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conclusively by Germain Morin and Andre Wilmart in 1902 and 1906 respec-tively.

The present edition by Manlio Simonetti, a distinguished authority on Rufinusol Aquileia and the lesser anti-Arian Latin writers of the fourth century, is an im-portant contribution to patristic scholarship. A fifty-page introduction discussesthe historical background to Arianism and the life and writings of Gregory(1—11); analyses the arguments of the De Fide, noting theological points of par-ticular interest (12—21); identifies the sources—Hilary and Phoebadius, Ter-tullian and Novatian, and perhaps Marius Victorinus (21—28); discusses andevaluates the MSS. and printed versions of the two recensions (a notable omis-sion in the Corpus Christianorum edition) (28—43) a n d compares them (43—50). Acritical text and apparatus, with an Italian translation on the facing pages,follows (53-123); and the work is completed by an immensely-detailed commen-tary, a glossary, and indices. The edition as a whole is elegantly produced and apleasure to handle.

Gregory of Elvira, although the most distinguished Spanish writer of his day,is a minor figure in the events of the Arian controversy. His principal theologicalinterest lies in the fact that he reflects the trinitarian outlook of the Latinchurches at the beginning of the seventh decade of the fourth century, when thetraditional theology formulated by Tertullian and Novatian was beginning to beinfluenced by Greek conceptions mediated by Hilary of Poitiers. AlthoughGregory's identity was soon forgotten, partly perhaps because of his position asleader of the Luciferans in Spain after the death of Lucifer of Cagliari, hiswritings were known to Augustine who, however, already believed him to be aGreek (Ep. 148, ii, 10). We may be grateful to Dr. Simonetti for the light he shedson an interesting, if minor, theologian.

UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM GERALD BONNER

Rom und Pelagius: die theologische Position der romschen Bischofe im PelagianischenSlreil in denjahren 411-432. By Otto Wermelinger. (Papste und Papsttum, 7).Pp. xii + 340. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1975. DM. 140.

In the years around A.D. 400 the Western Church was agitated by debates anddivided on a number of issues, many of them centred on questions about themeaning of Christian perfection within an increasingly Christianised society.Pelagianism is one of these movements, to be located somewhere within thespectrum of theological groups concerned with such questionings. Itsdocumentation, its sources, the nature of its doctrinal teaching and its impact onthe Christian society of the early fifth century, the milieu of Pelagius's supportersand his patrons, are all subjects which have received a good deal of attentionduring the last twenty years. A fair amount of distinguished work has allowed usto see the Pelagian movement in a new perspective. Dr. Wermelinger is wellabreast of modern scholarship in this area, but his book, nevertheless, by-passesthe questions which have dominated recent work and has returned to one of thecentral threads of older ecclesiastical historiography, harshly isolating thePelagian movement both from the social history of its milieu and from its ownintellectual and spiritual roots. What he has given us is a very full and careful, in-deed meticulously detailed, account of the Pelagian controversy from the mo-ment of Caelestius's confrontation with the African Church in 411 down to theend of pope Celestine's pontificate. The position of the Roman see, as the title ofthe book suggests and the nature of the series—presumably—dictates, is at thecentre of Dr. Wermelinger's focus.

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The argument can be quickly mapped, articulated as it is in accordance withthe principal stages of the controversy. In the first phase, the debate led to ahardening of positions in the African Church. The reserve Augustine had initiallyshown towards Pelagius was hardening into suspicion, and his doctrine about in-fant baptism, which in 413 had made him suspect of heresy to some Africans, wasto become, before long, a touchstone of orthodoxy. In the Palestinian phasewhich followed theological traditions began to crystallise, and the AfricanChurch's self-consciousness as the pace-setter of the struggle against heresygathered momentum. Much has been written on the ecclesiological aspects of thecondemnation of Pelagianism by the African Church and by pope Innocent 1,and the detailed analysis in Part in of the book adds little to Caspar's magisterialaccount. The most interesting sections of Dr. Wermelinger's book are the lasttwo, in which he traces the ambiguities in pope Zosimus's stand, and its sequel.Though during Zosimus's pontificate it was Carthage and Ravenna that sealedthe fate of Pelagianism, he shows that a doctrinal consensus was lacking. Themerit of his discussion lies largely in his success in showing the slow and hesitantemergence of such a consensus, and the extent to which, in the course of its tak-ing shape, Augustinian theology found itself increasingly out on a limb.

If the book has added little to our understanding of the nature, the sources orthe social significance of Pelagianism, it does provide what comes near to adefinitive account of the course of the controversies and, supremely, of thechanging and often ambiguous positions of the Roman see.

UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM R. A. MARKUS

Monks, Bishops and Pagans: Christian Culture in Gaul and Italy, 500—700. Edited byEdward Peters. (University of Pennsylvania Sources of Medieval History).Pp. xiv + 238. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975. $12.50(hard), $3.95 (paper).

This collection of texts in translation includes most of the Rule of St. Benedict,Jonas's Life of St. Columbanus, Book I of Gregory of Tours's Miracles of St. Martin,his Life of the Seven Sleepers and extracts from other works. Professor McDermott'stranslations from Gregory of Tours are new, but the other extracts are reprints ofolder translations. The value of some of the minor works, like Paul the Deacon'spoem about St. Benedict, is debatable, and it is regrettable that exact referencesare not always given to the Latin sources, but these are minor criticisms andProfessor Peters is to be congratulated on bringing together material whichforms such an excellent introduction to the ecclesiastical history of the earlymedieval West.

A large part of the material is hagiographical, and the saints are portrayedprimarily as agents of divine authority, with thaumaturgic powers which noearthly ruler can resist. St. Columbanus can control the elements and inhibit theactions of royal officials; St. Martin is shown as the real ruler of the Frankishkingdom, dispensing justice and healing to suppliants at his shrine at Tours.Direct divine intervention in human affairs is as old in the European literarytradition as the stories of Homer: what is new about the saints who appear insixth-century writings is that they have taken over the work of seculargovernment.

The churchmen who wrote these works were seeking to impose Christianspiritual and social values on a barbarised and often only partially Christiansociety, and the Lives of the Saints, which were full of stories of supernatural in-tervention on behalf of the oppressed, particularly of oppressed clergy, were

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