The Sign in Conduct and The Sign in Objects: Two Ways of Institutionalising The Church in Ambrose of Milan and Isidore of Seville

Abstract

When Ambrose of Milan (374-397) and Isidore of Seville (c. 600-636) assumed their bishoprics, the baptism of the faithful, the Eucharist and the ordination of bishops constituted main sacramental devices for ordering the Ecclesia, while giving institutional consistency to their communities. In both cases, however, the sacraments were not the only institutionalisation devices in force: indeed, ecclesiastical architecture, scripture, council meetings and territorial organisation were major works in the institutionalisation of Christian communities. These did not aim to organise the Church in the same way, and they often proposed different patterns of organisation. In this paper we will analyse how Ambrose and Isidore devolved different instruments in order to promote different ecclesiological models. The bishop of Milan, for his part, developed a programme of institutionalisation and disciplining of the clergy based on a pastoral of the clerical decorum. Two hundred years later, his reader, admirer and colleague in the episcopate, Isidore, sought support in less ambiguous signs and proposed an object-based recognition of the hierarchies and the various ecclesiastical officia.