The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages

287 Pages·2000·3.4 MB·English

The Emeygence of Monasticisw
The Emergence of
Monast icism
From the Desert Fathers
to the
Early Middle Ages
Marilyn Dunn
Blackwell
Publishing
0 2000,2003 by Marilyn Dunn
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First published 2000 by Blaclcwell Publishers Ltd, a Blaclcwell Publishing company
First published in paperback 2003
Library of Congess Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata
Dunn, Marilyn.
The emergence of monasticism: from the Desert Fathers to the early Middle Ages /
Marilyn Dunn.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-13463-8 (hardcover: alk. paper)-ISBN 14051-0641-7 (paperback)
1. Monastic and religious life-History-Early church, ca. 30-600. I. Title.
BRl95.M65 D86 2001
271’.009’015-dc21 00-057905
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Contents
l’yefaee vi-vii
Last of Abbyevaataons Viii
The Emergence of Christian Eremitism 1
The Development of Communal Life 25
Women in Early Monasticism 42
The Meaning of Asceticism 59
The Evolution of Monasticism in the West 82
The Rule of St Benedct and its Italian Setting 111
Britain and Ireland 138
Irish peyeJyznz and European Monasticism 158
England in the Seventh Century 191
Notes 209
Select Bablao~~apby 251
Index 275
Preface
Early monastic history is a uniquely complex subject. No other area of
hstory potentially covers so many dxiplines and areas, intellectual and
geographical. It can extend itself over the study of history (political,
religious, social and economic), theology, liturgy, archaeology, philoso-
phy, religious studies, gender studes, sociology and anthropology. The
widely differing methodologies and approaches whch exist may be
sampled across the great range of journals in whch it is possible to read
about monastic issues from Revue Be’ne’dietinea nd Stadia Monastiea on
one hand, through periodicals such as the Jouvnal of Eavly Chvistian
Hastovy and Semeia, to Annales on the other. Yet for all the great weight
of interpretation which can be brought to bear on monastic history, there
stdl exists a major divide between those who are perceived as ‘monastic
hstorians’ and other historians and theorists, a gulf which separates those
whose approach is primarily textual and liturgical from those who work
with, in and from other disciplines. Ths book represents, as far as is
possible withn the obvious constraints of a chronological framework, a
first attempt to examine monasticism in the light of the great variety of
relevant approaches. Its worlung title was ‘Out of the Desert’ a title by
-
which I had hoped not only to pay tribute to the nuanced and compelling
ideas whch are emerging from the study of Egyptian monasticism but
also to indcate that the book follows the broad trajectory of the most
important aspects of monastic development from the fourth to the seventh
centuries rather than being an exhaustive or region- by-region survey.
One of the primary problems for the historian worlung in ths field is the
nature of monastic literature itself. A large part of the purpose of monastic
texts is to look back to earlier days of monasticism and beyond that the
Bible. The constant repetition ofsections talcen from earlier works is one of
the most noticeable features of monastic writing especially monastic rules
-
l’yeface Vii
in whch the search for perfection was always accompanied by the
-
perception of earlier wisdom and the desire to maintain orthodox track
tion. It is, perhaps, easier to see where each piece of writing stands in
monastic tradtion than to see where it is going in terms of monastic
development. Here, I have attempted to place such writings in context.
Some areas have proved or wd1 prove controversial, but I have always
maintained that history moves forward by debate and ddectic and hope
that it may be conducted in an open and civilized manner.
I would lke to express thanks to those who have helped and supported
me in writing ths book. To Tony Goodman, for suggesting I write it in
the first place and to John Davey for commissioning it. To a number of
colleagues and friends in a variety of dxiplines, particularly Donald
Bullough, Thomas Clancy, Gary Dichon, Judth George, kchard Rose
and Alex Woolf, for advice, discussion, encouragement and criticism.
None of them should be blamed for any view expressed here. To Craig
Fraser and Penny Galloway for practical help as well as moral support. To
many students for aslung difficult questions and generally keeping me on
my toes. To the staff of a number of libraries, particularly those of
Glasgow and Edmburgh University Libraries, New College Library,
Edmburgh and the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
My greatest debt is to Michael Baron, who has sustained me over the
years in writing this, providing constant encouragement and assistance,
and to whom the book is dedcated.
MD
Abbreviations
AB Analecta Bollandiana
Annales ESC Annales. Economies. Sociktks. Civilisations.
cc
Covpus Chvistianovum
CSEL Covpus Scviptovum Ecclesine Latinae
EHR Ecclesiastical Hastovy Review
JECS Jouvnal of Eavly Chvistian Studies
JEH Jouvnal of Ecclesiastical Hastovy
JMH Jouvnal of Medieval Hastovy
JRH Jouvnal of Rel&ious Hastovy
JRS Jouvnal of Roman Studies
JTS Jouvnal of Theological Studies
PG Wgne, Patvologaa Gvaeca
PL Wgne, Patvologia Latina
RAM Revue d’ilscktique et de Mystique
RB Revue Bknkdictine
REAug Revue des Etudes Augustiniennes
RHR Revue de 1’Histoave des Relkions
R M Revue Mabillon
sc
So uvces Chvktienn es
SM Stadia Monastica
TADMO McLaughlin T.P., Les Tv2s Ancien Dvoit Monastique de 1 ’
OccidentA rches de la France Monastique, vol. XXXVIII
(Ligugi Paris, 1935).
-
TRHS Transactions of the Royal Hastovical Society
vc Vigiliae Chvistianae
ZICG Zeitschvqt fiiv ICivchengeschichte
The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages
Marilyn Dunn
Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Marilyn Dunn
The Emergence of Christian
kremitism
In 324 an Egyptian villager named Aurelius Isidorus of Karanis was
attacked by two enraged neighbours, Pamounis and Harpalos, when he
turned their cow, which was eating his crops, off his land. In a written
complaint to the local government official, dated June 6, he describes
how he was set about so violently that
if I had not obtained help from Antony, a deacon, and Isaac, a monk
(monachos), they would probably have finished me off altogether.’
The casual nature of Aurelius’ reference to ‘Isaac, a monk’ a man whose
-
testimony would weigh equally with that of a deacon in a formal
-
document, suggests that by 324 the monaehos or monk was a recognized
fixture on the scene in the khova, the inhabited countryside of Roman
Egypt. Tradtion has long fixed the emergence of Egyptian monasticism
around this period. On the other hand, the papyrus’ brief reference raises
even more questions than it answers. How, when and why did Christian
monasticism originate and why had it become an institution well known,
by the 320s, in rural Egypt?
The appearance in the Christian church of individuals or communities
strictly separated from the world and devoted to a life of religious con-
templation or service is a phenomenon whch historians have long sought
to explain. Older rationahzations of the rise of monasticism have included
the suggestion that it was a response to the imperial adoption of Chris-
tianity in the fourth century,2 a call to return to the values of Christian
martyrdom3 or a result of a widespread and deep-seated an~ietyI.t~ h as
been suggested that Christian monasticism might simply be a continua-
tion of the Jewish ascetic tradtion represented by groups such as the
Essenes and Thevapeutae and of the communal traditions of early
2 The EmevJenee of Chvastaan Evematism
Christian groups imitating the way of life of the apostle^.^ Others have
argued that the origins of Christian monasticism might in part have been
located in an economic crisis in thrd- and fourth-century Egypt: the
same Greek word anaehovesas was used to designate both flight from tax
obligations and the increasingly common phenomenon of retreat to a
solitary religious life. Papyri containing questions to be put to oracles at
ths period frequently asked ‘Shall I become a fugitive?’ and this had led
to the conjecture that many farmers, impelled originally by the harsh
reahty of tax obligations, fled society and took up a life of religion based
on the ‘hard saymgs’ of Christ.6 However, the nature and extent of the
crisis is now debated: it is impossible, for example, to quantify the
number of farmers and villagers who ‘fled’ and the papyri suggest that
their destination was neither the desert nor the religious life but another
village, where they were followed by demands either from imperial offi-
cials or from their fellow vdlagers for their return.
The Life of Antony
Recent analyses of the origins of monasticism have focused on the career
and letters of the first monk about whom we laow in any detail, an
Egyptian named Antony, who &ed about 356 CE. A heroic desert ascetic,
Antony is regarded as a paradigm of the early monastic movement and hs
Lafe, composed a year after hs death by Athanasius, bishop of Alexan-
dria: with its narratives of Antony’s heroic struggles against the tempta-
tion and demons which beset hm, has provided inspiration for centuries
for writers, artists and musicians. It tells the story ofhtony’s withdrawal
from the world in the latter part of the thrd century to lead a religious life
and hs retreat to the uninhabited desert (in the region of Karanis) in
about 305. According to Athanasius, Antony was a comparatively wealthy
young Christian farmer whose parents had left him three hundred
avouvae of very fertile land. The inspiration whch led him to become a
monk was that of the Gospels:
he considered while he wallzed how the apostles, forsaking everything,
followed the Saviour, and how in Aets some sold what they possessed and
took the proceeds and placed them at the feet of the apostles for distribu-
tion among those in need and what great hope is stored up for such people
in heaven. He went into the church pondering these things and just then it
happened that the Gospel was being read and he heard the Lord saying to
the rich man, If you would be perfeet, 80,s ell what you possess andg-ive to the
poor and you will have treasure in heaven. .
.8
Having voluntarily given away hs possessions to embark on a life of
religious poverty, Antony’s career then follows a trajectory which leads
The Emewenee of Chyastaan Eyematam 3
him to become a hermit, moving further and further away from human
society. Initially, he apprentices himself to an old man and takes advice
from others who are living ascetic lives in the neighbourhood of their
villages. He then retreats to the tombs on the fringes of hsv illage. At the
age of thrty-five, he abandons the inhabited zone of Egypt altogether
and retires to the desert. There he remains for another twenty years,
growing stronger in hs asceticism, finally retreating to an ‘inner moun-
tain’ where he is able to live undisturbed in total solitude. The desert is
crucial to ths vision of monasticism: far removed from the activities of
humans it enables Antony to pursue his life of solitary perfection largely
undisturbed by worldly cares. Acknowledged by all to be the primary
haunt of demons, the desert was also the backdrop to a continuation of
Antony’s titanic struggles against the demons who had regularly assailed
him since he first embarked on a life of asceticism. Antony’s constant
prayer and intense asceticism he ate and drank very little led to a
- -
spiritual transformation mirrored in the unaltered state of his body after
nearly twenty years in a deserted fortress:
His body had maintained its former condition. Neither fat from lack of
exercise nor emaciated from fasting and combat with demons. . .9
The Lafe of Antony created a picture of early monasticism in which the
ideals of dispossession, solitude, and personal austerity were paramount
and in whch the desert became the locus of true religion. Though
Athanasius mentions the existence of others leadmg a life of religion in
the neighbourhood of their villages, whose advice Antony initially fol-
lows,l0 he makes Antony the real founder of Christian monasticism as hs
fame as ascetic and thaumaturge spreads and many hasten to imitate hs
example:
and so from then on there were monasteries in the mountains and the
desert was made a city by monks, who left their own people and registered
themselves for citizenship in the heavens.l 1
The Letters of St Antony
My beloved in the Lord, know yourselves! Those who laow themselves
know their time and are not moved by diverse tongues.”
An important source, untd recently neglected, for the aims of early
monasticism are the seven letters whch Antony composed or dictated
for the benefit of others aiming to lead a religious life similar to his own.
They reflect the extent of hs influence in what was clearly a growing