The Premodern Colloquium. Church, State, and Family in Late Antiquity: The Problem of Women Patrons

While Roman men enjoyed great freedom to dispose of their personal wealth in antiquity, the legal status of women was weaker and the fate of their bequests was often in dispute. Because they were legal minors, women’s donations to the church were especially vulnerable under Roman law, and the late Roman law codes record responses to challenges by family and creditors. As the imperial consistory takes up this litigation, emperors begin to articulate the state’s interest against the claims of the church. Case law thus becomes a driving force both for the definition of women’s legal capacity and an important point of church-state relations. What began as a ‘women’s problem’ gradually redrew the lines between church, state and family and, in significant ways, the boundaries of public and private life in late antiquity.

Readings are circulated approximately two weeks in advance and may be obtained upon request from Terre Fisher, Program Administrator for the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program (MEMS), at telf@umich.edu.