Ritualistic Acts and Compulsive Behavior: The Pattern of Tudor Martyrdom

Abstract

SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH IN 1555, the Marian martyr Laurence Saunders condemned the highly ceremonial nature of the Roman Catholic religion. Even from the beginning, he declared, ceremonies had been invented and ordained for the rude infancy and weak infirmity of man. That the primitive had few ceremonies was proof of its greater perfection. By contrast, the many ceremonies of the late church papistical-partly blasphemous, partly unsavory, and unprofitable1-were evidence of its rudeness. Yet Saunders himself displayed a ritualistic pattern of behavior replete with ceremonial devices through much of his life. In study he was diligent and painful; in godly life he declared the fruits of a well exercised conscience; he prayed often and with great fervor; and in his prayers, as also at other times, he had his part of the spiritual exercises.... 2 Saunders was not alone. Many Marian martyrs prepared themselves for death in ways reminiscent of Catholic ceremony. They devised a compulsive ritual that they performed meticulously in exacting detail. This elaborate ceremony followed an inflexible pattern: a precise, self-disciplined daily existence, culminating in a ritualistic burning at the stake that duplicated the deaths of the pre-Nicean martyrs. Why did Saunders and his fellow reforming martyrs adopt a stylized pattern of behavior similar in many respects to the Catholic ritual they abhorred and believed ineffectual for salvation? By using the insights gleaned from psychological theory, it may be possible to shed some light on the phenomenon of Christian martyrdom and to understand why the most fervent and enigmatic of all religious types followed a rigid style of life and a ritualistic ceremony of death. Those insights suggest that the martyrs found it necessary to adopt an unbending form of ritualistic behavior to insulate themselves from the inner perturbations caused by their fear of martyrdom. Many were plagued by the suspicion that the actual motive in accepting martyrdom was suicide. Assuaging this fear required a