Holy Men, Unholy Fun: Why Late Antique Priests Couldn’t Go to the Circus

In the late fourth century, the church father Jerome – patron saint of righteous irritation – wrote to a Roman aristocrat named Oceanus. 'Yesterday a catechumen, today a priest; yesterday in the arena, today in the church; in the evening in the circus, in the morning at the altar; formerly a supporter of actresses, now a consecrator of virgins', he lamented about the clergy of his time.[1] In one glorious rant, he divides the world neatly in two: Good Christians praying politely at the altar...