The Politics of Heresy in Ambrose of Milan: Community and Consensus in Late Antique Christianity PDF
Preview The Politics of Heresy in Ambrose of Milan: Community and Consensus in Late Antique Christianity
THE POLITICS OF HERESY IN AMBROSE OF MILAN Community and Consensus in Late Antique Christianity Ambrose of Milan is famous above all for his struggle with, and triumph over, ‘Arian’ heresy. Yet, almost all of the evidence comes fromAmbrose’sownwritings,andfrompioushistoriansofthenext generation who represented him as a champion of orthodoxy. This detailedstudyarguesinsteadthatan‘Arian’oppositioninMilanwas largelyconjuredupbyAmbrosehimself,lumpingtogethercriticsand outsidersinordertosecureandjustifyhisownauthority.Alongwith newinterpretationsofAmbrose’selectionasbishop,hiscontroversies over the faith, and his clashes with the imperial court, this book providesanewunderstandingofthenatureandsignificanceofhere- tical communities in late antiquity. In place of rival congregations inflexiblycommittedtodoctrinalbeliefs,itenvisagesaworldofmore fluid allegiances in which heresy – but also consensus – could be a matterofdeployingtherightrhetoricalframe. michael stuart williams isLecturerinRomanHistoryinthe Maynooth University Department of Ancient Classics. He has published widely on the history and culture of late-antique Christianity and is the author of Authorised Lives in Early Christian Biography: Between Eusebius and Augustine (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He has edited two volumes of scholarly essays under the title Unclassical Traditions and is the co-editor ofPeaceandReconciliationintheClassicalWorld(Routledge,2017). THE POLITICS OF HERESY IN AMBROSE OF MILAN Community and Consensus in Late-Antique Christianity MICHAEL STUART WILLIAMS MaynoothUniversity UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 4843/24,2ndFloor,AnsariRoad,Daryaganj,Delhi–110002,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107019461 doi:10.1017/9781139094658 ©MichaelStuartWilliams2017 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2017 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. isbn978-1-107-01946-1Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. DennisArnoldWilliams 25December1943–8August2015 Dr Johnson proceeded: ‘Sir, there is a great cry about infidelity; but thereare,inreality,veryfewinfidels.Ihaveheardaperson,originally aQuaker,butnow,Iamafraid,aDeist,say,thathedidnotbelieve therewere,inallEngland,abovetwohundredinfidels’.1 1 JamesBoswell,TheLifeofSamuelJohnson,LL.D(1791). Contents Acknowledgements pageviii ListofAbbreviations x Introduction:TheStrangeDeathof“Arian”Milan 1 1 MakingDistinctions:ChristianIdentityandCommunity inLateAntiquity 13 2 ATaleofTwoBishops:AuxentiusofMilan andtheElectionofAmbrose 58 3 FramingtheFaith:Aquileia,DefideandtheRhetoric ofUnity 111 4 ManufacturingConsensus:Communities,Leaders andtheFirstBasilicaCrisis 165 5 PopularAppeal:UnityandAuthorityintheSecond BasilicaCrisis 214 Conclusion:WaitingfortheArians 287 Bibliography 312 IndexofModernAuthors 337 GeneralIndex 338 vii Acknowledgements Nothing I say here will suffice to repay the debts I have incurred in the courseofworkingonthisbook.Itiseasiesttobeginwiththemostobvious: muchofthisbookwasplannedandwrittenduringtwoperiodsofsabba- tical leave granted to me by Maynooth University, and I should like to thank the university for providing me with these opportunities to pursue myresearchandmycolleaguesintheDepartmentofAncientClassicsfor not grudging my absence. The final stages were undertaken while I was the beneficiary of a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, and for this I am especially grateful to the Humboldt Foundation and to Hartmut Leppin, my host at the J.W. Goethe- Universität Frankfurt am Main, as well as to Sigrid Mratschek, David Scourfield and Christopher Kelly for supporting my application and to SteffenPatzoldforhisadviceatacrucialstage. InthecourseofmyresearchIhavebenefitedgreatlyfromtheresources made available to me at Maynooth University and at Trinity College, Dublin; at the Bodleian and Sackler libraries in Oxford; at the J.C. Senckenburg library in Frankfurt and the Bibliothek A3 in Mannheim; andattheCentraleBibliotheekandMauritsSabbebibliotheekinLeuven. In Oxford Iwas also encouraged and supported by David Parrott, Robin LaneFoxandBryanWard-Perkins. Earlyversionsofsomeofthisbook’sideasandargumentswerepresented at conferences and seminars in Vancouver, Oxford, Glasgow, Dublin, Maynooth, Exeter and Ghent. I wish to thank Mark Vessey, Neil McLynn, Julia Shear, Edward Herring, David Scourfield, Richard Flower and Koen De Temmerman for the invitations to speak and the audiencesateacheventfortheirpositiveresponsesandvaluablediscussion bothformalandinformal.Iamespeciallygratefulforfeedbackofferedon these and other occasions by Lorena Atzeri, Gillian Clark, Kate Cooper, Philip de Souza, Thomas Graumann, Peter I. Kaufman, Gavin Kelly, Melissa Markauskas, Nicholas Mataya, Neil McLynn, Sigrid Mratschek, viii
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