IV secolo Girolamo e Severo 1 .

See Essay 4 of CERVANTES AND MODERNITY: FOUR ESSAYS ON _DON QUIJOTE_: Just how radical was the first modern novel's sacrilege? What importance, intentional or otherwise, should we attach to it? Critics decry the anachronism of calling Cervantes an Enlightenment skeptic; others insist he is the product of Renaissance religious humanism. Both are unnecessary restrictions. The scatological impertinence of Don Quijote’s rosary figures a materialist critique of theism, just as the general thisworldliness of the novel dispels metaphysical superstitions. By specifying the medieval origin (Sulpicius Severus) and the first serious Enlightenment interpretation (Thomas Hobbes) of the cuerpo muerto (dead body) adventure of DQ 1.19, I will demonstrate how the novel overcomes religious humanism and inaugurates modern empiricism.

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Mnemosyne 73/4 (2020), p. 633-658.

Sulpicius Severus’ account of St Martin sharing his cloak with the beggar at the gate of Amiens is still one of the most prominent and best-known episodes of late antique Christian hagiography. This deed is considered above all as the epitome of Martin’s charity and will to follow Christ. Furthermore, this episode also serves to apologize Martin’s military service in the Roman army. The latter was a heavy burden for Sulpicius’ saint, which the author of his Vita had to get rid of in the most credible way possible. Sulpicius asserts that Martin’s compulsory military service was dominated by Christian virtues. A narratological close reading focusing on the categories of ‘distance’ and ‘focalization’ and applying linguistic analysis tools as well shows that eventually it is the narrative disposition of the ‘Amiens episode’ that makes the narrator’s earlier apologetic authorial statements credible.