This article is the result of my fourth postdoctoral fellowship. It was written within the framework of the sub-project A01, ‘Ambiguous Property: From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages’ (PIs Sofia Bianchi Mancini, Jörg Rüpke, Markus Vinzent), part of the SFB TRR 294/2-424638267 ‘Strukturwandel des Eigentums’, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). This essay aims to examine the phenomenon of boundary violations in relation to the Christian res Dei, with particular attention to the transfer of private property to the Church. Such property was no longer regarded as either private or ecclesiastical, but as divine, being considered to belong to God and his saints. The analysis focuses on canonical legislation in Gaul, the Iberian Peninsula, and Africa Proconsularis between the 4th and 6th century, as the Christian divine property (res Dei) found its fullest expression beginning in the Constantinian era. This development was made possible by the recognition of Christianity as a religio licita and the consequent opportunity to donate wealth and possessions to the Church as acts of devotion to God and the saints. This practice thus brought about a form of “material” union between heaven and earth, and laid the foundations for the Church’s temporal authority over goods regarded as inalienable and inviolable, as they were considered part of the res Dei. Canonical prescriptions and rulings were therefore aimed at delineating boundaries in order to protect and expand the res Dei, thereby safeguarding the proprietary and hereditary rights of the Church.
Mario Resta (Sun,) studied this question.