At various times over the past millennium bishops of Rome have claimed a universal primacy of jurisdiction over all Christians and a superiority over civil authority. Reactions to these claims have shaped the modern world profoundly. New book raises the question, whether the Roman bishop made such claims in the millennium prior to that?

The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity
Edited by Geoffrey D. Dunn, Australian Catholic University, Australia
Ashgate 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4724-5551-2
Short ISBN: 9781472455512

At various times over the past millennium bishops of Rome have claimed a universal primacy of jurisdiction over all Christians and a superiority over civil authority. Reactions to these claims have shaped the modern world profoundly. Did the Roman bishop make such claims in the millennium prior to that?

The essays in this volume from international experts in the field examine the bishop of Rome in late antiquity from the time of Constantine at the start of the fourth century to the death of Gregory the Great at the beginning of the seventh. These were important periods as Christianity underwent enormous transformation in a time of change. The essays concentrate on how the holders of the office perceived and exercised their episcopal responsibilities and prerogatives within the city or in relation to both civic administration and other churches in other areas, particularly as revealed through the surviving correspondence. With several of the contributors examining the same evidence from different perspectives, this volume canvasses a wide range of opinions about the nature of papal power in the world of late antiquity.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction, Geoffrey D. Dunn.

Part I The Fourth Century:

• The Pax Constantiniana and the Roman episcopate, Glen L. Thompson
• The Bishop of Rome and the martyrs, Marianne Sághy
• Siricius and the rise of the papacy, Christian Hornung
• Pope Siricius and Himerius of Tarragona (385): provincial papal intervention in the 4th century, Alberto Ferreiro.

Part II The Fifth Century

• Innocent I and the First Synod of Toledo, Geoffrey D. Dunn
• Reconsidering a relationship: Pope Leo of Rome and Prosper of Aquitaine, Michele Renee Salzman
• Narrating papal authority (440-530): the adaptation of Liber Pontificalis to the apostolic see’s developing claims, Philippe Blaudeau
• Are all universalist politics local?: Pope Gelasius I’s international ambition as a tonic for local humiliation, George Demacopoulos
• Crisis in the letters of Gelasius I (492-96): a new model of crisis management?, Bronwen Neil.

Part III The Sixth Century:

• Ipsis diebus Bonifatius, zelo et dolo ductus: the root causes of the double papal election of 22 September 530, Dominic Moreau
• Gregory the Great and Sicily: an example of continuity and change in the Late 6th century, Christopher Hanlon
• Bibliography
• Index.