Law, memory, and priestly office in Rome, c.500

• Published in: Early medieval Europe Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 61 - 84
• Main Author: Leyser, Conrad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-02-2019
• Subjects: 5th century; Christianity; Clergy; European culture; European history; Interpreters; Law; Medieval period; Memory; Politicians; Roman civilization; North Africa
• ISSN: 0963-9462; 1468-0254
• DOI: 10.1111/emed.12314

This essay sets the development of Christian thinking about law and clerical office in the wider context of the discussion of office in the later Roman empire. It offers a reassessment of the work of Dionysius Exiguus, a well‐known translator from Greek into Latin of the Acts of the fourth‐ and fifth‐century church councils, and a compiler of papal decretals. The essay attempts to place Dionysius’ work in its immediate Roman context, in the context of fifth‐century canonical activity, especially in North Africa, and in the more general context of the political culture of office‐holding in the late Roman polity. Central here is the tension between bureaucratic regulation and autocratic room for manoeuvre. Dionysius did not attempt fully to resolve this tension, though he did attempt to contain it.