• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

ST. BENEDICT AND THE SIXTH CENTURY BY THE SAME AUTHOR STUDIES IN THE EARLY PAPACY SAINT BENEDICT AND THE SIXTH CENTURY BY DOM JOHN CHAPMAN LONDO.N SHEED & WARD MCMXXIX NIHIL OBSTAT : D. JUSTINUS MCCANN CENSOR CONGREG. ANGLIAE O.S.B. IMPRIMATUR : RR. DO. EDMUNDUS KELLY ABBAS PRAESES NIHIL OBSTAT : J. V. SIMCOX D,C.L. CENSOR DEPUTATUS IMPRIMATUR : EDM: CAN: SURM.ONT VIC. GEN. WESTMONASTERII, DIE I6A OCTOBRIS, I 929 First Published in November, 1929 by SHEED & WARD 31 Paternoster Row, E.C.4 PRJNHD IN GREAT BRITAIN IIY -PUllNBLL AND SGNS PAULTON (SOKJ:RSJ:T) AND LONDON PREFACE AT the beginning of this year, when I was preparing a lecture on Justinian, I noticed that Emperor's quotations from the Rule of St. Benedict, and also the use of the word .conuersatio in the official translation of the Novellae. This set me to write the fourth and twelfth chapters of this book, and these led me further into the sixth century. The fact that St. Benedict is never mentioned by name until St. Gregory in 593, forty years after his death, is the real motive of the studies in this volume. I had previously dipped fairly often into sixth century matters by accident, rather than design,-in studying the Monophysites, in writing on the reunion of East and West in 519, on the fifth General Council, on Justinian, and on Fulgentius,-in my labours at the history of Vulgate MSS., which interested me in Victor of Capua and Eugippius, and especially in Cassiodorus, for whom I long ago conceived a warm affection;-! had also worked long ago at the text of the Rule and St. Benedict's posthumous fame in martyr­ ologies and kalendars. I have now worked up various points, which have attracted me for half a year from the N.T. studies which I prefer, because I feel it a pity that Benedictine monks should write so little about St. Bene­ dict. I hope others may be induced to complete the picture of the Patriarch of Monks in his own century ; as I have only dashed a few blobs of paint here and there, and in­ tensive study could doubtless be expended on many other connected subjects. I acknowledge my debt to Abbot Butler's edition of the Rule, without which I could not have done anything ; also to Moricca'a edition of the Dialogues of St, Gregory the Great. I have written almost entirely from sixth century sources. The excellent indexes of Hartmann to St. Gregory's V Vl PREFACE Registrum, and of Mommsen and Traube to the Variae of Cassiodorus, have greatly lightened my labour. The chapter on Cassiodorus does not .contain much that is new, but old data are marshalled, I hope, with new force. To monks of St. Benedict, whether Black or White, I trust the last chapter will be of interest. It is conclusive, and therefore important, as it is a new item in lexicography and a new light on the Benedictine vows. H. JOHN CHAPMAN. Downside Abbey, August I rth, 1928. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE V I. THE CONTEMPORARY CELEBRITY OF ST. BENE- DICT I II. FOR WHOM WAS THE RULE WRITTEN? 14 III. DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS AND THE HOLY RULE 37 IV. THE LAWS OF JUSTINIAN AND THE HOLY RULE 57 V. ST. CAESARIUS AND THE HOLY RULE 75 VI. CASSIODORUS AND THE HOLY RULE 88 VII. FERRANDUS AND FERREOLUS, TWO CRITICS I I I VIII. THE DATE OF ST. BENEDICT 125 IX. LANDS, SERFS AND SLAVES I 4 7 X. THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF MONKS I 76 XI. WHY THE HOLY RULE WAS WRITTEN 194 XII. CONUERSATIO MORUM 207 INDEX 233 ST. BENEDICT AND THE SIXTH CENTURY CHAPTER I THE CONTEMPORARY CELEBRITY OF ST. BENEDICT ST. BENEDICT first mentioned by St. Gregory-The carefulness of St. Gregory-He wrote his stories from notes of depositions made by witnesses-They are not 'legends '-Procopius com­ pared with Gregory- Evidence for miracles - The small number of them in the sixth century-St. Benedict's celebrity in his own time was due to his miracles when still in his cave, and then as an Abbot at Subiaco-An omission of the mir­ aculous or of the belief in the miraculous in history is a cause of serious error-St. Benedict's place in the sixth century is primarily that of a wonder-worker. IT is a strange fact that St. Benedict is not mentioned in any contemporary document that has come down to us. We first 1 hear of him from St. Gregory the Great, whose Dialogues are the work of a man of great experi­ ence of life and of solid common sense, who has sifted his data with care. He does not depend on any written sources, but entirely on oral information. He is well aware of the uncertainty of second and third hand evidence, as well as of the infirmities of human nature which may cause even direct reports to be doubtful. 1 The poem of Marcus on St. Benedict was regarded by Traube as anterior to St. Gregory. On its probable date, see note at end of Chapter IX. 2 ST. BENEDICT AND THE SIXTH CENTURY He is also aware that the particular matters he is relat­ ing are startling and unexpected, for they are chiefly miraculous events of fairly recent date. Now the Italians of his day were not so silly as to disbelieve in miracles; but they were sufficiently unedu­ cated and behindhand to be ready to accept only the accustomed and the traditional. That St. Martin did signs and wonders in Gaul two hundred years earlier was a well-known fact; all sorts of miraculous inter­ ventions took place in the stories of the martyrs a century further back still; at their shrines graces and cures might still be obtained. But that real saints had been living in their own time, not in Eastern deserts, but at home~ in Italy-bishops and abbots whom they might them­ selves have met-this would seem incredible. St. Gregory puts this objection in the mouth of his interlocutor, Peter the deacon ( though Peter of course knew better), in order to give the answer: Dial. I Pra£ 'I was not aware that any had shone (fulsisse} by miracles in Italy to any remarkable extent, so that I do not know with whom you are comparing yourself. I do not doubt that there have been good men in this country, but I do not imagine that they have performed any signs and wonders; if they did, these events have been so hidden in silence that we do not know whether they took place.' Gregory. ' If I should relate merely what my own· humble self has come to know by the witness of perfect and proved men, or good and orthodox men, or by personal experience, the day would be finished, I ween, before my talk was at an end.' Peter thereupon begs to hear these tales, as example is more potent than precept. The Pope assures him that hearing as well as seeing may be good evidence: ' I will without hesitation relate what I have come to know by the narratives of venerable men; and I will do so according THE CONTEMPORARY CELEBRITY OF ST. BENEDICT 3 to the precedent set by Holy Writ, since it is perfectly clear to me that Mark and Luke learned what they wrote, from hearing not from seeing. But in order that I may remove from my readers any occasion of doubt, I make it plain, with regard to each fact which I relate, from what source I have obtained it. But I want you to under­ stand that in some cases I retain the sense on!:J, whereas in other cases I retain the words together with the sense. For if I had wished to retain even the exact words of all my informants, these being spoken in a rustic dialect would not have been suitable to a written style.' These words clearly imply that St. Gregory is writing from his own copious notes. He does not simply relate from memory what his informants had told him, but he had taken down what they said in their own language. But when they were peasants he has now put their words into a more literary form. This is perhaps confirmed by the resemblance of wording when St. Gregory tells the same story over again; for some stories in the first three books are referred to again in the fourth, and a good many are repeated at length in the Saint's Homilies on the Gospels. It is probable that in going over the same tale, he has not consulted his earlier published work, but has used his original notes over again. Signor Umberto Moricca, in his admirable preface to the Dialogues, has made a list of all the authorities quoted by St. Gregory. In thirty-seven cases the Pope does not give their names, as they would be unknown to his readers; there are two bishops among these; fifteen cases are told by monks; others by elders, grave and orthodox (foieles) persons, 'some of my neighbours', many, a good ma~y, the inhabitants of Narni, the people, a poor old man, masons, dyers, etc. The rest of the stories,-the greater number,-are told on the authority of well-known persons, chiefly bishops 4 ST. BENEDICT AND THE SIXTH CENTURY and abbots, with some monks, priests, a subdeacon, a defensor, a sacristan, their names being given. St. Gregory had received a legal education, and had been a judge as Prefect of Rome.

Load more

  245

Copy Link