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Episcopal Crisis Management in Late Antique Gaul: The Example of Exsuperius of Toulouse*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 November 2015
Abstract
In the first quarter of the fifth century the provinces of Gaul experienced their most dramatic shakeup since Julius Caesar, with the Rhine crossing of Vandals, Suebi and Alans, the retaliation from Roman forces in Britain under the usurper Constantine III, and the establishment of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse under Wallia in 418. Exsuperius was bishop in Toulouse throughout much of this time. Most of what we know about him comes from the challenges that confronted him. Not only did he face the crisis of hostile forces besieging his city, but he faced internal ones as well, with famine resulting from the siege and, at an earlier time, dissent being expressed to the asceticism and Christian discipline he promoted. While famine and theological dissent were regular features of what bishops had to deal with, responding to a siege was not something most bishops in previous generations had experienced. This article investigates how Exsuperius responded to these crises of varying magnitudes and argues that, although he is reported by Jerome as being solely responsible for averting the external threat, he was probably part of a team of negotiators, and that, with regard to the internal threat, he allied himself with Innocent I, the Roman bishop. The literary encounter between Toulouse and Rome in Innocent’s Epistula 6 reinforced Innocent’s position as the leading Western bishop, as well as offered support to Exsuperius in dealing with the crisis he faced.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2014
Footnotes
*
An earlier version of this article was presented at the 32nd Conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies at the University of Auckland in 2011. I am grateful to the Australian Research Council, which made this research possible, and to those who have improved the article by their helpful criticism since the paper was originally presented.
References
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20 See n. 4. This is my own translation.
21 Kulikowski (n. 14) 327-32.
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25 Soz. HE 9.12-13 (GCS NF 4.403-405). Perhaps the rebellion of Gerontius had to do with Constantine succumbing to the luxuries of imperial life as Frigeridus suggested in Greg. Tours Hist. Franc. 2.9 (MGH.SSrer.Merov. 1.55). On the barbarians see Zos. HN 6.5.2 (Paschoud 3/2.8-9). Cf.Matthews, J., Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court A.D. 364- 425, 2nd edn (Oxford 1998) 307, who says that the barbarians were unimpeded for two yearsGoogle Scholar.
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27 Of course, by the time that information reached Jerome in Palestine and returned to Ageruchia in Gaul it would have been much later in the year, but the state of the information when it was dispatched to Jerome suggests a time not long after Toulouse had been spared.
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30 Jer. Ep. 123.15.3 (CSEL 56/1.92).
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32 Burns (n. 22) 204. There is evidence in Rutilius for the flight of some Roman civic figures from Toulouse, like the uicarius Victorinus (1.495-6), but that event is associated with Ataulf in 413, rather than with the Vandals in 409.
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34 Jer. Ep. 125.9 (CSEL 56/1.127-8).
35 Jer. Ep. 125.20.3-4 (CSEL 56/1.140-2). The implication here is that Exsuperius was using personal funds rather than (or in addition to) ecclesiastical ones.
36 Jer. Ep. 125.20.3 (CSEL 56/1.140) seems to be quite specific that it was the Christians of Toulouse whom Exsuperius helped when he writes: . . . omnemque substantiam Christi uisceribus erogauit.
37 Jer. Ep. 123.15.3 (CSEL 56/1.92): ‘cities . . . which the sword devastates from the outside, famine does from within’ (my own translation). It would appear that at the time of Ep. 123 Jerome only knew of the famine facing Toulouse, but by the time he composed Ep. 125 he had heard of Exsuperius’ heroic efforts to alleviate that situation.
38 Gassmann (n. 5) 185-92, 204; Rapp (n. 3) 232-4; Mathisen (n.4) 97-100; Holman (n. 7). They do not make reference to Exsuperius.
39 Brown (n. 5) 45, and Finn, R., Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire: Christian Promotion and Practice 313-450, Oxford Classical Monographs (Oxford 2006) 34-5 and 65-7 (on bishops fulfilling that responsibility from personal resources)Google Scholar. This activity, in part, needs to be distinguished from the bishop’s other role of preaching to others to attend to the needs of the poor. On this see e.g. Mayer, W., ‘Poverty and Generosity toward the Poor in the Time of John Chrysostom’, in Holman, S.R. (ed.), Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society (Grand Rapids MI 2008) 140-58Google Scholar; Allen, P. and Morgan, E., ‘Augustine on Poverty’, in Allen, P., Neil, B. and Mayer, W., Preaching Poverty in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Realities, Arbeiten zur Kirchen- und Theologiegeschichte 28 (Leipzig 2009) 126Google Scholar.
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44 Paul. Euch. 353-81 (SC 209.82-84) and Prosp. Carmen de prou. Dei 1.53-60 (Marcovich 6).
45 Oros. Hist. adu. pag. 7.41.9 (CSEL 5.554).
46 Hydat. 69 (Mommsen, Chronica Minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. 1, MGH.AA 9 [Berlin 1894] 19); Prosp. Epit. chron. 1271 (MGH.AA 9.469). See Matthews (n. 25) 314-28; Wolfram, H., History of the Goths, trans. Dunlap, T.J. (Berkeley 1988) 161-72Google Scholar; Heather, P., Goths and Romans 332-489, Oxford Historical Monographs (Oxford 1991) 219-24Google Scholar; Burns, , ‘The Settlement of 418’, in Drinkwater, and Elton, (n. 18) 53–63Google Scholar; Garcia, A.M. Jiménez, ‘Settlement of the Visigoths in the Fifth Century’, in Heather, P. (ed.), The Visigoths from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology 4 (Woodbridge 1999) 93-115Google Scholar; Kulikowski, M., ‘The Visigothic Settlement in Aquitania: The Imperial Perspective’, in Mathisen, R.W. and Shanzer, D. (eds), Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul: Revisiting the Sources (Aldershot 2001,) 26–38Google Scholar; Carr, K.E., ‘From Alaric to the Arab Conquest: Visigothic Efforts to Achieve Romanitas’, in Hall, L. Jones (ed.), Confrontation in Late Antiquity: Imperial Presentation and Regional Adaptation (Cambridge 2003) 103-16Google Scholar; Halsall (n. 16) 224-34.
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50 Harries (n. 28) 83.
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52 Trout (n. 47) 202, Griffe (n. 48) 226-30, and Miller, P. Cox, ‘“The Little Blue Flower is Red”: Relics and the Poetizing of the Body’, JECS 8 (2000) 216, think that the dedication was the trigger for Vigilantius’ reactionGoogle Scholar. Cf. Hunter (n. 49) 409. Lössl, J., ‘An Early Christian Identity Crisis Triggered by Changes in the Discourse of Martyrdom: The Controversy between Jerome of Strido and Vigilantius of Calagurris’, in Leemans, J. (ed.), More than a Memory: The Discourse of Martyrdom and the Construction of Christian Identity in the History of Christianity, Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia 51 (Leuven 2005) 110-1, raises no objections to Hunter’s interpretationGoogle Scholar.
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54 Jer. Con. Vigil. 3 (PL 23.341-2). Sisinnius also took Con. Vigil., back to the West: Jer. Con. Vigil. 17 (PL 23.352).
55 Jer. Ep. 119 (CSEL 55.446-69).
56 Jer. Comm. in Amos, 3.pr. (PL 25.1057).
57 Jer. Ep. 109.1 (CSEL 55.351-3). For background on the pre-existing hostility between Jerome and Vigilantius, see Massie, M., ‘Vigilance de Calagurris face à la polémique hiéronymienne: Les fondements et la signification du conflit’, BLE 81 (1980) 81-108Google Scholar; Rebenich, S., Hieronymus und sein Kreis: Prosopographie und sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (Stuttgart 1992) 209-59Google Scholar; Clark, E.A., The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate (Princeton 1992) 34, 36Google Scholar; Burrus, V., The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority, and the Priscillianist Controversy, The Transformation of the Classical Heritage 24 (Berkeley 1995) 144-5Google Scholar; Hunter (n. 48) 404-9; Conring, B., Hieronymus als Briefschreiber. Ein Beitrag zur spätantiken Epistolographie, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 8 (Tübingen 2001) 215-29Google Scholar; Hunter, D.G., Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Crisis, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford 2007) 258-9Google Scholar; Mathisen (n. 19) 194. Vigilantius had taken Paul. Nola Ep. 5 (CSEL 29.24-39) to Jerome and had taken a reply back to Paulinus in 395. See Jer. Epp. 58 (CSEL 54.527-41) and 61 (CSEL 54.575-82).
58 Jer. Con. Vigil. 2 (PL 23.340-1). See Hunt, E.D., ‘Gaul and the Holy Und in the Early Fifth Century’, in Drinkwater, and Elton, (n. 18) 267-70Google Scholar.
59 Jer. Con. Vigil. 3 (PL 23.341). It has to be admitted that Con. Vigil. 5-10 (PL 23.343-8) is about the cult of martyrs, including the keeping of vigils. Fasting, almsgiving, and chastity are the topics considered in Con. Vigil. 12-16 (PL 23.349-52). It is only in the last sentence of the whole treatise that Jerome returns to the question of clerical continence (Con. Vigil. 17 [PL 23.352]). One should note that there is no mention of clerical continence in Ep. 109.
60 Hunt (n. 58) 272.
61 Jer. Ep. 109.2 (CSEL 55.353). Hunter (n. 49) 410 reads this as the bishop having ‘been influenced’ which, if he were Exsuperius, amounted only to hesitation. Against Hunter, I think Jerome’s accusation is altogether harsher.
62 Thacker, A., ‘Loca sanctorum: The Significance of Place in the Study of the Saints’, in Thacker, A. and Sharpe, R. (eds), Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West (Oxford 2002) 11–12Google Scholar. Heid (n. 51) 268; and Clark, G., ‘Translating Relics: Victricius of Rouen and Fourth-Century Debate’, EME 10 (2001) 172Google Scholar. Van Dam (n. 1) 138 ventures no opinion about the identity of Vigilantius’ bishop.
63 Fremantle, W.H., Lewis, G. and Martley, W.G., Jerome: Letters and Select Works, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 6 (New York 1893) 417Google Scholar.
64 Lössl (n. 52) 102-5. Hunt (n. 58) 270 thinks that Vigilantius’ attack could have been more about the situation in the Holy Land than in Gaul, which could explain Jerome’s vitriol.
65 Lössl (n. 52) 115 is interested in Vigilantius rather than the bishop.
66 Hunter (n. 49)409-10,417.
67 Hunter (n. 49) 419. Thacker (n. 62) 110, however, distinguishes Victricius’ more extreme theology of relics from that held by Paulinus. But Mathisen, R.W., Ecclesiastical Factionalism and Religious Controversy in Fifth-Century Gaul (Washington D.C. 1989) 47- 8Google Scholar, upon whom Hunter relies, goes only as far as to say that Gallic bishops like Victricius and Exsuperius belonged to a small segment of the Gallic episcopacy that looked outside Gaul for support and had some loose connection with Martin of Tours. He does not suggest any commonality on the grounds of asceticism or a cult of saints.
68 Indeed, Kelly, J.N.D., Jerome: His Life, Writings and Controversies (London 1975) 289, describes Exsuperius as a friend and benefactor of JeromeGoogle Scholar.
69 Cain (n. 19)179.
70 Gennad. De uir. illus. 36 (Richardson, E.C., Hieronymus: Liber de uiris inlustribus, Gennadius: Liber de uiris inlustribus, Texte und Untersuchungen 14 [Leipzig 1896] 74)Google Scholar.
71 Innoc. Ep. 6 (PL 20.495-502 = Coustant, P., Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a S. Clemente I usque ad Innocentum III 1 [Paris 1721] cols 789-96Google Scholar = Wurm, H., ‘Decretales selectae ex antiquissimis Romanorum Pontificum epistulis decretalibus. Praemissa introductione et disquisitione critice editae’, Apollinaris 12 [1939] 56–78Google Scholar = Jaffé, P., Regesta Pontificum Romanorum l.AS. Pietro ad a. MCXLIII, rev. Kaltenbrunner, F. [Leipzig 1885 2] [= JK] no. 293)Google Scholar.
72 Innoc. Ep. 6.I.1 -4 (PL 20.496-8).
73 Innoc. Ep. 6.II.5-6 (PL 20.498-9).
74 Innoc. Ep. 6.I.4 (PL 20.498). See Siric. Ep. 1.VII.12; 1.XI.15 (PL 13.1141-4 = Coustant [n. 71] cols 632-3,635 = JK 255).
75 Siric. Ep. 1.20 (PL 13.1146).
76 Innoc. Ep. 6.1 (PL 20.495-6).
77 In 395 or 396 Jerome recommended to Furia, an aristocratic Roman widow and daughter-in- law of Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus, that she place herself under the spiritual guidance of Exsuperius (Ep. 54.11 [CSEL 54.478]). Labrousse (n. 48) 560, 565; Green, M.R., ‘Pope Innocent I: The Church of Rome in the Early Fifth Century’ (diss. Oxford 1973) 105Google Scholar; and Cabau, P., ‘Les évêques de Toulouse (IIIe XIVe siècles) et les lieux de leur sépulture’, Mémoires de la Société Archéologique du Midi de la France 59 (1999) 134Google Scholar, take this as referring to Exsuperius of Toulouse, while Crouzel (n. 48) 131, PCBE 2.730 (Exsuperius); Trout (n. 47) 202; and Bowes, K., Private Worship, Public Values, and Religious Change in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: 2008) 252, n. 124Google Scholar, do not think this was the same individual. In addition, the presbyter of Bordeaux of the same name mentioned in Paul. Nola Ep. 12.12 (CSEL 29.83) need not be to the bishop of Toulouse. See Trout (n. 47) 202.
78 Mathisen (n. 66) 45-8; Stancliffe, C., St. Martin and His Hagiographer: History and Miracle in Sulpicius Severus, Oxford Historical Monographs (Oxford 1983), 297–312Google Scholar; Van Dam, R., Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton 1993) 14–17Google Scholar; Hunter (n. 49) 410-29.
79 That the letter was one of the most widely distributed of papal decretals in medieval collections of canonical material would indicate that eventually it did have a significant impact.