There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ: Religious Violence in the Christian Roman Empire

Michael Gaddis

Published by University of California Press 2006

There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ

Religious Violence in the Christian Roman Empire

Michael Gaddis

Volume 39 in the series Transformation of the Classical Heritage

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520930902

Overview
Contents

About this book

"There is no crime for those who have Christ," claimed a fifth-century zealot, neatly expressing the belief of religious extremists that righteous zeal for God trumps worldly law. This book provides an in-depth and penetrating look at religious violence and the attitudes that drove it in the Christian Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries, a unique period shaped by the marriage of Christian ideology and Roman imperial power. Drawing together materials spanning a wide chronological and geographical range, Gaddis asks what religious conflict meant to those involved, both perpetrators and victims, and how violence was experienced, represented, justified, or contested. His innovative analysis reveals how various groups employed the language of religious violence to construct their own identities, to undermine the legitimacy of their rivals, and to advance themselves in the competitive and high-stakes process of Christianizing the Roman Empire.

Gaddis pursues case studies and themes including martyrdom and persecution, the Donatist controversy and other sectarian conflicts, zealous monks' assaults on pagan temples, the tyrannical behavior of powerful bishops, and the intrigues of church councils. In addition to illuminating a core issue of late antiquity, this book also sheds light on thematic and comparative dimensions of religious violence in other times, including our own.

Author / Editor information

Gaddis Michael :

Michael Gaddis is Associate Professor of History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. “What Has the Emperor to Do with the Church?” Persecution and Martyrdom from Diocletian to Constantine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. “The God of the Martyrs Refuses You” Religious Violence, Political Discourse, and Christian Identity in the Century after Constantine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
3. An Eye for an Eye Religious Violence in Donatist Africa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
4. Temperata Severitas Augustine, the State, and Disciplinary Violence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
5. “There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ” Holy Men and Holy Violence in the Late Fourth and Early Fifth Centuries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
6. “The Monks Commit Many Crimes” Holy Violence Contested Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
7. “Sanctify Thy Hand by the Blow” Problematizing Episcopal Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
8. Non Iudicium sed Latrocinium Of Holy Synods and Robber Councils Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 416

eBook

Published: October 14, 2005
ISBN: 9780520930902