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plpietra 's review for:
Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures & Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs
by Paul Koudounaris
Reviving the idea of the heroic martyr was central to the image the Counter-Reformation wanted to cultivate for the modern Church. The period of the martyrdoms was romanticized as the most pure and valorous in Christian history, and the Catholics wanted to portray themselves as the successors of that apostolic faith. The basic precept was semper eadem ('ever the same'): parallels with the early Church validated the practices and struggles of the contemporary one. Anti-Protestant propaganda from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was fuelled by images of martyrdom, and those who died at the hands of the new foes were considered equals to those who had sacrificed themselves at the dawn of the Christian era. The remains in the catacombs under the city were interpreted as proof that the Church in Rome represented truth and constancy, and provided a potent symbol that the Christian world was founded through sacrifice against heresy — a battle that must now be won again.