Normative texts as sources for conversion to Christianity in Europe

Abstract

The present chapter explores both the utility and limitations of using normative texts as sources for the history of conversion to Christianity in late antique and early medieval Europe. Here, the term normative texts refers to texts concerned with prescribing behavior, a category encompassing not only legal texts in the strict sense, but also letters issued by popes which were accorded canonical status and became known as “decretals,” and texts of jurisprudence, namely texts about law rather than texts of law. 1 In what follows I shall ask how normative texts can shed light on three issues that are fundamental to any investigation of conversion to Christianity: (1) formal distinctions between Christian and non-Christian, (2) pagan practices themselves, and (3) a dialogue between Christian and pre-Christian ideas. We shall encounter different types of normative text, all of which, however, were written by Christian clerics or, in the case of the Theodosian Code, collated by officials who were Christian. We must therefore approach them with the caveat that they are likely to suffer from a Christian and ecclesiastical bias. But from a methodological point of view, this clerical character can be considered a blessing as it renders the texts simultaneously sources for conversion history and products of conversion.