Talk:Maps and Tools for Sulpicius Severus' Life of St. Martin

Notes for intro.: Stancliffe calls Martin "one of the first Christians to be honoured as a saint because of his way of life rather than the manner of his dying."

Things that this text offers:

• a look at the process of conversion in the countryside, among ordinary people, not the rather effete literary tradition represented by Jerome and Augustine. Martin is unlettered and filthy.
• a look at some of the practices of popular Christianity in this period: note Martin is cracking down on popular informal martyr-cult in the countryside.
• a look at the emerging phenomenon of asceticism and monasticism in the West
• a look at the new phenomenon of the Holy Man (not confined to Christian circles, see Peter Brown).
• key moment in the change of historical consciousness and the whole question of truth in historiography. Cp. the Chronica. Sulpic. is classically trained, but committed to a new model where truth is subordinate to faith.

deals with the central cultural problems and new phenomena of the day, esp. asceticism and the holy man.

• a look at the thought world of late 4th c. with its demons and supernatural forces
• ecclesiastical politics, and the relationship between church and state