The paper examines the relationship of banditry with slavery and constructions of sanctity in the early medieval West, highlighting how bandits were often viewed through a religious lens.
The overlap between bandits and holy men is significant; while they share wilderness associations, bandits typically represented a challenge to religious authority, emerging as the anti-thesis of saints.
The evidence from early medieval society suggests that the phenomenon of banditry was more complex and diverse than previously theorized, necessitating a reconsideration of its role in social structure.
The paper underlines the idea that bandits, rather than being mere outlaws, also held a position within local traditions and were at times supported by the communities they affected.
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