An age of saints? : power, conflict and dissent in early medieval Christianity
Эпоха святых? Власть, конфликт и инакомыслие в раннесредневековом христианстве
2011-01-01
SCID: 54.1/m5fft5ed
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Byzantine Empirecult of saintsearly medieval Christianityhagiographymartyrdom
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Abstract (AI)
Acknowledgements ... vii List of Abbreviations ... ix Notes on Contributors ... xi Preface ... xiii 1. Restless Peasants and Scornful Lords: Lay Hostility to Holy Men and the Church in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages ... 1 Peter Sarris 2. Methodology, Authority and Spontaneity: Sources of Spiritual Truthfulness in Late Antique Texts and Life ... 11 Peter Turner 3. The Cult of Saints and Religious Processions in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages ... 36 Peter Kritzinger 4. Augustine, Donatists and Martyrdom ... 49 Collin Garbarino 5. Excluded from Power? The Boundaries of Orthodoxy in the Works of Athanasius and John of Ephesus ... 62 Philip Wood 6. The Conversion of King Caleb and the Religious and Political Dynamics of Sixth-Century Ethiopia and Southern Arabia ... 77 Ralph Lee 7. The Emergence of Martyrs' Shrines In Late Antique Iran: Conflict, Consensus and Communal Institutions ... 89 Richard Payne 8. Orthodox and Heretic in the Early Byzantine Cult(s) of Saints Cosmas and Damian ... 114 Phil Booth 9. The God-Protected Empire? Scepticism towards the Cult of Saints in Early Byzantium ... 129 Matthew Dal Santo 10. Images of Authority? Imperial Patronage of Icons from Justinian II to Leo III ... 150 Mike Humphreys 11. Hagiography as an Instrument for Political Claims in Carolingian Northern Italy: The Saint Syrus Dossier (BHL 7976 and 7978) ... 169 Giorgia Vocino 12. Relics and Texts: Hagiography and Authority in Ninth-Century Francia ... 187 Gerda Heydemann 13. Conclusion: An Age of Saints? Power, Conflict and Dissent in Early Medieval Christianity ... 205 Matthew Dal Santo and Phil Booth Select Bibliography ... 215 Index ... 219
Key Findings
1
Case studies across Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages—including Byzantium, Ethiopia, Iran, Francia, and Italy—highlight regional diversity in the relationship between sanctity, power, and dissent.
2
Contributors show that laypeople, rulers, religious communities, and ecclesiastical authorities contested the influence, legitimacy, and political uses of holy men and saints.
3
The chapters analyze how martyrdom, saint cults, relics, processions, shrines, icons, and hagiography served both devotional purposes and struggles over authority and communal identity.
4
The collection demonstrates that boundaries between orthodoxy and heresy were actively negotiated through texts, cult practices, political patronage, and claims to spiritual truthfulness.
5
The volume challenges the notion of an unambiguously “age of saints” by examining power, conflict, dissent, and skepticism surrounding early medieval Christianity.
Research Object
early medieval Christianity and its religious communities, institutions, and practices
Research Subject
the relationships among religious authority, political power, conflict, dissent, orthodoxy, and the cult of saints
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2011-01-01
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