A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

eastern monastery at this period, one can cite the library on the Greek island of
Patmos in 1201, where only sixteen of the 330 texts did not deal with theological
issues.
16 For Reichenau, see the evocative visit made by Judith Herrin recorded in the
‘Afterword’ to her The Formation of Christendom.
17 See Thucydides’ analysis of the Melian dialogue, Book V. 84-118 of his The
Peloponnesian War, or Tacitus’ report of the riposte of a British chieftain to a
Roman general, ‘You create a wasteland and call it peace’, in his Agricola.
18 Thacker, p.463. Chris Wickham, the author of the widely acclaimed Framing
the Early Middle Ages, puts it more vigorously (p.343): ‘The faith of many
historians in the reliability and importance of every line of Bede’s account often
seems excessive, given the degree to which he manipulated known sources such
as the Vita Wilfridi.’ It certainly has been a feature of Anglo-Saxon scholarship
to give enormous prominence to Bede, understandably so perhaps as there is so
little written material surviving. To be fair to the man, he might have achieved
much more if he had lived in an age where he had had access to a wider variety
of sources and been able to look beyond a purely Christian perspective.
19 Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity, p.149.
20 Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul, has both
commentary and texts.
21 I have relied on McCormick. His analysis of the European slave trade is in
Chapter Nine, ‘Traders, Slaves and Politicos’, especially pp.2.44-54.
22 Jones, passim. For the rise of the universities in these towns, see pp.449-53 .