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Bishops as Pawns in Early Fifth-Century Gaul
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
Extract
From 408 to 420 two men dominated the political landscape of southern Gaul: Constantine III and Constantius. They found there a region that was rife with centrifugal forces - fierce city rivalries, a squabbling priesthood, and an opportunistic nobility. But they also found a region whose unique resources made it indispensable to the stability of their regimes; southern Gaul was then both highly urbanised and rich in commerce, a prime source for taxes and educated bureaucratic officers. Not surprisingly, both Constantine and Constantius focused a great deal of energy on ensuring the continued loyalty and stability of the region. Both men were soldiers, and thus occasionally brutal in pursuit of their objectives, but their Gallic policies also reflected intelligent statecraft and an acute awareness of the changing world in which they lived. It was a world in which the border between Christianity and politics was rapidly fading, and the work of these two men both anticipated and epitomized the mixture of religion and realpolitik so characteristic of the medieval world.
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References
1 Numerous studies have dealt with the period from 410 to 420 in southern Gaul. Nearly all of them have admitted evidence suggesting a relationship between Constantine or Constantius and certain elements of the ecclesiastical controversy, but none has fully developed the extent of that relationship. The groundbreaking study was Babut, E., Le Concile de Turin, Paris 1904.Google Scholar Babut's chronology is criticised in Duchesne, L., ‘Le concile de Turin’, Revue Historique 87 (1905), 281–91.Google Scholar See also Duchesne, L., Early History of the Christian Church, 3, trans. C., Jenkins, New York 1924, 159–71.Google Scholar More recent accounts dealing with either secular or ecclesiastical politics include: Matthews, J., Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court AD 364–425, Oxford 1975, 307–51Google ScholarOost, S. I., Galla Placidia Augusta: a biographical essay, Chicago 1968, 147–56;Google ScholarO'Flynn, J. M., Generalissimos of the Western Roman Empire, Edmonton 1983, 63–74;Google ScholarBruguiere, M., Littérature el droit dans la Gaule du V siecle, Paris 1974, 51—60, 122–31;Google ScholarChadwick, H., Priscillian of Avila: the occult and the charismatic in the Early Church, Oxford 1976, 160–5;Google ScholarGriffe, E., La Gaule chrélienne a l'époque romaine, 1. 104–5, 336–40 and 406–10;Google ScholarRivet, A. L. F., Gallia Narbonensis: southern France in Roman times, London 1988, 105–7;Google ScholarRalph, Mathisen, Ecclesiastical Factionalism and Religious Controversy in Fifth-Century Gaul, Washington 1989, 17–68Google Scholar
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13 Zosimus, ep. iii, PL xx.656–7. After stating that Proculus had attended the council that condemned Lazarus, Zosimus writes: ‘Ab eodem Proculo fit post multos annos sacerdos, tyrannicijudicii defensor, civitatis Aquensium: cum contrairet addicta, in ipsum penetrale et sacerdotale solium sanguine innocentis pene respersum irrupit. Stetitque in eo hactenus umbra sacerdotii, donee in tyranno (Constantino) imago staret Imperii: quo loco post internecionem patroni sponte se exuit, et propria cessione damnavit.’
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24 Prosp. Tiro., Epitoma, 1247.
25 Ibid..
26 Murdered: ibid. 1292 (at p. 426); Simony: ‘Chronica Gallica a. 452. 74.
27 Proculus had been a signatory of the Council of Aquileia in 381, which meant he had held the see for some thirty-odd years.
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32 The manuscripts are discussed in Babut, Le Concile, pp. 215–22.Google Scholar
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39 Ibid., canon 2: ‘Illud deinde inter episcopos urbium Arelatensis et Viennensis, qui de primatus apud nos honore certabant a sancta synodo definitum est, ut qui ex his adprobaverit suam civitatem esse metropolim, is totius provinciae honorem primatus obtineat, et ipse iuxta canonum praeceptum ordinationum habeat potestatem./Certe ad pacis vinculum conservandum hoc consilio utiliore decretum est, ut si placet memoratarum urbium episcopis, unaquaeque de his viciniores sibi intra provinciam vindicet civitates, atque eas ecclesias visitet quas oppidis suis proximas magis esse constiterit, ita ut memores unanimitatis atque concordiae non alter alterium longius sibi usurpando quod est alii propius inquietet.’
40 Ibid.. 107, and ‘Le date’, 67. He lamely suggests there must have been some secret negotiation.
41 Concilium Taurinense, intro.
42 Zosimus, ep. v, PL xx. 665: ‘Multa contra veterum formam Proculus usurpasse detectus est in ordinationibus nonnullorum indebite celebrandis, quas proxime numerosa cognitione discussimus; licet ipse diu expectatus, fastidiose ferrens sibi inducias attributas, convenire dissimulet.’
43 Zosimus, ep. iv, PL xx. 663: ‘Haec omnia apud nos gestis testimoniisque discussasunt.‘
44 Zosimus, ep. vi, PL xx. 666–7.
45 Zosimus, ep. v, PL xx. 665–6: ‘Attamen ilia praesumptio nos admodum movit, quod in synodo Taurinensi, cum longe aliud ageretur, in apostolicae sedis injuriam subripiendum putavit, ut sibi concilii illius emendicata praestaret obreptio ordinandorum sacerdotum veluti metropolitano in Narbonensi secunda provincia potestatem. Et ne solus, impudenter indebita postulando, huic sedi videretur intulisse convicium, socium sibi Simplicium Viennensis civitatis ascivit... Indecens ausus, et in ipso vestibulo resecandus, hoc ab episcopis ob certas causas concilium agitantibus extorquere.’
46 Zosimus, Revelatum nobis (see n. 31 above).
47 T. Mommsen, preface to Notitia Galliarum, MGH Auct. ant. ix. i. 582.
48 Concilium Taurinense, canon 1.
49 See Zosimus, epp. x, xi.
50 Translated from Saluberrima magnificentiae (n. 3 above).
51 Ibid..
52 Hincmari Rhemensis Archiepiscopi, Opera omnia, epp. 30, 18, PL cxxvi. 200.
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