Those familiar with M.'s research have long awaited the publication of her Ph.D. thesis, which she defended in Strasbourg in 2014. When this happened in 2022, it may be safely said that patience was rewarded. M. presents a compelling description of the Christian clergy in late antique Italy. They are presented not in light of doctrinal disputes or juridical developments, nor even in their liturgical functions, but in their everyday dealings with each other, their families and other people. Notably, the focus is not on the bishops and other higher clerics, whom we know from literary sources, but rather on the presbyters and lower clergy, usually neglected in similar studies. M. achieves this result due to her choice of source material: inscriptions. She collected all the available epigraphic evidence concerning clergy in Italy up to the beginning of the seventh century. The edition of these inscriptions constitutes the second part of the book.
Thanks to this second part, M.'s book has double value: it is an outstanding publication of the sources with thorough descriptions. Both parts could have been published separately, and in that case, each book would have constituted a significant research output. The 400 pages of the catalogue include 871 entries. While some entries are very short, down to a single word preserved, there are also many examples of longer inscriptions, often including poems of more than ten verses. In each case M. provides detailed information about the source, its place and time of origin, previous editions, the original text in Latin or Greek, a translation into German and usually a short commentary. The catalogue is ordered by the regions of Italy, starting with Rome, and then by clerical titles, from bishops down to lectors. Inscriptions without a clerical title and dubious inscriptions follow.
M.'s catalogue offers a fascinating resource in its own right. Those familiar with the topic will encounter some relatively well-known clergymen: the bishops of Rome buried in the Catacombs of Callixtus, Presbyter Menas, who governed the Church of Rome during Pope Vigilius’ exile in the mid-sixth century, or Presbyter Andrew, founder of the Basilica of St Sabina. However, most of the people mentioned in the catalogue are completely unknown. We learn about the old presbyters who lived to 90 years (Ursicinus of Pavia, no. 540, and Severus of Como, no. 541) and the young ones, such as Gaudentius of Arcisate (no. 548), who died at the age of 22. This last example shows incidentally how various prescriptions regarding minimum age and previous clerical careers for the presbyterate were not always obeyed; similar proof comes from the tomb inscription of Candidianus, a presbyter from Northern Italy who must have been ordained at around the age of 24 years (no. 546). The clergymen are not the only people whose names, otherwise unknown, come to light thanks to M.'s catalogue. Members of their families also appear, mainly wives, but also parents, children and siblings. Sometimes we learn further details such as the fact that the marriage between Martius Firmissimus, a presbyter from Capua, and his wife Decimia Aproniane lasted for 31 years (no. 389). As is usual in collections of Christian epigraphs, we meet many children who died at a tender age: Florentia, daughter of an anonymous presbyter of Como, who lived ‘one year, 10 months and three days’ and died on 11 August 531 (no. 537); Respectus, son of a Sardinian lector, Rogatus, who lived ‘one year and four months’ (no. 577); Primicenia, daughter of Roman lector Primigenius and Asella, who lived ‘two years and 30 days’ (no. 37), and five-year-old Euplia (no. 12). However, much older children of clerics also appear in the catalogue, three in their thirties. The oldest mentioned is Chresimos, who was a son of Bishop Chresimos of Cyprus and died in Rome at the age of 55 years.
In addition to the catalogue is M.'s discussion. The first stage of her analysis consists of twelve tables that follow the catalogue (pp. 621–52). They show, among other things, the earliest confirmation of the given clerical name in the sources, the list of 187 Italian clerics (133 of them anonymous) unrecorded in the Italian volume of Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, the clerics mentioned by the inscriptions in Greek, the lectors’ ages when they died, the building dedicatory inscriptions offered by the clerics and the clerics’ various family connections.
These interesting tables show how M. directed her analysis, which forms the first part of the book. Here she aims to offer a general overview of the lives and activities of the Italian clergy of the period. She lists various clerical titles and grades and tries to show the place of the clerics in society. At this point, however, the limitations of the study become apparent. They result from the character of the sources. What do we learn about the clerics from the inscriptions, given that such inscriptions are usually either funerary or commemorate construction works? With some irony, one can answer: they lived, they died, they had parents, wives and children, sometimes they constructed something (often connected with the martyrs), and eventually they were busy selling tombs and administering cemeteries. We do not learn much about their primary religious activities. The most we discover are long elegies, mainly of bishops and presbyters, in which their orthodoxy, piety and care for the poor are praised. We must look elsewhere for other information about the lives and activities of clerics. This is not a criticism of M.'s book, which is faithful to its title: it shows the life of the clergy of late antique Italy in the light of the epigraphical evidence. Nothing more, but also nothing less. The epigraphical material itself is rich. M. analyses it professionally, and the edition of the sources will be an indispensable tool for anyone interested in the topic.
