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Christian Clergy at Oxyrhynchus (C AnneMarie Luijendijk On and beyond duty: Christian clergy at Oxyrhynchus (c. 250–400)* This paper presents acase-study of Christian clergy in the middle-Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus in the transitional period from mid-third to late fourth century, based on literaryand documentary(papyrological) sources. Whereas in literary textsmembersofthe clergy,mainly bishops, usually appear in connection with heresiologicaldisputes, documentarypapyri frequently show them ‘beyond duty’,for example engaged in businessortravel. The papyri widen our historical understanding by preserving data on lower-ranking religious specialists, such as presbyters, readers, nuns and monks, who wouldotherwise remain quite un- known. They also provide evidencefor the extension of the Christian order into the agrarian hinterland of the city. Egyptian, Greek and Romancults had enjoyed along history in the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus.¹ In the mid-thirdcenturyCE, Greek-speaking magistrates of- fered sacrificesinthe Sebasteum or Hadrianeum,while linen-clad, bald-shaven Egyptian priestshunggarlands around statues of Egyptian deities in the Thoër- eum and the Serapeum. But that was about to change. Christian clergy appear in papyrus documents from Oxyrhynchus at latest from the third quarter of the third centuryonwards;acontractdated 8December 339contains the last men- tion of apagan priest in apapyrus from Oxyrhynchus (PSI III 215). By that time, several of the former temples had been transformed into Christian churches.² This paper examines the evidence for Christian religious practitioners in the mid- * IamgratefultoRichardGordon,Georgia Petridou, and JörgRüpkefor invitingmetoawon- derful conference,and to them and the participants for feedback. Adifferent version was pre- sentedatthe SNTS meetinginAmsterdam, and Ithank the audienceand the respondent,Gio- vanni Bazzana, for stimulatingquestions.Mywarm thanks also go to Alessandro Bausi, Gilles Bransbourg,AlbertoCamplani,and Brent Nongbri, and to Jonathan Henry for his help as re- searchassistant. Ihavepreferredtorender the names of the individuals referred to in their Lat- inateforms. See Whitehorne (1995). Forinstance, PMert.1.41(‘Orders for payment’,dated 15 October 406 [= Trismegistus21307]), 11–12: “to my lordfather Peter,priest of the holychurch of the Caesareum …”.See also Luijen- dijk (2008, 19–20); Papaconstantinou (1996a) and (2001). DOI 10.1515/9783110448184-005, ©2017 AnneMarie Luijendijk, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs3.0 License. 104 AnneMarie Luijendijk dle Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus in the transitional period from 250through to the end of the fourth century mainlyonthe basis of papyrus documents. Arguablythe best-documented city in classicaland late antiquity through the tens of thousands of papyrus fragments found in its ancientgarbage- heaps,Oxyrhynchus forms an excellent place to conduct acase-study.³ The documents accidentallypreserved on its rubbish-heaps give fascinating yetfrag- mentary glimpses of life in an important provincial city,providing both an every- dayperspective and evidence from outside the major (and well-documented) centres in the empire such as Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Rome. The documentary papyri found at Oxyrhynchusconstituteinvaluable material as they allow us to meet the ancientOxyrhynchitesattheir daily tasks in work- places,homes, streets,templesand churches.⁴ What makes papyrus documents so valuable and relevant (yet also so complex) is that they show us different and complementary sides of the activities of individual religious practitionersthan what we can gleanfrom literarytexts only. The nature of papyrological evidence even makes it easiertoobserve these ritual experts ‘beyond duty’,especiallyin activities relating to business and travel.⁵ Compared to the literarysources, they preservemanymore clergy by name and profession thanpreviouslyknown. In addition to evidence for Christianity and Christian clergyinthe city,multiple papyri provide glimpses of the spread of Christianity in the surroundingvillages in the Egyptian countryside.⁶ Were it not for the papyri, we would think Christi- anity was better represented in the Delta than in the Nile valley.Moreover,the papyrological documentation stretches back to asignificantlyearlier time than the literary sources. The paper also emphasises methodologicalinsights. Ecclesiastical writers spill much ink on inner church conflicts and heresiologicaldisputes in this pe- riod. But however large the tears such doctrinal disputes created in the intellec- tual and social fabric of community,they leave few,ifany,traces in documentary papyri. Indeed, the genre of sources determines the boundaries of our historical See the collection of Christian sourcesbyBlumell and Wayment (2015). This section is inspired by Robert Orsi’sdescription of livedreligion (1997, 7). The sociologist Meredith McGuire(2008, 5) drawsattention to the “complexities of individuals’ religious prac- tices, experiences,and expressions”.See also Raja and Rüpke (2015). The scholarlyconcept of ‘livedreligion’ helps to contextualise the mundane papyrus docu- ments.Orsi (1997, 7) notes: “Religion is best approached […]bymeetingmen and women at this dailytask, in all the spaces of their experience”. In compilinghis checklist of bishopsinLateRoman and Byzantine Egypt (325 – c. 750CE), Worp was struck by the geographical differencesbetween the literary sources and the papyri, with the former concentrated in the Delta,and the latter in Middle and Upper Egypt (1994,317.) On and beyond duty: Christian clergy at Oxyrhynchus (c. 250 – 400) 105 knowledge.Inthe documents we observeparts of the activities of clergythatare less apparent in our literary sources. But since papyri onlydocument activities that require writing,aspects of the duties of clergythat do not involvewriting (for instance,pastoral care), remain almost invisible in the papyrologicalrecord.⁷ In onlyafew instances do the papyrus documents offer aglimpse of what rituals or religious practicesthese expertsare actuallyperforming.But this is not true onlyofpapyri; ancient writers also provide little information on ritual practices.AsSusan Guettel Cole has pointed out: “The details of ritual practice werenot aconcern to historians or even to poets; we know onlythe barest out- line of the rituals actuallyperformed. We can tell from the epigraphical record, however,that practice was shaped by discussion, details weredecided by legis- lative procedures, and disputes weresubjected to the scrutinyofexpertsappoint- ed to oversee public ritual”.⁸ The absence of descriptions of ritual in our ancient sources is thus shared among different genres and has bothtodowith the fact that ritual does not necessarilyrequire writing and also with the nature of ritual.⁹ 1. CompilingacatalogueofChristian clergy No single document from Oxyrhynchus lists the entire staff of achurch in the city at agiven moment.¹⁰ The data Iprovide here have been assembled from both literary sources and papyrological documents for the period from the mid-thirdthrough to the end of the fourth century.Incollectingthis evidence, one faces problems with sources thatmake it at times difficult to decidewhether agiven individual is amemberofthe clergy.¹¹ Agenerous count yieldedwell over thirty different Christian clerics, includingmonastics, for Oxyrhynchus in this period. In several cases, however,the hagiographical character of the literary sources renders them unreliable for this type of historical research. So the longer list includes severalfigures of dubioushistoricity,such as aMiletius,Oxy- rhynchite bishop during the Great Persecution, mentioned in the Acta Sancto- Schmelz (2002, 2). Cole, (2008, 57). See esp. Bell (2009). Later documents from Oxyrhynchus,such as POxy.11.1357and 67.4617, contain lists of churches or their inventory(see Blumell and Wayment [2015]). Several scholars have compiled lists of bishopsthat include those fromthe city,e.g.Timm (1984); Fedalto (1988, vol. 2);Worp (1994); Papaconstantinou (1996b); Benaissa (2007); Blumell (2014). On this problem, see Papaconstantinou (1996,177). 106 AnneMarieLuijendijk rum,¹² and an anonymous Oxyrhynchite presbyter from the Apophthegmata Pa- trum.¹³ On astricter count,Iconsider 29 persons in all as more or less historical, namely: at least eleven bishops,¹⁴ four presbyters,atleast four nuns,¹⁵ perhaps five monks, four readers, and one deacon. Before Iturn to the different groups of clergy in more detail, let me offer some general comments on this list of Oxy- rhynchite clergy. 2. Biasinfavourofbishops The most striking observation from this compilation of Oxyrhynchiteclergyis that throughout the period under scrutinyweencounter apreponderance of bishops but few presbyters,deacons,readers,and monastics. Although on the street these lower clergy far outnumbered bishops, they seldom appear in the sources, whether literary or documentary.¹⁶ Indeed, eleven of the 29 Oxyrhynchite clergy on the shortlist,are bishops,¹⁷ of whom ten are known by name: Forthe text and translation, see Blumell and Wayment (2015,615–23,no. 163). Under August 27,the Acta Sanctorum,ahagiographical collection, commemorates thirteen persons fromOxy- rhynchus,amongthem threepresbyters and abishop called Miletius,who weremartyred during the persecution under Diocletian and Maximianus.This text claims that apresbyter named Ju- lianus handed over the martyrs’ relics, which werethen venerated at Oxyrhynchus.Blumell and Wayment
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