RESUMEN: Las funciones y el poder episcopal conocieron una profunda transformación durante los siglos ?, m y iv. Si en un primer momento se trataba de un cargo esencialmente espiritual, que encontraba su mejor referencia en el honesto paterfamilias romano, a partir del siglo ni sus atribuciones sociales aumentaron considerablemente y su poder comenzó a equipararse al de los magistrados ciudadanos e imperiales. La corrupción episcopal, que se detecta desde las épocas más tempranas, cambió

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... entemente en grado y forma similar, como testimonia la documentación hispana del Bajo Imperio.ABSTRACT: The episcopal functions and power went through a deep transformation during the second, third and fourth centuries. If at the beginning bishopric was an office of an essentially spiritual nature, whose best reference was the honest Roman paterfamilias, from the third century on the bishops social authority grew in such a way that it became comparable to that of local and imperial magistrates. As a result, episcopal corruption, which is evidenced since the earliest times, changed in a similar fashion throughout these centuries as is testified by Late Roman Hispania documentation.