Proprietà monastiche in Egitto nella Tarda Antichità

A number of ancient sources (4th-7th centuries) expressly mention the possession of goods and domestics in regard to those who consecrated themselves to ascetic or monastic life. But what precisely happens to those goods whose owner changes status or to those servants forced to follow the master into a monastery? Do they also become monks or do they obtain freedom – which is what some literary sources lead us to believe – or does their servant status prevail? Do goods rest at the disposition of the monk or do they become monastic acquisitions? What consequently is the juridical-patrimonial status of monasteries? Do monasteries posses juridical personality? This paper attempts to answer these questions by analyzing documents that confirm the survival, also inside the monastic community, of entitlement and the exercise of personal private property. The study of the mutual influence of canon law and civil legislation in the religious realm will furthermore allow the reconstruction of the history of the development of the juridical personality owned by monasteries.