Law and Order: Monastic Formation, Episcopal Authority, and Conceptions of Justice in Late Antiquity by Maria Edith Doerfler Graduate Program of Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Elizabeth A. Clark, Supervisor ___________________________ J. Warren Smith ___________________________ J. Clare Woods ___________________________ Joel Marcus ___________________________ Zlatko Plese Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2013 i v ABSTRACT Law and Order: Monastic Formation, Episcopal Authority, and Conceptions of Justice in Late Antiquity by Maria Edith Doerfler Graduate Program of Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Elizabeth A. Clark, Supervisor ___________________________ J. Warren Smith ___________________________ J. Clare Woods ___________________________ Joel Marcus ___________________________ Zlatko Plese An abstract of a Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2013 Copyright by Maria Edith Doerfler 2013 Abstract Among the numerous commitments late ancient Christians throughout the Roman Empire shared with their non-Christian neighbors was a preoccupation with justice. Not only was the latter one of the celebrated characteristics of God, the New Testament had charged Christians, particularly those who served as bishops or elders, with ensuring and maintaining justice in their communities from the tradition's very origins. In the early fourth century, this aspect of episcopal responsibilities had received an unexpected boost when the Emperor Constantine not only recognized bishops' role in intra-Christian conflict resolution, but expanded their judicial capacity to include even outsiders in the so-called audientia episcopalis, the bishop's court. Christians had, of course, never resolved the question of what constituted justice in a vacuum. Yet bishops' increasing integration into the sprawling and frequently amorphous apparatus of the Roman legal system introduced new pressures as well as new opportunities into Christian judicial discourse. Roman law could become an ally in a minister's exegetical or homiletical efforts. Yet it also came to intrude into spheres that had previously regarded themselves as set apart from Roman society, including especially monastic and clerical communities. The latter proved to be particularly permeable to different shades of legal discourse, inasmuch as they served as privileged feeders for episcopal sees. Their members were part of the Christian elites, whose judicial formation promised to bear disproportionate fruit among the laity under their actual or eventual care. This dissertation's task is the examination of the ways in which Christians in these iv environments throughout the Latin West at the turn of the fifth century thought and wrote about justice. I contend that no single influence proved dominant, but that three strands of judicial discourse emerge as significant throughout these sources: that of popular philosophical thought; that of biblical exegesis; and that of reasoning from Roman legal precept and practice. Late ancient Christian rhetoric consciously and selectively deployed these threads to craft visions of justice, both divine and human, that could be treated as distinctively Christian while remaining intelligible in the broader context of the Roman Empire. v Dedication Accedit illud quod ingratus divinitati esse non possum: laetandum est enim magis quod talem fratrem habuerim, quam dolendum quod fratrem amiserim; illud enim munus, hoc debitum est. Itaque perfunctus sum, quamdiu licuit, commisso mihi fenore: qui deposuit pignus, recepit. - De Excessu Fratris 1.3 To the memory of my brother, Andreas. vi Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ xi 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Outline of the Project ........................................................................................... 8 2. Leading the Church, Judging the World .................................................................... 13 2.1 Episcopal Selection at the Turn of the Fifth Century. ....................................... 19 2.2 Making (Monk-)Bishops .................................................................................... 29 2.3 Bishops at Work: Between Law and Scripture. ................................................ 36 2.3.1 Tying and Loosing: Slaves, Orphans, and Bishops. .................................... 36 2.3.2 Tending and Defending: Bishops’ Care of Prisoners. .................................. 43 2.3.3 Family Affairs: Episcopal Advocacy for Slaves and Women. ....................... 46 2.4 Conclusion: The Public Bishop. ........................................................................ 49 3. Iudex, Arbiter, Episcopus : Mapping the audientia episcopalis in late ancient judicial practice .............................................................................................................................. 55 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 55 3.2 Roman Courts: Giving Judgment from Republic to Dominate ......................... 60 3.2.1 Judicial Action in the Early Republic: Legis Actio. ...................................... 60 3.2.2 From Late Republic to the Principate: Judicial Action by formula. ............. 63 3.2.3 The Empire and the Age of the Codices: Cognitio extra ordinem. ............... 65 3.3 One Case, Different Paths to Resolution ........................................................... 69 3.3.1 Before the Iudex: Magisterial Courts in Late Antiquity ............................... 69 3.3.2 Alternative Dispute Resolution: Arbitration, Negotiation & Co. ................. 76 vii 3.4 The Episcopalis Audientia ................................................................................. 80 3.4.1. The bishop and the laws: Roman legal support for the episcopalis audientia. 83 3.4.1.1 Theodosian Code 1.27.1 .......................................................................... 87 3.4.1.2 Sirmondian Constitution 1 ....................................................................... 91 3.4.1.3 Justinianic Code 1.4.7 .............................................................................. 97 3.4.1.4 Theodosian Code 1.27.2 / Justinianic Code 1.4.8 .................................. 100 3.4.2 Status Quaestionis: Some Tentative Conclusions. ....................................... 101 3.4.3 Conclusion: The Return of Licinius. ........................................................... 106 4. A Few Good Men: Philosophical Discourse and the Construction of Justice. ........ 116 4.1 Introduction: The Niece’s Betrothal and the Church’s Two Dowries. ............ 116 4.2 Plato’s Heirs: The Just Community. ................................................................ 125 4.2.1 Stoic and Neoplatonic Approaches to Community and Society ................. 125 4.2.1.1 Good Men and Philosopher-Kings: Neoplatonic approaches to community and justice. ....................................................................................... 127 4.2.1.2 The Sage and the Statesman: Stoic Visions of Government. .............. 134 4.3 Philosophical Schools and Monastic Communities ......................................... 143 4.3.1 Catechumens and the Philosophical Life: Augustine at Cassiciacum ....... 143 4.3.2 The Communal Foundations of Justice: Cassiciacum and Hippo ............... 153 4.3.3 Ambrose’s De Officiis: Crafting Clergy in Northern Italy ......................... 161 4.3.3.1 Iustitia and Beneficentia in Cicero and Ambrose ................................ 166 4.3.3.2 Ambrose’s Justice: Personal, Ecclesial, Communal. .......................... 176 4.4 Conclusion: Paternus’ Problem. .......................................................................... 180 5. The Wheat and the Chaff: Judging like God .......................................................... 188 viii 5.1 Introduction: The Feuding Siblings. ............................................................... 188 5.2 Justice and Christian Communities: First Century Origins ............................. 195 5.2.1 Paul vs. the Courts of Corinth (1 Corinthians 6:1-6) .................................... 197 5.2.2 The Judging Community (Matthew 18:15-20) ........................................... 201 5.2.3 The “Apostles” Speak: The Didache ......................................................... 203 5.3 Heirs of the Apostles: Afterlife of Texts? ....................................................... 208 5.3.1 The Second and Third Centuries ................................................................. 208 5.3.2 The Didascalia Apostolorum ...................................................................... 210 5.3.3 The Fourth Century: The Apostles’ Monastic Heirs .................................. 217 5.4 Quis custodiet ipsos custodes: Judging the Saints ...........................................