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Paulinus of Nola and the Last Century of the Western Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

W. H. C. Frend
W. H. C. Frend
Affiliation:
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
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Extract

The part played by Christianity in the downfall of the Roman empire in the west has fascinated historians for more than two centuries. The Encyclopaedists in the person of Montesquieu opened the debate, but the latter's subtle anti-Christianity in his Considérations sur la Grandeur et la Décadence des Romains (published 1734) was succeeded by the thorough-going attack of Gibbon who singled out Christianity as the main cause for the change and decadence in the empire's structure. Since then the debate has continued. New factors have been brought into play, such as the annihilating effect of the barbarian attacks or the sense of social injustice so graphically described by Salvian in Gaul and Spain that drove many provincials to welcome the rebel Bagaudae and the Germanic invaders as liberators from Roman tyranny. Salvian, however, was not unpatriotic. He was a far greater laudator temporis acti than Augustine and Orosius, and unlike them found positive merit in the poverty and virtue of the Old Romans. What he criticized was the heartless wealth, luxury and oppression of his own day and the failure of the Catholic clergy to do anything about it.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 59 , November 1969 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © W. H. C. Frend 1969. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 De Gubernatione Dei i, 2, 10.

2 Ibid. v, 5,20: ‘nam aut tacent plurimi (sacerdotes) eorum aut similes sunt tacentibus.’

3 Myres, J. N. L., ‘Pelagius and the end of Roman Rule in Britain’, JRS L, 1960, 21–36Google Scholar.

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7 The standard works on Paulinus remain Pierre Fabre's Saint Paulin de Note et l'Amitié chrétienne (Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athénes et de Rome, fasc. 167, 1949) and Essai sur la chronologie de l'œuvre de saint Paulin de Nole (Publication de la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg, fasc. 109, Paris, 1948)Google Scholar. See also P. G. Walsh, Letters of Paulinus of Nola (Ancient Christian Writers 35 (publ. 1967) and 36 (forthcoming)), and Coster, C. H., ‘Paulinus of Nola’, Late Roman Studies (Harvard, 1968), 183–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The text of Paulinus' Epistulae and Carmina are published by G. von Hartel in CSEL XXIX and XXX.

8 Ambrose, , Ep. 58, 1Google Scholar, and what Augustine describes as ‘Christianae vitae otium’, Retract. 1, 1, 1.

9 Ausonius, , Ep. 24, 2–3Google Scholar. Fabre, Saint Paulin 22.

10 Two individuals in this period who were to rise high in the administration held the governorship of Campania among their first steps to promotion: Q. Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius who was successively praefectus urbi, praefectus praetorio of Illyricum and then of the Orient before being consul in 379 (CIL VI, 1714); and Julius Festus Hymetius, vicarius urbi and later proconsul of Africa (CIL VI, 1736). Fabre, op. cit. 25, n. 2.

11 Ausonius, Ep. 27, lines 64–5: ‘Paulinum Ausoniumque, viros, quos sacra Quirini/purpura et auratus trabeae velavit amictus.’ See also Ep. 29, lines 60–1.

12 Paulinus, , Carmen XXI, 398–9Google Scholar:

‘sollicitae matri sum redditus: inde propinquos trans iuga Pyrenes adii peregrinus Hiberos.’

13 Evident from Paulinus, , Ep. 12, 12Google Scholar, when he refers to a chapel dedicated to his parents' memory ‘ad parentum nostrorum memoriam obsequiis’.

14 See Toynbee, J. M. C., ‘A New Roman mosaic pavement found in Dorset’, JRS LIV, 1964, 7–14Google Scholar.

15 Ausonius, Ep. 4, lines 9–10: ‘instantis revocant quia nos sollemnia Paschae/libera nee nobis est mora desidiae.’

16 Ausonius, Professores IV, compliments Attius Patera for being able to trace his descent from Druids of Bayeux, and hence his name ‘Patera’ derived from their worship, and that his brother was named after Phoebus Apollo, and his son had received a name connected with prophecy—Delphidius.

17 Ammianus Marcellinus, XIV, 8, 7 ff. See A. H. M. Jones' assessment of the position occupied by the senatorial aristocracy in both parts of the empire, Later Roman Empire (1964), ch. XV.

18 Frere, Sheppard, Britannia (London, 1967), 313–314Google Scholar. Most of the villa mosaics in Britain date between A.D. 300 and 370, ibid. 321.

19 Ausonius, Ep. 27, line 116 ‘veteris Paulini regna’.

20 Ep. 27, lines 90–5.

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23 Carmina 1 and 2.

24 Ep. 20. Ausonius had been praefectus praetorio Galliarum in 378. St. Martin too was on friendly terms with the usurper until Priscillian was executed.

25 Jerome, , Ep. 128, 3Google Scholar, dating to circa 413. P. R. L. Brown, Augustine of Hippo 27, is surely mistaken in quoting this letter as evidence for prevalent pessimism in western society at the time of Augustine's conversion.

26 See Severus, Sulpicius, Chronica II, 50, 8Google Scholar and Vita Sancti Martini 20, 3.

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28 Paulinus to Ausonius, Carmen X, lines 166–8: ‘otia amant strepitumque fori rerumque tumultus cunctaque divinis inimica negotia donis ab Christi imperiis et amore salutis abhorrent.’

29 Carmen XXI, 381–394.

30 Carmen XXI, lines 404–7. These included considerable property on the coast, ‘qua maris Oceani circumsona tunditur aestu/Gallia’.

31 Ausonius, Ep. 23.

32 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini 19. He met Martin at Vienne, , Ep. 18, 9Google Scholar

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34 Ep. 35, ‘obruamur pudore redeundi et in longinqua regione commorati ut in custodiam escamque porcorum indignam …’ Was this self-reproach justified ? His friends in Bordeaux apparently did not think so.

35 See Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Sanctae Macrinae, PG 46, 965Google Scholar.

36 Brown, P. R. L., ‘Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman Nobility’, JRS LI, 1961, 1–11Google Scholar. For the influence of the Christian matronae at Rome in Constantius II's reign, see Theodoret, II, 17.

37 Libanius, Ep. 1057 (cited from Kidd, B. J., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Church II, 131Google Scholar).

38 Paulinus to Ausonius, Carmen XI, lines 30–1.

39 Ep. 28, line 31, ‘Tanaquil tua nesciat istud.’

40 Paulinus to Ausonius, Carmen x, lines 284–5.

41 On Paulinus' possible influence on Augustine's Confessions, see Courcelle, P., Les Confessions de Saint Augustine dans la tradition littéraire (Paris, 1963)Google Scholar, Appendix III.

42 Ep. 5, 4.

43 Ep. 5, 6.

44 Ep. 3, 4.

45 Ibid.

46 Augustine, Ep. 126 on this affair.

47 Ep. 5, 13–14. Antipathy amounting to virtual excommunication does, however, point to more than personal causes. It is impossible, however, to follow Babut, (‘Paulin de Nole et Priscillien’, Rev. d'Histoire et de littérature religieuses, N.S. 1, 1910, 97–130 and 252–275Google Scholar) and suggest that Paulinus had been involved in Priscillianism in Aquitaine. The scandals around Priscillian's arrival there date to 382–383. Ausonius who despised Priscillianism heartily (Professores v, 37 ff.) would hardly have refrained from reminding Paulinus of this particular folly had he been implicated. Delphinus who excommunicated Priscillian and his followers also would scarcely have baptized Paulinus in the circumstances.

48 Ausonius, Ep. 26, lines 115–16.

49 Ambrose, , Ep. 58, 3Google Scholar.

50 Paulinus, , Ep. 19, 4Google Scholar; compare Ep. 11, 13 to Sulpicius Severus.

51 Ep. 16, 7.

52 On Paulinus' ideals of Christian friendship see P. Fabre, op. cit., ch. III.

53 Ep. 20, 2.

54 Ep. 3, 1.

55 On his relations with Jerome see Courcelle, P., ‘Paulin de Nole et Saint Jérôme’, Revue des études latines 25, 1947, 250–280Google Scholar.

56 Augustine, , Ep. 186, 1Google Scholar written in 417 indicates that Paulinus was still on friendly terms with Pelagius. Pelagius had also sent him some of his works.

57 Compare Carmen XXVI, 425–7:

‘Sic modo bellisono venientes flumine pugnas

De nostris averte (Felix) locis. Manus impia sacris

Finibus absistat, quibus tua gratia vallum.’

See also C. H. Coster, op. cit. 197. Paulinus himself tells us nothing of the siege of Nola by Alaric in 410.

58 Ep. 45, 1.

59 The power of God and his angels is frequently contrasted with that of Satan, and Paulinus' gloomy view of Judgment indicates strong dualist tendencies, as does his horror at the possibility that the blessed bread which Augustine sent him (Ep. 31) might be of Manichaean origin ! (See P. Courcelle, La Confessions de Saint Augustin 567.)

60 Paulinus, , Ep. 45, 4Google Scholar.

61 See P. R. L. Brown's fine description in Augustine of Hippo 381 ff.

62 Carmen xxv.

63 P. R. L. Brown, Augustine of Hippo 382.

64 Epp. 18, 6; 24, 9; 49, 4; 50, 11. This salvation was a manifestation of gratia.

65 Ep. 13, 20 to Pammachius, ‘Denique ut scias non divitias sed homines pro earum usibus esse culpabiles vel acceptos deo …’

66 Augustine, , Ep. 186, 34Google Scholar, tries to persuade Paulinus that, if one thought, there was no place reserved for any form of grace that could be regarded as merely ‘assisting’ intermittently.

67 Ibid. 40. Paulinus had written ‘Durat enim mihi illud per Adam virus paternum, quo universitatem generis sui pater praevaricatus infecit’.

68 Evident from Augustine Ep. 186, 1. ‘Pelagium … quod ut servum Dei dilexeris.’

69 Ep. 51, 2.

70 Ep. 18,4.

71 Carmen XVII, lines 206–8:

‘ Et sua Bessi nive duriores

Nunc oves facti duce te gregantur

Pacis in aulam.’

72 He did not regard asceticism by itself as an end in life. It was one of the means by which the soul gained salvation and could even be fallible. ‘Per ipsas virtutum vias in vitia delabi possumus’, he warns, Ep. 40, 3. Fabre, op. cit. 113 (n. 9).

73 Ep. 51, 2.

74 Ep. 8, 3.

75 Ep. 25.

76 Ep. 18, 7.

77 See A. H. M. Jones, op. cit. 550 ff. on the family wealth of the senatorial aristocracy at this time.

78 Ausonius, Ep. 27, lines 115–16: ‘ne sparsam raptamque domum lacerataque centum/per dominos veteris Paulini regna fleamus.’

79 ‘The Pachomian monasteries were highly organized industrial and agricultural concerns’— A. H. M. Jones, op. cit. 931.

80 Vita S. Darnells Stylitae (publ. Analecta Bollandiana 32, 1913, 121–216)Google Scholar ch. 56.

81 De Reditu suo 1, 443, ‘Munera fortunae metuunt, dum damna verentur.’

82 Theodoret, Historia religiosa XVII, compare XXVIII.

83 Clement, , Stromata IV, 7, 43–4Google Scholar. Compare II, 97, 1 and 11, 20, 104–5. For Eastern monasticism as a ‘philosophy’, see Sozomen 1, 14, 11; VI, 28, 1, and 34, 6.

84 Cyprian, , Ep. 74, 11Google Scholar; compare Tertullian, De Baptismo 12.

85 Compare Tertullian, De Spectaculis 15, ‘Sed tamen in saecularibus separamur, quia saeculum dei est, saecularia autem diaboli’.

86 See Markus, R. A., ‘Alienatio, Philosophy and Eschatology in the Development of an Augustinian Idea’, Studia Patristica IX ( = Texte und Untersuchungen, Bd. 94): Berlin, 1966, 431–450Google Scholar.

87 Apol. 38, 3.

88 Institutes VI, 20, 14 ff., ‘ita neque militare iusto licebit’.

89 ILCV 1981 (Nereus et Achilleus martyres).

90 Siricius, , Ep. 6, 1Google Scholar; Innocent, Ep. 2, 2.

91 Carmen XXI, line 395–6: ‘nulla maculatam caede securim’ and ibid., line 376.

92 Note for instance Paulinus, Ep. 29, 13 ‘iam et ipsa urbs (Roma) in pluribus filia Sion est quam filia Babylonis’.