Like elsewhere in the Latin West, by the mid-seventh century, holding episcopal office in northwestern Hispania had become honorable not only in spiritual terms, but also for the access to revenue and prestige it provided. This paper uses written and material sources to argue that some bishops merged their sacred duties with worldly ambitions, which made it difficult for members of the lower clergy to progress within the church hierarchy through diligence, piety and seniority alone. Clerical marriages and the families they produced created a financial imperative for presbyters and deacons to maintain good relations with the bishops in charge of their promotions and appointments. However, even working to become the favorite of a particular bishop did not guarantee security for the members of the lower clergy and their dependents in the northwestern Visigothic Kingdom.
{"title":"Separating the Secular from the Spiritual: Wives, Sons and Clients of the Clergy in Late AntiqueHispania","authors":"Rebecca A. Devlin","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119460","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119460","url":null,"abstract":"Like elsewhere in the Latin West, by the mid-seventh century, holding episcopal office in northwestern Hispania had become honorable not only in spiritual terms, but also for the access to revenue and prestige it provided. This paper uses written and material sources to argue that some bishops merged their sacred duties with worldly ambitions, which made it difficult for members of the lower clergy to progress within the church hierarchy through diligence, piety and seniority alone. Clerical marriages and the families they produced created a financial imperative for presbyters and deacons to maintain good relations with the bishops in charge of their promotions and appointments. However, even working to become the favorite of a particular bishop did not guarantee security for the members of the lower clergy and their dependents in the northwestern Visigothic Kingdom.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83260790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay examines the comments of the fourth-century Roman exegete, now called “Ambrosiaster”, on the problem of misconduct of the clergy. In a manner that anticipated Augustine’s arguments against the Donatists, Ambrosiaster argued that the authority of a church office could not be demeaned by the misconduct of any individual cleric. I argue that one context of Ambrosiaster’s thinking on the problem of clerical misconduct was the troubled pontificate of Damasus and the numerous criticisms of the clergy that emerged at this time.
{"title":"Ambrosiaster and Damasus: A Presbyter’s Perspective on Clerical Misconduct","authors":"D. Hunter","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119455","url":null,"abstract":"This essay examines the comments of the fourth-century Roman exegete, now called “Ambrosiaster”, on the problem of misconduct of the clergy. In a manner that anticipated Augustine’s arguments against the Donatists, Ambrosiaster argued that the authority of a church office could not be demeaned by the misconduct of any individual cleric. I argue that one context of Ambrosiaster’s thinking on the problem of clerical misconduct was the troubled pontificate of Damasus and the numerous criticisms of the clergy that emerged at this time.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"364 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80314166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article discusses the order of precedence among the holders of the same clerical rank in the late antique church. This order, based on seniority, was most probably displayed in the public sphere, but even more importantly, it affected the income and promotion of clerics. The article also studies specific cases in which the seniority was ignored or broken. It argues that while lay people often supported swifter promotion of outstanding individuals and bishops were inclined to act accordingly, the middle and lower clergy strongly opposed nominations which violated the established horizontal hierarchy.
{"title":"The Last Shall Be Last: The Order of Precedence among Clergy in Late Antiquity","authors":"R. Wiśniewski","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119459","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the order of precedence among the holders of the same clerical rank in the late antique church. This order, based on seniority, was most probably displayed in the public sphere, but even more importantly, it affected the income and promotion of clerics. The article also studies specific cases in which the seniority was ignored or broken. It argues that while lay people often supported swifter promotion of outstanding individuals and bishops were inclined to act accordingly, the middle and lower clergy strongly opposed nominations which violated the established horizontal hierarchy.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81968357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article shows the impact of clerical ordinations of monks on monastic communities of the late antique Latin West. Its first part demonstrates how the clerical hierarchy introduced by monk-presbyters and monk-deacons challenged the purely monastic power structure - based, above all, on the abbot’s supreme authority. It turns then to three organizers of monastic life active in the sixth century - Eugendus of Jura, Aurelian of Arles, and Benedict of Nursia - who, each in his own way, ensured that the appointment of monks to clerical ranks would leave the monastery’s hierarchy intact - or even reinforce it. In conclusion, it is argued that the problems provoked by monastic clergy were alleviated by the strict separation of monastic and ecclesiastical hierarchies, which is demonstrated particularly in the Benedict of Nursia’s Rule. This, in turn, contributed to the steady process of the clericalization of Western monasticism.
{"title":"Behind the Abbot’s Back. Clerics within the Monastic Hierarchy","authors":"Jerzy Szafranowski","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119457","url":null,"abstract":"This article shows the impact of clerical ordinations of monks on monastic communities of the late antique Latin West. Its first part demonstrates how the clerical hierarchy introduced by monk-presbyters and monk-deacons challenged the purely monastic power structure - based, above all, on the abbot’s supreme authority. It turns then to three organizers of monastic life active in the sixth century - Eugendus of Jura, Aurelian of Arles, and Benedict of Nursia - who, each in his own way, ensured that the appointment of monks to clerical ranks would leave the monastery’s hierarchy intact - or even reinforce it. In conclusion, it is argued that the problems provoked by monastic clergy were alleviated by the strict separation of monastic and ecclesiastical hierarchies, which is demonstrated particularly in the Benedict of Nursia’s Rule. This, in turn, contributed to the steady process of the clericalization of Western monasticism.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74735620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Isidore, bishop of Seville (600-636), played an important role in the Visigothic kingdom, especially for the reformation of its Church. Indeed, after the conversion of king Reccared to the Nicene C...
{"title":"Isidore of Seville and the Hispanic order of grades","authors":"Thomas Deswarte","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119461","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119461","url":null,"abstract":"Isidore, bishop of Seville (600-636), played an important role in the Visigothic kingdom, especially for the reformation of its Church. Indeed, after the conversion of king Reccared to the Nicene C...","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"177 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79891433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article shows how the practice of signing foreheads with the cross, a major marker of religious belonging for Christians and a powerful rite of protection, was used by Augustine of Hippo to include catechumens - members of the Christian community that were not fully initiated - in his pastoral care and to develop normative views on Christian membership and behaviour. Investigating Augustine’s frequent references to the rite, most often in preached texts, this article first provides a presentation of the concrete practice of signing foreheads and then explores in detail how the rite is interpreted. It particularly highlights that Augustine resorted to the rite to promote a more assertive and exclusive belonging to Christianity against the more accommodating attitude of his audience, and that for this end he provisionally erased the distinction between baptised and unbaptised Christians. Augustine spoke against a sense of shame of the cross shared by his audience towards non-Christians, connected the performance of the rite and its efficacy to fitting Christian behaviour, and rejected any alternative means of protection. This study sheds light more broadly on the nature of Christian belonging in late Antiquity and the role played by catechumens, demonstrating the significance of rites of incorporation besides baptism for the process of community formation.
{"title":"Ritual performance and Christian Belonging: Signing Foreheads with the Cross in the Writings of Augustine of Hippo","authors":"M. Pignot","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119448","url":null,"abstract":"This article shows how the practice of signing foreheads with the cross, a major marker of religious belonging for Christians and a powerful rite of protection, was used by Augustine of Hippo to include catechumens - members of the Christian community that were not fully initiated - in his pastoral care and to develop normative views on Christian membership and behaviour. Investigating Augustine’s frequent references to the rite, most often in preached texts, this article first provides a presentation of the concrete practice of signing foreheads and then explores in detail how the rite is interpreted. It particularly highlights that Augustine resorted to the rite to promote a more assertive and exclusive belonging to Christianity against the more accommodating attitude of his audience, and that for this end he provisionally erased the distinction between baptised and unbaptised Christians. Augustine spoke against a sense of shame of the cross shared by his audience towards non-Christians, connected the performance of the rite and its efficacy to fitting Christian behaviour, and rejected any alternative means of protection. This study sheds light more broadly on the nature of Christian belonging in late Antiquity and the role played by catechumens, demonstrating the significance of rites of incorporation besides baptism for the process of community formation.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86911916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The strict separation of male and female is a commonplace in late antique ascetic literature; nevertheless, at the very least, women’s monasteries did require a male presbyter to celebrate the Eucharist or provide previously consecrated bread and wine. The relationship between the presbyter and the women, especially the superior, was not always harmonious and conflict arose because of ascetic scruples, differing models of monastic and ecclesial hierarchy, personality and patronage. Although the topic is not treated in any sustained way in ancient sources, anecdotes in biographies and letters indicate the type of situations where conflict could and did occur. In addition to examining a range of sources and monastic contexts, this paper also suggests that conflict between presbyteral and female monastic leadership may lie behind the ambivalence towards Melania the Younger expressed by her biographer the priest-monk Gerontius.
在古代晚期禁欲文学中，严格的男女分离是司空见惯的;然而，至少，女性修道院确实需要一名男性长老来庆祝圣餐或提供之前的圣餐面包和酒。长老和妇女之间的关系，尤其是长老，并不总是和谐的，冲突也会产生，因为苦行僧的顾虑，不同的修道院和教会等级模式，个性和赞助。虽然这个话题在古代文献中没有得到持续的论述，但传记和信件中的轶事表明了冲突可能而且确实发生的情况。除了考察一系列资料来源和修道院背景外，本文还提出，修道院长老和修道院女性领导层之间的冲突可能是她的传记作者格罗尼修斯(Gerontius)对小梅拉尼娅(Melania the Younger)所表达的矛盾心理背后的原因。
{"title":"Presbyters in Late Antique Women’s Monasteries: Roles, Responsibilities and Conflicts","authors":"J. Day","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119456","url":null,"abstract":"The strict separation of male and female is a commonplace in late antique ascetic literature; nevertheless, at the very least, women’s monasteries did require a male presbyter to celebrate the Eucharist or provide previously consecrated bread and wine. The relationship between the presbyter and the women, especially the superior, was not always harmonious and conflict arose because of ascetic scruples, differing models of monastic and ecclesial hierarchy, personality and patronage. Although the topic is not treated in any sustained way in ancient sources, anecdotes in biographies and letters indicate the type of situations where conflict could and did occur. In addition to examining a range of sources and monastic contexts, this paper also suggests that conflict between presbyteral and female monastic leadership may lie behind the ambivalence towards Melania the Younger expressed by her biographer the priest-monk Gerontius.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86247840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pope Celestine’s handling of the Augustinian controversy in Southern Gaul avoided addressing theological matters to focus on two disciplinary issues, namely, the free preaching by the presbyters and the increasingly widespread phenomenon of direct ordination of laymen (mostly, monks) to the priesthood and the episcopate. Celestine seized the opportunity provided by this controversy to make an apology for the clerical cursus honorum as a means of transmitting, through proper theological training, the Apostolic, orthodox tradition within the Church.
{"title":"Legimus supra magistrum non esse discipulum: Pope Celestine I, the “Augustinian Controversy”, and the Clerical cursus honorum","authors":"Raúl Villegas Marín","doi":"10.1484/j.se.5.119458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.119458","url":null,"abstract":"Pope Celestine’s handling of the Augustinian controversy in Southern Gaul avoided addressing theological matters to focus on two disciplinary issues, namely, the free preaching by the presbyters and the increasingly widespread phenomenon of direct ordination of laymen (mostly, monks) to the priesthood and the episcopate. Celestine seized the opportunity provided by this controversy to make an apology for the clerical cursus honorum as a means of transmitting, through proper theological training, the Apostolic, orthodox tradition within the Church.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"483 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81660001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the present article, Augustine’s "Retractationes" are closely examined in order to discover what the author was aiming at in writing this final correction of his own works. It turns out that the "Retractationes" can, not surprisingly, be linked to his other autobiographical works, the "Soliloquia" and the "Confessions". In the "Soliloquia", Augustine examines the difference between true and false in the way he pictures himself. Next, in the "Confessions", he continues to examine his own image and he discovers the role of grace: one can only rightly picture oneself with the aid of grace. Finally, in the Retractationes he reconsiders almost all his works and corrects the possibly false image these works might give of the author. He does so in particular by pretending that even in earlier periods the notion of grace was always the prevailing one in his writings. He surely may have written against the Manicheans, he may have insisted on the importance of the free will, but in fact he was already arguing against the Pelagians. Augustine changes his image for two reasons. Frist, he wants to rectify his own image so that the true one can be handed over to posterity. This is his wish to create his own reception. Secondly, he creates a new image that is based on the discovery of an interior image. It is this discovery that will allow him to make the autobiographical image also an essential part of his theology of image. It is the discovery that a personal view on one’s life may become the discovery of God’s view on his life and so the autobiographical image and the interior image become, once again, the tale of two stories, of two cities so to say, which reveal us the presence of the divine in our human existence.
{"title":"Augustine’s Reception of Augustine. How to Compare Images and How to Write History?","authors":"M. Smalbrugge","doi":"10.1484/J.SE.5.119449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.SE.5.119449","url":null,"abstract":"In the present article, Augustine’s \"Retractationes\" are closely examined in order to discover what the author was aiming at in writing this final correction of his own works. It turns out that the \"Retractationes\" can, not surprisingly, be linked to his other autobiographical works, the \"Soliloquia\" and the \"Confessions\". In the \"Soliloquia\", Augustine examines the difference between true and false in the way he pictures himself. Next, in the \"Confessions\", he continues to examine his own image and he discovers the role of grace: one can only rightly picture oneself with the aid of grace. Finally, in the Retractationes he reconsiders almost all his works and corrects the possibly false image these works might give of the author. He does so in particular by pretending that even in earlier periods the notion of grace was always the prevailing one in his writings. He surely may have written against the Manicheans, he may have insisted on the importance of the free will, but in fact he was already arguing against the Pelagians. Augustine changes his image for two reasons. Frist, he wants to rectify his own image so that the true one can be handed over to posterity. This is his wish to create his own reception. Secondly, he creates a new image that is based on the discovery of an interior image. It is this discovery that will allow him to make the autobiographical image also an essential part of his theology of image. It is the discovery that a personal view on one’s life may become the discovery of God’s view on his life and so the autobiographical image and the interior image become, once again, the tale of two stories, of two cities so to say, which reveal us the presence of the divine in our human existence.","PeriodicalId":39610,"journal":{"name":"Sacris Erudiri","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81391980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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