Bishops, Ecclesiastical Institutions, and the Ostrogothic Regime 461
men.46 In this sense, independent of influence from monastic orders, it was
the need of the laity (and their desire that gifts to churches would free them
of their sins) that necessitated the constitution of the clergy as a separate and
different sacral class.47 In terms of excellence measured in degrees of chastity,
however, the problem of clerical continence could not but mature in the direc-
tion of celibacy tout court, especially since it became the only real distinction
between the secular and ecclesiastical hierarchies, which by now were exten-
sively involved in political affairs and secular administrative duties. Although
the imposition of clerical celibacy became canonical only in the Decree of
Gratian, previously Gregory the Great (590–604) had drawn upon the distinc-
tion of the tria genera hominum that Origen and Augustine had based on the
models of Noah, Daniel, and Job. Gregory conceived of a society no longer
divided into continentes and laici, but rather into pastores, continentes, and
coniugati.48 The latter were the laity, qualified for the vocation of marriage,
while the sacerdotes were distinguished from continentes (potentially married
only once) by being fully celibate. But in the age of Theoderic this process was
still incomplete.
The Ostrogothic Regime and Ecclesiastical Networks
Tangible factors contributed to the sanctity of the clerical group. Sanctity grew
and developed through the concrete power that certain bishops were able to
accumulate in the troubled early decades of the 6th century. The clergy were
able to move unscathed through an international arena populated by indi-
viduals from different backgrounds, divided more than united by language,
religion, and political ambitions. It is no coincidence that the most notable
hagiographic accounts of the day celebrated bishops who were capable of
mediating the active life and the contemplative life, according to the best rec-
ommendations of Ambrose and the Cappadocian Fathers.49 Such roles were
acquired through the patronage of the faithful of their city and the sanctity
obtained by means of a distinctive contemplative life. A number of these
46 On the combination of these elements see Lizzi Testa, “Tributa sunt purpurae, non
lacernae”.
47 Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle, pp. 517–22.
48 Gregory, Moralia 1.14, eds. Gillet/de Gaudemaris, pp. 162–4; In Ezechielem 1, hom. 8. 10, ed.
Morel, pp. 289–91 and In Ezechielem 2, hom. 4. 5 and hom. 7. 3, ed. Morel, pp. 192–4 and
328–30. See also Pizzolato, “Laicità e laici”, pp. 76–80.
49 Lizzi Testa, “The Late Antique Bishop”, pp. 533–6.