MARTYR (Gr. pimp or µaprvs)  , a word meaning literally " witness " and often used in that sense in the New Testament e.g . Matt. xviii . 16; Mark xiv . 63 . During the conflict between Paganism and Christianity when many Christians " testified " to the truth of their convictions by sacrificing their lives, the word assumed its modern technical sense . The beginnings of this use are to be seen in such passages as Acts xxii . 2o; Rev. ii . 13, xiii . 6 . During the first three centuries the fortitude of these " witnesses " won the admiration of their brethren . Ardent spirits craved the martyr's crown, and to confess Christ in persecution was to attain a glory inferior only to that won by those who actually died . Confessors were visited in prison, martyrs' graves were scenes of pilgrimage, and the day on which they suffered was celebrated as the birthday of their glory .

Gregory XIII., who imposed the Roman martyrology upon the Martyrology was the most popular literature in the early Church. whole Church . In 1586 Baronius published his annotated While the honour paid to martyrdom was a great support to early edition, which in spite of its omissions and inaccuracies is a champions of the faith, it was attended by serious evils . It was mine of valuable information . thought that martyrdom would atone for sin, and imprisoned The chief works on the martyrologies are those of Rosweyde, who confessors not only issued to the Churches commands which in 1613 published at Antwerp the martyrology of Ado (also edition were regarded almost as inspired utterances, but granted pardons of Giorgi, Rome, 1745) ; of Sollerius, to whom we owe a learned in rash profusion to those who had been excommunicated by the F edition of Usuard (Acta Juni, vols. vi. and vii . ; and of iorentini, who published sanctorumin 1688 an annot ted edition of the Martyr- regular clergy, a practice which caused Cyprian and his fellow ology of St Jerome . The critical edition of the latter by J . B. de bishops much difficulty . The zeal of Ignatius (c . 115), who begs Rossi and Mgr . L . Duchesne, was published in 1894, in vol. ii. of the the Roman Church to do nothing to avert from him the martyr's Acta sanctorum Novembris . The historical martyrologies taken as death, was natural enough in a spiritual knight-errant, but with a whole have been studied by Dom Quentin (1908) .

There are also others in later days, in Phr is and

North Africa, the numerous editions of calendars or martyrologies of less universal especially Yg interest, and commentaries upon them . Mention ought to be made passion became artificial . Fanatics sought death by insulting of the famous calendar of Naples, commented on by Mazocchi the magistrates or by breaking idols, and in their enthusiasm (Naples, 1744) and Sabbatini (Naples, 1744) . for martyrdom became self-centred and forgetful of their normal See C. de Smedt, Introductio generalis ad historiam ecclesi¢sticam duty . None the less it is true that these men and women endured Baackckerer, , ( i, 1876), pp . 127—156; H . Matagne and V. de Buck in De Bibliotheque des ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus, 2nd ed., torments, often unthinkable in their cruelty, and death rather vol. iii. pp . 369–387; De Rossi-Duchesne, Les Sources du martyrologe than abandon their faith . The same phenomena have been hieronymien (Rome, 1885); H . Achelis, Die Martyrologien, ihre witnessed, not only in the conflicts within the Church that Geschichte and ihr Wert (Berlin, 1900) ; H . Delehaye, " Le Temoignage des martyrologes," in Analecta bollandiana, xxvi . 78–99 (1907); marked the 13th to the 16th centuries, but in the different H .

Quentin, Les Martyrologes historiques du moyen dge (

Paris, mission fields, and particularly in Madagascar and China. r9o8) . (H . DE.) See A . J . Mason, The Historic Martyrs of the Primitive Church MARULLUS, MICHAEL TARCHANIOTA (d . 1500), Greek (London, 1905) ; H . B . Workman, Persecution in the Early Church scholar, poet, and soldier, was born at Constantinople . In (London, 1906); Paul Allard, Ten Lectures on the Martyrs (London, 1453, when the Turks captured Constantinople, he was taken 1907) ; John Foxe, The Book of Martyrs; Mary I . Bryson, Cross and to Ancona in Italy, where he became the friend and pupil of Crown (London, 1904) . J . J .