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9 - Monastic Rules

from Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2019

By
Albrecht Diem
Edited by
Philip L. Reynolds
Philip L. Reynolds
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
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Summary

This chapter critically reviews and complicates three premises of the standard historiography of early-medieval monasticism: monastic life turned at an early stage into a “regular life,” lived according to a written rule; the practice of following a normative written rule was stable, not subject to much historical change; there was an organic evolution that culminated in the implementing of the Rule of Benedict as the unifying norm for monastic life in the context of Carolingian monastic reforms. The chapter complicates these notions on the basis of four case studies: the “angelic Rule” of Pachomius and its role in creating a monastic origin myth; the sancta regula of Caesarius as a way to achieve collective sanctity; the Regula Columbani as a program to unify a monastic movement; and the Regula Benedicti in its two manifestations: as a document revealing a late-antique attempt to organize an ascetic community; and as a Carolingian instrument of reform. Monastic rules are not only different in their content and in their disciplinary program, but each of them carries a different understanding of normativity and a distinctive idea of what the term “rule” (regula) really means.

Keywords

monasticism, rules, Rule of Benedict, normativity, Pachomius, Caesarius, Columbanus, Benedict of Nursia, Benedict of Aniane
Type
Chapter
Information
Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium , pp. 214 - 236
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Sources

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Further Reading

Agamben, Giorgio. The Highest Poverty: Monastic Rules and Form-of-Life. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Choy, Renie S. Intercessory Prayer and the Monastic Ideal in the Time of the Carolingian Reforms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Dartmann, Christoph. “Normative Schriftlichkeit im früheren Mittelalter: das benediktinische Mönchtum.” ZRG Kan. Abt. 100 (2004): 1–61Google Scholar
De Jong, Mayke. “Carolingian Monasticism: The Power of Prayer.” In McKitterick, Rosamond (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 2: c. 700–c. 900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 622–53, 995–1002.Google Scholar
Dey, Hendrik, and Fentress, Elizabeth (eds.). Western Monasticism ante litteram. The Spaces of Monastic Observance in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Disciplina Monastica 8. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.Google Scholar
Diem, Albrecht. “Columbanian Monastic Rules: Dissent and Experiment.” In Flechner, R. and Meeder, S. (eds.), The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture and Religion (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 68–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
-->Diem, Albrecht. “The Carolingians and the Regula Benedicti.” In van Espelo, D. et al. (eds.), Religious Franks Religion and Power in the Frankish Kingdoms: Studies in Honour of Mayke de Jong (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), 243–61.Google Scholar
-->Diem, Albrecht. “… ut si professus fuerit se omnia impleturum, tunc excipiatur. Observations on the Rules for Monks and Nuns of Caesarius and Aurelianus of Arles.” In Zimmerl-Panagl, V. et al. (eds.), Edition und Erforschung lateinischer patristischer Texte (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), 191–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
-->Diem, Albrecht. “Die ‘Regula Columbani’ und die ‘Regula Sancti Galli’. Überlegungen zu den Gallusviten in ihrem karolingischen Kontext.” In Schnoor, Franziska et al. (eds.), Gallus und seine Zeit. Leben, Wirken, Nachleben (St. Gallen: Verlag am Klosterhof, 2015), 65–97.Google Scholar
-->Diem, Albrecht. “Inventing the Holy Rule: Some Observations on the History of Monastic Normative Observance in the Early Medieval West.” In Dey, H. and Fentress, E. (eds.), Western Monasticism ante litteram: The Spaces of Monastic Observance in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Disciplina Monastica 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), 53–84.Google Scholar
Diem, Albrecht. “Was bedeutet Regula Columbani?” In Diesenberger, M. and Pohl, W. (eds.), Integration und Herrschaft. Ethnische Identitäten und soziale Organisation im Frühmittelalter (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2002), 63–89.Google Scholar
Diem, Albrecht, and Rousseau, Philip. “Monastic Rules, 4th–9th c.” in Beach, Alison and Cochelin, Isabelle (eds.), The Cambridge History of Western Medieval Monasticism, vol. 1 (in press).Google Scholar
Hallinger, Kassius, “Papst Gregor der Große und der hl. Benedikt.” In Steidle, B. (ed.), Commentationes in Regulam S. Benedicti (Rome: Herder, 1957), 231–319.Google Scholar
Schulenburg, Jane Tibbetts. “Strict Active Enclosure and Its Effects on the Female Monastic Experience (ca. 500–1100).” In Nichols, J. A. and Shank, L. T. (eds.), Medieval Religious Women, vol. 1: Distant Echoes (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984), 51–86.Google Scholar
Semmler, Josef. “Benedictus II: una regula – una consuetudo.” In Lourdaux, W. and Verhelst, D. (eds.), Benedictine Culture 750–1050 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1983), 1–49.Google Scholar

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  • Monastic Rules
  • Edited by Philip L. Reynolds, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
  • Online publication: 21 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133.009
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  • Monastic Rules
  • Edited by Philip L. Reynolds, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
  • Online publication: 21 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133.009
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Monastic Rules
  • Edited by Philip L. Reynolds, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
  • Online publication: 21 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133.009
Available formats
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