¹ For the profound theological and juridical influence of this tradition, see Faitini, Tiziana, ‘The Latin Roots of the “Profession”: Metamorphoses of the Concept in Law and Theology from Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages’, History of Political Thought 38 (2017), 603–22Google Scholar. It is on this basis that the act which marks the beginning of a person's life as a member of a religious order is termed religious ‘profession’.

² See Opelt, Ilona, ‘Augustustheologie und Augustustypologie’, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 4 (1961), 44–57, at 46Google Scholar, who referred to a ‘Christianisierung des Römischen Census’, mentioning Origen, Ambrose, Orosius and Gregory the Great.

³ For an introduction to the extensive bibliography on political theology and the historical intertwining of theology and politics, see Ottmann, Henning, ‘Politische Theologie als Begriffsgeschichte’, in Gerhardt, Volker, ed., Der Begriff der Politik. Bedingungen und Gründe politischen Handelns (Stuttgart, 1990), 169–88Google Scholar; Nicoletti, Michele and Sartori, Luigi, Teologia politica (Bologna, 1991)Google Scholar; Hepp, Robert, ‘Theologie, politische’, in Ritter, Joachim, ed., Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, 13 vols (Basel, 1998), 10: 1105–12Google Scholar; Meier, Christian, ‘Was ist politische Theologie?’, in Assmann, Jan, ed., Politische Theologie zwischen Ägypten und Israel (Munich, 1995), 3–18Google Scholar; Scott, Peter and Cavanaugh, William T., eds, The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (Malden, MA, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴ Luke 2: 1–5 (Douay-Rheims version, slightly modified). For the Vulgate, the Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, ed. Robert Weber and Roger Gryson (Stuttgart, 2007), is used. There are a number of problems with the historical identification of the census spoken of by Luke; for useful references, see Barnett, Paul W., ‘Apographe and apographesthai in Luke 2, 1–5’, Expository Times 85 (1973–4), 377–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ For the Greek text, see Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. Eberhard Nestle, Kurt Aland et al., 28th edn (Stuttgart, 2012). In the New Testament the Greek term apographēs also appears in Acts 5: 37, which speaks of the prophet Judas the Galilean and emphasizes that he was born during the census (probably also that mentioned by Luke), and in Heb. 12: 23, which the Vulgate translates as ecclesiam primitivorum qui conscripti sunt in caelis. Apographesthai / apographē generally means ‘to enter in a list / list or register’, and often refers to the declaration of property or persons liable to taxation, and to the Roman census in particular. For the use of these terms in the New Testament and in early Christian literature and further details of the technical, fiscal meaning of apographē, see Blass, F. and Debrunner, A., A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, transl. Funk, Robert W. (Chicago, IL, and London, 1961), s.v. ‘apographē’, §5.3, 5Google Scholar; Lampe, Geoffrey W. H., ed., A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford, 1976), 190Google Scholar, s.vv. ‘apographē / apographomai’; Fitzmyer, Joseph A., The Gospel according to Luke, 2 vols, Bible, Anchor 28–28A (New York, 1981), 1: 405Google Scholar.

⁶ See Cascio, Elio Lo, ‘Il census a Roma e la sua evoluzione dall'età «serviane» alla prima età imperiale’, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome 113 (2001), 565–603Google Scholar. With important modifications, the census was to last throughout the imperial era, as attested by article 50.15 (De censibus) of the Digesta, a compendium of juristic writings on Roman law compiled by order of Justinian in the sixth century, and by some provisions collected on the initiative of the same emperor in the Codex Iustiniani (e.g. C. 4.47.3, C. 8.53.7–8). On the tasks of the censores, see Humm, Michel, ‘I fondamenti della Repubblica romana. Istituzioni, diritto, religione’, in Barbero, Alessandro, ed., Storia d'Europa e del Mediterraneo, 15 vols (Rome, 2008), 5: 467–520, at 489–91.Google Scholar

⁷ See Humm, Michel, ‘Il regimen morum dei censori e le identità dei cittadini’, in Corbino, Alessandro, Humbert, Michel and Negri, Giovanni, eds, Homo, caput, persona. La costruzione giuridica dell'identità nell'esperienza romana (Pavia, 2010), 283–314, at 311–12.Google Scholar

⁸ See Humm, ‘I fondamenti della Repubblica romana’, 491.

⁹ For the broader historical perspective of this analysis, see Politica e religione. Annuario di teologia politica / Yearbook of Political Theology: Censo, ceto, professione. Il censimento come problema teologico-politico (Brescia, 2015); Faitini, Tiziana, Il lavoro come professione. Una storia della professionalità tra etica e politica (Rome, 2016).Google Scholar

¹⁰ In his Commentary on Daniel 4.9.2–3, Hippolytus contrasts the Roman empire and the heavenly kingdom, thus giving the census a significantly different interpretation from that of the tradition I outline. He observes that when the Romans flourished, Jesus, through the apostles, summoned all nations and made a nation of Christians with a new name in their hearts. His kingdom ‘is counterfeited by that which rules according to the operation of Satan, but similarly this kingdom also collects those born from all nations and prepares those who are called Romans for war. And on account of this also the first census happened under Augustus . . . so that the men of this world, being registered in the earthly kingdom, were called Romans, but those who believe in the heavenly kingdom were named Christians’: Schmidt, ET Thomas C., Hippolytus of Rome: Commentary on Daniel (2010), 125–6Google Scholar, online at: <https://web.archive.org/web/20101207125246/ http://www.chronicon.net/chroniconfiles/Hippolytus%20Commentary%20on%20Daniel%20by%20TC%20Schmidt.pdf>, accessed 2 May 2017.

¹¹ See, for instance, Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 78.4; Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.7.7, 4.19.10, 4.36.8–9. Clement of Alexandria mentions the census in his chronology of the world: Stromata 1.21.145.1. I checked all the references to Luke 2: 1–5 in texts from the first to the third century collected by the expanded Biblia patristica, most of which are only cursory; the Biblia patristica is online at: <http://www.biblindex.org>, accessed 2 May 2017.

¹² The military metaphor is of Pauline origin, and had been widely used since the time of the early martyr acts: see the classic study by Harnack, Adolf, Christi, Militia: The Christian Religion and the Military in the First Three Centuries, transl. Grade, David Mclnnes (Philadelphia, PA, 1982)Google Scholar; and, for a broader recent overview, Smith, Katherine Allen, War and the Making of Medieval Monastic Culture (Woodbridge, 2011), 71–111.Google Scholar

¹³ Origen, Homélies sur saint Luc, ed. Henri Crouzel, François Fournier and Pierre Perichon (Paris, 1998), 196 (homily 11); ET Homilies on Luke, transl. Joseph T. Lienhard, FC 94 (Washington DC, 2009), 47.

¹⁴ ‘Why was it that the world was being enrolled (describitur) just before the Lord's birth except to show that he was coming as man to enroll his elect in eternity (quia ille veniebat in carne, qui electos suos ascriberet in aeternitate)? On the other hand, it is said of the condemned by the prophet: “May they be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be enrolled with the righteous (Ps 69: 28)”’: Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies, transl. David Hurst (Kalamazoo, MI, 1990), 51; Latin text in Gregorius Magnus, Homiliae in evangelia 7.2.4–6 (CChr.SL 141, 54). Part of this passage (quia . . . aeternitate) is included in the Glossa ordinaria on Luke's verses, although it is ascribed to Bede the Venerable: see the marginal gloss ‘Exiit edictum a ce[sare] aug[usto]’, on Luke 2: 1, in Biblia Latina cum Glossa ordinaria, ed. Karlfried Froehlich and Margaret T. Gibson (facsimile reprint of the editio princeps of Adolph Rusch of Strassburg, 1480/1; Turnhout, 1992). For similar interpretations, see Hugh of St Cher, Hugonis cardinalis opera omnia in universum Vetus, et Novum Testamentum, 8 vols (Venice, 1703), 8: fol. 143^r; Albert the Great, Enarrationes in primam partem Evangelii Lucae, in Opera omnia, ed. S. Borgnet, 38 vols (Paris, 1890–9), 22: 190 (2.1).

¹⁵ Eusebius mentions the census when dealing with the context and chronological aspects of the nativity, e.g. Ecclesiastical History 1.5.2–6; Questions on the Gospel 1.12. In the surviving parts of his Commentary on Luke, no significant elements are present; the text is corrupted and never quoted by other Church Fathers: Wallace-Hadrill, David S., ‘Eusebius of Caesarea's Commentary on Luke: Its Origin and Early History’, HThR 67 (1974), 55–63.Google Scholar

¹⁶ From a theologico-political perspective, the long marginal gloss on Luke 2: 1 in Biblia Latina cum Glossa ordinaria, ‘Exiit edictum a ce[sare] aug[usto]’, is noteworthy, particularly as far as this passage is concerned: ‘In quo nomen augusti vere impletur qui suos augere sufficiens – censoribus suae professionis non pecuniae: sed fidei oblatione signare praecepit: quia dum professio secularis obstenditur, spiritalis impletur. Abolito autem censu synagogae vetusto novus census ecclesiae paratur, qui tormenta non exigit: sed aufert; qui non uno numismate: sed una signatur fide’ (‘In it the name of Augustus, that is, he who can make his [subjects] grow, was fulfilled. The censors of this enrolment are ordered to mark the subjects not with a monetary payment, but with their offering of faith; while the secular census is appointed, the spiritual is fulfilled. When the old census of the synagogue was abolished, a new census of the Church was prepared which did not require torments, but abolished them, and is sealed not by money, but by faith alone’). The whole gloss is ascribed to Bede but, as pointed out in n. 14, this ascription must be partially corrected. The first part of the quotation (In quo . . . praecepit) summarizes a passage from Bede's Exposition (see n. 27 below); from quia to aufert, the gloss comes from Ambrose's Exposition (see n. 20 below). I have not precisely identified the last part (qui non . . . fide), which is thematically close to the subsequent lines in Ambrose's Exposition, referring to a census in which ‘faith alone seals each’ (see n. 21 below).

¹⁷ Aquinas, Thomas, Catena aurea in quatuor evangelia, ed. Guarienti, Angelico, 2 vols (Turin, 1953), 2: 29–30 (‘In Lucam’ 2.1).Google Scholar

¹⁸ On the close connection between the lectiones of Ambrose and Origen, see ‘Introduzione’, in Ambrose, Opera omnia / Opera esegetiche, 11–12: Esposizione del Vangelo secondo Luca, ed. Giovanni Coppa, 2 vols (Rome, 1978), 1: 9–63, at 32–5; Corsato, Celestino, La Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam di sant'Ambrogio. Ermeneutica, simbologia, fonti (Rome, 1993), 183–91.Google Scholar

¹⁹ For a description of how Ambrose uses Roman law, both in his borrowing of terminology and in his theological reinterpretation of resolutions codified in the imperial leges, see Gaudemet, Jean, ‘Droit séculier et droit de l’église chez Ambroise’, in Lazzati, Giuseppe, ed., Ambrosius episcopus. Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi ambrosiani nel 16. centenario della elevazione di sant'Ambrogio alla cattedra episcopale, 2 vols (Milan, 1976), 1: 286–315, at 287–300Google Scholar; see also Moroni, Brunella, ‘Lessico teologico per un destinatario imperiale. Terminologia giuridico-amministrativa e cerimoniale di corte nel De fide di Sant'Ambrogio’, in Pizzolato, Luigi F. and Rizzi, Marco, eds, Nec timeo mori. Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi ambrosiani nel XVI centenario della morte di sant'Ambrogio (Milan, 1998), 341–63, at 343–5.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke, transl. Theodosia Tomkinson (Etna, CA, 1998), 50 (2.36; ET slightly modified); Latin text from CChrSL 14 in Ambrose, Esposizione, 1: 176.

²¹ Ambrose, Exposition, 50 (2.36); see also ibid. 51 (2.38).

²² Ibid. 50 (2.37).

²³ Ibid.; Latin text in Ambrose, Esposizione, 1: 178. This passage is included in the marginal gloss ‘Universus orbis’ on Luke 2: 1 in Biblia Latina cum Glossa ordinaria.

²⁴ For references to Ambrose's distinction between the two orders, divine and civil, and the superiority of the former, see Gaudemet, ‘Droit séculier’, 304–6.

²⁵ On the ‘theology of Augustus’ elaborated in book 6 of the History against the Pagans, see Peterson, Erik, Der Monotheismus als politisches Problem. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der politischen Theologie im Imperium Romanum (Leipzig, 1935)Google Scholar; Opelt, ‘Augustustheologie’. See also Goetz, Hans-Werner, Die Geschichtstheologie des Orosius (Darmstadt, 1980), 71–88Google Scholar; and, for a recent critical reading of the Eusebianism of Orosius, Nuffelen, Peter Van, Orosius and the Rhetoric of History (Oxford, 2012), 191–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁶ ‘[D]icendus civis Romanus census professione Romani’: Orosius, Paulus, Seven Books of History against the Pagans, transl. Deferrari, Roy J., FC 50 (Washington DC, 1964), 281–2 (6.22)Google Scholar, ET modified; Latin text in Orosius, Le storie contro i pagani, ed. Adolf Lippold, 2 vols (Milan, 2001), 2: 234.

²⁷ Bede, ‘In Lucae evangelium expositio’, in Bedae Opera. Pars 2: Opera exegetica, 3: In Lucae evangelium expositio. In Marci evangelium expositio, CChr.SL 120, 45–6 (my translation).

²⁸ Bede, Homilies on the Gospel. Book One: Advent to Lent, transl. Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst (Kalamazoo, MI, 1991), 54 (1.6); Latin text in Bede, ‘Homiliarum Evangelii libri II’, Bedae Opera. Pars 3/4: Opera Homiletica. Opera Rhythmica, CChr.SL 122, 37–45, at 38 (1.6).

²⁹ Ibid. 54 (1.6); Latin text 38 (1.6).

³⁰ Ibid. See also Bede, ‘In Lucae evangelium expositio’, CChr.SL 120, 46.

³¹ ‘In the act of reporting in the census one gave a denarius, which had the weight of ten nummi, and which bore the image and the name of Caesar. We also must imitate this spiritually, for we pay a denarius to our king (regi nostro) when we busy ourselves with fulfilling the ten commands of his law, and written on this denarius we bear the name of this same king of ours when we remember in all our acts that we are called “Christians” from “Christ”, and take care to keep inviolate in us the dignity of his name. We also ought to represent his image in the same denarius of our good way of life, which is what he himself taught when he said, “Be holy because I the God your Lord am holy”’: CChr.SL 122, 38–9 (1.6); Bede, Homilies, 54 (1.6).

³² See Bede, ‘In Lucae evangelium expositio’, CChr.SL 120, 46–7. The passage is also summarized in the marginal gloss ‘Cyrino’ on Luke 2: 2 in Biblia Latina cum Glossa ordinaria.

³³ For useful insights into the economy of salvation defined within Christendom, and its importance for the elaboration of economic rationality and the economic lexicon, see Todeschini, Giovanni, Il prezzo della salvezza. Lessici medievali del pensiero economico (Rome, 1994)Google Scholar; Brown, Peter, Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West (Princeton, NJ, 2012)Google Scholar; Toneatto, Valentina, Les Banquiers du Seigneur (Rennes, 2012)Google Scholar; Evangelisti, Paolo, Il pensiero economico nel Medioevo (Rome, 2016)Google Scholar.

³⁴ CChr.SL 122, 40 (1.6); Bede, Homilies, 57 (1.6).

³⁵ For the Carolingian era, I checked Christianus Druthmarus Stabulensis, Expositio in Lucam Evangelistam, PL 106, cols 1503–14; Walafridus Strabo Fuldensis, Expositio in Quatuor Evangelia. In Lucam, PL 114, cols 893–904; Sedulius Scotus, In argumentum secundum Lucam expositiuncula, PL 103, cols 285–90. A list of medieval commentaries on Luke's Gospel is given by Mottoni, Barbara Faes de, ‘Introduzione’, in Sancti Bonaventurae Commentarius in Evangelium S. Lucae, ed. eadem, 4 vols (Rome, 1999–2012), 1: 7–26, at 19–20Google Scholar; this includes more than twenty commentaries written in the thirteenth century.

³⁶ Hugonis cardinalis opera omnia, 8: fol. 139^v.

³⁷ Albertus Magnus, Enarrationes, 190 (2.1); see also Alberto Colli, ‘Considerazioni sul censimento di Cesare Augusto nelle esegesi di Ugo di St. Cher e Alberto il Grande’, in Censo, ceto, professione, 121–40.

³⁸ Bonaventure, Works, 8/1: St Bonaventure's Commentary on the Gospel of Luke: Ch. 1–8, ed. Robert J. Karris (New York, 2001); the Latin text is in Sancti Bonaventurae Commentarius, ed. Faes de Mottoni.

³⁹ St Bonaventure's Commentary, ed. Karris, 143 (8); Bede is quoted at ibid. 138 (4).

⁴⁰ Ibid. 139–40 (5; translation slightly modified); Latin text in Sancti Bonaventurae Commentarius, ed. Faes de Mottoni, 1: 168 (5).

⁴¹ On the exegesis of these passages, in the framework of a discussion of Christian thought on political subjection, see Rizzi, Marco, Cesare e Dio. Potere secolare e potere spirituale in Occidente (Bologna, 2009)Google Scholar, which, however, never mentions Luke 2: 1–5.

⁴² Liber Extra, 10.3.39.2. See Landau, Peter, ‘Die Verteilung kirchlicher Abgaben im klassischen kanonischen Recht’, in Roumy, Franck et al., eds, Der Einfluss der Kanonistik auf die europäische Rechtskultur. 5: Das Recht der Wirtschaft (Köln, 2016), 223–42.Google Scholar

⁴³ ‘Christ chose to be born of the Virgin Mary under an edict authorized by Rome. . . . Christ so chose in order that the son of God, being made man, might be enrolled (conscriberetur) as a man in that unique census (descriptione) of the human race. And by this action he approved the edict. . . . Therefore Christ by his actions gave us cause to believe that the edict was just that Augustus, exercising the authority of the Romans, had issued. And since to issue an edict justly implies having the jurisdiction (iurisdictio) to do so, it is necessary that one who approves a just edict also approves the jurisdiction of the one who issued it’: Dante, Monarchia, transl. Richard Kay (Toronto, ON, 1998), 183–5 (2.10.6, 8); Latin text ibid.

⁴⁴ See Sara Menzinger, Verso la costruzione di un diritto pubblico cittadino, in Emanuele Conte and Sara Menzinger, eds, La Summa Trium Librorum di Rolando da Lucca (1195–1234). Fisco, politica, scientia iuris, Ricerche dell'Istituto Storico Germanico di Roma 8 (Rome, 2012), cxxv–ccxviii, at clvi.

⁴⁵ Bartolus of Saxoferrato, Super digesto novo (Basel, 1563). On the use of theological sources made by Bartolus, see Quaglioni, Diego, ‘Diritto e teologia nel «Tractatus testimoniorum» bartoliano’, in idem, ‘Civilis sapientia’. Dottrine giuridiche e dottrine politiche fra Medioevo e Età moderna (Rimini, 1989), 107–25Google Scholar. The important anonymous treatise Questiones de iuris subtilitatibus, written in the twelfth century, had mentioned the census ordered by Augustus and taken a similar position: see Ryan, Magnus, ‘Political Thought’, in Johnston, David, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Roman Law (Cambridge, 2015), 423–51, at 428–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁶ Ubaldis, Baldus de, Commentaria ad quatuor Institutionum libros (Lyon, 1585), fol. 10^v (on.1.12.5)Google Scholar. The text was probably quite well known; it was printed at the beginning of the modern era under the name of Baldus, who was Bartolus's pupil and an important scholar of his time. On the true identity of the author of this commentary, see Maffei, Domenico, ‘Bartolomeo da Novara autore della Lectura Institutionum attribuita a Baldo degli Ubaldi?’, Rivista di storia del diritto italiano 63 (1990), 5–22.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Bartolus of Saxoferrato, Super digesto novo, D.49.15.24; my translation.