Imprint -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Part One -- 1. The Nature of Leadership in Late Antiquity -- Previous Scholarship on the Role of Bishops in Late Antiquity -- A New Explanatory Model: Spiritual, Ascetic, and Pragmatic Authority -- 2.Pragmatic Authority -- The Early Church Orders -- 1 Timothy 3 and Its Interpretations -- Treatises on Ecclesiastical Leadership -- 3. Spiritual Authority -- Carriers of the Gifts of the Spirit -- Spiritual Leadership and Prayer -- Carrying the Burdens of Others' Sins -- 4. Ascetic Authority -- The Importance of the Desert -- Moses as the Biblical Model of Leadership -- Monks as Bishops and Bishops as Monks -- Part Two -- 5. Bishops in Action -- Synesius of Cyrene and Theodore of Sykeon -- The Episcopate: Work or Honor? -- 6. Social Contexts -- Bishops of Modest Background -- Education -- Bishops of Curial Background -- Bishops of Senatorial Background -- Family Traditions of Ecclesiastical Officeholding -- The Correlation of Wealth and Ecclesiastical Office -- The Permeability of Civic and Ecclesiastical Office -- 7. Cities -- The Bishop's Residence -- Bishops and Wealth -- Episcopal Expenditure -- 8. Empire -- Constantine's Legacy -- The Manumission of Slaves (Manumissio in Ecclesia) -- Episcopal Courts (Episcopalis Audientia) -- Ecclesiastical Asylum -- Access to the Emperor: Parrhēsia of Bishops and Holy Men -- 9. The Bishop as a New Urban Functionary -- From Model Christians to Model Citizens -- Bishops and the Curia -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Primary Sources -- Secondary Literature -- Index.