This thesis focuses on the Celestine monks of France, a largely neglected and distinctive reformed Benedictine congregation, at their apex of growth (c.1350-1450). Based largely within the kingdom of France, but also including key houses in the contiguous territories of Lorraine and the Comtat, they expanded significantly in this period, from four monasteries to seventeen within a hundred years. They also gained independence from the mother congregation in Italy with the coming of the Great Western Schism (1376-1418). The study aims view the French Celestines against the backdrop of a vibrant culture of 'reform' within both the monastic estate (the Observants) and the Church as a whole, as well as the political instability and war in France. It will reveal a congregation alive with the passions of their times and relevant within them. Following an introductory section, chapter 1 will discuss the previously unstudied Vita of the leading French Celestine Jean Bassand (d.1445) in depth and introduce the key themes of the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 will examine their Constitutions, in the process providing perspective on their hyper-scrupulous understanding of sin and the relation of their statutes to the Christian idea of 'reform'. Chapter 3 will look to anecdotal evidence concerning the quality of their observance in practice, as well the spiritual and moral writings of Pierre Pocquet (d.1408), another important Celestine leader. Chapter 4 will begin to establish how and why the order grew, examining records of benefaction (contemporary martyrologies and charters) as well as taking view of the financial (and in the end, moral) difficulties brought by war through the documents concerning the reductions of founded masses at the Paris and Sens houses. Chapter 5 will look at monumental and anecdotal/literary evidence, as well as the works of Jean Gerson, a friend of the order, to further define the cultural impact of the monks.

Ce mémoire est une traduction et un commentaire historique du livre 11 des Variae de Cassiodore concernant la période où il occupait le poste de préfet du prétoire (533-537). Si les Variae sont de la première importance comme sources pour l’Italie ostrogothique, cela ne se reflète malheureusement pas encore dans l’accessibilité du texte, qui n’a pas encore fait l’objet d’une traduction française ou d’un commentaire historique complet, d’où la nécessité de ce mémoire. On possède en effet peu de sources aussi pertinentes pour le VIe siècle en Italie, et ce qu’on sait par ailleurs sur l’administration de l’époque provient de sources éloignées géographiquement ou chronologiquement. Un commentaire de ce livre nous permet donc de dresser un bon portrait du préfet du prétoire et de son office ainsi que de la situation en Italie entre les années 530 et 540. / This thesis is a translation and historical commentary of the book 11 of the Variae by Cassiodorus corresponding to the period he served as praetorian prefect (533-537) under Ostrogothic rule. The Variae are sources of primary importance for Ostrogothic Italy, and they are not yet translated or commented in French, which is what this thesis will attempt to do for the book 11. It is indeed a very important and relevant source to the 6th century in Italy because all others sources for this subject are distant, geographically or chronologically. A commentary on this book allows us to draw a better picture of the praetorian prefect and his office as well as the situation in Italy between 530 A.D. and 540 A.D.

No figure of fourth-century Christianity seems to be at once so well known and so clouded in mystery as Hilary of Poitiers. His work as an historian provides invaluable knowledge of the mid-fourth century, and he was praised as a theologian throughout late antiquity. Today, however, discussions of his theology are founded upon less solid ground. This is largely due to methodological issues. Modern scholarship has often read Hilary through anachronistic historical and theological categories which have rendered his thought incomprehensible. Recent scholars have sought to overcome this and to reexamine Hilary within his own historical, polemical, and theological context. Much remains to be said, however, in regard to Hilary's actual theological contribution within these contextual parameters. This thesis contends that in all of Hilary's polemical and constructive argumentation in De Trinitate, which is essentially trinitarian, he is inherently and necessarily developing an anthropology. In all he says about the divine, he is saying as much about what it means to be human. This thesis therefore seeks to reenvision Hilary's overall theological project in terms of the continual, and for him necessary, anthropological corollary of trinitarian theology-to reframe it in terms of a 'trinitarian anthropology'. My contention is that the coherence of Hilary's thought depends upon his understanding of divine-human relations. I will demonstrate this through following Hilary's main lines of trinitarian argument, out of which flows his anthropological vision. These main lines of argument, namely, divine generation, divine infinity, divine unity, the divine image, and divine humanity, each unfold into a progressive picture of humanity from potentiality to perfection. This not only provides a new paradigm for understanding Hilary's own thought, but invites us to reexamine our approach to fourth-century theology entirely, as it disavows any reading of the trinitarian controversies in conceptual abstraction. Further, theological and religious anthropology are widely discussed in contemporary scholarship, and Hilary's profound exploration of divine-human relations, and what it means to be a human being as a result, has much to offer both historical and contemporary concerns.

This study investigates the territories of Neapolis and Nola in order to understand what role they played in the economy of their cities and in Campania. It further explores the difficult relationship between mankind and the fragile landscape of Vesuvius, how eruptions changed settlement patterns, exploitation strategies, and how people dealt with other smaller natural disasters that frequently occurred in that area. The thesis is organised in nine chapters, each describing a separate layer of the landscape. The introduction analyses the reasons for the apparent lack of data for the northern slopes of the volcano and further discusses the theoretical issues pertaining to the economy of the countryside. The history chapter lists the major facts of the histoire événementielle and their connection with the landscape’s longterm history. The third chapter studies the features of the static landscape and the exploitation of bedrock resources. Vesuvius is the subject of the fourth chapter, in which are discussed its shape and the eruptions' effects on the static landscape. Chapter five discusses the river Sebethus and how the intermingled action humans and nature created the marshes. Agriculture and animal breeding are analysed in chapter six, settlement patterns in chapter seven, trade in chapter eight. Through archival research and field survey it has been possible to plot 820 sites from ancient southern Campania, 263 of which from the territories of Neapolis and Nola. This evidence has been matched with environmental and archaeological datasets to provide estimates on agricultural produce and population, thus defining surplus and dependance for certain products. The results reveal a high compartmentalisation and degree of dependence of each micro-regional area on the others, for which one can deduce a high specialisation of each economic agent but not necessarily a high productivity for each of its units.

Cette étude traite des représentations littéraires du « démon de la fornication » et des notions avoisinantes du tabou et de la transgression dans la société tardo-antique de l’Orient chrétien à travers la lecture des Vies de saints. Elle focalise sur les « Vies de saintes prostituées » et celles « de saintes adultères », qui concrétisent les perceptions de l’homme tardo-antique autour de la question de la transgression des tabous sexuels. Mais à côté de la représentation littéraire de la transgression réelle (d’ordre principalement sexuelle) de normes sociales, nous serons étonnés de trouver d’autres formes de transgression, tantôt imaginaire tantôt réelle. Pour cette raison nous avons examiné d’autres cas « marginaux » de saints, dont les Vies nous fournissent des indices précieux sur toute la gamme de normes sociales et de prescriptions taboues de la société tardo-antique : la fuite du mariage, le refus du travail, l’homosexualité, la contestation du pouvoir (paternel et politique), la mendicité, le vagabondage, la folie et le rire n’étant que les plus importants. Pourtant, la seule énumération de ces sujets pose un autre problème éminemment plus important que la représentation littéraire, celui de la place des marginaux dans cette société. Quelle était la place, alors, de tous ceux qui étaient considérés comme des « rejetés » sociaux dans la société de l’Antiquité tardive, quelle était la place des prostituées, des adultères, des homosexuels, des fous, des clochards, des chômeurs, des vagabonds et quelles étaient les attitudes vis-à-vis d’eux et quelles répercussions sociales et psychologiques affrontaient-ils ? En essayant de répondre, nous avons essayé de mettre en avant l’hypothèse de l’existence d’une catégorie particulière de Vies de saints qui traiterait toutes ces questions taboues : les « Vies de saints populaires » dont les principales caractéristiques nous avons essayé d’établir et d’interpréter dans une synthèse historique qui conclue cette étude. / This study treats the literary representations of the “demon of fornication” and the adjacent notions of taboo and transgression in the late-antique society of Christian East through a close reading of the Lives of Saints. It focuses on the “Lives of Holy Harlots” and those of “Holy Adulteresses”, which materialize the late-antique man’s perceptions about the question of the transgression of the sexual taboos. But just along with the literary representations of social norms’ real transgression, mostly sexual, we can also find other forms of transgression, either real or imaginary. For this reason we have examined other cases of “border-line” saints, whose Lives provide us with precious indications about the whole range of social norms and the taboo limitations of the late-antique society: the denial of marriage and work, the homosexuality, the contesting of the paternal and political power, the begging, the wandering, the madness and the laughter, only being the most important. However, the simple enumeration of such subjects evokes the question of the position of the outcasts in this society. Which was the place of all those who were considered as social “rejections” in the late-antique society, which was the place of prostitutes, of adulteresses, of homosexuals, of foolish people, of the wandering or begging workless people, and which were the attitudes towards them or the social and psychological repercussions that they were obliged to confront? Upon trying to answer to these questions, we’ve stumbled upon the existence of a distinct category of Lives of Saints which treats all those taboo subjects: the “Lives of popular Saints” (or the “Popular Lives of Saints”), whose main characteristics we have tried to establish and to interpret in an historical synthesis that concludes this study.

La rhétorique du blâme dans l’Histoire Auguste se propose d’étudier comme un objet littéraire le recueil de biographies impériales connu sous le nom d’Historia Augusta, officiellement rédigé par six auteurs à la fin du IIIe siècle ap. J.C. et au début du IVe siècle ap. J.C., mais qui serait en réalité issu du fruit de l’imagination d’un unique rédacteur ayant vécu à la fin du IVe siècle ap. J.C., si l’on s’en tient à la thèse de l’historien allemand Hermann Dessau formulée à la fin du XIXe siècle. Le présent mémoire entend analyser les différentes stratégies destinées à dépeindre des images sombres d’une série d’empereurs légitimes et d’usurpateurs, compris dans la période historique qui débute avec le règne d’Hadrien et s’achève avec la chute de Carin (IIe-IIIe siècles ap. J.C.), dans un texte mêlant étroitement réalité et fiction. Le recours à des procédés de nature lexicale, stylistique, thématique et structurelle que l’on peut observer révèle l’importance de la mise en œuvre des ressources de la rhétorique épidictique, ainsi que la présence de nombreux phénomènes d’intertextualité, fondés notamment sur les Vies des douze Césars de Suétone, principal modèle du recueil. L’enquête conduit à un élargissement de la réflexion qui s’intéresse aux cibles de la critique. Si, derrière les figures des mauvais princes, le rédacteur cherche à fustiger les dérives du principat, il cherche également à mettre en oeuvre sa propre écriture, en tâchant de se distinguer des autres historiographes, dans un style qui accorde une large place à la fantaisie, à l’autodérision et au persiflage. Le mémoire s’efforce donc d’étudier la représentation des figures et des événements de l’histoire et de souligner les articulations entre poétique et rhétorique dans un texte majeur de la littérature latine de l’Antiquité tardive. / Rhetoric of Condemnation in the 'Historia Augusta' intends to study the collection of imperial biographies known as Historia Augusta as a literary object. The biographies were officially written by six authors at the end of the 3rd Century A.D. and at the beginning of the 4th Century A.D., but they were actually produced through the imagination of a single writer who lived at the end of the 4th Century A.D. according to the 19th Century thesis of the German historian Hermann Dessau. Through analysing a text that intricately mixes reality and fiction, this thesis will examine the different strategies intended to depict the sombre images of both legitimate and usurping emperors throughout the historical period that begins with Hadrian's reign and ends with the fall of Carin (2nd to 3rd Centuries A.D.). Observing the lexical, stylistic, thematic and structural methods reveals the importance of utilizing epideictic rhetoric as well as numerous intertextuality phenomena, particularly based on Suetonius's Vitae XII Caesarum, which is the main model of the collection. This inquiry drives to widen the thought interested by the target of the critic. If, behind the figures of bad princes, the writer tries to castigate the principate system that enables princely transgressions, he also tries to enhance his own writing. The writer tries to be different from other historiographers in a style that grants a large place to fantasy, self-mockery and raillery. This thesis endeavours, therefore, to study the representation of historical characters and events while underlining articulations between poetics and rhetoric in a major text of late Antiquity Latin literature.

D’Ausone à Ennode de Pavie, de nombreux hommes de lettres de l’Antiquité tardive ont conjugué une production épistolaire abondante avec la rédaction d’épigrammes.. Ennode de Pavie a d’ailleurs organisé le recueil complet de ses œuvres autour d’une alternance entre épigrammes et lettres, mettant ainsi en relief la relation étroite, véritable dialogue générique, qui se noue entre l’épigramme et la lettre. Cependant, malgré ces nombreux points communs, les travaux critiques ont dans l’ensemble négligé d’en conduire l’étude de façon parallèle. C’est à ce projet original que nous entendons consacrer notre thèse. Tout d’abord, nous nous penchons sur l’aspect stylistique de cette contiguïté générique, à travers les critères communs de breuitas et d’humilitas, ainsi que sur la prédominance d’une certaine forme de maniérisme. Nous penchant ensuite sur l’aspect social et communicationnel des deux genres, nous les rapprochons en tant que media adoptant un système communicationnel commun et des lieux de créations sociaux identiques. Enfin, comme terme de notre logique comparative, nous incluons la contiguïté entre lettre et épigramme dans une réflexion plus large sur le phénomène général d’hybridation qui sous-tend cette époque. Ce dernier mouvement consiste dans l’étude de formes hybrides, mêlant lettre et épigramme, dans une perspective à la fois stylistique, littéraire et ecdotique, mais également dans l’étude d’une autre forme d’hybridation littéraire présente dans les deux genres : le bilinguisme où grec et latin se mêlent et se réinventent dans une époque de transition culturelle. / From Ausonius to Ennodius of Pavia, including Paulinus of Nola, Symmachus and Sidonius Apollinaris, many men of letters, in late Antiquity, wrote both letters and epigrams. Besides, Ennodius himself has organized his complete work alternating epigrams and letters, and highliting the close connection between those two genres. However, despite theirs numerous common features, the critics did not bother to draw a parrallel between them. Thus, we want to devote ourselves to this original point of view. First of all, we study the stylistic aspect of this generic connection, through two main common criteria. One the one hand, the breuitas and the humilitas, and in the other hand, the predominance of a certain form of mannerism. Then, considering the social and communicational aspects of those genres, we bring them together as medias adopting a common communicationnal system, and using the same places of creation. Finally, we include our reflexion in a broader one, about the phenomenon of genre-switching in Late Antiquity. This final movement consists in a studic of hybrid forms, in an ecdotic, stylistic point of view, but also in the study of latin-grec bilingualism.

La déposition du dernier empereur d’Occident en 476 a longtemps marqué le tournant entre Antiquité et Moyen Age. Depuis quelques décennies, les études sur l’Antiquité tardive ont relativisé la portée de cet épisode. La continuité aurait largement prévalu, d’où la promotion d’une large Antiquité tardive, du IIIe au VIIIe siècle : une période d’évolution lente, non de rupture brutale. L’Empire romain a pourtant bien traversé une crise profonde dans la seconde moitié du Ve siècle, en Orient comme en Occident. Cette étude se propose d’examiner en particulier la façon dont l’empereur Zénon (474-491) a fait face à cette crise générale de l’autorité impériale et à la déposition des derniers empereurs d’Occident. Avec pragmatisme et opportunisme, Zénon a engagé la fonction impériale dans un nouveau monde, sans renoncer à la prétention des empereurs à incarner une autorité universelle. Une méthode de gouvernement originale se dessine, notamment après l’usurpation de Basiliskos (475-476), qui l’oblige à revoir en profondeur sa politique dans les domaines intérieur, extérieur et religieux. Les choix de Zénon dans son second règne ont engagé ses successeurs, quelle qu’ait été leur volonté de revenir aux traditionnelles ambitions impériales. Sans renier les avancées des études tardo-antiques sur le temps long, cette étude se propose donc de mettre en lumière l’accélération politique des années 475-476, notamment du point de vue oriental. Tout en défendant la fonction impériale pluriséculaire dont il venait d’hériter, le rôle historique de l’empereur Zénon a été d’accepter un nouveau monde, et d’accompagner l’entrée de l’Empire romain dans le Moyen Age. / For a long time, scholars identified the deposing of the last Western Emperor in 476 CE as the transition point between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Over the past few decades, Late Antiquity scholars have reconsidered the importance of this event: continuity would have definitely prevailed, which opened up the path to the promotion of an extended Late Antiquity, from third Century to eighth Century AD. A period of slow evolution, without brutal rupture. However, this argument fails to account for the profound crisis the Roman Empire experienced during the second half of the 5th century CE, in both the East and West. Accordingly, this study examines Emperor Zeno’s (474-491 CE) approach to this widespread crisis of imperial authority, and the dethroning of the last Western emperors. With pragmatism and opportunism, Zeno refashioned the role of emperors for a new world, without renouncing the emperor’s claim to universal authority. A new method of governance appeared, particularly after Basiliskos’ usurpation of the throne (475-476 CE), which forced Zeno to radically revise his internal, external and ecclesiastical policies. Zeno’s moves during his second reign restricted the options of his successors, no matter how strong was their willingness to return to traditional imperial ambitions. Without denying the advances of Late Antiquity studies over the long term, this study illuminates the rapid political events of the years 475-6 CE, particularly in the Eastern half of the Empire. While defending the long historical tradition of imperial power he inherited, Zeno’s historical role was to accept a new world and help usher the Roman Empire into the Middle Ages.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo a identificação e o estudo da permanência de formas arquitetônicas greco-romanas, ditas clássicas, nas primeiras igrejas cristãs, em uma fase inicial do seu estabelecimento na região da Palestina, desde o governo de Constantino, na primeira metade do século IV d. C., até o final do século VI d. C. Nesse intervalo de quase três séculos procuramos identificar as formas arquitetônicas essenciais que serão constitutivas das igrejas cristãs em seu momento inicial de organização e estudar de que maneira elementos da cultura clássica foram recuperados e usados nesses espaços. Buscamos ir além da análise estritamente material desses edifícios, que evidenciam em suas formas idéias e valores antigos em contraposição a novos elementos que são adotados nesse momento de mudança, produtos concretos de uma nova cultura que se configura nessa época, conhecida como Período Bizantino. / The goal of this dissertation is the identification and study of Graeco-roman architectural forms - classical forms - that were preserved in early Christian churches built in the Palestinian area. The chronological scope is from the first half of the IVth. century, under Constantine\'s rule, to the end of the VIth. century AD. Studying these three centuries, we tried to recognize which basic architectural shapes had been part of early Christian churches and which classical shapes were preserved. We tried to go beyond the building materials, looking for ancient ideas and values still in use in this age of transformation, called Byzantine Period, when the new concepts of an arising culture were starting to achieve material forms.

Cette recherche archéozoologique s'intéresse aux relations homme-animal, de I' Antiquité tardive (milieu du 3e s.), jusqu'à la fin du premier Moyen Age (11e s.). Elle englobe le Massif jurassien et la Plaine d'Alsace. Ces deux régions géographiques limitrophes sont des axes de passage, des zones fluviales (Doubs, Saône, Rhône, Rhin), qui ont appartenu à des royaumes différents et qui ont été habitées par des populations soumises à des influences culturelles différentes. Trois entrées sont utilisées pour analyser les sources ostéologiques : les contextes domestiques ruraux, les contextes funéraires ruraux, la mortalité du cheptel bovin. Un premier chapitre présente la problématique, le cadre physique, chronologique, méthodologique, de cette recherche transfrontalière (est de la France, Suisse occidentale, Allemagne méridionale). Le chapitre 2 prend en compte 64 sites d'habitat (env. 146000 restes osseux pour 87 taxons), en distinguant les milieux géographiques, environnementaux, sociaux. Des éléments de synthèse sont présentés (alimentation, élevage, chasse). Le chapitre 3 examine une trentaine d'ensembles funéraires qui ont livré des ossements animaux. Nous distinguons des objets symboliques, des squelettes animaux, des dépôts alimentaires. Les découvertes sont mises en perspective avec d'autres connues en Gaule et dans la sphère germanique.Le chapitre 4 se fonde sur l'étude de squelettes de bovins altomédiévaux, mis au jour sur trois sites différents d'une même petite région. L'hypothèse de dépôts de cadavres en relation avec des épisodes de mortalité infectieuse est évoquée et mise en perspective avec des cas similaires connus en France pour la même période. L'ensemble a été confronté aux sources écrites traitant de la mortalité animale au Moyen Âge. Le chapitre 5 livre la synthèse générale des résultats, par contextes et par catégories animales. Un volume d'annexes répertorie de nombreuses données complémentaires. / This archaeozoological study focuses on human-animal relations, from late antiquity (mid 3rd c.), until the end of the early Middle Ages (11th c.).It concentrates on the Jura Mountains and the plain of Alsace. These two neighboring geographic regions were communication corridors and riverine zones (Doubs, Saône, Rhône, Rhine), which belonged to different kingdoms and were inhabited by culturally distinct populations. Three inputs are used to analyze the osteological data: rural domestic contexts, rural funerary contexts, and mortality of cattle.-The first chapter presents the issue at hand, the physical, chronological and methodological data of the interregional research program (eastern France, western Switzerland, southern Germany). Chapter 2 considers 64 settlement sites and distinguishes them geographically, environmentally and socially. Approximately 146.000 bone remains for 87 taxa are assessed. Elements of synthesis are presented, regarding in particular evidence for food, livestock and hunting.- Chapter 3 considers 30 cemeteries containing animal bones. Symbolic objects, animal skeletons and grave goods are discussed and the findings are compared with other known sites within Gaul and the Germanic sphere. Chapter 4 is based on the study of cattle skeletons discovered at three different but closely situated sites. Whether these bovine graves evidence infectious disease mortality events is discussed. These burials are compared with similar cases from early medieval France and also discussed in relation to the written evidence for animal mortality events in the Middle Ages. Chapter 5 presents a general synthesis of the results of the thesis, in regards to contexts and animal categories. Appendices and lists of additional data follow.