THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYostentation, and a considerable literature built up which attempted to soften
the Gospel saying by arguing that a rich man could indeed still be saved. But
we also hear of many cases of individual renunciation of wealth, such as that
of Paulinus of Nola, or the even more famous example of the Younger Mela-
nia (died AD 438), who with her husband Pinianus sold up her vast estates in
order to live a life of Christian renunciation. Some acts of renunciation may
have been somewhat less dramatic than they seem, in that the donors took
care of their own family fi rst, and rather than giving their wealth directly to the
poor, tended to give it to the church for further distribution, thereby increas-
ing the latter’s wealth.^86 It was no small thing after all for the rich to give away
substantial amounts of their family wealth, and such actions often caused ill-
feeling within aristocratic families. Perhaps understandably, the monasteries
which many subsequently founded were often run on somewhat aristocratic
and privileged lines. A close reading of the writings advocating renunciation of
wealth, which often took the form of sermons presenting an elaborate exegesis
of what might seem rather clear Scriptural exhortations on the subject, indi-
cates that the issue was not as straightforward as might appear.^87 Asceticism
of this kind required energetic promotion and defence.^88 All the same, there
is no doubt that spectacular giving did occur. Yet in the late fourth and early
fi fth centuries, when there were still many pagan members of the aristocracy
- sometimes even in the immediate family of the giver – the practice caused
them serious concern about the maintenance of family property. The tension
between the demands of Christian renunciation and celibacy and the need
for procreation and, in a traditional society, for the retention of wealth within
families for the maintenance of society, became a real issue.^89 We need not
suppose that the average Christian undertook the drastic measures of renun-
ciation of wealth, or sexual abstention, but it cannot be doubted that a large
proportion of wealth did seep away from production and towards the church,
not least in the form of church buildings and their endowments. The poor cer-
tainly benefi ted to some extent from the process, and some monasteries, for
instance in Palestine, themselves contributed to the local economy; however,
the main benefi ciary was surely the church itself, which was now able to lay the
foundations of the vast wealth which it enjoyed in the later Middle Ages. The
extent of this wealth, which had fl owed into the church in the form of gifts
and legacies ever since Constantine gave the church the power to inherit and
removed the Augustan prohibition on celibacy among the wealthy classes, can
be judged from the later Liber Pontifi calis (based on a sixth-century original),
which lists the extraordinary riches endowed on the Roman churches, includ-
ing estates whose revenues would provide for their upkeep.^90
Although as we have seen there were still a number of dramatic ‘purges’ of
pagans under Justinian, and as late as 579–80, it is clear that by the sixth cen-
tury Christianity was very fi rmly established within the fabric of the state. The
fragmentation of the western empire, combined with the conversion of all the
various barbarian groups as they came into contact with the Roman empire
also allowed the church to assume a leading role in the successor kingdoms.