ABSTRACT
Highly literary source-texts may, if read with attention, shed light on social practice. The epistolary genre, which encouraged virtual presence and conversation in the exchange of letters, also seems to have favoured virtual feeding and spiritual fat. Laymen were told to absorb spiritual food with their meals. While it was probably bad form for a clergyman to revel in earthly food, the enjoyment of spiritual nourishment was more than acceptable. Maximus sent Avitus gifts of fish and chilled wine via a messenger called Leonianus. Rigorousness of observance is at issue. Abstinence ranged from avoidance of meat and wine alone to the exclusion of fowl, fish, and eggs and cheese as well. The pleasures of the table had their uses: one episcopal candidate even "secured the noisy approval of parasites and pressed his pretensions amidst gourmet's plaudits" in a contested episcopal election at Chalon.
