TRICLINIUM PAUPERUM: POVERTY, CHARITY AND THE PAPACY IN THE TIME OF GREGORY THE GREAT AN ABSTRACT SUBMITTED ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF MARCH, 2013 TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS OF TULANE UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ___________________________ Miles Doleac APPROVED: ________________________ Dennis P. Kehoe, Ph.D. Co-Director ________________________ F. Thomas Luongo, Ph.D. Co-Director ________________________ Thomas D. Frazel, Ph.D AN ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the role of Gregory I (r. 590-604 CE) in developing permanent ecclesiastical institutions under the authority of the Bishop of Rome to feed and serve the poor and the socio-political world in which he did so. Gregory’s work was part culmination of pre-existing practice, part innovation. I contend that Gregory transformed fading, ancient institutions and ideas—the Imperial annona, the monastic soup kitchen-hospice or xenodochium, Christianity’s “collection for the saints,” Christian caritas more generally and Greco-Roman euergetism—into something distinctly ecclesiastical, indeed “papal.” Although Gregory has long been closely associated with charity, few have attempted to unpack in any systematic way what Gregorian charity might have looked like in practical application and what impact it had on the Roman Church and the Roman people. I believe that we can see the contours of Gregory’s initiatives at work and, at least, the faint framework of an organized system of ecclesiastical charity that would emerge in clearer relief in the eighth and ninth centuries under Hadrian I (r. 772-795) and Leo III (r. 795-816). Gregory’s efforts at caritative organization had significant implications. This dissertation argues that Gregory’s response to poverty and want in Rome from 590 to 604 CE permanently altered the trajectories of both ecclesiastical charity and the office that came to oversee its administration. TRICLINIUM PAUPERUM: POVERTY, CHARITY AND THE PAPACY IN THE TIME OF GREGORY THE GREAT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF MARCH, 2013 TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS OF TULANE UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ___________________________ Miles Doleac APPROVED: ________________________ Dennis P. Kehoe, Ph.D. Co-Director ________________________ F. Thomas Luongo, Ph.D. Co-Director ________________________ Thomas D. Frazel, Ph.D ©Copyright by Miles Doleac, 2013 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I wish to thank Dennis Kehoe, not only for the considerable time and energy he dedicated to this project, but for generously shepherding me through a graduate career at Tulane that was not without obstacles. In addition, I owe an enormous debt to my once-and-future mentor, colleague and, most importantly, my friend, Phyllis Jestice, for her kindness, patience, guidance, concern and support over the last decade. Without Phyllis, my professional circumstances would almost certainly be substantially different than they are today. I have been humbled by Phyllis’ belief in me and I hope to carve my own academic career in the most charitable image of hers. Lastly, I am very fortunate to have a family who has always provided, and continues to provide, unrelenting support to my endeavors, large and small. For this, even soaring words would fall short of expressing my gratitude. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. ii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................1 The Problem: Gregory and Permanent Poor Relief The Argument: Charity Begins at Rome The Problem and Its Implications: Poverty, Charity and Power Food for the Masses: Christian Charity vs. Greco-Roman Euergetism The End of the Roman World Gregory I: Monk and Senator The Groundwork: Peter Brown and Beyond The Primary Evidence Summary of Chapters 2. ROME AT THE END OF THE WORLD ........................................................42 The Winter of Cities and the Men Who Ran Them The Church and the Old Aristocracy 3. PATERFAMILIAS DOMINI ET UTILITATES PAUPERUM: GREGORY “SAVES” ROME FOR THE POOR..................................................................................89 Christianity’s Disciplined (if Disorderly) Care for the Poor: The Foundations of an Institution Christian Charity Meets Imperial Largesse A Brief History of the Annona iii Grain for Rome: From the Ports to the Distribution Centers Localizing the Annona: The Situation after 410 Gregory’s Problem: Feeding Rome in the Late Sixth Century The Gregorian Distributions: People and Places Diaconiae and Food Distribution: What’s In A Name? Rome’s ‘Dark Age’ and Her Bishop’s Response 4. VITA CONTEMPLATIVA ET VITA ACTIVA: THE APE AND THE LION ..192 The Faces and Needs of the Late Antique Poor Gregory, Monasteries and Monastic Poor Houses Private Foundations, Papal Patronage 36,000 Meals and Fourteen Mares: Did Gregory’s Relief Efforts Actually Help to Ameliorate the Plight of the Poor? 5. CONCLUSION: POVERTY, CHARITY AND POWER ..............................248 Appendix 1. GREGORIUS CYRIDANO.............................................................................269 2. ILLUSTRATIONS ..........................................................................................271 WORKS CITED .............................................................................................................278 iv INTRODUCTION: TRICLINIUM PAUPERUM The sixth century is one of the most memorable in history. In it, humanity witnessed the overthrow of a great and ancient civilization, and on this account believed that the end of the world had come. Gregorovius, Die Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter (History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, 1870), ii.70 The future Pope Gregory I “the Great” (r. 590-604 CE) carved the monastery of St. Andrew’s out of his wealthy family’s Caelian Hill estate around 575 CE. Today, three chapels and the apse wall of a large library and audience hall are all that resemble Gregory’s original foundation. The chapels are dedicated to S. Barbara, S. Andrea and Gregory’s mother, S. Sylvia. According to legend, Sylvia is buried beneath the chapel that bears her name, although the current structure was erected from the foundations near the turn of the seventeenth century. The other two chapels exhibit striking elements of late Roman/early medieval building technique. Both have been renovated (S. Andrea extensively), but S. Barbara still displays the traits of a late Roman summer triclinium, as one might expect to find on an aristocratic family’s estate in the twilight of antiquity.1 But something is different about this dining room. Roman aristocrats had long used dinner parties as a venue for entertaining and impressing other Roman aristocrats, but S. Barbara’s triclinium may have functioned in a much dissimilar capacity. An inscription on the marble archway that frames the entrance of S. Barbara’s Chapel tells another story 1 See Richard Krautheimer’s discussion in Rome: Profile of a City, rev. ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 59. 1 altogether. It reads: TRICLINIUM PAUPERUM (“dining room of the poor”). The inscription reflects how people understood Gregory and his work at a much later date, but it may well be appropriate to the use of the room (or at least a piece of its furniture) in Gregory’s own lifetime. Gregory’s ninth-century biographer, John the Deacon (fl. 872-882 CE), lists a Chapel of S. Barbara in his description of the monastic buildings of St. Andrew’s. 2 He also relates the story that, as pope, Gregory hosted twelve destitute persons each evening for dinner and that, on one occasion; an angel appeared at the table to demonstrate God’s approval of Gregory’s great generosity. If the Bishop of Rome held such dinners, he likely would have done so in the Lateran apartments, but Gregory maintained close ties to S. Andrew’s even after worldly affairs called him away from his monastic retreat in the late 570s. The glorious Basilica of S. Gregorio Magno al Celio testifies to the fact that, even now, the site proudly commemorates the accomplishments of its namesake, as does—of greater significance for our purposes—the soup kitchen and homeless shelter, run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, which also occupies the grounds of what was once St. Andrew’s. Today, upon entering the site’s Chapel of S. Barbara, one is struck by the presence of a large, rectangular, marble table, possibly of ancient origin, even if its fifteenth-century inscription is not. At the east end of the chapel, a towering medieval sculpture of a seated Gregory in papal regalia nods approvingly at the great table below, the inscription atop which reads: 2 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii IV.89 PL 75, 234. Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1847. 2 Bis senos hic Gregorius pascebat egentes angelus et decimus tertius ac cubuit. Here Gregory used to feed twelve needy persons and an angel joined them, making thirteen.3 The inscription is notable for its simplicity, especially in light of how far removed it is from Gregory’s own time. By the fifteenth century, Gregory had long attained legendary status. The omission from the table inscription of Gregory’s adjectival honorific, Magnus, is particularly striking. But the impression one gets from even a cursory reading of Gregory’s own letters,