Volume 28, Issue 2

Altus Prosator is a Hiberno-Latin hymn of twenty-three stanzas which is often attributed to St. Columba of Iona. Until now, eight manuscripts of the poem have been known. This article presents a newly discovered manuscript of Altus Prosator (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 18609): it provides the first detailed description of the contents of the manuscript, an analysis of the poem’s manuscript transmission (and particularly its association with Pomerius’ De uita contemplatiua ), and a discussion of Hrabanus Maurus’ knowledge of the poem. At the end of the article a transcription of the text of the poem as found in the newly discovered manuscript is offered.

This article argues that Tertullian and Cyprian invoked commonplace imagery related to combat, agriculture, and mysticism to construe incarceration as spiritually beneficial for their North African Christian audiences. By subjecting to literary analysis passages from their letters in which incarceration is reimagined positively, we aim to demonstrate how these letters functioned rhetorically to teach and persuade Christians—both inside and outside of prison—about the value of incarceration and the need to persevere in the face of its well-known hardships. We also maintain that their innovative perspectives on incarceration not only addressed important issues in the second and third centuries, such as apostasy and martyrdom, but also operated within a broader Greco-Roman philosophical discourse that viewed incarceration as potentially beneficial for those capable of adopting the right mindset.

One of the most intriguing periods of Egyptian history, associated with the spread of Christianity, is still poorly understood. Recent excavations shed more light on this process. During excavations conducted by the Centre of Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the Deir el-Banat necropolis in the Fayum an unusual burial was discovered. It contained the remains of a young man who had been subjected to a cruel punishment: an arrow had been shot into his body and he was hanged by the neck. According to the tomb’s inventory and the shrouds found in the grave, the man lived in the fourth century AD, when the persecution of Christians by Roman authorities was particularly virulent. Although it is currently impossible to clearly determine the cause of such a severe violent death, some findings suggest that the execution was caused by religious conflicts. If so, this case is a rare illustration of the death penalty on religious grounds imposed on the ordinary inhabitants of the oasis during Roman rule.

This study investigates the medical rhetoric employed in religious legislation of Late Antiquity, arguing that imperial policies against dissidents often resembled infectious disease control measures, such as social distancing and banning gatherings, and were aimed at protecting the vulnerable. The Christian clergy was concerned not just about maintaining their monopoly of sacraments, but also about demonic contagion. This kind of infection rhetoric has its roots in Christian polemical language which is itself based on far older ideas known from Plato and the Neo-Platonists, and the more general view shared by other philosophical schools, on the sympathy of the universe and the concomitant harmony of souls. The Neoplatonic school in particular had developed the view that ‘bad’ souls chose their demons and that these demons were responsible for natural catastrophes and diseases, and infecting the air with their presence. Christian authors endorsed this view. Religious dissidents of Late Antiquity were exiled and deprived of their freedoms of speech, of assembly, and of movement, and this is for several reasons, such as the avoidance of martyrs, forced conversion, and the deterrence of others. The concept of contagion is also among the reasons but has so far been underappreciated.

Although the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila is set in Alexandria under the Patriarchate of Cyril (first half of the 5th century), scholars have attempted to identify an earlier version of the text, dating it to the 3d century. This alleged earlier version, however, is not extant as such, and the present article will show that the author of the Dialogue made an extensive use of Epiphanius of Salamis’ De mensuris (dated to 392). The hypothesis that both Epiphanius and the author of the Dialogue used a common source is refuted by a close comparison of the two works in their earliest reconstructable form, taking into account the Georgian-Armenian version of De mensuris and a newly discovered manuscript of the Dialogue .

This article traces the rise of the embryological interpretation of Gen 2:7 and how it came to provide arguments for dyophysite Christology. By the late 4th century, many Christian writers saw in the formation of Adam a depiction of the formation and ensoulment of a human embryo. Moreover, authors around the 5th century connected the embryological reading of Adam’s formation with the life of Christ in the womb. But in the 6th and 7th centuries, this interpretation of Gen 2:7 became controversial. Debates about Christ raised the stakes of disagreement over the time of human ensoulment, and embryological readings of Adam’s creation were caught up in these debates. In this context, East Syrian Babai the Great (551–628) deployed the embryological reading of Gen 2:7 against Christological rivals in defense of his theory of Christ’s delayed ensoulment in the womb. In doing so, he offers a biological account of Christ’s pre-ensouled life as a plant and zoophyte. But the connection between an embryological reading of Gen 2:7 and dyophysite Christology also prompted opponents to turn to exegetical strategies that excluded any analogy with delayed ensoulment. This article thus presents an example of how theological controversy and the history of science affected biblical exegesis.

This article proposes a hypothesis about the identity of the Victor Mattaritanus who, as attested by Cassiodorus, produced a “corrected Augustinian edition” of a work by John Cassian, most probably Collatio 13. He would have been a bishop of Mactaris (Maktar, Tunisia) in the province of Byzacena, deported to Sardinia under the reign of the Vandal king Thrasamund, who joined the monastic community established by Fulgentius of Ruspe in Cagliari. This community housed a rich library and an active scriptorium and soon became a stronghold of Augustinianism, but it is very likely that the works of Cassian, an author dear to Fulgentius, were also widely read, copied, and edited there.