b) The Literary Collaboration of Severus and Consentius
VIII. CONVERSION AND ITS AFTERMATH
It is difficult to discern from the narrative what Severus understood by the idea of 'conversion' or even what precisely he did to 'convert' the Jews. 164 Twice in the letter he mentions making the sign of the cross on the foreheads of new converts, which was conventional at the beginning of the catechumenate, as was the practice of noting down their names in a register (20. 3). 165 Under normal circumstances, catechumens would at
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163Amengual i Batle, Els origens del cristianisme, i. 215.
164Severus appears untroubled by the problem of forced, and therefore feigned, conversion. For the more nuanced views of Augustine, see P. R. L. Brown, "'St.
Augustine's Attitude to Religious Coercion'", in Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine ( London, 1977), 260-78.
165Cf. 15. 3 : Ruben ... signum salutare suscepit; 17. 2 - 3 : deprecabantur ut Christi characterem a me ... susciperent ... ilico in frontibus eorum signum salutis
impressimus. On 'becoming a Christian' from the catechumenate up to Easter week, see F. van der Meer , Augustine the Bishop ( London, 1961), 353-87.
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their own discretion have their names noted down for baptism, at which point they would be considered competentes, and, during the final few weeks before Easter, they would prepare for the great event with fasts, vigils, exorcisms, and final instructions. 166 In the drama of
forced conversions, however, normal conventions might well be ignored, since bishops needed to do everything possible to prevent backsliding. 167 When Theodorus leads his flock to the church, Severus speaks of an old man who 'presented to us his limbs, by now feeble with decay, that he might be renewed through baptism as quickly as possible'. 168 Moreover, he claims at 29.1: 'Although the eight days in which these events occurred were before the beginning of Lent, they were celebrated by us as if it were Easter.' This clearly alludes to the conventional practice of baptism at the Paschal vigil and implies that, in the present instance, Minorca's Jews were catechumens for only a few hours or a few days before being baptized willy-nilly. 169
Furthermore, the Jewish leaders have been compelled to accept responsibility for providing both the funds and the labourers for the construction of a new church on the site of the ruined synagogue (30.2).
Conversion did not lead to loss of civic influence for Magona's prominent Jews. In a number of passages in the letter, Severus alludes to the immediate present and the situation of 'the Jewish notables. Of the seven instances when Severus uses the phrase 'even now' or 'still today' (etiam nunc), four or perhaps five seem genuinely to describe conditions at the time when he was composing the letter in March-April 418. 170 Theodorus had been particularly concerned to maintain his pre-eminent position among the Jews, agreeing to
convert, but parleying for more time so that, in his own words, 'I may ____________________
166Cf. Itinerarium Egeriae 45.1 ( CSEL 39. 96 ): Nam qui dat nomen suum, ante them quadragesimarum dat et omnium nomina annotat presbyter [...] et sic adducuntur unus et unus conpetens.
167Blumenkranz, Juifs et chrétiens, 148-52.
168Ep. Sev. 22: nobisque Putrefacta iam senio membra ut quantocius per baptismum regenerarentur ingessit.
169Easter baptism was preferable, but not strictly necessary, cf. Aug. Serm. 210.2 ( PL 38.1048): cum per totum annum, sicut unicuique vel necessitas fuerit vel voluntas, non prohibeatur a baptismo.
170Two passages with etiam nunc clearly refer to past time, cf. 16.19; 18.24. Other passages clearly refer to present time, that is, the time of composition, cf. 3.1; 18.4;
20.12.
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reap a greater reward for my conversion by the conversion of the
others as well' (16.16). He apparently achieved his goal, since Severus claims that Theodorus 'even now is held to be the patronus of his
fellow citizens', and Caecilianus is described as a 'worthy man, and so eminent not only among the Jews but also in the city that even now he has been elected defensor'. 171 Even more intriguing is a comment made by Consentius in Ep. 12 * where he describes his consultation with Severus about the proposal to write an account of the miraculous conversion. Immediately following his mention of Severus' project and the breakdown of his own resolution not to write anything, he
continues:
Thereafter, a greater desire grew in me to transgress the resolution (legis) that I had prescribed for myself, and I resolved (that my
sluggish memory might be assisted by my reading of Scripture, which, albeit lazy and negligent, was none the less fresh) to produce for our leader some arms against the Jews by whom we were hard pressed in battle (aliqua adversus Iudaeos quomm proeliis urgebamur duci nostro arma producerem), but with this rule (lege), that my name not be mentioned in the task. ( Ep. 12*.13-7)
Consentius composed this passage in 419, perhaps a year after the conversion in February 418, and he is describing the period following his literary encounter with Severus, which took place after 9 February and before Severus completed his narrative in March-April. But who is 'our leader' hard pressed in battles with Jews and in need of arms? It has been assumed that the dux must be Asterius, the comes
Hispaniarum, but the military language is metaphorical, not literal. 172 The leaders of the campaign against the Jews were Catholic bishops, not army generals. The bishop under discussion in the passage is Severus himself, the leader of the campaign against the Jews of Magona. Consentius had already broken his resolution not to take up his pen when he assisted Severus with the Epistula, but now an even greater desire to break his resolution has grown in
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1716. 3 : etiam nunc patronus municipum habetur; 19. 6 : vir honestus, et non solum inter Iudaeos verum etiam in civitate usque adeo praecipuus, ut eliam nunc defensor civitatis electus sit.
172Wankenne in Divjak, ( Euvres de Saint Augustin, 492-3 assumes that the dux must be Asterius.
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him, and so he has resolved to produce an anti-Jewish tract (arma) for his leader, but with a new rule or resolution (lege) not put his own name to the work. An important conclusion follows from the mention
of this tract adversus Iudaeos. 173 Consentius composed the tract after the conversion of early February, which suggests that Severus
continued to be hard pressed in debates with Jewish leaders in the weeks and months after the events of early February. The miraculous conversion, it appears, was less successful than Severus would have us believe.