Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76c49bb84f-l6pkv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-03T04:25:17.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The late antique legacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2014

Rob Meens
Rob Meens
Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
Get access

Summary

We begin in the year 590 in Rome. At this moment the situation in the former capital of the world can be characterized as simply disastrous. Justinian’s attempt to reconquer the western parts of the Roman empire, which started with the destruction of the Vandal kingdom in northern Africa in 533, resulted in Italy in the Gothic Wars. This prolonged confrontation between the troops of the Byzantine generals Belisarius and Narses and the Gothic armies in Italy brought an end to the economic prosperity of the Italian peninsula. Whereas under Gothic rule late Roman structures had continued to function, the Gothic Wars put a definitive end to the prosperity of late antique Italy, leading to famine and plague. In November 589 the waters of the Tiber had risen to such heights that buildings collapsed and ecclesiastical granaries were destroyed. Great amounts of grain had been lost while people were seeing snakes and dragons swimming in the river. In January the plague hit hard, Pope Gelasius II being among its first casualties. The people of Rome looked for guidance to a former prefect of the city, a member of a distinguished Roman family living on the Coelian Hill, the same family from which Pope Felix III (483–92) had come. Gregory the Great, as the scion of this family later came to be known, came to the papal office with serious reservations as he had chosen the contemplative life and was now forced to return to the sorrows of the active life again. His fame, however, seems to have spread fast. Soon after he had become the new bishop of Rome, his namesake, Bishop Gregory of Tours, included an account of Gregory’s election in his Histories. The bishop of Tours relates that he was informed about Roman affairs by a deacon who had travelled to Rome in that year, bringing back relics to the town of Tours. Gregory’s account informs us of the catastrophes in Rome and the way the newly elected pope tried to remedy them. The new pope saw the plague as a divine punishment for the sins of the people in Rome and organized a penitential procession to atone for these sins.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Penance in Medieval Europe, 600–1200 , pp. 12 - 36
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Humphries, M., ‘Italy, A.D. 425–605’, in Cameron, A., Ward-Perkins, B. and Whitby, M. (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. : Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425–600 (Cambridge 2000), pp. 525–51.Google Scholar
Markus, R. A., Gregory the Great and His World (Cambridge 1997), pp. 10–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory of Tours, Historiae, X, 1, ed. Krusch, B. and Levison, W., MGH SS rer. mer. I (Hanover 1956), pp. 477–81Google Scholar
Nathan, G., ‘Rogation ceremonies in Late Antique Gaul’, Classica et Medievalia 21 (1998), pp. 276–303.Google Scholar
Chadwick, O., ‘Gregory of Tours and Gregory the Great’, Journal of Theological Studies 50 (1949), pp. 38–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinzelmann, M., Gregor von Tours (538–594). ‘Zehn Bücher Geschichte.’ Historiographie und Gesellschaftskonzept im 6. Jahrhundert (Darmstadt 1994), p. 70, fn. 76 and p. 72, fn. 83.Google Scholar
Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks, translated with an introduction by L. Thorpe (Harmondsworth 1974), p. 545Google Scholar
Paxton, F., Christianizing Death. The Creation of a Ritual Process in Early Medieval Europe (Ithaca / London 1990), pp. 47–91.Google Scholar
Shanzer, D. and Wood, I., Avitus of Vienne. Letters and Selected Prose (Liverpool 2002), pp. 381–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, I., ‘Liturgy in the Rhône valley and the Bobbio Missal’, in Hen, Y. and Meens, R. (eds.), The Bobbio Missal. Liturgy and Religious Culture in Merovingian Gaul, Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology 11 (Cambridge 2004), pp. 206–18, esp. pp. 206–8Google Scholar
Hill, J., ‘The Litaniae maiores and minores in Rome, Francia and Anglo-Saxon England’, EME 9 (2000), pp. 211–46.Google Scholar
Poschmann, B., Penance and the Anointing of the Sick (New York 1964)Google Scholar
Vogel, C., Les ‘Libri Paenitentiales’, Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge occidental 27 (Turnhout 1978), p. 34Google Scholar
Price, R., ‘Informal penance in early medieval Christendom’, in Cooper, K. and Gregory, J. (eds.), Retribution, Repentance, and Reconciliation, Studies in Church History 40 (Woodbridge 2004), pp. 29–38.Google Scholar
Cassian, John, Collationes XX, 8, ed. Petschenig, M., CSEL 13 (Vienna 2004), pp. 561–565Google Scholar
Origen, Homélies sur le Lévitique II, 4, ed. Borret, M., Sources Chrétiennes 286–7 (Paris 1981), pp. 108–10.Google Scholar
Louth, A., ‘Unity and diversity in the Church of the fourth century’, in Swanson, R. (ed.), Unity and Diversity in the Church, Studies in Church History 32 (Oxford 1995), pp. 1–17.Google Scholar
Saint-Roch, P., La pénitence dans les conciles et les lettres des papes des origines à la mort de Grégoire le Grand (Vatican City 1991), p. 15, fn. 1.Google Scholar
Vives, J., Concilios Visigóticos e Hispano-Romanos (Barcelona / Madrid 1963), p. 22.Google Scholar
Blaise, Albert, Dictionnaire Latin-Français des auteurs chrétiennes (Turnhout 1954), p. 661Google Scholar
Munier, C., Tertullien, La pénitence. Introduction, texte critique, traduction et commentaire, Sources Chrétiennes 316 (Paris 1984), pp. 156, 174 and 180.Google Scholar
Bowes, K., Private Worship, Public Values, and Religious Change in Late Antiquity (Cambridge 2008).Google Scholar
Turner, C. H., Ecclesiae occidentalis monumenta iuris antiquissima canonum et conciliorum graecorum interpretationes Latinae, vol. ii, 1 (Oxford 1907), pp. 92–9.Google Scholar
Rapp, C., Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity. The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition (Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 2005), pp. 30–2, 38, 46 and 95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhalde, K., Expectations of Justice in the Age of Augustine (Philadelphia 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maassen, F., Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts im Abendlande (Graz 1870Google Scholar
Kéry, L., Canonical Collections of the Early Middle Ages (ca. 400–1140). A Bibliographical Guide to the Manuscripts and Literature (Washington 1999).Google Scholar
Brown, P., Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. Towards a Christian Empire (Madison WI / London 1992), p. 100Google Scholar
Humfress, C., ‘Bishops and law courts in Late Antiquity: how (not) to make sense of the legal evidence’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 19 (2011), pp. 375–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Possidius, , Vita Augustini, ed. Geerlings, W. (Paderborn /Munich / etc 2005), pp. 64–6Google Scholar
Poque, Suzanne, Augustin d’Hippone, Sermons pour la Pâque. Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes, Sources Chrétiennes 116 (Paris 1966), pp. 274–8.Google Scholar
Hilberg, I., Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi epistula. Pars II: epistulae LXXI–CXX, CSEL 55 (Vienna / Leipzig 1912), p. 40.Google Scholar
Schieffer, R., ‘Von Mailand nach Canossa. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der christlichen Herrscherbuße von Theodosius d. Gr. bis zu Heinrich IV’, Deutsches Archiv 28 (1972), pp. 333–70.Google Scholar
Ambrose of Milan, Political Letters and Speeches, translated by Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G., Translated Texts for Historians 43 (Liverpool 2005), pp. 262–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulinus, Vita Ambrosii, c. 24, ed. Pellegrino, M. (Rome 1961), pp. 84–6.Google Scholar
Dassmann, E., Ambrosius von Mailand. Leben und Werk (Stuttgart 2004), pp. 187–92Google Scholar
Moorhead, J., Ambrose. Church and Society in the Late Roman World (Harlow 1999), pp. 192–6Google Scholar
McLynn, N., Ambrose of Milan. Church and Court in a Christian Capital (Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 1994), pp. 315–30Google Scholar
Kolb, F., ‘Der Bußakt von Mailand: Zum Verhältnis von Staat und Kirche in der Spätantike’, in Boockmann, H., Jürgensen, K. and Stoltenberg, G. (eds.), Geschichte und Gegenwart. Festschrift für Karl Dietrich Erdmann (Neumünster 1980), pp. 41–74.Google Scholar
Schwartz, E., Mommsen, T. and Winkelmann, F., Eusebius Werke: Die Kirchengeschichte 2.1. Die Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte, NF 6.2 (Berlin 1999, reprint of the 1st edition), pp. 588–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faller, O., Sancti Ambrosii opera. Pars Septima: Explanatio symboli, De sacramentis, De mysteriis, De paenitentia, De excessu fratris, De obitu Valentiniani, De obitu Theodosii, CSEL 73 (Vienna 1955), pp. 369–401, at p. 388Google Scholar
Theodoretus, , Historia Ecclesiastica, V, 18, ed. Parmentier, L. e.a. SC 530 (Paris 2009), pp. 404–14Google Scholar
Buc, P., The Dangers of Ritual. Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory (Princeton 2001), pp. 152–3Google Scholar
Carr, E., ‘Penance among the Armenians: notes on the history of its practice and its theology’, Studia Liturgica 11 (1976), pp. 65–100, at pp. 65–9.Google Scholar
Bailey, L., ‘“Our own most severe judges”: the power of penance in the Eusebius Gallicanus sermons’, in Cain, A. and Lenski, N. (eds.), The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity (Farnham 2009), pp. 201–11.Google Scholar
Klingshirn, W., Caesarius of Arles. The Making of a Christian Community in Late Antique Gaul (Cambridge 1994), p. 147.Google Scholar
Morin, G., Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones nunc primum in unum collecti et ad leges artis criticae ex innumeris Mss. recogniti, Pars I, 2, CC SL 104 (Turnhout 1953), pp. 724–6Google Scholar
Morin, G., Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones, Pars I, 1, CC SL 103 (Turnhout 1953), pp. 275–8Google Scholar
Vogel, C., La discipline pénitentielle en Gaule des origines à la fin du VIIe siècle (Paris 1952), pp. 86–96Google Scholar
Beck, H., The Pastoral Care of Souls in South-East France During the Sixth Century (Rome 1950), pp. 188–90.Google Scholar
Munier, C., Concilia Galliae A. 314 – A. 506, CC SL 148 (Turnhout 1963), p. 201Google Scholar
de Clercq, C., Concilia Galliae A. 511 – A. 695, CC SL 148A (Turnhout 1963), p. 124.Google Scholar
Morin, G., Sancti Caesarii episcopi Arelatensis Opera Omnia nunc primum in unum collecta, vol. ii (Maredsous 1942), pp. 329Google Scholar
Caesarius of Arles, Life, Testament, Letters, translated by Klingshirn, W. E., Translated Texts for Historians 19 (Liverpool 1994), p. 49Google Scholar
Faustus of Riez, Epistola 5 ad Paulinum, ed. Engelbrecht, A., Fausti Reiensis Opera praeter sermones Pseudo-Eusebianos, accedunt Ruricii epistulae, CSEL 21 (Prague / Vienna / Leipzig 1891), p. 184Google Scholar
Avitus of Vienne, Epistula ad Gundobadum regem de subita paenitentia, ed. Peiper, R., MGH AA 6, 2 (Berlin 1882), pp. 29–32Google Scholar
Nodes, D., ‘De subitanea paenitentia in letters of Faustus of Riez and Avitus of Vienne’, Recherches de théologie ancienne et médievale 55 (1988), pp. 30–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jungmann, J. A., Die lateinischen Bussriten in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung (Innsbruck 1932), p. 54, fn. 1.Google Scholar
Vogel, C., Medieval Liturgy. An Introduction to the Sources (Washington 1986), p. 67.Google Scholar
Hen, Y., ‘The liturgy of St Willibrord’, Anglo-Saxon England 26 (1997), pp. 41–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hen, Y., The Royal Patronage of Liturgy in Frankish Gaul. To the Death of Charles the Bald (877), Henry Bradshaw Society, Subsidia 3 (London 2001), pp. 28–33.Google Scholar
Moreton, B., The Eighth-Century Gelasian Sacramentary. A Study in Tradition (Oxford 1976).Google Scholar
Saint-Roch, P., Liber Sacramentorum Engolismensis. Manuscrit B.N. Lat. 816. Le Sacramentaire Gélasien d’Angoulême, CC SL 159 C (Turnhout 1987), pp. 37–8 and 81–5)Google Scholar
Heiming, O., Liber Sacramentorum Augustodunensis, CC SL 159 B (Turnhout 1984), pp. 34–5 and 55–6)Google Scholar
Lowe, E., The Bobbio Missal. A Gallican Mass-Book, Henry Bradshaw Society 58 (London 1920)Google Scholar
Mohlberg, C., Das fränkische Sacramentarium Gelasianum in alamannischer Überlieferung (codex Sangall. No. 348) (3rd edition Münster 1971), pp. 48, 68–73, 92 and 378Google Scholar
Mansfield, M., The Humiliation of Sinners. Public Penance in Thirteenth Century France (Ithaca / London 1995), p. 169.Google Scholar
Anderson, W. B., Sidonius Apollinaris. Poems and Letters (Cambridge MA and London 1965)Google Scholar
Morin, G., Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones nunc primum in unum collecti et ad leges artis criticae ex innumeris Mss. recogniti, 2 vols. CC SL 104 (Turnhout 1953), vol. ii, pp. 605, 641, 658, 828, 832 and 834.Google Scholar
Gregory of Tours, Liber vitae patrum, VI, 6, ed. Krusch, B., MGH SS rer. mer. I, 2 (Hanover 1885), pp. 234–5Google Scholar
Prinz, F., ‘Die bischöfliche Stadtherrschaft im Frankenreich vom 5. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert’, Historische Zeitschift 217 (1974), pp. 1–35Google Scholar
Heinzelmann, M., Bischofsherrschaft in Gallien. Zur Kontinuität römischer Führungsschichten vom 4. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert. Soziale, prosopographische und bildungsgeschichtliche Aspekte (Munich 1976)Google Scholar
Kaiser, R., Bischofsherrschaft zwischen Königtum und Fürstenmacht. Studien zur bischöflichen Stadtherrschaft im westfranzösischen Reich im frühen und hohen Mittelalter (Bonn 1981)Google Scholar
Wood, I., The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751 (London / New York 1994), pp. 71–87.Google Scholar
Munier, C., Les ‘Statuta ecclesiae antiqua’: édition, études critiques (Paris 1960).Google Scholar
Mordek, H., Kirchenrecht und Reform im Frankenreich. Die Collectio Vetus Gallica, die älteste systematische Kanonessammlung des fränkischen Gallien. Studien und Edition, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters 1 (Berlin / New York 1975), pp. 341–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Dam, R., Saints and Their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton 1993), p. 89.Google Scholar
Brown, P., The Cult of Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago 1981), pp. 106–13.Google Scholar
Godding, R., Prêtres en Gaule mérovingienne, Subsidia hagiographica 82 (Brussels 2001).Google Scholar
Weaver, R., Divine Grace and Human Agency. A Study of the Semi-Pelagian Controversy (Macon GA 1996).Google Scholar
Clark, F., The ‘Gregorian’ Dialogues and the Origins of Benedictine Monasticism (Leiden 2003)Google Scholar
Meyvaert, P., ‘The authentic Dialogues of Gregory the Great’, Sacris Erudiri 43 (2004), pp. 55–129CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vogüé, A., ‘Is Gregory the Great the author of the “Dialogues”?’, American Benedictine Review 56 (2005), pp. 309–14Google Scholar
Pricoco, S., ‘Dialogi: autenticità’, in Cremascoli, G. and Degl’Innocenti, A. (eds.), Enciclopedia Gregoriana. La vita, l’opera e la fortuna di Gregorio Magno (Florence 2008), pp. 88–9.Google Scholar
Gregory the Great, Dialogi IV, 41–2, ed. de Vogüé, A., Dialogues. SC 265 (Paris 1980), pp. 146–54Google Scholar
Le Goff, J., La naissance du purgatoire (Paris 1981), pp. 121–31Google Scholar
Carozzi, C., Le voyage de l’âme dans l’au-delà d’après la littérature latine (Ve–XIIIe siècle) (Rome 1994), pp. 43–61.Google Scholar
Dunn, M., ‘Gregory the Great, the Vision of Fursey and the origins of purgatory’, Peritia 14 (2000), pp. 238–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, M., The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons c. 597–c.700. Discourses of Life, Death and Afterlife (London 2009), p. 157Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The late antique legacy
  • Rob Meens, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Book: Penance in Medieval Europe, 600–1200
  • Online publication: 05 August 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139029667.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The late antique legacy
  • Rob Meens, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Book: Penance in Medieval Europe, 600–1200
  • Online publication: 05 August 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139029667.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The late antique legacy
  • Rob Meens, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Book: Penance in Medieval Europe, 600–1200
  • Online publication: 05 August 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139029667.002
Available formats
×