ENFLAWE · EPISCOPAL NETWORKS AND FRAGMENTATION IN LATE ANTIQUE WESTERN EUROPE

The fragmentation of the Roman World meant a reduction in scale, that is, a contraction in the system formed by economic, political, social and cultural relationship networks. Conversely, the Church survived into the middle ages as the only ‘supranational’ institution despite having faced some disruptive challenges. Political, symbolic and cultural relationships continued flowing along long-distance Episcopal networks in the fifth century. Nonetheless the nature and form of these long-distance networks was largely affected by the fragmentation of the Roman Empire.The aim of this project is to analyse how the fragmentation of the Roman world affected the evolution of the Episcopal networks and how these networks worked for or against the integration of the Western post-Roman World, both in cultural and institutional terms.This project will focus in three important Episcopal networks in Western Europe from the late fourth century to the late fifth century. These networks are the entourage around Ambrose, bishop of Milan (d. 396); the bishops from the monastery of Lerins (in the first half of the fifth century) and the entourage of Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489). The research will include primarily Episcopal sources, Council Acts, Chronicles, and epigraphic sources, among others.The project’s conceptual basis and its main innovative aspect is the use of network theory and methodology as a tool for assessing the evolution in the scale, the form, the nature and the lasting patterns within these Episcopal networks.This research is not only expected to produce interesting results to current research on late antiquity and the early middle ages, but also to enrich historiographical approaches and knowledge transfer within the European Research Area.The product of this research will be four articles in international, peer-reviewed journals and the creation of a database and digital map that considers the temporal and spatial evolution of these networks.