The Gateway to the Middle Ages: Monasticism

282 Pages·1991·10.08 MB·English

by  Eleanor Shipley Duckett

T H E G A T E W A Y TO T H E M I D D L E A G E S
M O N A S T I C I S M

The Gateway
to the Middle Ages
MONASTICISM
by Eleanor Shipley Duckett
ANN ARBOR PAPERBACKS
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
FIRST EDITION AS AN ANN ARBOR PAPERBACK 1961
REISSUED AS AN ANN ARBOR PAPERBACK 1988
COPYRIGHT © BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1938, RENEWED 1966
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ISBN 0-472-09051-8 (doth)
ISBN 0-472-06051-1 (paper)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARD CATALOG NO. 61-2247
PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1991 1990 1989 1988 4 3 2
TO
M ary Ellen C hase
and
O ur Cambridge Family
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND
i934-1936
ABBREVIATIONS
P L ....................... Patrologia Latina
P G ....................... Patrologia Graeca
M.G.H..................... Monumenta Germaniae Historica
M.H.B..................... Monumenta Historica Britannica
R.I.S......................... Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (Muratori)
Script, rer. Merov. Scriptores Rerum M er ovin gic arum
Script, rer. Lang. . Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum
C.S.H.B. . . . Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae
C.S.E.L.................... Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum
Latinorum
P.L.M...................... Poetae Latini Minores
P.W.......................... Real-Encyclopadie, ed. Pauly-Wissowa
C.M.H..................... Cambridge Medieval History
H.S.C.P................... Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
C.P........................... Classical Philology
Schanz . . . . Schanz-Hosius-Kriiger : Geschichte der
rômischen Literatur, IV, 2, 1920
Manitius . . . M. Manitius : Geschichte der lateinischen
Literatur des Mittelalters, I, 1911
Bardenhezver . . O. Bardenhewer: Geschichte der alt-
kirchlichen Literatur, V, 1932
PREFAJCE
T he gateway to the middle ages is made up of three
parts. This one deals with monasticism in the sixth century.
Monasticism at that time followed one of two disciplines,
according to the race, country, and temperament of its fol­
lowers: Celtic or Roman.
Celtic monks belonged to the British, in Wales and the
southwest of Britain; to the Irish in Ireland and in Scot­
land; and to those of the British who in fear of Saxon
enemies or through love of wandering had crossed the
Channel to find their peace abroad.
In Wales there was at this time the monastery of Abbot
Illtyd at Llantwit Major; of David at Mynyw or Menevia,
St. David’s in Pembrokeshire; of Cadoc at Llancarfan.
From Wales monks journeyed in their frail wicker boats to
Cornwall and thence to Brittany, where we meet, with
many others, Samson at Dol and Paul Aurelian at Saint-
Pol-de-Leon.
For the Irish this sixth century was a Golden Age of
monks and monasteries, established in their multitude up
and down the land: by Finnian at Clonard in Meath; by
another Finnian at Moville in County Down; by Comgall
at Bangor on Belfast Lough; by Ciaran at Clonmacnois on
the Shannon; by other founders without number.
The rule followed by these Celtic monks was common
only in its fundamentals, and these were hard; fasting and
vigil, prayer and penance, filled the hours of the day and
PREFACE
many of the night. To holy observance was added zeal of
scholarship; each of the greater Irish abbeys had its school,
in which students of the Bible and the Latin fathers, of
Christian doctrine and pagan Latin texts, listened to their
teachers and pondered their few manuscripts whenever
they could turn from fulfilling their round of prayer, from
the carrying out of those manual tasks which gave them the
bare necessities of life. Many men, also vowed to the same
monastic ideal, were seeking it in the solitude so beloved
by the Celtic spirit, on isles off Irish and British shores, on
islets in lake and river, wherever their wandering had led
them.
It was the monks of Roman discipline, however, who
prepared the way for the coming of the great monastic
orders of the Middle Ages. Among these we find in our
sixth century those of the congregation established by that
Cassiodorus who had been minister to Theodoric the Great,
in his own country house, “Vivarium,” “Fishpools,” amid
the meadows of southern Italy. Here his leisure from politi­
cal labors has left us writings of high importance on his
training of his monks in discipline both sacred and secular.
From Italy we come to Arles in southern France, to find
its bishop, Caesarius, drawing up his Rule for nuns, for
women living the monastic life under his guidance.
Caesarius had a gift of common sense as well as sanctity,
and in his provisions we come upon much of interest in
regard to these good sisters, some of humble, others of most
aristocratic birth. Even more interesting, however, were
the sermons in which with scathing rebuke he stripped bare
during mass the hidden consciences of his guilty flock.
And now we come to the climax: to the life of Saint
Benedict of Nursia and to the Rule compiled by him for
his monks of the sixth century in the abbey of Monte