Ivthe Spiritual EconomyDevozione longobarda

The investigation takes its inspiration from the book recently dedicated by Peter Brown (Through the Eye of a Needle, 2012) to the genesis of the Christian ethics of wealth and its good use. Brown had highlighted the transition from pagan evergetism to Christian charity; from the use of wealth for public display in favor of the city and the fellow-citizens, to its dispensation to the poor, who are the representatives of Christ. Thanks to this providence the rich can gain the divine mercy and save his soul. The Church, as a mundane institution, receives the pious gifts of the rich and administers them for the relief of the poor, but the poor are considered to be the real owners of the wealth accumulated by the Church. This ideological expedient allows the Church to consider itself poor. When this cultural process is complete, the Middle Ages have arrived. My aim has been to investigate how the precepts of the ancient Fathers were received and put into practice by the Langobardic society in Italy. Given the shortage of doctrinal texts similar to those exploited by Brown, I had recourse to more humble documents such as the deeds edited by Luigi Schiaparelli in the first two volumes of the Codice Diplomatico Longobardo. It is a collection of 296 documents, for the larger part concerning foundations or endowments of churches, monasteries, senodochia and oratoria, ordered by lay devotees. Most of them come from Tuscany; a lesser number from centres of the Po plain. These texts do not have any doctrinal purpose, but they give an insight into the way in which the Christian doctrine of wealth and its good use was received and put in practice by the Langobards in the 8th century.