Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

434 15. family and friendship in the west
the boy’s brothers. 158 In seventh-century England baptismal sponsorship
came to play a very significant role in power politics. 159 In sixth-century
Francia it had not been so fully exploited, but Guntram made a point of
standing as baptismal sponsor to his nephew, Chlothar II. 160 Baptismal relationships,
however, were not always open to manipulation, for increasingly
in the eighth century they were subjected to the laws of incest, alongside
relationships determined by blood or marriage. 161
Parallel to patronage, which was the bond between those of unequal
status, there was friendship, essentially the bond between those of equal
status. The one could draw on the ideology of the other, as in the description
of a long-established friend as patronus. The majority of our evidence
for late Roman and for early medieval friendship comes, as does our evidence
for affection within the family group, from the letter collections of
the period. The letters of Symmachus provide one model for the understanding
of friendship in the fourth century; 162 those of Sidonius, Ruricius,
Avitus and Ennodius are models for the late fifth and early sixth century. 163
As a pagan, Symmachus’ approach to friendship was necessarily, if only
subtly, different from that of the Christian letter-writers. Central here was
the use of the term caritas, with its Christian resonance, alongside the traditional
amicitia. Perhaps especially significant in the evolution of this
Christian friendship was Paulinus of Nola. 164
The Christianization of friendship, however, went deeper than the introduction
of a Christian vocabulary. Friendship depended on the meeting, or
even joining, of two souls, 165 and the soul was definitely within the field of
theological speculation. The most sophisticated theological debate to have
taken place in Gaul in the fifth century concerned the nature of the soul. An
anonymous letter, actually written by Faustus of Riez, argued for the soul’s
corporeality. 166 Sidonius Apollinaris, not realizing that the letter was by his
old mentor Faustus, asked Claudianus Mamertus, brother of the bishop of
Vienne, to consider the argument: 167 Claudianus replied with the De statu
animae, arguing for the incorporeality of the soul. 168 Although the argument
between Faustus and Claudianus is not couched in terms of an exploration
of friendship, the question of whether the soul was or was not corporeal
necessarily had implications for the contemporary understanding of the
working of friendship. In the letters of Avitus and Ruricius, the souls of
friends often overcome physical separation in one way or another. 169 It is not,
158 Fredegar iv.42, ed. B. Krusch, MGH, SRM 2 (Hanover 1888).
159 Angenendt (1986); more generally, Angenendt (1984). 160 Greg. Tur. Hist. viii.9; x.28.
161 Lynch (1986) 219–57. 162 Matthews (1974). 163 Wood (1993a).
164 Fabre (1949); see also White (1992) 146–63. 165 See for example Ruricius, Epp. 1.1; 2.10, 52.
166 Faustus, Ep. 20.
167 Sid. Ap. Ep. 4.2; Claudianus Mamertus, De Statu Animae, praef., ed. A. Engelbrecht, CSEL xi
(Vienna 1885). 168 On the debate, Fortin (1959).
169 E.g. Ruricius, Epp. 1.6, 9, 10, 18; 2.1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 32, 52; Avitus, Epp. 50, 52, 77, 78, 79, 93.
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