Orthodoxy, Paganism and Dissent in the Early Christian Centuries

W.H.C.Frend, University of Cambridge, UK

• Contents: Introduction; The Church in the reign of Constantius II (337-361): mission-monasticism-worship; Pagans, Christians and 'the Barbarian conspiracy' of A.D. 367 in Roman Britain; Altare subnixus: a cult of relics in the Romano-British Church?; Martyrdom and political oppression; Martyrdom in East and West: the saga of St George of Nobatia and England; Fragments of a version of the Acta S. Georgii from Q'asr Ibrim; St Ambrose and other churches (except Rome); Donatist and Catholic: the organisation of Christian communities in the North African countryside; The Donatist church and St Paul; Donatus 'paene totam Africam decepit'. How?; Pythagoreanism and Hermetism in Augustine's 'hidden years'; Augustine and state authority: the example of the Donatists; Augustine's reactions to the barbarian invasions of the West, 407-417: some comparisons with his Western contemporaries; A new eyewitness of the barbarian impact on Spain, 409-419; Augustine and Orosius: on the end of the ancient world; The fall of Macedonius in 511 - a suggestion; North African and Byzantine saints in Byzantine North Africa; Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) and early Christianity; Index.