The Presbyters Project

Dialogue 2.7-8

Since Martin of Tours once has dined with the wife of the Emperor Maximus, Sulpicius and his interlocutors deliberate whether this fact would not pose a poor example for clerics. They reach the conclusion that the circumstances of this particular dinner were special: Martin did not want to attend, emperor's wife only served him food and did not recline with him at the table, and so on. Clerics should by all means avoid casual meetings with women.

Nam si Martini sequeremur uias, numquam causas de osculo diceremus, et uniuersis scaeuae opinionis opprobriis careremus [2.8.2].

(ed. Fontaine 2006: 248-256, summarized by J. Szafranowski)

Dialogue 2.7-8

For if we were to adopt Martin's ways, we would never have to plead cases involving kissing, and we would be free from all the reproaches of unfavorable opinion.

(trans. Goodrich 2015: 221, summarized by J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul
East

About the source:

Author: Sulpicius Severus
Title: Dialogues, Dialogi, Gallus sive dialogi de virtutibus sancti Martini, Dialogorum libri II
Origin: Primuliacum (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Sulpicius Severus` hagiographical corpus concerning Martin of Tours consists of the Life itself, three letters, and three Dialogues. The Dialogues were composed between the year 400 (the year of the Origenist controversy, to which Sulpicius makes a reference), and the year 410-412 when Jerome`s Commentary on Ezekiel was published, in which Jerome mentions the Dialogues. Stancliffe (Stancliffe 1983: 81) suggests that the Dialogues were composed between 404 and 406, judging by the comment of one of the interlocutors that eight years have passed since Martin`s death (in 397) and no allusion to the barbarian invasions of Gaul in 406-407. The work was likely published in two separate volumes, with volume 1 containing the first and second Dialogues and volume 2 the third and last. It can be proved by both early manuscript tradition and the account of Gennadius (see [670]).

Edition:

Sulpicius Severus, Gallus: dialogues sur les “vertus” de Saint Martin, ed. and transl. J. Fontaine, Sources Chrétiennes 510, Paris 2006.

Translation:

Sulpicius Severus, The Complete Works, transl. R.J. Goodrich, Ancient Christian Writers 70, New York 2015.

Bibliography:

C. Stancliffe, St. Martin and his hagiographer: history and miracle in Sulpicius Severus, Oxford 1983.

Categories:

Relation with - Woman

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1017, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1017