This lecture will be set in Gaul in the fifth and sixth centuries. It will deal with the sharpened sense of the immediate presence of Heaven and Hell that was generated in the monastic environment of Lérins, and that was disseminated by preachers of penance connected with Lérins. This preaching had a marked social aspect: society as a whole was called to order in the last days of Roman rule. Gregory, bishop of Tours (538 – 594) carried this tradition into the age of the Merovingian Frankish kingdoms. Gregory’s attitude was notable for his insistence on the immediacy of the Last Judgment and on the vengeance of God and His saints in the here and now. His otherworld was intimately linked to this world. This was because of a program for the reform of society to which he remained loyal. The replacement of this vision of society by the more sharply otherworldly orientation of the great monasteries connected with Columbanus, that were patronized by the kings, the queens and the new aristocracy of Francia,marks a decisive step away from the ancient world to a piety and world view that looks directly towards the Middle Ages.
Peter Brown, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus at Princeton University; Professor Brown is credited with having created the field of study referred to as late antiquity (250-800 A.D.); the period during which Rome fell, the three major monotheistic religions took shape, and Christianity spread across Europe. A native of Ireland, Professor Brown earned his B.A. in history from Oxford University (1956), where he taught until 1975 as a Fellow of All Souls College. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1986 after teaching at the University of London and the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Brown’s primary interests are the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages and the rise of Christianity, and he has pursued them through investigations into such diverse topics as Roman rhetoric, the cult of the saints, the body and sexuality, and wealth and poverty. He is currently working on the problems of wealth, poverty, and care of the poor in late antiquity and early medieval periods.
Peter Brown`s numerous published works include:
Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire, Hanover: University Press of New England, 2002.
The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, 200-1000 A.D, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996/2002.
The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150–750, London/ New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1971/1989.
Augustine of Hippo. A Biography, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967/2000.
This lecture will be set in Gaul in the fifth and sixth centuries. It will deal with the sharpened sense of the immediate presence of Heaven and Hell that was generated in the monastic environment of Lérins, and that was disseminated by preachers of penance connected with Lérins. This preaching had a marked social aspect: society as a whole was called to order in the last days of Roman rule. Gregory, bishop of Tours (538 – 594) carried this tradition into the age of the Merovingian Frankish kingdoms. Gregory’s attitude was notable for his insistence on the immediacy of the Last Judgment and on the vengeance of God and His saints in the here and now. His otherworld was intimately linked to this world. This was because of a program for the reform of society to which he remained loyal. The replacement of this vision of society by the more sharply otherworldly orientation of the great monasteries connected with Columbanus, that were patronized by the kings, the queens and the new aristocracy of Francia,marks a decisive step away from the ancient world to a piety and world view that looks directly towards the Middle Ages.
Peter Brown, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus at Princeton University; Professor Brown is credited with having created the field of study referred to as late antiquity (250-800 A.D.); the period during which Rome fell, the three major monotheistic religions took shape, and Christianity spread across Europe. A native of Ireland, Professor Brown earned his B.A. in history from Oxford University (1956), where he taught until 1975 as a Fellow of All Souls College. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1986 after teaching at the University of London and the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Brown’s primary interests are the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages and the rise of Christianity, and he has pursued them through investigations into such diverse topics as Roman rhetoric, the cult of the saints, the body and sexuality, and wealth and poverty. He is currently working on the problems of wealth, poverty, and care of the poor in late antiquity and early medieval periods.
Peter Brown`s numerous published works include:
Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire, Hanover: University Press of New England, 2002.
The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, 200-1000 A.D, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996/2002.
The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150–750, London/ New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1971/1989.
Augustine of Hippo. A Biography, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967/2000.
