ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the rigorous spiritual practices Chromatius introduced to his church. His promotion of chastity, fasting, and almsgiving reflected a changing religious spirit which was sweeping through the elite of the Italian peninsula during the period. The works of the third-century Egyptian caused upheaval in the elite Christian circles, with holding to Origen ideas about human perfectibility and others rejecting his ideas. Chromatius's adoption of Origen's theology on sanctification opened new avenues of religious practice and new questions for his church. Chromatius focused his words about virtues and vices on three issues drawn directly from Roman society: wealth, luxury, and ambition. The entry of the elite into the public life of the church contrasted with the earlier assumption about the private practice of the religion in the home. Taken with the rhetoric about other churches and religions in the city, the approach to the elite suggests a goal of consolidating authority in the person of the sole bishop, Chromatius.
