Costruire l’identità cristiana. Percezione e pratica del confine nella normativa fra IV e V secolo

This article focuses on the interplay between geographic space, territory and ecclesiastical identity trough examining Gaul's conciliar texts (IVth-Vthcenturies). It shows that, even at a time when the definition of territory is quite vague both at the linguistic level (no specialised terminology exists yet) and at the physical level (clear geographical boundaries are yet to be drawn), the 'perception' of territoriality is already strong, most likely owing to the always echoing influence of the Roman law tradition and of its notion of territorium. This notion implies and affirms the political sense of geographical boundaries.