The Roman Church And Its Bishops 441
a variety of ritual purposes, from baptisms to burials. Previously the landown-
ers built without papal oversight, had turned to local bishops to dedicate the
buildings, and had personally selected clergy to minister them from among
those living on their estates.76 Beginning with Gelasius, however, landown-
ers who wished to have a private chapel on their properties were required to
petition the Roman bishop for permission. Local bishops, meanwhile, could
not provide the householder’s religious services without the pope’s direction.77
While Gelasius’ (and his successors’) correspondence shows that this new
process was both followed and resisted, it also suggests that receiving papal
permission amounted to little more than a rubber-stamping.78 In fact there
is no evidence that Rome ever denied a lay householder’s request to build,
dedicate, or use a villa chapel. The popes’ interests in governing private estate
chapels, therefore, were focused not merely on controlling the landowner’s
religious life but also on limiting the authority of suffragan Italian bishops,
who had previously been responsible for undertaking these ritual tasks, but
who now could intervene only upon Rome’s directive. Indeed the regulation of
villa churches is an illustrative example of how locally based networks of cler-
ics and landowners routinely challenged the Roman bishop’s attempt to assert
hierarchical control even within his own jurisdiction.
Kings, Emperors, and Bishops
As noted in the introduction, scholars have long studied the relationship
between the Roman bishop and other titular figures of authority in Late
Antiquity, namely the Ostrogothic kings, the emperors in Constantinople,
members of the Roman Senate, and rival prelates of major sees. Extensive
attention has been paid to Theoderic’s interactions with the Roman church,
and to his so-called ‘policy’ of impartiality or neutrality, typically explained by
the king’s non-Nicene Christian faith, which seemingly made him an inappro-
priate interventionist.79 However, in truth, it is very difficult to say much about
Theoderic’s attitude toward the Roman church, let alone whether he forged
76 Late 4th-century imperial law required landowners to appoint clerics from their estates:
CT 16.2.22 (398).
77 Pietri, “Évergetisme chrértien et foundations privées” outlines the Gelasian and later
strictures on private chapel foundation and consecration.
78 Sessa, Formation of Papal Authority, pp. 168–72.
79 Pfeilschifter, Theoderich und die katholiche Kirche; Richards, The Popes and the Papacy;
Noble, “Theodoric and the Papacy”; and Moorhead, Theoderic.