Senators and social mobility in sixth-century Gaul

In the historical and hagiographical writings of Gregory of Tours and in the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus we encounter a group of men who make the claim that they are descendants of the Roman senators of an earlier time. This paper sets out to examine the status of this group in the light of the suggestion by Frank D. Gilliard that in the imprecise Latin of Gregory of Tours the word senator was often used to denote someone who was merely a large landowner. Since Gilliard has suggested that the blanket term senator may mask the parvenus in sixth-century society, discussion of the status of sixth-century senators has here been set in the wider context of social mobility in Merovingian church and state. It is the suggestion of this paper that it was a claim to senatorial family background, rather than the possession of wealth or land, that qualified one, in Gregory's eyes as a senator. Further, there is such ample evidence of upward social mobility, to positions of power and prestige outside the senatorial ranks, and often in royal service, that the conclusion is drawn that for the ambitious in Merovingian society, the patronage of the Frankish kings may have come to mean more than the much vaunted illustrious descent of the senators.     

The Vita Columbani in Merovingian Gaul

This paper considers the evidence for the dissemination of the Vita Columbani . Using a number of seventh-century texts as well as the Vita itself, it proposes that the Vita Columbani had a wider dissemination in Merovingian Gaul than has hitherto been acknowledged. It suggests that the Vita was not merely confined to monastic and ecclesiastical circles, but was also intended for a royal and aristocratic audience closely linked to the Columbanian communities.     

The military,the clergy and Christian faith in sixth‐century Gaul

The Christianization of a society is a lengthy process that is not completed as soon as every individual is baptized and considers himself a Christian. It also requires subsequent and continuous instruction of believers, and maybe also the adaptation of religious requirements and morals in order to meet their needs and to allow them all to identify with the new faith. This latter process is especially perceptible where the new religion clashes with the values and priorities of large groups of believers, or where external circumstances prevent them from conforming to the religion's requirements. In the early Middle Ages, this situation can be retraced for the military in sixth‐century Gaul. The aim of this paper is to investigate the ongoing process of post‐Roman Christianization by using this relatively well‐documented example. It analyses the Christian identity associated with the military, the significance that fighting men might have attributed to faith, their relation to the clergy, and the options available to members of the military to live according to Christianity's rules and requirements. The paper sets out to argue that although the military was generally considered Christian, its relationship with the clergy contained significant potential for conflict, which was only resolved in the long term. The investigation therewith reveals a largely neglected but very interesting intermediate phase in the ongoing process of Christianization and integration.     

President Obama,the Bible,and Political Rhetoric

Abstract

How has President Obama made use of the Bible in his political rhetoric, especially as it relates to public policy debates? This article addresses Obama's religious origins, his work as a community organizer in Chicago, his coming to Christian faith under the leadership of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the development of his understanding regarding the relationship between faith and politics. In particular President Obama has emphasized the notion that we are all our brothers' and sisters' keepers. He also stresses the present generation of black Americans as "the Joshua Generation." The article considers President Obama's hermeneutics, as well as the important context of the black church for his own use of Scripture. The lenses of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Reinhold Niebuhr are also addressed as they relate to Obama's use of Scripture in political rhetoric.     

Morphological changes in domestic cattle in Gaul,from the second century BC to the fifth century AD: diversity of herds in the Seine valley (France) and northern Gaul

In Western Europe the transition from the Iron Age to the Roman period is the scene of a rapid economic and agro-pastoral evolution characterized in particular by a modification in the shape of the cattle. Understanding this phenomenon, its implementation mechanisms and development dynamics represents a major challenge in archaeozoology. In our study a local and regional approach of the evolution in cattle morphology is carried out first on the scale of the middle Seine valley, then of the northern Gaul. Its purpose is to observe and compare the evolution rates in domestic cattle between Middle La Tène and the fifth century AD, and with the help of a tight chronological and geographical grid, to estimate to what extent the shape of the cattle has been influenced by the indigenous cultures, the Roman economic pattern or even the environment. This osteometrical study is based on the Log Size Index method and on a measurement corpus of 12,969 bones collected on sites located on 117 communes in France (for most of them), Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The results we obtained show local specificities in terms of breeding methods and animal morphologies, observed on a very fine scale and taking place long before the Conquest. Moreover the growth patterns of the various herds happen to be different and to evolve under the impetus of the developing Roman economic pattern. This work thus points out an essential aspect of the agro-pastoral turmoil that took place in Gaul at the turning point of our era. The Roman pattern is not the cause of the morphological changes of the cattle, nor of the diversity in cattle shapes in Gaul, but it provokes a reshaping of the agricultural systems and a redefining of the breeding strategies which boost and completely change the cattle growth patterns.     

The martyr, the matrona and the bishop: the matron Lucina and the politics of martyr cult in fifth- and sixth-century Rome

The present study attempts to build on the achievement of Pietri and Llewellyn in assessing the peculiarities and limitations of the gesta martyrum as a source for late ancient and early medieval Rome, while shifting interpretative stress away from the lay—clerical binary which has dominated recent treatments of the cult of the saints, and toward an emphasis on factional conflict among lay—clerical coalitions. Central is an analysis of the literary motif, which recurs across the gesta of Lucina, the aristocratic matrona or widow who sees to the burial of the martyr on her own lands. Though the stereotypical figure of Lucina warns us of the limitations of the gesta as a source for the patronage activity of the lay aristocracy, it is argued, her appearance in crucial texts such as the Passio Sebastiani can nonetheless help us to trace the role which the memory of the martyrs played in texts such as the gesta martyrum, the Symmachan Forgeries, or the Liber Pontificalis, as well as the role which martyr shrines such as the Vatican basilica and the memoria apostolorum on the Via Appia played in the contestation and consolidation of Roman episcopal authority.     

Confinement and exclusion in the monasteries of sixth‐century Gaul

During the sixth century, some monasteries in Gaul began to strictly exclude women from areas within their grounds, while some convents began to take an uncompromising approach to the confinement of women, refusing to permit them to leave for any reason. Evidence for this appears in both monastic rules and ecclesiastical legislation, although it is clear that no single approach was applied consistently or ubiquitously. Indeed, as an analysis of the writings of Gregory of Tours demonstrates, there was a variety of approaches to the issue of secluding monks and nuns from the influences of the outside world, as well as different motives for adopting or resisting such developments as they took shape over the course of the century. This article attempts to reconstruct this variety of practice by comparing the rules and legislation with Gregory's works, with particular focus on the confinement and exclusion of women.     

关于罗马-高卢城市兴起的几个因素

罗马的高卢行省深受帝国城市化运动的影响,在城市兴起与发展的过程中独具特征。在某种意义上,高卢城市的兴起与发展带动了整个帝国城市化运动的发展。促进高卢城市兴起有几个因素,即高卢原有的城市因素——奥必达、希腊殖民地的城市因素和罗马化的城市因素,对这些因素在高卢城市兴起的历史进程中彼此继承改造的关系、融合的过程和具备的创新意义等展开具体分析,有助于认识高卢城市兴起的基本条件和历史动因,进一步加深对罗马帝国城市化运动性质的理解。     

Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible*

Abstract. The Hebrew Bible, though generally seen mainly as a religious document, has also provided models of secular national identity. A number of biblical motifs have been revived in modern cultural nationalism: for example, the importance of moral regeneration, attacks on internal and external enemies of the nation, and the unification of disparate groups despite geographic dislocation. The Hebrew Bible also anticipates various forms of conflict in modern national identity: between the individual and the group, chosenness and egalitarianism, the narrowly national and the universal. In the two centuries after the invention of printing, the Hebrew Bible in vernacular translation had a decisive influence on the evolution of nationalism, particularly in Britain. The Bible was essential in the culture of empires but also, paradoxically, inspired defeated, suppressed and colonised people to seek freedom. A number of modern national poets, notably Whitman and the Hebrew poets Bialik and Greenberg, adopt a free verse neo‐prophetic mode of expression. The Hebrew Bible can, therefore, be read as the archetypal, and most influential, national document from ancient times to the rise of modern nationalism.