Building communities on civic terms: Civis and civitas in late antique episcopal preaching

Abstract

This dissertation presents the research that was carried out – as part of the NWO VICI project ‘Citizenship Discourses in the Early Middle Ages, 400-1100’ – into the use of Latin terms of citizenship in the sermons by three late antique bishops, namely Maximus of Turin (bishop c. 398?-408/423 CE), Augustine of Hippo (bishop c. 396-430 CE, focusing on his Sermones ad populum) and Peter Chrysologus of Ravenna (bishop c. 425-ca. 450/458 CE). Preaching formed an important part of the duties of the late antique bishop as spiritual leader of the Christian community and often took place in an urban setting. The bishop was familiar with the arts of classical rhetoric and thus with the ways in which words could be used to effectively convey a message. The central question posed by this research is how the bishops used terminology of citizenship, with special attention to the terms civis (citizen) and civitas (citizenship, citizen body, city), in their sermons to build and shape the Christian community and its members, and, more specifically, what function, relevance and meaning this terminology had in the instructions and exhortations about Scripture, the Christian faith, salvation, and the desired way of life. The methodology applied in studying the three sermon corpora is threefold. It includes (1) distant reading, i.e. making an inventory of the employment of citizenship terminology in the three sermon corpora using the digital Library of Latin Texts, (2) a detailed, close reading study of the two key terms civis and civitas in particular within a selection of sermons, and (3) a comparative study of differences and similarities in the application of these key terms within and between the three sermon corpora. The study shows that civis and civitas were meaningful and relevant terms for the bishops to employ in support of their various aims as a preacher, and, by extension, their efforts of building the Christian community. One of the study’s key findings is that the bishops made deliberate use of expectations and values that in late antique society were associated with citizenship and the city. They could address the congregants about their responsibilities as citizens or city leaders, as well as capitalize on the audience’s expectations with regard to civic well-being (salus) and civic belonging. The study also shows how the bishop could draw a connection between Christian identity, Christian membership and Christian lifestyle on the one hand, and notions and values of citizenship on the other. The research furthermore provides insight into the semantic fields of civis and civitas, by demonstrating the relationships between these two terms on the one hand, and co-occurrent terms – such as patria, peregrinus, and miles - on the other.