182 Turtas
on them to move quickly to convert the pagans that lived in the very “court-
yards” of their homes. The “perfidy and stubbornness” of those who refused
to be baptized was to be punished by a gradual increase of the fees they had
to pay to the church. Another strategy seems to have been to entrust the reli-
gious care of the Barbaricini—a barbarian population still entirely pagan—to
the pope’s envoys (the bishop Felix and the abbot Cyriacus) instead of to the
local bishops. To expedite the matter, Gregory wrote both to the Byzantine dux
Zabarda, who had defeated the Barbaricini in battle, and dux Hospiton, the
unexpectedly Christian leader of the Barbaricini, asking them to support the
church’s proselytizing efforts.15
The process of converting this gens, as well as the rustici, was quite slow and
clearly beset with difficulties. Indeed, in 599 the strategy seemed to have hit a
hard core formed by aruspices atque sortilogi, who were, perhaps, clandestine
promoters of their previous form of religion. Gregory responded by appeal-
ing to the pastoralis custodia of the bishops: they were charged to not only
denounce the pagans publicly in their preaching, but also to try to “convince
them with goodness.” Only after these means failed were the bishops to resort
to energetic approaches, such as beatings in the case of slaves and periods of
detention for freemen.16
Pope Gregory’s decision to undertake forced conversions was truly surpris-
ing, given his rigorous opposition to doing the same with the Jews: “They must
not be pushed against their wishes; rather the desire to convert must be made
to flourish in them.”17 Gregory must have felt he had good reason to deny the
Sardinians what he seemed to concede to the Jews.
3 The Sardinian Church in the Byzantine Age 18
In the years following Gregory’s tenure as pope, the Roman Church intervened
ever more frequently in the affairs of the Sardinian metropolitan. The Roman
15 Norberg, Gregorii Magni registrum epistularum, lib. 4, 25–27; lib. 5, 2, 38.
16 Ibid., lib. 9, 205.
17 Ibid., lib. 9, 196.
18 Primary Sources: Kehr, Italia pontificia; Rudolf Riedinger, ed., Acta conciliorum oecumeni-
corum. Series Secunda: Volumen I: Concilium Lateranense a. 649 celebratum, Concilium
Lateranense Anno Sescentesimo Undequinquagesimo Celebratum (Berlin, 1984), 2, 1;
Joannes Dominicus Mansi, “Sancta Synodus sexta generalis, Contantinopolitana tertia,” in
Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (Florence, 1765), vol. 11, cols 189–1020;
Ernst Dümmler, Epistolae Karolini aevi (Berlin, 1892–1895), VII; André Guillou, Recueil des
inscriptions grecques médiévales d’Italie (Rome, 1996); Jean Darrouzès, ed., Notitiae epis-