430 Sessa
thus anachronistic to identify a ‘priestly’ and ‘administrative branch’ of the
Roman church during the 5th and 6th centuries; the two were intertwined and
there were no systematic attempts in this period to create separate divisions.23
Scholars have rightly emphasized the significance of the imperial administra-
tion (especially its scrinia) as a model for the Roman church’s bureaucratic
development. Rome’s papal correspondence clearly reflects this influence,
for it mimics imperial rescripts in both style and form.24 But further similari-
ties are far weaker. To be sure, Roman bishops employed notarii and excep-
tores to assist them in writing, archiving, and delivering letters from the late
4th century (if not earlier).25 By the late 5th century, the notarii were organized
into a basic hierarchy, with both a primicerius and secundicarius notariorum
attested.26 Whether the notarii were men drawn from all ranks of the clergy
or came to constitute a new lower clerical order remains unclear.27 However,
beyond the notaries, there is no evidence for the systematic development or
organization of bureaucratic officials in the Ostrogothic-era Roman church.
Although the apocrisarius (Roman papal representative in Constantinople)
and the vicedominus (overseer of the daily needs of the church and episco-
pal household) are first attested during the Ostrogothic period, these positions
seem to have been temporary arrangements and not permanent, professional-
ized offices within the church until much later in the 6th century.28 Rather,
in conducting the church’s business the Roman bishop relied on various non-
specialized Roman clerics, local aristocrats as well as visiting clergy and
laymen from other regions. This can be seen most clearly in accounts describ-
ing the composition of small councils (conventicula), which Roman bishops
called to assist them in making administrative decisions. Both Simplicius and
23 Pace Richards, The Popes and the Papacy, p. 289.
24 McShane, La romanitas.
25 Teitler, Notarii and Exceptores, pp. 87–9.
26 Teitler, Notarii and Exceptores, pp. 88–9 for references. In a letter preserved in the Liber
Pontificalis Ravennatis, Felix IV recommended that Ravenna organize its notaries into
seven administrative levels, but as B. Neil notes (“The Papacy”, p. 9), it is unclear whether
Felix prescribed this arrangement because it was the norm at Rome.
27 See Teitler, Notarii and Exceptores, pp. 88–9 for references. Gelasius, Ep. 14.2, ed. Thiel,
p. 363 identifies the notarii in his cursus as a clerical order, but there is no other evidence
from Late Antiquity to corroborate this as a normative denomination in Rome.
28 The Roman apocrisarius was established after the Acacian schism: Richards, The Popes
and the Papacy, p. 293. The first vicedominus was appointed by Vigilius as an emergency
measure during his absence from Rome between 545 and 555, and thereafter the position
is unattested until Gregory I’s tenure. Sessa, Formation of Papal Authority, pp. 107–8.