HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

120 THOMAS J. HEFFERNANThe Beginning of the TraditionTherefore be imitators of God. (Eph. 5.1)My survey begins with the earliest Christian sacred biography, thedepiction of Christ in the gospels. The Incarnation proposed thatGod took human form and lived on earth. If one wished to be afollower of Christ, one had to follow the example of Jesus in thegospels. The imitation of Christ’s behavior is a structural principlethat underlies all Christian sacred biography. The paradox of theIncarnation, the human in the divine, made human transcendencepossible. Since Christ could not be wholly bound by his humanity,the saint who imitated Christ and thus participated in the vita Christiwas, likewise, less subject to the laws of nature. The miracles of thevita sanctorum recall the challenge of the Incarnation and legitimatebelief in these supernatural events through an appeal to God’s allpowerfulpresence. The miracle is a multivalent sign: it becomes themarker of sanctity, a tool to promote a particular cult, create supportfor a political initiative, legitimate the claims of a monasteryagainst a predatory or competing authority, or praise a particularruling dynasty.Although the vita Christi was the rule for Christian life, howChristians were to live that life was hotly debated. Did Jesus reallyintend his followers to live lives of voluntary poverty or to practicecelibacy? This and other questions vexed the faithful. The teachingsof the gospels were mysterious. Augustine, among others, commentedon the difficulty of apprehending the truth of Scripture despite itsrhetorical simplicity. 17 Despite often-contentious disputes, ideologiesof the sacred emerged in late antiquity and informed the traditionof sacred biography. These teachings are extensions of three positions:a positive view of self-sacrifice, including martyrdom and radicalasceticism; an avoidance of civic life; and an eschatological viewof human history. If you would be Christ’s disciple, you must ‘puton’ his life, since he is the paradigm for correct living. The saint isthe embodiment of these teachings. But questions of legitimacy invariablyarose: how were the faithful to know that this specific saint did17Augustine, Confessions III.5 (90) and VI.4 (6), trans. H. Chadwick (New York,1991).