Origin and Early History of Double Monasteries
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ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF DOUBLE MONASTERIES. BY MISS MARY BATESON I.—INQUIRY CONCERNING THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES M. VARIN'S learned monograph ' at present stands alone as an attempt to ascertain the origin of the double monastery, or monastery for men and women. He deals with the subject incidentally as part of a thesis on the points at issue between the Breton and Roman Church, and he handles his whole theme controversially. In spite of this fact, his argument on the subject of double monasteries has met with general acceptance, for example, from Montalembert,2 Ozanam,3 Haddan,4 Professor Mayor,5 and M. Maurice Prou.6 M. Varin seeks to prove that St. Rhadegund's foundation at Poitiers was the first example of this form of organisation among the Western nations of the Continent, and that its origin is directly traceable to Irish influences. It is the object of this essay to suggest a different conclusion, to collect the evidence on the subject from the scattered sources where alone it is at present accessible, and incidentally to criticise the arguments adduced by M. Varin. It is imperative in the first place to establish a definition of the half-technical term' double monastery.' The association 1 MSmoire stir les muses de la dissidence entre VEglise breionm et TEglise romaine. Published in the Mimoires prisentis far divers savants h TAcademie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. Paris, 1858: pp. 165-205 deal with double monasteries. ' Moines d'Occident, ii. 355. s (Euvres, iv. 120. 4 Remains, p. 277. s Beda, Hist. Ecdes. iii. iv. p. 317. • La Gaule Merovingienne, p. 139. Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. Centre Universitaire, on 21 Mar 2017 at 14:11:25, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080440100003741 138 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY of the two sexes under particular conditions for a special purpose gives the double monastery its peculiar character. There is no promiscuous mixing of the sexes ; the monastery is double, not mixed. The amount of association is small compared with the amount of separation, though association is the distinguishing feature. Early in the sixth century, and perhaps earlier, those religious houses in which men and women served God together were known as ' monasteria duplicia,'' and the term has since been used to describe monasteries in which a society of' regular ' priests ministered to the spiritual needs of ' regular' women.2 This is the one essential and original character. Later on, contiguity to a common church, in which the monastic services, or parts of them, were held for both sexes, ultimately acquires the force of a specific character. Other determining features become more defined as time goes on ; one feature may become specific in one country, or environment, others in another. But in seeking the germ of the institution it is needful to ignore the forms of late varieties, and to concentrate at- tention on the one essential quality which converts a religious house from a monastery for men, or a convent for women, into a double monastery. In the matter of contiguity, in the number of common religious services, in the use of a common church, in the subjection to a common organisation affecting a large or a small area of conduct, in the nature of the rule, in the superiority of an abbess or an abbot,—in all these points usage varied, and of these variations more will be said later. Early examples of the simple form of organi- sation are not far to seek, and their origin requires, I believe, no very elaborate explanation. The practice of placing the houses of nuns in the im- mediate vicinity of houses of monks is as old as Christian 1 Corp. Jur. Civ. (Krueger), Codex I. iii. 43. 2 The word has also been applied to the twin monasteries of men, such as Wearmouth and Jarrow, in which the bond of union was spiritual (Beda, Vit. Abbat.), or to such as Cassiodorus' Viviers with Castellium, in which only monks who had been trained in the first and had shown themselves of peculiar merit were admitted to the second. Mabillon, Annales, i. 125. Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. Centre Universitaire, on 21 Mar 2017 at 14:11:25, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080440100003741 ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF DOUBLE MONASTERIES 139 monasticism, and the reason for it is obvious. No monastery could celebrate mass without a priest, and although, as a rule, the early monks were not priests, yet every monastery must perforce contain a sufficient number of priests to conduct its religious services. The ministrations of priests were equally necessary to nunneries, and accordingly we find that those of the founders of Christian monasticism who had devout sisters, allowed them to organise female communities in their neigh- bourhood, which could be served by the priests of the male community. It is reported of St. Pachomius, the first Egyptian monk who is said to have written a rule,1 that in the fourth century, after he had founded monasteries for men, under the govern- ment of men, he gathered many virgins from divers provinces and of all classes, and divided them into three congregations, so that they worked and ate separately, but worshipped together. The Nile lay between the dwellings of the men and those of the women, but there was not entire separation. The nuns' dwellings were built by the monks, and Pachomius1 sister, who ruled the nuns, was permitted to speak with her brother through a closed door. Pachomius appointed Peter,2 a man advanced in years, to visit the nuns and sustain them with holy exhortation. Pachomius wrote a rule for them, and arranged that they should live in every way like his monks, using only a different dress. If any of the monks were related to the nuns, they might meet in the presence of an elder monk of approved life, the abbess also being present. If the nuns needed help for building or some other similar purpose, they might employ the same men who undertook to provide for the monks' building requirements, but these workers must return to the monks' house at the hour of refection. When a nun died, her body was rowed across the Nile by monks, and she was buried in the monks' cemetery. 1 See Amelineau, Etude Historique sur S. Pachome d'apris les monuments eoptes, who accepts it. Cf. also his Vie de Schnoudi, who governed 2,200 men and 1,800 women. 1 Vit. Pachom. c. 28, in Migne's Pat. Lixt. Ixxiii. col. 248. 1 0 Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. Centre Universitaire, on 21 Mar 2017 at 14:11:25, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080440100003741 140 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY At a later period, the burial of monks and nuns in one cemetery will often be found to be characteristic of the double monastery.1 In the history of St. Basil and his sister Macrina, we stand on sure ground. The nature of the relation between the communities of Basil and Macrina may be learned from Basil's rules, and from the life of Macrina, written by her brother, Gregory Nyssen. As in the case of Pachomius foundations, the communities were on opposite banks of the river (Iris), and Macrina's nunnery is believed to have been in the village of Annesi near Neo-Cassarea, and founded 357 A.D. In her nunnery lived her mother, and her younger brother Peter, who in 371 was ordained priest. St. Basil's rules were written in the form of question and answer, and refer frequently to the conduct of monks with nuns.2 He asks : May the head of the monastery (who is also called senior and prefect) speak with any virgins other than the head of the sisters (also called senior abbess and mother) on matters of faith ? May he speak often with the abbess ? When a sister confesses to a priest, should the mother of the monastery be present ? May she be angry if the priest orders the sisters to do anything without her knowledge ? The answers are all in general terms urging monks and nuns to avoid giving any ground of offence or scandal. Chosen seniors may talk with chosen sisters advanced in years on matters which concern them. The contingency is contem- plated in which the number of brethren may be so small that they must serve the nuns singly, and the dangers this may lead to are guarded against. From the express statement that one of the regulations for monks is to apply to the sisters (that touching the distribution of offices), it may be presumed that St. Basil's rules for men were made to apply to them. The nuns appear to have had a separate church, 1 T he nuns of Barking, after the plague had ravaged the male side of the house, prepared for themselves a separate burial ground. Beda, Hist. Eccles. iv. 7. 2 The chief passages are Reg. brev. capit. loS-IU, 104, 154, 220; Reg. Fits. Tract., Nov. 15, 33 ; Migne Pair. Grccc. Lat. xxxi. Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. 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