Holy Bishop Research Articles

On Saint Nicholai by the Pen of a Linguist

On the Book Language and Lexis of the Holy Bishop St. Nikolai Velimirovich (A Differential Approach). Institute for the Serbian Language of SASA Monographs 34. Belgrade: Institute for the Serbian Language of SASA, 2022. 507 pp. ISBN 978–86–82873–86–0. Writing about the language of such a great author as the Saint Nicholai (Velimirovich) can be considered both daring and a gift. The courage to tackle the description of the language of such an extensive creative oeuvre grew and matured over the years in the associate of the Institute of the Serbian Language, SANU, today a scientific advisor — Dr. Vladan Jovanović. The monograph is the result of the author’s many years of reflection on the language of Saint Nicholai. As it is impossible to encompass the incomprehensible, it is understandable that a differential approach was applied, “which means that the linguistic material is viewed in relation to the state of the contemporary Serbian literary language — its literary-linguistic norms and use in the system of functional styles.” This means that the language in Bishop Nicholai’s works is viewed in a triangle: the language of the writer (parole), the language of the national community (langue), and the language of theological style. In other words, we got only a part and the beginning, we hope, of new challenges over the description of the language of this great All-Orthodox Saint. All those new, future researches will start on these foundations, from the views of the author who received the gift of being the first to monographically describe the language of the Serbian Chrysostom.

Prospects of ecumenical dialogue in the early works of the Holy Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović

Both in social and theological spheres we can see a tendency to the strict definition of the relation of the Bishop Nikolaj Velimirivić to ecumenical dialogue, which in itself is a kind of simplification. In this article an attempt is made to overcome this simplification and to highlight the main features of his theological position vis-à-vis the ecumenical movement and the creation of the frames for ecumenical dialogue. With time the Holy Bishop will change his initial views on the ecumenical movement, but they are certainly important for understanding the historical and theological context of the development of the ecumenical dialogue in the beginning of the 20th century. The main aim of the writing of this article is the underlining and highlighting the very meaning of ecumenism, which for Bishop Nikolaj was not a unity on purely utilitarian and political basis, but a certain type of the panhumanist universalism, which carries within itself the potential ideals of the allhuman equality and spiritual brotherhood. Therefore we do not consider the before mentioned type of the institutialized ecumenical movement, which relativizes the Church, its dogmas, canonical structure and liturgical tradition and placing it on the same level with all other Christian denominations, who take part in the before mentioned movement, but we speak about the spiritual dialogue of the brothers in Spirit, notwithstanding to what confessions they belong to.

«Orgogliose come demoni»: le monache ribelli di Port-Royal

The text starts from the question posed by the nuns of Port-Royal: can the monastic condition ignore the voice of conscience? The dramatic results triggered by the questions had their roots in a book published in 1640: Augustinus by Cornelis Jansen who proposed uncompromising religiosity by appealing to the thought of the holy bishop. That book created around itself a spiritual movement that marked the seventeenth century with a brand of diversity and opposition to the ruling power, political and religious. But perhaps Jansenism would never have been such an attractive ethical reference without Port-Royal, which the king wanted to destroy precisely to disperse the movement.The Cistercian abbey, however, was first of all a community of women consecrated to prayer and yet, the extent of the theological controversies of which it became the center and the vast literary production that surrounded it, ended up eclipsing that primacy of the conversation with God that was the highest ambition of the religious group. On the other hand, it was difficult for a group of austere nuns who refused blind obedience not to cause scandal, in seventeenth-century France and beyond. However, the destruction of the abbey did not manage to silence the voices of its inhabitants and their behavior still challenges us.

Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano\u2019s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity

Integrating palaeoclimatological proxies and historical records, which is necessary to achieve a more complete understanding of climate impacts on past societies, is a challenging task, often leading to unsatisfactory and even contradictory conclusions. This has until recently been the case for Italy, the heart of the Roman Empire, during the transition between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In this paper, we present new high-resolution speleothem data from the Apuan Alps (Central Italy). The data document a period of very wet conditions in the sixth c. AD, probably related to synoptic atmospheric conditions similar to a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. For this century, there also exist a significant number of historical records of extreme hydroclimatic events, previously discarded as anecdotal. We show that this varied evidence reflects the increased frequency of floods and extreme rainfall events in Central and Northern Italy at the time. Moreover, we also show that these unusual hydroclimatic conditions overlapped with the increased presence of “water miracles” in Italian hagiographical accounts and social imagination. The miracles, performed by local Church leaders, strengthened the already growing authority of holy bishops and monks in Italian society during the crucial centuries that followed the “Fall of the Roman Empire”. Thus, the combination of natural and historical data allows us to show the degree to which the impact of climate variability on historical societies is determined not by the nature of the climatic phenomena per se, but by the culture and the structure of the society that experienced it.

Situația creștinismului în Insula Britanică în primele patru secole

The Christianity in Britain has developed in the first centuries, spreading together with the Romanity, Constantine the Great himself being crowned emperor inthis providence. But after the withdrawal of the Roman troops in 410 by Emperor Honorius and after the invasion of the Saxons, Angles and Ithians, Christianity disappeared almost entirely, remaining only among the British natives who run from the Saxon invasion in the Cornwall peninsula, in Wales and on the NW coast of the province. Among the most active missionaries in this province, St. Patrick, who is considered to be the apostle of Ireland, was noted during the same period. Under his influence, the number of monasteries increased and the society that shepherded was profoundly changed. In this universe of faith St. Columba made himself known. Together with his 12 disciples, he headed to the kingdom of Dalriada, a maritime state encompassing the northern Ulster region of Ireland and the south-west coast of Scotland. Here, Saint Columba converted the entire monarchy, obtaining from the king an island to establish a monastery. He was granted the island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland, where he founded a monastery that will become a true focal point of culture and Christianity in the area. From Iona, Celtic Christianity spread throughout Scotland, converting the picts, then passing Hadrian’s Wave to Britain, where the Holy Bishop Aidan founded a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne. Later, St. Augustine of Canterbury, brought the Christianity back into the British Island, being sent there by Pope Gregory the Great.

Gnostyk heterodoksyjny i prawdziwy gnostyk w Chrystusie według nauczania Ireneusza z Lyonu

The fight against gnostics allowed the holy bishop to develop the Christian doctrine with a perfect way. At first, he showed that the knowledge that heretics sought in vain in mythical narratives was not real. The only real gnosis was love and grace for believers in Christ and they were given to them by the Holy Spirit. Only in Church man can be saved. And the real “gnostics” were not those who rejected and despised their body in order to worship an “incomprehensible God” and “Creator,” but the “spiritual” people who received from the Holy Spirit the resurrection of the flesh and its indestructibility.

La relique, le reliquaire et le récit hagiographique : des relations ambiguës (diocèses de Mende et de Toulouse) ?

Relics, reliquaries and hagiographie stories : ambiguous narratives (dioceses of Mende and of Toulouse) ? The relationship between relics and hagiography appears quite clear. A systematic examination of this relationship in Languedoc shows however that it is not perhaps useless to question this evidence. The several tales of the translation or discovery of relics of southern French saints that it is proposed to study initially raise important problems, of how to date them, of publication and of circulation. It should be noted that relics have been the object of devotion without any hagiographie stories and have been found to strengthen the promotion of their cults. The case of the successors of St. Semin is in this regard is characteristic, even if one of these, Exupery, is seen to be endowed with a story that emerges from the Gregorian crisis at Toulouse, after the monks of Moissac occupied for a while the abbey of St. Semin. The latter, towards 1100, compiled the biggest written list of relics ever produced in a southern French monastery. This comprised more than 150 different saints, and it was intended to compare this with the 150 saints found indeed in the biggest book of saints ever produced in France in the XIth century, and also with the cult of saints as it appeared in the later liturgical manuscripts of this abbey. What comes out of this study is that a relic is not always accompanied by a hagiographic tale, and is not always the object of a cult. What therefore is its function in the heart of the monastic space ? The relic can extend beyond the hagiographic description, by integrating a reliquary of which the iconography allows the extension of the hagiographie legend, as is the case of an exceptional Toulousan reliquary of the XIIIth century, in which the Life of St. Exupery of Toulouse is rewritten and augmented with images. This illustrates perhaps how the relic has superior power over a hagiographic story. It alone structures the urban space of episcopal cities. Its location in the city brings a condition of different identities, and, in return, the production of new hagiographic stories at the end of the Middle Ages, in cathedrals deprived of prestigious relics of holy bishops which are preserved in other urban sanctuaries (Rodez, Toulouse, Albi). Thus, the absence of a relic can be as favourable to the creation of a hagiographic text as its possession.

To the Issue of Timing and Circumstancesof Rebuilding the Synagogue into the Church in Chersonesos

The article analyses the strands from The Lives of Holy Bishops of Cherson related with the construction of the first Christian temple in the city, as well as archaeological material discovered in the early temple Basilica 1935. The analysis showed that most probably there was a synagogue functioning in the Late Ancient and Early Mediaeval Chersonesos within a short period of time in the 4th century. It belonged to an intermediate “wide house” square-shaped type Quadratbau dated predominantly by the 3rd and 4th centuries. In the early 390s, in the time of Aetherius, bishop of Cherson, it was reconstructed into the Christian church. The remains of the church under Basilica 1935 can be determined in sacral topography of Chersonesos as one of the earliest monuments of Christian art in the city.

Летописная статья 1044 г. и чудо воскрешения через крещение в «Житиях херсонских святых епископов» / Annalistic article of 1044 year and the miracle of resurrection through baptism in the “Lives of Holy bishops of Сherson”

Летописная статья 1044 г. и чудо воскрешения через крещение в «Житиях херсонских святых епископов» / Annalistic article of 1044 year and the miracle of resurrection through baptism in the “Lives of Holy bishops of Сherson”

The Decorations in the Left Aisle of Santa Maria Antiqua within the Context of the Political History of the Iconoclastic Era.

The topic under consideration is a fresco of the left aisle of the Church of Santa Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum. It depicts a row of holy men flanking Christ sitting on His Throne dating back to the time of the Pope Paul I (757-767). The author focuses on images of saints on the fresco, their hierarchy, and their garments. It is revealed that the holy men on the right hand of Christ are venerated saints of the Roman Church and those on the left hand are mostly Eastern holy bishops, great theologians and champions of orthodox faith who fought against various kinds of heresies. They have never been really popular in Rome. The author has come to the following conclusion: the saints on the left and the saints on the right represent together the united and undivided Church fighting against the heresy of Iconoclasm. The main weapon of the Western Church being its firmness in the orthodox faith, the main weapon of the Eastern Church was its theological erudition.

Hagiography and Memory: The Use of Bishop Saint Ramon of Roda in the Thirteenth Century

One of the great issues of medieval iconography is dealing with hagiographical image construction, either narrative or not, developed soon after the death of a local saint. This paper tackles the case of Saint Ramon, Bishop of Roda and Barbastro, and the circumstances in which his memory was enhanced within the See of Roda de Ribagorça throughout different periods of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Additionally, we will analyse the new portal of the church, a thirteenth century monumental artwork which so far has been completely neglected. The analysis of its capitals demonstrates a choice clearly focused on recalling the memory of the holy bishop.

The texts of inscriptions in depictions of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin in Byzantine art

Along with the usual inscription that contains the title of the scene, depictions of the Dormition of Holy Virgin in the art of the Palaiologan period abound in texts inscribed on open books carried by holy bishops or scrolls held by the hymnographers and prophets included in the composition. Inscriptions can also be found in the episodes that sometimes accompany the central representation of the Virgin Mary's death. This paper seeks to compile the most typical examples of such inscriptions, identify their hymnographic and liturgical sources and offer iconographic interpretations.

Por mi alma subiré a Dios. El concepto de alma de san Agustín de Hipona

El presente artículo pretende recoger las claves fundamentales de la doctrina sobre el alma de san Agustín de Hipona. Magna natura et magna quaestio est (Hipona De, trad. 1968, 14, 4, 6), puesto que ocupará durante toda su vida el pensamiento y las obras del santo obispo. Buscar su propia alma, adentrarse en su santuario, descubrir la imagen de Dios en ella, su bondad, su grandeza, su vida… para volverla luego a Dios, su origen y meta de todos sus esfuerzos. Tal es el itinerario que nos traza el filósofo de Thagaste, sediento de verdad, que acabará volcado en la fuente que sacia, la misma Verdad.

The Northern Saints after the Reformation in the Writings Of Christopher Watson (d. 1580)

Regional identity in medieval Durham depended crucially on St Cuthbert. The property and privileges of the diocese were presented as possessions of an originally Celtic community which had carried the miraculously incorrupt body of the saint from Lindisfarne to a final home in Durham. Tradition added other holy abbots, bishops and kings, remembered as obedient to the Roman tradition after the Synod of Whitby in 664. The Durham story included the expulsion at the Conquest of married guardians of Cuthbert in favour of proper monks, a change corroborated by miracle stories and holy lives, such as that of Godric in the dependent cell of Finchale. Increasing possessions were given to the saint; miracle stories showed him punishing violators of his shrine. Relics, including the head of King Oswald and remains of Bede, linked the priory with these traditions. These ideas had penetrated the local identity; the notion of the Haliwerfolc, the community of the liberty of St Cuthbert, the lands belonging to the saint, remained strong in the late Middle Ages for people ‘between Tyne and Tees’. Nonetheless, in the 1570s Christopher Watson attempted a history which denigrated Cuthbert’s life and miracles and those of other Durham saints.

Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition (review)

Reviewed by: Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition Robin Darling Young Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition. By Claudia Rapp. [The Transformation of the Classical Heritage, Vol. 37.](Berkeley: University of California Press. 2005. Pp. xii, 346. $55.00. ISBN 978-0-520-24296-3.) If its title provides a near occasion for cognitive dissonance, it is not because this book lacks an interesting thesis and rich documentation: Rapp amply illustrates the activities and aims of the numerous early Christian leaders whose rise as a new order of politicians revolutionized the Mediterranean world. An exception proves her case. Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch from 260 to 272, lost his job for doctrinal error, but his accusers added charges of moral turpitude for good measure; yet he could be deposed only after his protector Zenobia suffered military defeat. If holiness could not secure his office, its alleged lack demonstrated the justice of his punishment. The book has two parts. The first, chapters 1 through 4, describes the quality of holiness as a necessity—no less than for the ascetic—for the bishop and traces it through three aspects. The second part, chapters 5 through 9, considers bishops' specific contexts in late antiquity and the institutions that grew out of them. Rapp begins her treatment with a review of previous scholarship on the episcopacy in early Christianity. She distinguishes three groups of previous studies: histories of the episcopacy's development, ending with Constantine; the "public role of bishops" in urban or rural sees; and biographies of particularly notable bishops. Rapp wants to dispute the importance of the reign of Constantine, particularly dear to European historians as a watershed, and, by making the chronological range of her book the third to sixth century, to discount the corrosiveness of imperial sponsorship upon Church and bishop. She also recommends a "more integrative approach" in the studies of particular [End Page 779]bishops to link their activities within Stadtherrschaftto "their religious position as Christian leaders" (p. 13). In part 1, Rapp groups the "pragmatic," "spiritual," and "ascetic" aspects of this leadership. The method and content of this part might be called theological, because, compared with the second, it is based upon the concept of the "holy man," especially following the discussion of Peter Brown; and because, to extend the concept from the ascetic and patronusdescribed by Brown, it gathers examples from various works to arrive at a synthetic portrait of the quality of episcopal holiness. By contrast, part 2 is more empirical, beginning with a contrast between two bishops—Synesius of Cyrene and Theodore of Sykeon—and going on to examine social contexts (chapter 6, cities (chapter 7, empire (i.e., the relationship between empire and bishops in the imperial system [chapter 8]), and ending in chapter 9 with a description of what was, after all, a notable change in the significance of this highest Christian office—the transition "from model Christians to model citizens" (p. 275). Here the book seems to revert to a previous historiographical model, by claiming that "[i]n the two centuries after Constantine, a new understanding of the episcopate developed that privileged the bishop's pragmatic authority over his ascetic authority" (p. 274)—in other words, it reduced prior expectations for holiness and drew upon status and money to make the bishop an indispensable urban and imperial official. A few errors should be noted—the Apostolic Traditionis known to be a composite of the fourth century, not a witness to the second; the Didacheprobably favors local officials, not the mobile "prophets and teachers" against whom it cautions; and in the fifth century, the miaphysite Peter the Iberian certainly did not support Nestorius. Robin Darling Young University of Notre Dame Copyright © 2009 The Catholic University of America Press

Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon and Early Modern England: Continuity and Evolution in Social Context

C ^^^ ometime between around 687 and 700, a distraught father brought his . ^^ raving son, in a wagon, to the island of Lindisfarne, where the holy relics ^^^ of Saint Cuthbert were kept. According to the author of the Life of Cuth bert, the boy, wearied by the torments of a demon, was prone to succumb to bouts of screaming, weeping, and self-mutilation. A priest named Tydi had been unable to put the demon to flight, so he advised the father to transport his son to the relics. At that point, Many people despaired of being able to secure any remedy for the miserable boy, but a certain man of good and pure faith who was moved to pity, placing his trust in God and entreating the help of St. Cuthbert, blessed some holy water and sprinkled in it some dirt from the ditch in which had been poured the bath water of the body of our holy bishop after his death. Once the boy tried the holy water, he desisted from his babbling that night.1 Almost a thousand years later, an Essex teenager named Katheren Malpas was likewise adjudged to be sorely afflicted by demons. According to the testimony her grandparents gave in Star Chamber, Katheren's torments began on Candlemas Eve, 1621, presaged by several bouts of hideous screaming that left her lame. Over the subsequent months, Katheren often appeared to succumb to terrible fits that seemed all the more horrifying to those who saw her, by virtue of their violence and the fact that they rendered her corn

Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition (review)

Reviewed by: Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition Leonora Neville Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition. By Claudia Rapp. [The Transformation of the Classical Heritage.] (Berkeley: University of California Press. 2005. Pp. xii, 346.) The European Enlightenment has proven remarkably successful in convincing later generations not only that religious matters can be separated from secular ones, but that such a distinction is natural. This has hampered scholarly efforts to understand societies in which that distinction is foreign. Claudia Rapp here successfully draws a systematic portrait of episcopal authority in late antiquity which consciously eschews the binary secular/religious model. Her model, based on late antique discussions of leadership, is that late antique bishops exercised leadership through three modes of authority: spiritual, ascetic, and pragmatic. Spiritual authority is a divine gift of the Spirit, of which individuals are passive recipients. Ascetic authority is achieved through the personal efforts of individuals to improve and perfect themselves. Pragmatic authority arises from the deeds individuals do on behalf of others. Whereas anyone can gain ascetic authority through proper personal conduct, only those with the material resources to undertake actions benefiting others can gain pragmatic authority. This model is an attempt to take seriously the contemporary terminology used to discuss the ideal characteristics of bishops. Ascetic authority is the lynch-pin in this system. Rapp's most forceful point is that bishops strove to practice asceticism and were praised by their contemporaries insofar as they succeeded. They endeavored to conform to the same ideals of behavior as monks and, like monks, gained authority through their ascetic achievements. Successful practice of asceticism was considered a sign that one possessed gifts of the spirit and hence had spiritual authority. Ascetic authority was also the "motivation and legitimation" of pragmatic authority (p. 18). Rapp successfully makes the case that "pragmatic authority never seems to exist on its own but is embedded in a larger context where spiritual and ascetic authority also play their part" (p. 131). Rapp's reminder that most major bishops went through a period of ascetic practice before taking up office is an important corrective to common perceptions. Rapp takes on an extensive chronological sweep from the third to the sixth century. By thus straddling the reign of Constantine she undermines a second persistent scholarly dichotomy between the "primitive" Church and the post-Constantinian "imperial" church. Her analysis charts gradual evolutions within the ideals of episcopal authority. [End Page 374] Much of the source material utilized discusses the nature of the priesthood and ideals of priestly behavior, with bishops entering the picture as an extension of that conversation. Through the theory of apostolic succession, ordination itself was seen as bestowing spiritual authority on priests. The authority which came through ordination is most often evident in absolution of penitents (p. 94). Rapp emphasizes the adoption of monastic values by priests. In part she is exposing the distinction in expected behavior between monks and priests as a medieval phenomenon. A key distinguishing feature of priestly as opposed to monastic holiness in late antiquity was the injunction of priests to preach and educate their communities. Rapp highlights the presumption that a priest was always a teacher. Throughout, Rapp exhibits a stunning knowledge of the source material and scholarship. In addition to the finely crafted argument, Rapp provides an invaluable survey of information and sources describing the nature of episcopal authority in late antiquity. For this reason alone the book should be considered essential reading for anyone studying late antiquity or the development of Christianity. Her case that bishops were able to lead effectively through an intertwining of spiritual, ascetic, and pragmatic authority is made with sufficient force that it will likely set the agenda for scholarly discussions of late antique authority for some time to come. Leonora Neville The Catholic University of America Copyright © 2007 The Catholic University of America Press

Becket's Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170-1300 (review)

Reviewed by: Becket's Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170-1300 Julian Gardner Becket's Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170-1300. By Paul Binski. (New Haven: Yale University Press. 2005. Pp. xvi, 343; 80 colored and 210 black and white illustrations. $65.00.) This is an intensely serious and ambitious book which sheds much light on English art in its European context over a period which might be characterized as the long thirteenth century. It is beautifully produced with well-chosen and apposite illustrations close to the text in which they are discussed. Binski claims with complete justification that he has consistently attempted to alert the reader to the sustained exegetical and textual density of English Gothic, its ethical sophistication, its urbanity and unconventionality, and its prizing of stylistic virtuosity. Similar epithets might be applied to the book. It is skillfully written; it glitters with brilliant aperçus; and it can be witty as well as serious. At times the writing is a trifle ornate, and the reader who encounters an obvious synechdochal train of thought about Becket's wounded head is in for an occasionally bumpy ride. But the consistent intellectual seriousness and the close engagement with the theological and liturgical context is very welcome. The book is articulated in parts. The first concerns Becket and the architectural and ideological consequences of his brutal murder. After the new work at Canterbury the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury are examined in detail. The second section scrutinizes the solutions arrived at in Ely and Wells and the pervasive impact on the English episcopate of Becket's martyrdom in all its complexity. The physical and ideological context established, Binski examines the way in which religious life and its setting was regulated, externally through the legislation of the Fourth Lateran council, and internally through synodalia and the growing genre of pastoralia. The final focus is on the expressive range of English Gothic, its ability to smile and grimace, and the centrally formative role of music in imagery and spatial organization. This impressively wide sweep allows the author to discuss such topics as the development of the three-nail crucifix, vernacular devotion, and much else. Binski is unafraid to take up the cudgels when he feels it necessary, and his reasoned disagreements with scholars such as Panofsky, Southern, Belting, and Wolfgang Kemp are invariably cogent. Canterbury was the seminal building in its architecture, its symbolism, and its martyrial coloration. Its range of reference was huge, stretching from late antique imperial mausolea and mediaeval Roman spolia to Saint-Denis. The ethical charge of the new episcopal initiatives was great and markedly [End Page 392] Aristotelian. Of supreme importance was Archbishop Stephen Langton, like Becket exiled, and a close associate and collaborator of Pope Innocent III. Lincoln, Ely, and Wells cathedrals are all carefully scrutinized and an impressive range of tools brought to the analysis, stylistic, liturgical, botanical, and musical. Binski draws suggestive analogies between the foliate borders of the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, the flowering Cross of the Psalter of Robert of Lindsey, and the celebrated capitals of Southwell chapterhouse, although the apse mosaic of San Clemente might also have figured in this argument. He makes penetrating comments on holy bishops and their role in the transformation of English Gothic architecture. His ascription of a highly significant influence to St. Bernard and the Cistercians might have been tempered had he read Donald Matthew's measured criticisms of Conrad Rudolph's hypotheses, and Marc Dykmans would have rounded out his arguments on the elevation of the Host, but it is difficult to fault the range and alertness of his reading. Bishops were expected after the Fourth Lateran Council to be controls, and as such were naturally concerned with ornamenta. Binski here makes a fundamental contribution to this discussion, rightly stressing the English contribution, for which he draws splendidly on a published documentation unrivaled elsewhere in Europe. He makes extensive and sensitive use of synodalia. Not everyone will follow him in claiming a pioneering role for Becket in the development of the Vita-retable, but the arguments are certainly suggestive. The virtually total destruction of early mendicant painting in England and France...

Claudia RAPP, Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition. The Transformation of the Classical Heritage, 37

Abstract Im Zentrum der Monographie von Claudia Rapp steht die Figur des christlichen Bischofs im Kontext der spätantiken Gesellschaft. Das Buch besteht aus zwei Teilen und einem Epilog. Der erste Teil (S. 1–152) erfüllt eine zweifache Aufgabe: Er bietet (1.) eine Übersicht über die relevante Forschungsliteratur und Positionierung der vorliegenden Arbeit in der Forschungslandschaft und (2.) die Präsentation des von der Verf. entworfenen Erklärungsmodells, das die gesamte Untersuchung konzeptuell bestimmt. Im zweiten Teil (S. 155–289) betrachtet die Verf. die Entwicklung der Rolle des christlichen Bischofs im Kontext spätantiker Städte und Römischen Reiches vom 3. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert anhand von archäologischem, hagiographischem und juristischem Quellenmaterial. Im Epilog (S. 290–302) wird die Figur des Bischofs im Spiegel der Grabinschriften prominenter Amtsträger skizziert. Ein Quellen- und Literaturverzeichnis sowie ein Index beschließen den Band (S. 303–346).

Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition by Claudia Rapp (review)

REVIEWS 290 Nicholas Penny’s contribution looks to the Raphael’s singular reputation and considers the presence of his creations in several British collections. Well written and thoroughly researched, this exceptional catalogue is accessible to both students and scholars. The index is rather limited, however the bibliography is thorough, and Minna Moore Ede’s updated chronology is quite helpful. All in all, this text is a must-have for anyone attempting to do serious research on Raphael and his art. HEATHER SEXTON, Art History, UCLA Claudia Rapp, Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition (Berkeley: University of California Press 2005) 346 pp. In a law promulgated in 528, the emperor Justinian gave bishops the power to oversee financial court cases in the absence of imperial officials (Codex Justinianus 1.4.21). Although this was an instance of bishops explicitly granted a specific political role within the imperial administration, throughout the third, fourth and fifth centuries their roles had been growing and changing, challenged not only by their pastoral, ecclesiastical and civic responsibilities, but also by a radically shifting emphasis towards the ascetic, spiritual, and holy. Claudia Rapp’s Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity not only reconsiders these latter characteristics, but generates a new model in which the notion of bishop is reconciled with that of holy man, and furthermore reexamines the bishops in the reality of their daily life, utilizing a variety of sources (literary, documentary , and archaeological) allowing for the production of a work of phenomenal breadth and depth. Rapp succeeds in not only placing the many roles and characters bishops were able to undertake, but redefines the nature of leadership within the greater community of late antique Roman society. Holy Bishops is well organized into two main sections, the first on methodological issues of leadership and authority and a template for understanding bishops in their changing roles in respect to holy men, and the second applying this framework onto bishops themselves and the realities of their office. Furthermore, the sections are intelligently divided into chapters and sub-headings which greatly increase its functionality. In the first chapter, Rapp presents her novel approach that the best way to understand the position of bishops is to examine them by the ways in which they receive and exercise their authority, and that their actual role is highly nuanced and complex. This methodology is a rejection of older models, some of which describe bishops as primarily “political actors whose power derives from their social position and wealth” (9), and circumvents the narrow focus which recent late antique scholarship has taken on bishops with regards to their secular and religious interplay. Instead, the focus shifts to two facets: the first is the central theme of a bishop’s own personal holiness as not only a compatible but necessary element for their authority, and the second is an introduction of a new model for understanding episcopal authority, rejecting the simplistic model of secular and religious power, and instead changing the criteria for power by looking at ascetic, spiritual, and pragmatic authority. In the next three chapters, different types of authority as proposed by this new model are examined. First described is pragmatic authority, which is de- REVIEWS 291 fined by the duties for which the bishops were responsible not only for the religious needs of their Christian communities (such as celebration of the eucharist or baptism), but also their growing role in civic administration. Rapp traces the development of the episcopate, starting from the Paul’s letter to Timothy, and primarily using the writings of bishops themselves from the second -century Ignatius of Antioch through Ambrose of Milan and John Chrysostom , and church orders such as the Didascalia. In these works, the concept of pragmatic authority which initial derives from a spiritual power, evolves into a model Rapp describes as “the dialectic of episcopal leadership” (41) where the bishop must be a model of exemplary behavior, while at the same time he earn the recognition of his position through it. Spiritual authority is approached in the same way as pragmatic authority, and a similar conclusion is drawn, where authority does not merely exist on its own...