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CONSTRUCTING CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: THE SERMONS OF CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA, 388-407 By ROBERT MCEACHNIE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Robert McEachnie 2 To Katherine 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the writing of this dissertation many people have contributed to the project. I would like to thank my dissertation committee beginning with my chair, Andrea Sterk. Without her countless hours poring over my ideas and correcting my style this work would not exist today. Howard Louthan and Nina Caputo also read chapters and offered encouragement and suggestions at crucial points. Sue O’Brien and Victoria Pagan have both been wonderful allies in the process. Molly Lester and Ralph Patrello both read chapters at crucial stages and offered their frank thoughts on the subjects. My colleagues Amy Hughes, Anna Lankina and Reid Weber also offered encouragement and the opportunity to give voice to abstract ideas over many, many cups of coffee. And without the prodding of Gary Poe, Perry Hildreth and Thomas St. Antoine I would never have embarked on such an intellectual journey. The Center for European Studies provided me the chance to complete this project thanks to a fellowship in 2012-2013. Parts of this dissertation were presented at the American Society of Church Historians and the Oxford International Conference on Patristics. Thanks to the commenters and questioners alike for their observations and suggestions. Personally, this work would have been impossible without the support of my family. My children, Bobby and Juliet, deserve special thanks for putting up with my being absent (both physically and mentally) far too much. And Katherine, my partner in every facet of life, deserves a thanks which I cannot begin to give words to. I offer to her this project. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTERS 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA ........................................ 10 Literature Review .................................................................................................... 13 Organization ........................................................................................................... 26 2 PATRON, PEACEMAKER, POLITICIAN, PREACHER: CHROMATIUS IN AQUILEIA ............................................................................................................... 32 Family and City ....................................................................................................... 33 Chromatius the Aquileian ........................................................................................ 39 The Community of the Blessed ............................................................................... 46 Bishops and Emperors............................................................................................ 52 Leader and Envoy ................................................................................................... 58 Patron and Friend ................................................................................................... 61 Chromatius the Builder and Preacher ..................................................................... 66 3 MEMORIES OF HERETICS PAST: ARIANS, AQUIELA AND AUTHORITY .......... 72 A History of Pre-Gothic Western Arianism .............................................................. 73 Heretics in Aquileia? ............................................................................................... 80 References to Heresy in the Sermons of Chromatius ............................................. 84 Memory, Heresy and Forgetting: Heresiological Discourses .................................. 88 Chromatius’s History of Heresy .............................................................................. 95 The Author(ity) of Orthodoxy ................................................................................. 104 4 “UNLIKE IN TONGUE, UNLIKE IN DRESS OR ARMS?” THE PLACE OF BARBARIANS IN A CHRISTIAN WORLD ............................................................ 107 Enemies at the Gate: Barbarians in Aquileia ........................................................ 108 “Unlike in tongue, unlike in dress and arms?” Attitudes about Barbarians ............ 113 Non-Christian Authors .................................................................................... 115 Christian Authors ............................................................................................ 121 Rufinus ........................................................................................................... 127 Summary ........................................................................................................ 131 Chromatius and the Gentes .................................................................................. 132 Glimpses of barbarians................................................................................... 133 5 Barbarians as Markers of Roman Identity ...................................................... 136 5 “AN ABANDONED NEST”: JEWS IN AQUILEIA .................................................. 145 Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity ................................................................... 146 The Presence of Jews in Chromatius’s Sermons ................................................. 156 Jews in Aquileia .................................................................................................... 165 Anti-Jewish Language in Chromatius’s Sermons .................................................. 169 Jews and Ritual .................................................................................................... 176 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 183 6 ADAPTING ROMAN AND CHRISTIAN IDEALS: SPIRITUAL VALUES FOR A NEW AQUILEIAN ELITE ...................................................................................... 185 New Modes of Being Christian: The Creation of Ascetic Communities ................. 186 Chromatius on Perfection ..................................................................................... 193 Chromatius and Origen .................................................................................. 194 Origenism Applied in Aquileia ......................................................................... 198 Christian Virtues in the City ................................................................................... 202 Avarice vs. Liberality ...................................................................................... 202 Luxury vs. Denial ............................................................................................ 207 Ambition vs. Modesty ..................................................................................... 212 Creating a Christian Community ........................................................................... 215 7 CONCLUSIONS: THE AFTERLIFE OF CHROMATIUS ....................................... 221 APPENDIX A TRANSLATION OF THE SERMONS OF CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA ............. 226 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 395 Primary Source Bibliography .................................................................... 395 Secondary Source Bibliography ............................................................... 397 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 415 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAAD Antica Altoadriatico CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina CTh Codex Theodosianus JTS Journal of Theological Studies PL Patrologiae Latina PG Patrologiae Graeca NPNF Nicene Post-Nicene Fathers Series SC Sources Chrétiennes 7 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy CONSTRUCTING CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: THE SERMONS OF CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA, 388-407 By Robert McEachnie May 2013 Chair: Andrea Sterk Major: History The sermons of the late Roman bishop Chromatius of Aquileia were only rediscovered in the middle of the last century. Taken with other documents relating to Chromatius and in light of substantial archeological scholarship, the sermons offer a window into the Christianization project which Chromatius attempted to carry out in the northern Italian city of Aquileia, a port on the Adriatic where he served from 388-407. My dissertation explores the nature of his Christianization project in terms of the construction of a Christian Roman identity and the conversion of wealthy elites. The dissertation also includes an appendix with the first translation of Chromatius’s sermons into English. Born around 335, Chromatius of Aquileia witnessed one of the greatest cultural paradigm shifts in history. He entered a world in which the first Christian emperor had recently died, disputes about gods raged, and pagan temples still dominated the landscape. By the time of his
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