MARTYR (Gr. martyr, a witness), the name given in ecclesiastical history to those who, by their fearless profession of Christian truth, and especially by their fortitude in submitting to death itself rather than abandon their faith, bore the "witness" of their blood to its superhuman origin. Of the same use of the word, there are some examples also in the New Testament, as in Acts xxii. 20, Apoc. ii. 13, and xvii. 6. But this meaning, as its technical and established signification, is derived mainly from ecdesi astical writers. During the persecutions (q.v.) of the Christians in the first three cen turies, contemporary writers, as well pagan as Christian, record that many Christians, preferring death to apostasy, became martyrs or witnesses in blood to the faith, often in circumstances of the utmost heroism. The courage and constancy of the sufferers won the highest admiration frotn the brethren. It was held a special privilege to receive Cie martyr's benediction, to kiss his chains, to visit him in prison, or to converse with him; and, as it was held that their great and superabundant merit might, in the eyes of the church, compensato for the laxity and weakness of less perfect brethren, a practice arose by which the martyrs gave to those sinners who were undergoing a course of public penance, letters of commendation to their bishop, in order that their course of penance might be shortened or suspended altogether. See INDULGENCE. The day of martyr dom, moreover, as being held to be the day of the martyrs' entering into eternal life, was c,alled the " natal" or " birth" day, and as such was celebrated with peculiar honor, and with special religious services. Their bodies, clothes, books, and the other objects which they had possessed were honored as relics (q.v.), and their tombs were visited for the
purpose of asking their intercession. See INVOCATION. The number of martyrs who suffered death during the first ages of Christianity has been a subject of great con troversy. The ecclesiastical writers, with the natural pride of partisanship, have, it can hardly be doubted, leaned to the side of exaggeration. Some of their statements are palpably excessive; and Gibbon, in his well-known 16th chapter, throws great doubt even on the most moderate of the computations of the church historians. But it is clearly though briefly shown by Guizot in his notes on this celebrated chapter (see Mil man's Gibbon's Decline ancl Fall, i. '598), that Gibbon's criticisms are founded on unfair and partial data, and that even the very authorities on which he relies demonstrate the fallaciousness of his conclusions. Those who are interested in the subject will find it discussed with much learning and considerable moderation in Ruinart's Acta Primitiva et Sincera Martgrum. Considerable difference of opinion also has existed as to what, in the exploration of the ancient Cluistian tombs in the Roinan catacombs, are to be con sidered as signs of martyrdom. The chief signs, in the opinion of older critics, were (I), the letters B. M.; (2), the figure of a palm-tree; and (3), a vial with the remains of a red liquor believed to be blood. Each of these has in turn been the subject of dispute, but the last is commonly reg,arded as the conclusive sign of martyrdom. The first recorded martyr of Christianity, called the " proto-martyr," WfIS the deacon Stephen, whose death is recorded Acts and vii. The proto-martyr of Britain was Alban, of Verulam, who suffered under Diocletian in 280 or 803.