Episcopal Elections 250-600 Hierarchy and Popular Will in Late Antiquity [Hardcover]

Peter Norton covers a topic of great relevance to students of early Church history and late antiquity alike. He challenges the conventional view that after the adoption of Christianity by the Roman empire the local community lost its voice in the appointment of bishops, and argues that this right remained in theory and practice for longer than is normally assumed. Given that bishops became important to the running of the empire at the local level, a proper understanding of how they came into office is essential for our understanding of the later empire.

1. Introduction
2. Legislation and theory
3. The electorate: local communities and public disorder
4. Imperial intervention
5. Provinces and patriarchs: organizational structures
6. The metropolitan system in the West
7. The eastern metropolitans
8. Corruption, constraint, and nepotism
9. Three disputed elections
10. Conclusion

[R]eaders, who come to this study to learn more about the sometimes bumpy roads leading to the episcopacy, will find their horizons broadened.
--Church History

Peter Norton teaches at the Dragon School, Oxford.