ABSTRACT
Controversy is the hallmark of the three major works of continuous prose which Donne completed during 1608–10 alongside ‘A Litany’, La Corona and the first of the Holy Sonnets. All of them obliquely reflect the complexity of his relationship with Catholicism and of his ongoing struggle to disentangle himself from it. The earliest prose text, Biathanatos, proclaims itself to be a declaration of that paradox, or thesis, that self-homicide is not so naturally sin, that it may never be otherwise, and is therefore from the outset on a collision course with the Roman Church, which maintained an absolute prohibition against suicide. Ironically, the first great Christian teacher to voice uncompromising disapproval of the practice was Donne’s beloved St Augustine. Of particular relevance to the argument of Biathanatos is Augustine’s impatience with those who argue that there are sometimes reasonable grounds for suicide: ‘It is significant that in the sacred canonical books there can nowhere be found any injunction or permission to commit suicide either to ensure immortality or to avoid or escape any evil’ (Augustine 1984, p. 31). Donne’s claim, 2 therefore, that ‘neither St Augustine nor we deny but that if there be cases wherein the party is disinterested and only, or primarily, the glory of God is respected and advanced, it may be lawful’ (p. 77) would seem to be a case of evidence-fixing. It’s true that in his survey of examples Augustine mentions that, in the process of killing his enemies, Samson also killed himself. But Augustine stresses that this was an exceptional case which ‘can only be excused on the ground that the Spirit …. secredy ordered him to do so’ (Augustine 1984, p. 32). It was a simple question of obedience: Samson did not ask himself whether he was only, or primarily, respecting the glory of God. 3
