COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page i OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES General Editors Gillian Clark Andrew Louth COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page ii COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page iii Communities of the Blessed Social Environment and Religious Change in Northern Italy, ad 200–400 MARK HUMPHRIES 3 COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page iv 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Mark Humphries 1999 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 1999 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Humphries, Mark. Communities of the blessed : social environment and religious change in northern Italy, AD 200–400 / Mark Humphries. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Italy, Northern—Church history. 2. Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600. I. Title. BR877.NC7H65 2000 274.5′01—dc21 99–25813 ISBN 0–19–826983–8 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd., Midsomer Norton COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page v To my parents, for everything ‘uincuntur tenebrae noctis lumine deuotionis’ Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermo 16. 3 COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page vi COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page vii PREFACE This book is a revised version of a St Andrews doctoral thesis writ- ten between 1993 and 1996; it is anticipated that a second volume will continue its analysis of north Italian Christianity through the fifth and sixth centuries. Although this is a social history of reli- gion, I write neither as a devout Christian nor as a sceptical atheist, but as one sympathetic to all shades of religious belief. At the same time, however, I write as one whose formative years were spent in a country where Christian churches exercised considerable social lever- age, and where religious hatred extended to murderous extremes. It seems incredible to me that this should not have influenced the pre- sent study, especially where matters of tolerance or intolerance are at issue. During the preparation of the thesis and its subsequent trans- formation into a book I have incurred many debts of gratitude, although none of those mentioned below should be held respons- ible for the shortcomings of the finished product. I owe most to Jill Harries, who supervised my thesis with exemplary skill and sym- pathy, and who has continued to encourage me during the prepara- tion of the book. In St Andrews I was also fortunate to enjoy the camaraderie and support of a lively group of ancient historians and classicists (many now dispersed to other universities): Colin Adams, Philip Burton, Jon Coulston, Mary Harlow, Tom Harrison, Peter Maxwell-Stuart, Helen Parkins, Roger Rees, John Serrati, Christopher Smith, Shaun Tougher, and especially Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby. My examiners, Julia Smith and David Hunt, made many useful corrections and suggestions, and encouraged me to publish. I was able to conduct some of my research and field- work in Italy and Slovenia, and I am grateful to all who facilitated my work there. The David Russell Trust in St Andrews supported my travel with a generous grant. For a month I was a guest at the Istituto di Filologia Classica at the University of Urbino. I should like to thank the Director, Roberto Pretagostini, for his hospitality; Adrian Gratwick (St Andrews) and Rosaria Falivene (Urbino) for helping to arrange my visit; and Maria Cesa, who kindly took time COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page viii viii Preface to discuss my work with me. At Udine, the staff of the univer- sity library provided a warm welcome even though I arrived un- announced, and they did much to find obscure Aquileian material for me. A productive period of study at the University of Bari was facilitated by the kindness of Aldo Corcella, Liana Lomiento, and Gennaro Lomiento (Director of the Istituto di Studi classici e cristiani at Bari). Graham Shipley, Thomas Wiedemann, and Wolf Liebeschuetz (who kindly allowed me to see the typescript of sec- tions of his forthcoming book on late antique cities) all provided timely encouragement, while Bryan Ward-Perkins, as editor of my contribution to The Cambridge Ancient History, helped refine my ideas about late antique Italy. As editor for Oxford Early Christian Studies, Gillian Clark has provided endless inspiration, without which I could never have finished the book. At Oxford University Press, Hilary O’Shea and Georga Godwin provided abundant assistance, encouragement, and reassurance, while David Sanders copy-edited the typescript most conscientiously, thus saving me from many errors and inconsistencies. Other debts are more personal. Friends in Italy, the United Kingdom, and Ireland have provided encouragement and coffee in abundance. For support and tolerance during the completion of both thesis and book, I owe more to Catherine Parker than words can express. Finally, none of this would have been possible without the love, patience, and understanding of my parents. Neither has ever had leanings towards academe, but I have learned most from them. M.D.H. COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page ix CONTENTS List of illustrations xi Abbreviations xii Introduction: regional history and religious history 1 Authority, history, and the study of early Christianity 1 Religious and regional diversity 4 Approaches 15 part i Religion and environment: Christian origins in northern Italy 19 1. The north Italian human environment 21 Landscapes 21 The impact of Rome 27 Human geography 29 Divine geography 36 Late antique transformations 39 2. Subscribing bishops and invented apostles: the search for the earliest north Italian churches 45 Councils and conflicts in the fourth century 46 Traditions and innovations in the early middle ages 53 3. Portraits in a landscape: Christian origins in northern Italy 72 The Christian communities 72 Patterns of dissemination 95 part ii North Italian Christian communities in the fourth century 107 4. Regional churches and imperial policy 109 Emperors and bishops: patterns of interaction 110 Defining deviance in northern Italy 127 COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page x x Contents 5. The ordering of society 137 The development of episcopal hierarchies 137 The Church and local power 161 6. From the cities to the mountains: Christian expansion, 350–400 172 The growth of the episcopate 173 The frontiers of evangelization 175 7. Negotiosus cursus: Christianity in the cities 187 Churches and urban space 188 Christians, pagans, and Jews 207 Construction, competition, and pluralism 214 Epilogue: the changing world of Chromatius of Aquileia 216 Appendix: The martyrs of northern Italy 221 Bibliography 228 Index 251 COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page xi ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Map of northern Italy 22 2. Aquileia: the double church of bishop Theodore (early fourth century) 75 3. Porec:ˇ early Christian churches under the Euphrasian basilica 87 4. Aquileia: the cathedral in the later fourth century 192 5. Milan: the cathedral complex 198 COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page xii ABBREVIATIONS (a) Primary sources Acta conc. Aquil. Acts of the Council of Aquileia Altercatio Heracliani Altercatio Heracliani laici cum Germinio episcopo Sirmiensi Ambr., C. Aux. Ambrose of Milan, Contra Auxentium Ambr., De obitu Theod. Ambrose of Milan, De obitu Theodosii Ambr., De Sacr. Ambrose of Milan, De Sacramentis Ambr., Ep. Ambrose of Milan, Epistolae Amm. Marc. Ammianus Marcellinus Arnulf, Lib. gest. Arnulf of Milan, Liber gestorum recientorum Athan., Apol. Const. Athanasius of Alexandria, Apologia ad Constantium Athan., De Syn. Athanasius of Alexandria, De Synodis Athan., Ep. ad Afros Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistola ad Afros Athan., Hist. Ar. Athanasius of Alexandria, Historia Arianorum Aug., ad Don. post coll. Augustine of Hippo, Ad Donatistas post collationem Aug., Brev. Coll. Augustine of Hippo, Breviarium Collationis cum Donatistis Aug., c. Cresc. Augustine of Hippo, Contra Cresconium Aug., Conf. Augustine of Hippo, Confessiones Aug., Ep. Augustine of Hippo, Epistolae Aur. Vict., Caes. Aurelius Victor, Liber de Caesaribus Basil, Ep. Basil of Caesarea, Epistolae Chrom., Sermo Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermons Chron. 354 Codex Calendar of AD 354 Conc. Chalc. Council of Chalcedon Conc. Nic. Council of Nicaea CTh Codex Theodosianus Damasus, Ep. Damasus of Rome, Epistola Confidimus quidem ‘Confidimus quidem’ Eus., HE Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia Ecclesiastica Euseb. Verc., Ep. Eusebius of Vercelli, Epistolae Filastrius, Div. her. lib. Filastrius of Brescia, Diversarum hereseon liber COTA01 08/10/1999 12:15 PM Page xiii Abbreviations xiii Gaud.