Dirk Rohmann Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity Arbeiten Zur Kirchengeschichte
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Dirk Rohmann Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte Founded by Karl Holl † and Hans Lietzmann † Edited by Christian Albrecht and Christoph Markschies Volume 135 Dirk Rohmann Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity Studies in Text Transmission An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra- ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License, as of February 23, 2017. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. ISBN 978-3-11-048445-8 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-048607-0 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-048555-4 ISSN 1861-5996 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Preface Ihavebeen interested in the impact of Christianityonthe transmission of an- cient texts ever since Istudied classicalliterature and history.During my grad- uate studies in Tübingen, Ibecame interested in Christian authorsand religious studies. Discussions and several readers have helpedtoenhance this book. Iam aware that aproject like this will always leave some questions unresolved, and the specialist reader mayfind that Ihavenot included in the final version every possiblestudypertinenttoeach aspect of this book. Iamgrateful to the Alexander vonHumboldt Foundation for agenerous re- search grant thatallowed me to do research for this book at the University of Col- orado at Boulder and lateratthe University of Bonn. Iwould like to thank Noel Lenski, who made my stayinBoulder convenient and productive.Ihave been able to discuss this work with various scholars, of whom Iwould like to mention JamesCorke-Webster,Aaron Jackson, Melissa Markauskas, Hannah Probert,Kon- radVössing and Jamie Wood, and to present preliminary results internationally at various workshops and conferences. Dirk Rohmann Contents Introduction 1 Overview of Previous Scholarship 4 Text Transmission in Antiquity 8 Factors Affecting the Transmission of Texts 10 The Great Persecution, the Emperor Julian and Christian Reactions 24 . Laws against Astrologersand Magicians beforethe Fourth Century 24 . The Great Persecution 27 . Constantine 31 . Christian Reactionstothe Great Persecution 35 . Julian and the Constantinian Dynasty 54 . Christian Reactionstothe Emperor Julian 57 . Conclusion 60 FahrenheitAD451 – Imperial Legislation and Public Authority 62 . Magic Trials under the Emperor Valens 64 . The Theodosian Dynasty 69 . Philosophy and Astrology 77 . Curiosity and Illness 85 . Rutilius Namatianus and the Burning of the Sibylline Books 91 . Magic and Hellenist Trials in the Fifth Century 93 . Codex Justinianus 96 . Religious Inquisitions in the AgeofJustinian 102 . Conclusion 109 Holy Men, Clerics and Ascetics 111 . Book-Burning in the Acts of the Apostles 111 . Ecclesiastical Law in Late Antiquity 114 . Philosophy and Heresy 116 . Zacharias’ Life of Severus 124 . “IGiveYou Power to Trample on Serpents” 132 . Individuals Renouncing their Past 137 . Philosophy and Magic 144 . Conclusion 146 VIII Contents Materialist Philosophy 149 . Materialist Philosophies in Late Antiquity 151 . Christianity and Ancient Materialist Philosophy 157 . Augustine’sLetter to Dioscorus 163 . The Eschatological Cities of Babylon and Jerusalem 174 . Prudentius and Epicurus 182 . Polemicsagainst Materialist Philosophies in the East 186 . Conclusion 195 Moral Disapproval of LiteraryGenres 198 . John Chrysostom and the Decline of Ancient Philosophy 200 . Libanius’ Complaints 209 . The Decline of LibrariesinRome 212 . The Jerome–Rufinus Controversy 217 . Christianity and Classical Literature 220 . Christianity and Paideia 231 . Conclusion 235 Destruction of Libraries 238 . ATemple Destroyed in Antioch 239 . The Palatine LibraryinRome 241 . The LibraryofAlexandria 243 . The Sack of Rome 256 . The LibraryofConstantinople 258 . Conclusion 260 The Post-Roman Successor States 262 . Burning and Confiscation of Books after the FallofRome 263 . Ecclesiastical Law 278 . IsidoreofSeville 281 . MembraDisiecta 289 . Conclusion 294 Conclusion 296 Bibliography 303 Primaryliterature 303 Secondaryliterature 310 Index of persons 325 Contents IX Subject index 330 Index of passages 338 Introduction The modern book has its roots in Late Antiquity.Inthe ancient world texts were normallywritten on rolls,which weremade predominantlyout of papyrus.Com- paratively, thecodex-book embodies aform much closer to today’sbooks. Codi- ces werebound books thatallow the opening of twopages at atime. While paper as we know it was unknowninAntiquity,ancient codices weremostlymade out of parchment.Parchment codices became the predominant form of books from Late Antiquity(c. 300 –700) to the Middle Ages. Both forms wereusedtopresent and preserveinformation, but the durability of the materials used required them to be copied, leading to accidental and deliberate redactions,misinterpretations and mistakes.Because of their literal, symbolic and culturalpower,and because they wereoftenused to transmit religious doctrine, magic and arcane rites and narratives, and cultural information, books in this period wereemblematic sites of contention between competingideologies and cultural discourses.Inthis con- text,bookscould getlost,they could be censored and banned,and they could also be burntordestroyed. As aculturalpractice, book-burning was known and performedthroughout Antiquity. While other methodsofdestruction did exist,such as by throwingin water,book-burning wasthe most effective method of obliterating the writing that the book contained. It also served the purpose of ritualized purification when applied to books containing content classed as dangerous or seditious. This book considers and examines book-burning and censorship of books in Late Antiquity, arguing that the demonisation of books contrary to the Christian world view had anegative impact on the transmission of texts between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The assumption that book-burning was seen as ameans of purification needs some clarification. Christianity had its ownconcepts of purification. The Bible, particularlythe New Testament,isfull of images emphasising the purify- ing forceoffire;God and the faith are portrayed as fire, destroyingthe enemies of faith and testingthe true faith as if fire tests gold and silver, and the fear of hellfire justifies anyloss or drastic measure in this world.¹ The Christian author Origen givesavery interesting testimonial on the Christian idea of faith as afire verifyingany human interpretation on the true understandingoffaith. Comment- Cor. :–; Pet. :;Ps. :;Mark :–;Matt. :;Apoc. :.Abbreviations of ancient authorities arebased on Lampe’s Patristic GreekLexicon,the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae and Liddell–Scott–Jones’s Greek–EnglishLexicon. All translations aremyown. Translations of biblical texts aremodernised from the KingJames Version. 2 Introduction ing on the biblical Book of Numbers, Origen explains the role of heretics² within God’screation, suggesting,asotherChristian authors do, that the fire of biblical truth is not onlyabletorefuteheretics,but does also shine brighter if elucidated by false, heretical interpretations. While this is asomewhat metaphorical pic- ture, Origen does mention at least one heretical author (Marcion) whose works wereactuallyordered to be burnt.³ This shows that the idea of true faith burning and purifyingfalse interpretations wasclose to the actual act of refuting and lit- erallydestroyingheretical works,while the act of refutation itself helped to shape orthodoxy.Inother words, thereisnoneed for the refuted material to sur- vive. This spiritual value of ancient writingsstands alongside theirmaterial worth. In Late Antiquity expensive codex-books became the norm, but ancient papyri-books wereprobablymuchcheaper,given the availability of the material as papyrus wasaplant that grew abundantlyinEgypt.InclassicalAthens, books written by the philosopher Anaxagoras werereportedlysold for the market-price of one drachma, perhaps comparable to the dailywageofaskilled worker.⁴ Ac- cording to the Edict on Maximum Prices in 301, in Late Antiquity scribes were paid much more than that to produce books, but the currencyhad long been de- valuated. It is therefore difficult to comparebook-prices. At anyrate, book prices greatlydiffered depending on the quality and ageofthe book.⁵ There is ageneral tendencythat codex-books in Late Antiquity became more lavish and expensive, especiallyChristian books. Moreover,although it is hardlypossible to give exact figures,there was alsoarelatively highdegree of literacy in ancient societies. In- scriptionshad acentral place in manyancientcities. On the other hand,just like The term heretic is usuallyused todaytorefertoChristians whose opinions disagreed with what was regarded as the authoritative interpretation of Christianity at agiven time period, de- fined by councils