DATE: Sunday, August 24, 1997               TAG: 9708140592

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

SOURCE: BY TOM ROBOTHAM 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

A HAZY LINE SEPARATES MARTYRS FROM TRAITORS

FOOLS, MARTYRS, TRAITORS

The Story of Martyrdom in the Western World

LACEY BALDWIN SMITH

Alfred A. Knopf. 429 pp. $30.

Stories of martyrs are often presented in simplistic terms: The distinctions between good and evil are clear, and the martyrs' motives are pure. But as Lacey Baldwin Smith points out in his new book, Fools, Martyrs, Traitors: The Story of Martyrdom in the Western World, the history of martyrdom is far more complex and ambiguous than the legends lead us to believe.

Smith, an award-winning historian who taught at Northwestern University until his retirement a few years ago, proves his point by re-examining the stories of individual martyrs, from Socrates and Jesus through Mahatma Gandhi. He begins his book by posing a fundamental question: Why do we regard some people as martyrs and others as traitors - or simply fools? The answer, Smith writes, ``has as much to do with politics and history as with morality and justice; one man's martyr, it would appear, is too often another man's traitor.''

Nowhere is this truth more evident than in the story of John Brown, one of the 32 martyrs Smith profiles. Brown - the abolitionist who was hanged after seizing the federal armory at Harper's Ferry in 1859, in an ill-fated attempt to instigate a slave uprising - was a ``villainous wretch'' in the eyes of Southerners. But to anti-slavery Northerners, he was ``a saint.''

Ironically, according to Smith, authorities in Virginia helped transform Brown into a martyr when they decided that he should be executed. Northern newspapers on both sides of the slavery issue recognized in advance that the people of the South were playing into Brown's hands. ``To hang a fanatic is to make a martyr of him,'' stated an editorial in the pro-slavery New York Journal of Commerce. Prosecutors in Virginia ignored this advice, and after Brown was found guilty, he was sentenced to death.

Like most martyrs, Brown welcomed the prospect of dying for his cause. ``Let them hang me,'' he told a minister. Then, quoting Jesus, he said: ``I forgive them, and may God forgive them, for they know not what they do.'' The courage Brown displayed in the face of death galvanized anti-slavery forces in the North. It mattered not that Brown had committed treason or that he was obsessed with his own sense of self-importance.

``The cause of abolition,'' Smith writes, ``needed its red martyr as much as Brown needed a cause.''

While John Brown may not have been the noble warrior that his supporters made him out to be, the facts support the legend on at least one point: Brown did demonstrate uncommon grace, courage and eloquence during and after his trial. The same cannot be said for all the martyrs, including Joan of Arc, Charles I and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who are featured in Smith's book.

One of the more interesting chapters deals with Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Henry II in the 12th century. Becket was, for many years, one of the king's closest friends and allies, but after becoming archbishop he began to challenge the king's authority over religious matters. The conflict culminated in Becket's death at the hands of the king's knights.

Legend has it that Becket died spectacularly inside his own cathedral. After refusing an order to absolve certain individuals whom he had excommunicated, he is reported to have said, ``I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain peace and liberty.'' He then clasped his hands together, ``as one in prayer,'' and waited for the sword to strike. It took four blows to kill him, but while he was dying, according to the story, he maintained perfect composure.

``Reality, alas, was not so perfectly staged, and far less dignified,'' Smith writes. ``The knights had not come to slay Thomas Becket. If they had any clear cut plan, it was probably to arrest him.'' Unfortunately, the knights lost control of the situation, and, according to Smith, ``name calling quickly ensued.'' When one of the knights tried to pick Becket up and carry him off, the archbishop fought back, ``kicking and scolding'' his assailants.

Apparently, Becket was killed in the scuffle. But, Smith says, ``Not even the eyewitnesses were certain about what happened . . . or (about) the exact sequence of events.'' MEMO: Tom Robotham is a historian and writer who lives in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Abolitionist John Brown...

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu