Glen Thompson - The Pax Constantiniana and the Episcopate in Rome

Some recent scholarship has depicted a fourth-century Rome in which the Roman bishops sat unhappily in the shadows as the church in Rome was beautified by monumental Constantinian benefactions, and then aggressively sought to rein in a Christian aristocracy which wished to maintain its independence and status as the chief benefactors of the Christian community. Such depictions call into question the strength and function of the monepiscopate during this crucial period of the church’s development. However, this picture does not totally agree with recent archaeological findings or with reconsiderations of the documentary record (especially the Liber Pontificalis), both of which have added substantially to our knowledge of the period.  My paper will attempt a more nuanced and balanced picture of the Roman episcopate during this key transitional stage in the first two-thrids of the fourth-century.