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the church and the papacy 541
empire, Justinian had little choice but to accept the new role of the church.
In the Pragmatic Sanction of 554, which outlined the provisions for the
government of Italy, much of the minutiae of administration was devolved
upon its bishops. 75
The change was most spectacular at Rome. Since the episcopate of
Damasus I (366–84), the Roman church had sought to extend its influence
over much of Italy and beyond. In the mid fifth century, the process was
given a boost by the activities of Leo the Great, whose term as pontiff
(440–61) included the Hunnic invasions and the Vandal sack. Both provided
him with an opportunity to behave as a statesman, acting as protector
of his community. As Attila advanced on Rome, Leo met him and
secured the deliverance of the Eternal City, and after Geiseric’s Vandals had
ransacked it, he did much to restore confidence. At the same time, Leo’s
pontificate saw a more elaborate formulation of Petrine supremacy, granting
his relationships with bishops in Italy – and beyond – a firmer ideological
basis. None was more unremitting in his defence of this supremacy
than Gelasius I (492–6), even to the extent of berating the emperor on
issues of authority and power; he was no less doctrinaire in his dealings
with the Italian episcopate. 76
As defender of Rome against its enemies and guarantor of its ideological
supremacy, the papacy was coming to fill the role once performed by
the emperors. Another expression of this was the way in which the Roman
church came to administer corn distributions in the city, and, as a necessary
buttress to this activity, administer sizeable estates throughout Italy.
Excavations at Monte Gelato revealed a site dating to the fourth, fifth and
sixth centuries which comprised a church and associated agricultural buildings.
77 The widespread existence of papal estates is confirmed by references
to donations, by the emperor and aristocratic notables, in the Liber
Pontificalis, and by constant reference to them in papal correspondence.
This points to another area of administration where the papacy was replacing
the secular government: whereas previously the corn dole had been
organized by imperial and then Ostrogothic officials, increasingly it was
coming under the control of the church. To be sure, this would have been
a natural development of Christian charity, but by the early seventh century
it was clearly an important element in the administrative machinery of the
Roman church. Indeed, it did not always go smoothly: pope Sabinian
(604–6) made himself unpopular when he chose to alleviate famine by
selling corn from papal granaries, rather than distributing it free. 78 This
transformation of papal power can be observed in unique detail in the
pontificate of Gregory the Great (590–604), whose surviving letters
75 Moorhead (1994) 111, 118. 76 Richards (1979) 20–5, 62–7; Otranto (1990) 95–107.
77 King and Potter (1992) 168–9.
78 Paul. Diac. Vita S. Gregorii 29 (PL lxxv.58); cf. Lib. Pont. 1.315.
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