Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/2222582x.2021.1880956
Jeffrey Brodd
Abstract Emperor Julian based his attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem temple in the spring of 363 CE on a version of Judaism that constitutes an “invented tradition” per the theoretical construct developed by Eric Hobsbawm and others in The Invention of Tradition (1983). Julian envisioned the rebuilt temple as a venue for animal sacrifice in honour of the god of the Jews—a god whom Julian identified as one in his Neoplatonic pantheon. He endeavoured to appropriate the ancient tradition of the Jewish cultic rites and their sacred site to fortify his own “Hellene” religious tradition, a combination of elements of ancient Greek and Roman traditions, mystery religions, and fourth-century Neoplatonism that emphasised the efficacy of animal sacrifice. From the point of view of Christian authors, the real motive lay in the emperor’s desire to assail Christianity and its own recently established tradition involving the destruction in 70 CE of the temple, namely that prophecy had been fulfilled and Christians had become the new “chosen people” of God. Julian’s attempt to rebuild the temple thus provides a lens through which to consider a complex interplay of various traditions. I argue that Julian was motivated by his Hellene religious commitment, not necessarily by anti-Christian sentiment—although his Hellenism was in some ways fundamentally incompatible with Christianity. Nor did Julian strive to restore ancient Jewish tradition primarily for the benefit of the Jewish community. Rather, through his “invented” version of their religious tradition, he sought to nurture his own.
{"title":"The Jerusalem Temple and Emperor Julian’s “Invention of Tradition”","authors":"Jeffrey Brodd","doi":"10.1080/2222582x.2021.1880956","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582x.2021.1880956","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Emperor Julian based his attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem temple in the spring of 363 CE on a version of Judaism that constitutes an “invented tradition” per the theoretical construct developed by Eric Hobsbawm and others in The Invention of Tradition (1983). Julian envisioned the rebuilt temple as a venue for animal sacrifice in honour of the god of the Jews—a god whom Julian identified as one in his Neoplatonic pantheon. He endeavoured to appropriate the ancient tradition of the Jewish cultic rites and their sacred site to fortify his own “Hellene” religious tradition, a combination of elements of ancient Greek and Roman traditions, mystery religions, and fourth-century Neoplatonism that emphasised the efficacy of animal sacrifice. From the point of view of Christian authors, the real motive lay in the emperor’s desire to assail Christianity and its own recently established tradition involving the destruction in 70 CE of the temple, namely that prophecy had been fulfilled and Christians had become the new “chosen people” of God. Julian’s attempt to rebuild the temple thus provides a lens through which to consider a complex interplay of various traditions. I argue that Julian was motivated by his Hellene religious commitment, not necessarily by anti-Christian sentiment—although his Hellenism was in some ways fundamentally incompatible with Christianity. Nor did Julian strive to restore ancient Jewish tradition primarily for the benefit of the Jewish community. Rather, through his “invented” version of their religious tradition, he sought to nurture his own.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582x.2021.1880956","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45667979","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}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/2222582X.2020.1783336
D. R. Edwards
Abstract This article discusses competing interpretations of and rhetoric concerning cult sites in late antiquity. It highlights concerns by Christian and Greco-Roman intellectuals over their ruins and restorations, and locates those concerns within larger metanarratives of the past that are utilised to “prove” the superiority of one tradition over the other. Applying theories of “cultural memory” and “memory politics,” it notes the inherent instability of cultural artifacts and the necessity to constantly “fix” an audience’s perception and interpretation of said artifacts. In this study, the artifacts in question are the temple of Apollo in Daphne and the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, while the agents who attempted to fix the memory of these sites through either appeal to their ruins or to their attempted restorations are, respectively, John Chrysostom and the emperor Julian. They each exploited the tools at their disposal in this polemical battle, variously turning to powerful rhetorical appeal to the senses, authoritative and text-like interpretation of the sites’ states for their audiences, and even attempts at altering the sites’ physical spaces when possible. The significance of the contest over these two cult sites lies in the convergence of Chrysostom and Julian upon them, illustrating not only substantial agreement about the nature and terms of a competition they each perceived between rival traditions, but perhaps more importantly, the stark polarisation of both figures and the resistance which each met from their respective constituencies—resistance which itself helps to explain the zeal with which they enacted their programmes.
{"title":"On the Rhetoric of Ruins and Restorations: Conflict over Cult Sites in Late Antiquity","authors":"D. R. Edwards","doi":"10.1080/2222582X.2020.1783336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1783336","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article discusses competing interpretations of and rhetoric concerning cult sites in late antiquity. It highlights concerns by Christian and Greco-Roman intellectuals over their ruins and restorations, and locates those concerns within larger metanarratives of the past that are utilised to “prove” the superiority of one tradition over the other. Applying theories of “cultural memory” and “memory politics,” it notes the inherent instability of cultural artifacts and the necessity to constantly “fix” an audience’s perception and interpretation of said artifacts. In this study, the artifacts in question are the temple of Apollo in Daphne and the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, while the agents who attempted to fix the memory of these sites through either appeal to their ruins or to their attempted restorations are, respectively, John Chrysostom and the emperor Julian. They each exploited the tools at their disposal in this polemical battle, variously turning to powerful rhetorical appeal to the senses, authoritative and text-like interpretation of the sites’ states for their audiences, and even attempts at altering the sites’ physical spaces when possible. The significance of the contest over these two cult sites lies in the convergence of Chrysostom and Julian upon them, illustrating not only substantial agreement about the nature and terms of a competition they each perceived between rival traditions, but perhaps more importantly, the stark polarisation of both figures and the resistance which each met from their respective constituencies—resistance which itself helps to explain the zeal with which they enacted their programmes.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1783336","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45314317","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}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/2222582X.2020.1816486
D. Frankfurter
Abstract This article addresses a pattern in the representation of the spaces of heathen practice in late antique Christian literature and in the conceptualisation of a necessary response to those spaces. I argue that Christian authors came to regard both temple structures and homes as suspicious enclosures, potentially concealing nefarious practices that could harm civic order and fortune. This view developed out of both a progressive suspicion of the domestic sphere in late antique Christian culture as harbouring heathen and heretical devotion, and a broader Roman suspicion of the Near Eastern temple, its architecture, and its secret priestly activities within. Such temples were constructed from early antiquity to exclude outsiders and to privilege a priestly cult within, unlike Roman temples that visibly framed the main cult image.
{"title":"Horrors of the Inner Chamber: Temples, Homes, and Secret Atrocities in Late Antiquity","authors":"D. Frankfurter","doi":"10.1080/2222582X.2020.1816486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1816486","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article addresses a pattern in the representation of the spaces of heathen practice in late antique Christian literature and in the conceptualisation of a necessary response to those spaces. I argue that Christian authors came to regard both temple structures and homes as suspicious enclosures, potentially concealing nefarious practices that could harm civic order and fortune. This view developed out of both a progressive suspicion of the domestic sphere in late antique Christian culture as harbouring heathen and heretical devotion, and a broader Roman suspicion of the Near Eastern temple, its architecture, and its secret priestly activities within. Such temples were constructed from early antiquity to exclude outsiders and to privilege a priestly cult within, unlike Roman temples that visibly framed the main cult image.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1816486","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49635251","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}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/2222582X.2021.1926302
Sissel Undheim
Abstract This article traces some strands of the reception of Vestal Virgins from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages and to the modern era. An in-depth study of all available sources is beyond the scope of this article, but a survey of some popular and often widely diffused texts from these periods may give us an indication of the “afterlife” of the Vestal Virgins. The study starts by discussing some examples from different kinds of literature where the notion of the Vestal Virgins as “proximate others” to the virgins of the Church is encountered, before turning to the remarkable concept of incestum as a term specifically applied to describe the loss of sacred virgins’ virginity. The main argument is that the Vestal Virgins came to be irrevocably entangled with later conceptualisations of Christian virginity, and that the representation and reception of Vestal Virgins as “same but not-same” as Christian virgins played an important part in conveying these underlying comparative conceptualisations of the Vestals.
{"title":"The Vestal Nun: The Afterlife and Reception of Vestal Virgins in Art and Literature in Late Antiquity and After","authors":"Sissel Undheim","doi":"10.1080/2222582X.2021.1926302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582X.2021.1926302","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article traces some strands of the reception of Vestal Virgins from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages and to the modern era. An in-depth study of all available sources is beyond the scope of this article, but a survey of some popular and often widely diffused texts from these periods may give us an indication of the “afterlife” of the Vestal Virgins. The study starts by discussing some examples from different kinds of literature where the notion of the Vestal Virgins as “proximate others” to the virgins of the Church is encountered, before turning to the remarkable concept of incestum as a term specifically applied to describe the loss of sacred virgins’ virginity. The main argument is that the Vestal Virgins came to be irrevocably entangled with later conceptualisations of Christian virginity, and that the representation and reception of Vestal Virgins as “same but not-same” as Christian virgins played an important part in conveying these underlying comparative conceptualisations of the Vestals.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582X.2021.1926302","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45023939","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}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/2222582X.2021.1878922
Olivia Stewart Lester
Abstract This article considers ancient Jewish and Christian engagement with Apollo traditions in texts and material objects from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE. I track a shared strategy in which both Jews and Christians adopt imagery or tropes that surround Apollo, but either (1) reassign them to their god or Jesus, or (2) relocate them within spaces devoted to the worship of their god. In light of Roman imperial use of Apollo traditions, I draw on postcolonial theory to suggest that we might label this recurrent transformative strategy “ambivalent appropriation.” Persistent ambivalent appropriation of Apollo traditions by ancient Jews and Christians counters ancient narratives about Apollo’s prophecy at Delphi declining and/or ceasing, thereby challenging any notion of a twilight for Delphic prophecy.
{"title":"Ambivalent Appropriation: Engagement with Apollo in Jewish and Christian Texts and Material Culture","authors":"Olivia Stewart Lester","doi":"10.1080/2222582X.2021.1878922","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582X.2021.1878922","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article considers ancient Jewish and Christian engagement with Apollo traditions in texts and material objects from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE. I track a shared strategy in which both Jews and Christians adopt imagery or tropes that surround Apollo, but either (1) reassign them to their god or Jesus, or (2) relocate them within spaces devoted to the worship of their god. In light of Roman imperial use of Apollo traditions, I draw on postcolonial theory to suggest that we might label this recurrent transformative strategy “ambivalent appropriation.” Persistent ambivalent appropriation of Apollo traditions by ancient Jews and Christians counters ancient narratives about Apollo’s prophecy at Delphi declining and/or ceasing, thereby challenging any notion of a twilight for Delphic prophecy.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582X.2021.1878922","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44312355","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}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/2222582x.2020.1724518
John-Christian Eurell
Abstract Although the New Testament texts show an awareness of the problems involved with the delay of the parousia, they still defend the legitimacy of the belief in its imminence. A similar pattern can also be found in other early Christian texts. The strategies for coping with and explaining the delay of the parousia change over time, and ultimately the understanding of “imminence” itself is developed. Although belief in the parousia appears to have been fundamental to early Christianity, the significance of this event is transformed from a hope of deliverance to a reason for moral exhortation.
{"title":"The Delay of the Parousia and the Changed Function of Eschatological Language","authors":"John-Christian Eurell","doi":"10.1080/2222582x.2020.1724518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582x.2020.1724518","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although the New Testament texts show an awareness of the problems involved with the delay of the parousia, they still defend the legitimacy of the belief in its imminence. A similar pattern can also be found in other early Christian texts. The strategies for coping with and explaining the delay of the parousia change over time, and ultimately the understanding of “imminence” itself is developed. Although belief in the parousia appears to have been fundamental to early Christianity, the significance of this event is transformed from a hope of deliverance to a reason for moral exhortation.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582x.2020.1724518","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47404784","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}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/2222582X.2020.1760724
Panos Bolanakis
Abstract This study examines the relationship between the Byzantine state and church, presents an overview of the Hesychastic method, and analyses the political ramifications of this method. Hesychasm was a philosophical and mystical movement that became popular during the tumultuous final centuries of Byzantium. The Hesychast movement might appear to be purely theological, but its flourishing necessarily involved politics. Adopting Hesychasm provided the church with a role that extended beyond its merely being a pillar within a God-protected state.
{"title":"Hesychasm and Politics in Late Byzantium","authors":"Panos Bolanakis","doi":"10.1080/2222582X.2020.1760724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1760724","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study examines the relationship between the Byzantine state and church, presents an overview of the Hesychastic method, and analyses the political ramifications of this method. Hesychasm was a philosophical and mystical movement that became popular during the tumultuous final centuries of Byzantium. The Hesychast movement might appear to be purely theological, but its flourishing necessarily involved politics. Adopting Hesychasm provided the church with a role that extended beyond its merely being a pillar within a God-protected state.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1760724","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41965865","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}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/2222582X.2020.1854048
C. L. de Wet
Abstract The purpose of this article is to investigate the role of angels in John Chrysostom’s (c. 349–407 CE) anthropology. The article provides a short overview of Chrysostom’s thought regarding angels more generally. The focus here is especially on the origins, nature, and function of angels. Thereafter, the focus moves to Chrysostom’s “thinking with angels” in his anthropology. This section extrapolates the differences and similarities between humans and angels. The important question to which the analysis leads is that of angelomorphism, or becoming like the angels. Chrysostom often states that persons adopting ascetic and sacerdotal practices have the ability to become like the angels. In Chrysostom, angelology is especially an ascetic discourse. What does this statement mean for Chrysostom? What does angelomorphism entail in the anthropological sense? The study argues that priests, monks, and virgins are able to become like angels both in a functional and even in a limited essential sense.
{"title":"Angels in John Chrysostom’s Anthropology: Asceticism, Angelomorphism, and Human Bodily Composition in Flux","authors":"C. L. de Wet","doi":"10.1080/2222582X.2020.1854048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1854048","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The purpose of this article is to investigate the role of angels in John Chrysostom’s (c. 349–407 CE) anthropology. The article provides a short overview of Chrysostom’s thought regarding angels more generally. The focus here is especially on the origins, nature, and function of angels. Thereafter, the focus moves to Chrysostom’s “thinking with angels” in his anthropology. This section extrapolates the differences and similarities between humans and angels. The important question to which the analysis leads is that of angelomorphism, or becoming like the angels. Chrysostom often states that persons adopting ascetic and sacerdotal practices have the ability to become like the angels. In Chrysostom, angelology is especially an ascetic discourse. What does this statement mean for Chrysostom? What does angelomorphism entail in the anthropological sense? The study argues that priests, monks, and virgins are able to become like angels both in a functional and even in a limited essential sense.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1854048","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46128400","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}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/2222582X.2020.1848443
Gerhard van den Heever
{"title":"New Testament and Early Christian Studies: Theses on Theory and Method","authors":"Gerhard van den Heever","doi":"10.1080/2222582X.2020.1848443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1848443","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582X.2020.1848443","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43610887","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}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/2222582x.2020.1731317
Geoffrey D. Dunn
Abstract Following the appointment of Perigenes as bishop of Corinth in 419, some Illyrian bishops, upset that this violated the Nicene canon against the translation of bishops and that Boniface I, bishop of Rome from 418 to 422, had supported Perigenes’s election, secured a law from the eastern emperor, Theodosius II, that judicial appeals were to be heard at Constantinople (Cod. theod. 16.2.45). The innovation that Theodosius condemned was undoubtedly the practice of Illyrian bishops appealing through the bishop of Thessaloniki to Rome, a system that had flourished under several of Boniface’s predecessors, as documented in the letters of the Collectio Thessalonicensis. Boniface’s response was to enlist the support of Honorius, the western emperor, to appeal to his imperial nephew to reverse this decision as itself being an innovation (Boniface I, Ep. 10). Theodosius agreed (Boniface I, Ep. 11). This article examines the letters concerned in the light of the history of the vicariate of Thessaloniki and Boniface’s own relationship with imperial authority, which is demonstrated in the ultimately definitive involvement of Ravenna in settling the electoral controversy that surrounded Boniface’s own election in Rome. It argues that the whole Perigenes affair was one of the first examples of what has come to be called papal primacy, in that it was an exercise of ecclesiastical authority over an area that no longer belonged to his supervision, that Honorius complied with Roman episcopal wishes, and that Roman success was dependent upon the personal relationship between imperial uncle and nephew.
{"title":"Church and State in the Dispute over the Vicariate of Thessaloniki during the Pontificate of Boniface I","authors":"Geoffrey D. Dunn","doi":"10.1080/2222582x.2020.1731317","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2222582x.2020.1731317","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Following the appointment of Perigenes as bishop of Corinth in 419, some Illyrian bishops, upset that this violated the Nicene canon against the translation of bishops and that Boniface I, bishop of Rome from 418 to 422, had supported Perigenes’s election, secured a law from the eastern emperor, Theodosius II, that judicial appeals were to be heard at Constantinople (Cod. theod. 16.2.45). The innovation that Theodosius condemned was undoubtedly the practice of Illyrian bishops appealing through the bishop of Thessaloniki to Rome, a system that had flourished under several of Boniface’s predecessors, as documented in the letters of the Collectio Thessalonicensis. Boniface’s response was to enlist the support of Honorius, the western emperor, to appeal to his imperial nephew to reverse this decision as itself being an innovation (Boniface I, Ep. 10). Theodosius agreed (Boniface I, Ep. 11). This article examines the letters concerned in the light of the history of the vicariate of Thessaloniki and Boniface’s own relationship with imperial authority, which is demonstrated in the ultimately definitive involvement of Ravenna in settling the electoral controversy that surrounded Boniface’s own election in Rome. It argues that the whole Perigenes affair was one of the first examples of what has come to be called papal primacy, in that it was an exercise of ecclesiastical authority over an area that no longer belonged to his supervision, that Honorius complied with Roman episcopal wishes, and that Roman success was dependent upon the personal relationship between imperial uncle and nephew.","PeriodicalId":40708,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Christian History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/2222582x.2020.1731317","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47515885","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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