"Christianization" and the rural home

Journal of Early Christian Studies

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 143-170

  Bowes, Kim ^a  

^a FORDHAM UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 58149179869     PISSN: 10676341     EISSN: 10863184     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/earl.2007.0029     Document Type: Article

References (134)

1. For a more sophisticated analysis, see M. Roberts, The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989).
2. On Ausonius's Christianity, see T.R. Clover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1901), 109,
3. against which R. Green, "The Christianity of Ausonius," SP 28 (1993): 39-48;
4. On the ease with which he wove Christianity into a traditional Roman life, see R. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1990), 34-35.
5. On "respectable" Christian aristocrats, P. Brown, "Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy," in Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (London: Faber and Faber, 1972), esp. 181-82.
6. On Ausonius as typical of the type: J. Matthews, Western Aristocracies and the Imperial Court (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), 146, 151.
7. See White, Ausonius, 42, for the probable rural context of the poem.
8. On the former problem, N. Duval, "Quelques remarques sur les 'églises-halles'," in Aquileia nel IV secolo, Antichità Altoadriatiche 22 (Udine: Arti grafiche friulane, 1982), 2:399-412;
9. See most recently I. Baldini Lippolis, La domus tardoantica: forme e rappresentazioni dello spazio domestico neue città del mediterraneo (Bologna: University Press Bologna, 2002).
10. See also S. Ellis, "Power, Architecture and Decor: How the Late Roman Aristocrat Appeared to His Guests," in Roman Art in the Private Sphere, ed. E. Gazda (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991), 117-34.
11. For a critique of this way of studying mosaics, see S. Scott, Art and Society in Fourth-Century Britain: Villa Mosaics in Context (Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology, 2000), 9-17.
12. See also the exemplary study of C. Balmelle, Les demeures aristocratiques d'Aquitaine: Société et culture de l'antiquité tardive dans le Sud-Ouest de la Gaule, Aquitania 10 (Bordeaux: Ausonius, 2001).
13. For various definitions of the term, from the confusion in the ancient terminology to its proper application in modern archaeological contexts, see Percival, Roman Villa, 13-15;
14. T. Potter, "Villas in South Eturia: Some Comments and Contexts," in Roman Vittas in Italy: Recent Excavations and Research, ed. K. Painter (London: British Museum Publications, 1980), 73-81;
15. A. Carandini, "Da villa perfecta," in Settefinestre: Una villa schiavistica nell'Etruria romana, ed. A. Carandini (Modena: Panini, 1985), 107-37;
16. P. Leveau, "Introduction: Les incertitudes du terme villa et la question du vicus en Gaule Narbonnaise," Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise 35 (2002): 5-26.
17. On the otiumlnegotium dichotomy, J. M. André, Recherches sur l'otium romain, Annales Littéraires de l'Université de Besançon 52 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1956) is still fundamental.
18. Among many, see J. Ebbeler, "Pedants in the Apparel of Heros? Cultures of Latin Letter Writing from Cicero to Ennodius," (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2001);
19. Conybeare, Paulinus Nosier: Self and Symbols in the Tellers of Paulinus of Nola (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000);
20. J. Fontaine, "Valeurs antiques et valeurs chrétiennes dans la spiritualité des grands propriétaires terriens a la fin du IVe siècle occidental," in Épektasis: Mélanges patristiques offerts au cardinal Jean Daniélou, ed. J. Fontaine and C. Kannengiesser (Paris: Beauchesne, 1972), 571-95.
21. Ripoll and Arce, "The Transformation and End of the Roman Villae";
22. Cantino Wataghin, "Christianisation et organisation ecclésiastique des campagnes";
23. Brenk, Die Christianisierung der spätrömischen Welt;
24. A. Chavarría, El final de las villas en Hispania (siglos IV-VIII) (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming);
25. K. Bowes, "Building Sacred Landscapes: Villas and Cult," Villas tardoantiguas en el Méditerranéo occidental, Anejos de Archivo Español de Arqueología 38 (Madrid: C.S.I.C., 2006), 73-95.
26. For example, see P. David, "Les paroisses rurales dans l'occident latin du IVe au VIe siècle," in Études historiques sur la Galice et le Portugal (Paris: Livraria Portugália, 1947), 7-18;
27. W. H. C. Frend, "The Winning of the Countryside," JEH 18 (1967): 1-14.
28. In general: F. Dölger, "Christliche Grundbesitzer und heidnische Landarbeiter," in Antike und Christentum: Kultur-und religionsgeschictliche Studien (Münster: Aschendorff, 1976), 297-320.
29. On Martin: C. Stancliffe, St. Martin and His Hagiographer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983);
30. Pietri, "Chiesa e communità." For a careful dissection of Augustine's letters to elites,
31. É. Rebillard, "Augustine et le rituel épistolaire de l'élite sociale et culturelle de son temps," L'évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, ed. É. Rebillard and C. Sotinel (Rome: Ècole française de Rome, 1998), 127-52.
32. M. Heinzelmann, Bischofsherrschaft in Gallien: Xur Kontinuität römischer Führungsschichten vom 4. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert (Munich: Artemis Verlag, 1976).
33. For instance, I. Wood, "Early Merovingian Devotion in Town and Country," in The Church in Town and Countryside, ed. D. Baker (London: Blackwell, 1979), 61-76;
34. Violante, "Le strutture organizzative";
35. R. Van Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985);
36. Monfrin, "La christianisation de l'espace et du temps";
37. G. Cantino Wataghin, "Il territorio," in La storia dell'alto Medioevo italiano (VI-X secolo) alla luce dell'archeologia, ed. R. Francovich and G. Noyé (Siena: All'insegna del giglio, 1994), 142-47;
38. J. Maciel, Antiguidade Tardia e Paleocristianismo em Portugal (Lisbon: Edições Colibri, 1996);
39. Pietri, "Évergétisme chrétien et fondations privées";
40. A. Frondoni, "Chiese rurali fra V e VI secolo in Liguria," in Brogiolo, ed., Chiese e insediamenti nelle campagne tra V e VI secolo, 131-71,
41. along with G. Panto, "Chiese rurali délia diocesi di Vercelli," in the same volume, 87-107;
42. additionally, see L. Pejrani Baricco, "Chiese rurali in Piemonte tra V e VI secolo," 57-85,
43. and M. Sannazaro, "Chiese e comunità cristiane rurali nelle fonti epigraphiche dell'Italia settentionale," 39-55, in the same volume.
44. 123.18 (546) (ed. P. Kreuger, R. Schoell and G. Kroll, Corpus iuris civilis, vols. 2 and 3 [Berlin: Weidmann, 1895]).
45. (J. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum: Nova et Amplissima Colledio [Paris: Huberti Welter, 1903]).
46. epp. frag. 19; 21 (ed. A. Thiel, Epistolae Romanorum Potificium Genuinae [Braunsberg: E. Peter, 1868]);
47. For example, Wood, "Early Merovingian Devotion";
48. Violante, "Strutture organizzative";
49. Thomas, Private Religious Foundations, 15-27;
50. Brogiolo and Chavarría, "Chiese e insediamenti," 19-25.
51. Traditional examples of this approach include W. H. C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 554-79;
52. R. MacMullen, Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth through Eighth Centuries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 103-49;
53. and the early work of Peter Brown: The World of Late Antiquity (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971), esp. 82-95, 115-25.
54. Brown's more recent work is considerably less confident in the success of these exchanges: P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom (2nd edition) (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 84-88.
55. On the countryside explicitly, see Frend, "The Winning of the Countryside."
56. For more recent studies organized around the same principles, see M. Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002);
57. B. Brenk, Die Christianisierung der spätrömischen Welt.
58. Some critiques, tacit or explicit, include V. Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), who rejects an easy "Christianization" of magical practice;
59. or D. Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), who problematizes easy pagan/Christian dichotomies and the models of historical change built around them, and offers instead a complex model of local/regional tension and interchange.
60. Functionalism more narrowly defined in the history of religion (e.g., M. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft: Gundriss der versiehenden Soziologie, 4th ed. [Köln: Kiepenheuer and Witsch, 1956];
61. and E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life [New York: Free Press, 1965])
62. is critiqued by C. Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System," in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 87-125.
63. For a formulation and critique of this paradigm, see C. Geertz, "Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example," in The Interpretation of Culture (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 142-69.
64. An exception in the former class of studies as it pertains to urban households is K. Sessa, "The Household and the Bishop: Establishing Episcopal Authority in Late Antique Rome" (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2003).
65. and L. Garcia Iglesias, "Sobre el canon IV del primer concilio de Zaragoza," 189-200 in the same volume.
66. On Martin, C. Stancliffe, "From Town to Country: The Christianization of the Touraine 370-600," in The Church in Town and Countryside, ed. D. Baker (London: Blackwell, 1979), 43-59.
67. On more run-of-the-mill bishops, R. Lizzi, Vescovi e strutture ecclesiastiche nella città tardoantica (Como: Edizioni New Press, 1989), 79;
68. C. Lepelley, "Le patronat épiscopal aux IVe et Ve siècles: Continuités et ruptures avec le patronat classique," in L'évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, 17-33;
69. C. Sotinel, "Le personnel episcopal," in L'évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, 105-24.
70. As a new study of Ambrose makes clear, even the most powerful western bishops had to resort to elaborate stratagems to consolidate their urban power base while leaving the countryside to its own devices: N. McLynn, Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994).
71. On the state of the British church in the fourth century, C. Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 (London: Batsford Academic, 1981), is still the fundamental study.
72. See also D. Petts, Christianity in Roman Britain (Stroud: Tempus, 2003).
73. For the archaeological evidence, the best assessment is still Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain, 168-80.
74. See also now C. F. Mawer, Evidence for Christianity in Roman Britain: The Small Finds, BAR British Series 243 (Oxford: Tempus Reparatum, 1995).
75. For discussions on the possible churches in Silchester and Icklingham: A. King, "The Roman Church at Silchester Reconsidered," Oxford Journal of Archaeology 2.2 (1983): 225-38;
76. S. West and J. Plouviez, "The Roman Site at Icklingham," East Anglia Archaeology 3 (1976): 63-125.
77. G. W. Meates, et al. ed., The Roman Villa at Tullingstone, Kent, Vol. II: The Wall Paintings and Finds, Monograph Series of the Kent Archaeological Society 3 (Maidstone: Kent Archaeological Society, 1987).
78. On Bradford: M. Corney, "The Roman Villa at Bradford-on-Avon: Investigations at Saint Laurence School," ARA: The Bulletin of the Association for Roman Archaeology 16.1 (2004): 10-13, 5.
79. The importance of estates to British Christianity has long been noted: W. H. C. Frend, "Religion in Roman Britain in the Fourth Century a.d.," Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd Series 16 (1955): 7;
80. K. S. Painter, "Villas and Christianity in Roman Britain," British Museum Quarterly 35 (1971): 156-75;
81. Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain, 1 80-83, 21 3;
82. K. Dark, Britain and the End of the Roman Empire (Stroud: Tempus, 2000), 17-18.
83. See for instance, Palazzo Pignano: M. Mirabella Roberti, "Una basilica paleocristiana a Palazzo Pignano," Insula Fulcheria 4 (1965): 79-90;
84. J. Bishop and L. Passi Pitcher, "Palazzo Pignano (CR). Pieve di S. Martino. Chiesa battesimale," Noliziario (Soprinlendenza archeologica della Tombardia) (1988-1989): 294-95;
85. Centallo: G. Mennella, "Cristianismo e latifondi tra Augusta Bagiennorum e Forum Vibi Caburrum," Rivista di archeologia cristiana 69 (1993): 205-22;
86. G. Panto and L. Pejrani Baricco, "Chiese nelle campagne del Piemonte in età tardolongobarda," in Le chiese rurali tra VII e VIII secolo in Italia settentionale, ed. G. Brogiolo (Mantova: Editrice S.A.P., 2001), 22-25;
87. L. Pejrani Baricco, "Chiese battesimali in Piemonte. Scavi e scoperte," in L'Edificio battesimale in Italia: Aspetti e problemi (Bordighera: Istituto internazionale di studi liguri, 2001), 560-66.
88. Sizzano: G. Spagnolo Garzoli, "Sizzano. lnsediamento romano," Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Piemonte 10 (1991): 168-70;
89. Panto and Pejrani Baricco, "Chiese nelle campagne del Piemonte," 40-42;
90. Pejrani Baricco, "Chiese battesimali in Piemonte," 62-70.
91. For an overview, see K. Bowes, "'Une coterie espagnole pieuse': Christian Archaeology and Christian Communities in Fourth- and Fifth-Century Hispania," in Hispania in Late Antiquity: Current Approaches, ed. K. Bowes and M. Kulikowski (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 189-258.
92. Pace Brenk, Christianisierung der spätrömischen Welt, 63-73.
93. On the site and its church, C. Pellecuer, "Loupian. Église Sainte-Cécile," in Les premiers monuments chrétiens de la France, Vol. 1, ed. N. Duval (Paris: Picard, 1995), 47-50.
94. On the area and its bishops, G. Barruol, "Languedoc-Roussillon, " in Les premiers monuments chrétiens de la France, ed. N. Duval (Paris: Picard, 1995), 1:19-25.
95. For estate baptism, see V. Fiocchi Nicolai and S. Gelichi, "Battisteri e chiese rurali (IV-VII secolo)," in L'edificio battesimale in Italia (Bordighera: Istituto internationale di studi liguri, 2001), 303-84.
96. See most recently among many reconsideration of episcopal power and authority, McLynn, Ambrose of Milan;
97. R. Lizzi, "I vescovi e i potentes della terra: definizione e limite del ruolo episcopale nelle due partes imperii fra IV e V secolo d.C," in L'évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, 81-104;
98. idem, "Prêtre et fonctionnaire: l'essor d'un modèle episcopal aux IVe et Ve siècles," Antiquité tardive 7 (1999): 175-86;
99. C. Leyser, Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000).
100. on Augustine's particular struggle, Rebillard, "Augustine et le rituel épistolaire"; on the novelty of ecclesiastical economies, F. Marazzi, I 'Patrimonia Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae' nel Lazio (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il Medioevo, 1998), esp. 65-66.
101. Here I use the plural "households" and "houses" purposefully to gesture towards the diversity of their constitution and practices. Like "the bishop," ancient households and houses were not natural institutions but constructed, conceptual categories whose diversity and rhetorical function have become a recent point of discussion. See D. Martin, "The Construction of the Ancient Family: Methodological Considerations," JRS 86 (1996): 40-60;
102. H. Moxnes, "What Is Family? Problems in Constructing Early Christian Families," in Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphor, ed. H. Moxnes (London: Routledge, 1997), 13-41;
103. A. Jacobs and R. Krawiec, "Fathers Know Best? Christian Families in the Age of Asceticism," JECS 11 (2003): 257-63.
104. On Roman domestic cult in the countryside, see Dölger, "Christliche Grundbesitzer und heidnische Landarbeiter"; J. Bodel, "Monumental Villas and Villa Monuments," Journal of Roman Archaeology 10 (1997): 5-35;
105. Bowes, "Villas and Cult."
106. On the boundary- and identity-marking functions of pagan estate temples, see Bodel, "Monumental villas and villa monuments";
107. More generally on the importance of location in the construction of sacrality, see J. Z. Smith, To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).
108. On the Magna Mater cult: M. J. Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attiisque (Leiden: Brill, 1977-1982), 3.101-2, nos. 357-59;
109. on the Lullingstone frescoes: J. Liversidge and F. Weatherhead, "The Christian Paintings," in The Roman Villa at Tullingstone, Kent, Vol. II: The Wall Paintings and Finds, ed. G. W. Meates et al. (Maidstone: Kent Archaeological Society, 1987), 11-40.
110. See L. de Ligt, Fairs and Markets in the Roman Empire (Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, 1993), 156-98, esp. 176-85;
111. Dölger, "Christliche Grundbesitzer und heidnische Landarbeiter."
112. Pellecuer, "Loupian. Église Sainte-Cécile," 50.
113. See also Thomas, Private Foundations, 25-29.
114. K. Argetsinger, "Birthday Rituals: Friends and Patrons in Roman Poetry and Cult," Classical Antiquity 23.2 (1992): 175-93;
115. J. Barclay, "The Family as the Bearer of Religion in Judaism and Early Christianity," in Constructing Early Christian Families, 72-78;
116. G. Nathan, The Family in Late Antiquity (New York/London: Routledge, 2000), 39-54. Families, of course, were not synonymous with the space of the home, and much of this work ignores the particular problems of domestic space. For a careful consideration of the problems, ideological and physical, introduced by space, see Tina Sessa's piece in this volume.
117. cf. T. D. Barnes, "Review of M. Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire," Catholic Historical Review 88.4 (2002): 748-49.
118. On the legal distinction, see G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer (Munich: Beck, 1912), 398-99.
119. On family and civic priesthoods: F. Van Haeperen, Le collège pontifical (3ème s.a.C.-4ème s.p.C): Contribution à l'étude de la religion publique romaine, Études de philologie, d'archéologie et d'histoire anciennes 39 (Brussels: Institut historique belge de Rome, 2002);
120. L. Schumacher, "Die vier hohen römischen Priesterkollegien unter den Flaviern, den Antoninen und den Severern," ANRW (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1978), 773-77.
121. On so-called mystery cults and their increasingly civic qualities: J. Matthews, "Symmachus and the Oriental Cults," JRS 63 (1978): 178-80;
122. N. McLynn, "The Fourth-Century Taurobolium," Phoenix 50 (1996): 312-30.
123. On the private and allegations of magic, see H. Kippenberg, "Magic in Roman Civil Discourse: Why Rituals Could Be Illegal," in Envisioning Magic: A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, ed. P. Schäfer and H. Kippenberg (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 137-63.
124. Kippenberg notes the occasions in which the private and the illicit were paired, but does not probe the theoretical basis around which the pairing occurs. See also D. Grodzynski, "'Superstitio'," REA 76 (1974): 52-55.
125. On late antique estates and wealth, see now J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, Labour and Aristocratic Dominance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
126. V. Burrus, The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority and the Priscillianist Controversy (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995);
127. K. Bowes, "'Nee sedere in villam': Villa-Churches, Rural Piety and the Priscillianist Controversy," in Urban Centers and Rural Contexts in Late Antiquity, ed. T Burns and J. Eadie (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001), 323-48.
128. See also E. Clark, The Origenist Controversy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992).
129. On the construction and function of such tropes, see A. Le Boulluec, La Notion d'hérésie dans la littérature grecque. IIe et IIIe siècles, 2 vols. (Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1985);
130. V. Burrus, "The Heretical Woman as Symbol in Alexander, Athanasius, Epiphanius and Jerome," HTR 84 (1991): 229-48;
131. Bowes, "Personal Devotions and Private Chapels," 205-9.
132. Although in the west, this phenomenon only occurred with any frequency in mid- to later fifth century and even then, not everywhere. See C. Sotinel, "Le recruitment des évêques in Italie au IVe et Ve siècles," in Vescovi e pastori in epoca teodosiana, Studia ephemeridis Augustinianum 58 (Rome: Institutum patristicum augustinianum, 1997), 193-204.
133. For Rome, see Sessa, "The Household and the Bishop."
134. See D. Trout, Paulinus of Nola: Life, Letters and Poems (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999), 162 n. 15.