Virgins of God: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity

464 Pages·1996·10.221 MB·English

by  Susanna Elm

OXFORD CLASSICAL MONOGRAPHS
Published under the supervision of a Committee of the
Faculty of Literae Humaniores in the University of Oxford
OXFORD CLASSICAL MONOGRAPHS
The aim of the Oxford Classical Monographs series (w hich replaces the
Oxford Classical and Philosophical Monographs) is to publish
outstanding revised theses on Greek and Latin literature, ancient
history, and ancient philosophy examined by the faculty board of Literae
Humaniores.
'Virgins of God'
THE MAKING OF ASCETICISM
IN LA TE ANTIQUITY
Susanna Elm
CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD
1994
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford ox2 6DP
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© Susanna Elm 1994
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Virgins of God: the making of asceticism in late antiquity, Susanna Elm.
(Oxford classical monographs)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
l. Asceticism-History-Early church. ea. 30-600. 2. Monasticism and
religious orders for women-Turkey-History. 3. Monasticism and religious
orders for women-Egypt-History. 4. Women in Christianity-History-Early
church. ea. 30-600. I. Title. II. Series.
BV5023.E45 1994 271'.9'0009015-dcw 93-36710
ISBN 0-19-814920-4
I 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong
Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by
Biddies Ltd., Guildford and King's Lynn
Nah ist
Und schwer zu fassen der Gott.
Wo aber Gefahr ist, wachst
Das Rettende auch.
F. Holderlin, Patmos
Meiner Mutter
11. 2. 1930, Prag-23. 8. 1992, Berlin
PREFACE
THE following is a study about institutions, their genesis, their
function, the means by which they endure, but also the means
through which they regulate, control, and select. It originated in
a very different context, in an area of study seemingly remote: a
period that witnessed the complete breakdown of political and
social structures under a totalitarian regime, but also, at the same
time, the durability of certain institutional models. It is thus a
study deeply influenced by the knowledge that institutions are
also human beings, not just abstract entities, and that it therefore
behoves us, as human beings, to understand how institutions
think, how they remember and forget.
One institutional model of great durability is the Catholic
Church. For example, in Germany between 1933 and 1945 it alone
through a series of moral compromises, was not gleichgeschaltet,
not incorporated as an institution into the National-socialist sys
tem. As a hierarchically organized institution, the Catholic Church
is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, extant multinational
institutions in the Western world. How did it accomplish this feat
of longevity under constantly changing external conditions? How
did an institution of such durability originate?
An attempt to answer these questions suggests a step back in
time, not only to the Middle Ages but further, to the fourth
century when Christianity became legitimate. When such a step is
made, it becomes evident that one of the factors instrumental in
the Church's durability is its adaptability. This adaptability seems
to have been facilitated, if not made possible, by a constant
creation of subsystems, more agile and thus more responsive
to the internal and external challenges at hand, and as a con
sequence also more capable of incorporating a great variety of
cultural, social, and economic diversity. Among the most suc
cessful of these subsystems are monasticism and the religious
orders.
Asceticism and monasticism as phenomena are well known
in most cultures. In the Western tradition they have assumed a
viii Preface
high degree of differentiated organization: monks belong to orders
and live in monasteries that are organized on the basis of specific
rules. These rules constitute a standard ('orthodoxy') according
to which all religious orders can be classified. As a consequence,
whatever is not encompassed by these rules is regarded as
ephemeral, and is relegated to the miscellaneous category of
'other'. The Benedictine rule in particular has defined the term
monasticism at least since the ninth century, and monastic reform
and innovation used to be judged according to what was con
sidered a correct interpretation of this norm, that is, the regulae
rectitudo. Similarly, throughout the high and late Middle Ages
the rule of St Augustine, that of the Templars, and the con
stitutions of the Dominicans became the blueprint for almost all
canonical, military, and mendicant orders. As a consequence,
forms of religious life that rejected these rules, or did not a priori
conform to their concepts, had to struggle for their right to exist
or were relegated to the precarious existence of the heretical.
This phenomenon is observable not only in the periods after
Benedict but even during those prior to him, when the norm was
established by men considered to be his direct precursors, such as
Basil of Caesarea, Pachomius, and Antony. This phenomenon is
particularly relevant for a special subcategory of ascetics and
monks: women.
My study is concerned with a group thus relegated to the mar
gins. It has two tasks. The lesser one is to re-evaluate critically
the historiographical conception that takes Benedictine monasti
cism as its point of reference. The second and larger task is to
reconstruct how the monastic norm did evolve and change. Here
the role of women becomes crucial. It becomes clear that fourth
century women ascetics adopted organizational patterns and
forged institutions via a complex process involving both the trans
formation of the given model of the family and a reaction against
that very model. Moreover, women did so in concert with men.
An initial focus on female asceticism thus provides an ideal point
of leverage not only for prying apart the historiographical bound
aries erected in the wake of monasticism, but also for revealing
the great variety of organizational forms against which an 'ortho
dox' norm was created.
By the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century
ascetic communities had developed in urban centres and
AD