ABSTRACT
This chapter probes the subtle boundary between gift and bribe, analysing what kind of ‘gifts’ were made by the clergy, for what purposes, and in what contexts. Although bribes were frowned upon and simony explicitly forbidden, gift exchanges were as much part of ecclesiastical life as they were common in the secular sphere. Setting what was arguably the largest bribe in antiquity—gold and ‘blessings’ given by Cyril of Alexandria to numerous members of the Constantinopolitan court in 431 as incentives to accept Cyril's position of the Council of Ephesus—into broader context, this essay provides a detailed analysis of the religious politics that motivated Cyril. Intent on unifying the divided church on his terms, Cyril proactively exploited Byzantine courtiers’ avaritia for his own ends. By Christianizing the terminology, he veiled his gifts as ‘blessings’, and rebranded the economy of venality in Christian terms.
