Excusatio non petita: The Parishioner’s Replies to the Ecclesiastical Criticism for the Attendance at Shows (3rd-6th Centuries)

Abstract

The present work deals with the evolution in the responses of parishioners who opposed to the incessant criticism of the ecclesiastical authorities in relation to their attendance at shows of the Roman-pagan tradition. These were branded as idolatrous and immoral, and yet most of the Christians, well integrated into the society of their time, came to contemplate them. Because of the continual reproaches of their preachers, many individuals sought shelter in a great diversity of pretexts. We know the nature of these replies thanks to the dialectical resource used by preachers who reproduced them in their speeches in order to easily rebutted them in front of their audience. And thanks also to this resource we know the evolution of the thinking of the parishioners in this field. Our study begins with the analysis of the testimony of Tertullian (2nd century) and Novatian (3rd century) and the extravagant excuses made by those Christians who went to the games to justify their behaviour. In the 4th century, this attitude changed, for the answers were much more direct and forceful, as we can see in the sermons of Augustine of Hippo and John Chrysostom in the transit between the 4th and 5th centuries. We finalize our work with the analysis of Severus of Antioch and Jacob of Serugh, whose sermons on the shows evidence to what extent the attitude of the faithful had evolved in the 6th century, when it had been more than a century since the policy of Arcadius and Honorius had officially secularized all these festive manifestations.