Late antiquity was a crucial period for the development of the Christian church. Christianity went from a persecuted to a favored religion; and after a period of internecine struggle, Nicene-Chalcedonian Christianity prevailed as orthodoxy throughout the Mediterranean world. Ancient sources and modern studies dealing with this period are replete with discussions of the church as it developed within the territorial confines of the Roman Empire. But both virtually ignore the barbarian churches that existed during the fourth through the sixth centuries, (...) which were often heterodox and, initially, located beyond the imperial frontiers. (shrink)