The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia: a Study of Their Text and Language
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THE MONASTIC RULES OF VISIGOTHIC IBERIA: A STUDY OF THEIR TEXT AND LANGUAGE By NEIL ALLIES A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham July 2009 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis is concerned with the monastic rules that were written in seventh century Iberia and the relationship that existed between them and their intended, contemporary, audience. It aims to investigate this relationship from three distinct, yet related, perspectives: physical, literary and philological. After establishing the historical and historiographical background of the texts, the thesis investigates firstly the presence of a monastic rule as a physical text and its role in a monastery and its relationship with issues of early medieval literacy. It then turns to look at the use of literary techniques and structures in the texts and their relationship with literary culture more generally at the time. Finally, the thesis turns to issues of the language that the monastic rules were written in and the relationship between the spoken and written registers not only of their authors, but also of their audiences. This is concluded with an investigation into the employment of Latin synthetic passive and deponent verb forms in the texts and its implications for the study of language change and language use in early medieval Iberia. Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been written without the help of various people. First and foremost my supervisor, Philip Burton, who has guided and inspired me throughout the entire PhD process. Hugh Houghton was also kind enough to read through a rough draft and act as a mentor during my time at The University of Birmingham. Amongst my peers, David Newsome deserves the most thanks for not only reading and commenting on my work, but also for providing much needed perspective and camaraderie. Also worthy of mention are Amy Coker and Olivia Cockburn, and also postgraduates in the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity. Countless others deserve credit for listening to my papers at various conferences and seminars and providing useful feedback, especially the Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages at the University of Birmingham, which on a few occasions gave me ample food for thought. A pleasant period of research spent at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid was made possible by the kindness of Benjamín García Hernandez in the Departamento de filología clásica, and the library staff, both at that institution and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, deserve mention for their hospitality. The same applies to the monks of Downside Abbey, who welcomed me into their lives and not only provided use of their fantastic library facilities, but also permitted an insider‟s view of daily life in the cloister. A special mention must go to the various journal editors and publishers who have taught me valuable lessons about how to take criticism on the chin. They have provided valuable feedback and, most importantly, given me hope for the future when they agree to publish work. I am grateful to the AHRC for providing the funding that made this PhD project a possibility. List of Abbreviations CIL Corpus Inscriptiorum Latinorum (Berlin, 1862 - ) EMI Encyclopedia of Medieval Iberia (Eds. M. Gerli & S.G. Armistead. London and New York: Taylor & Francis, 2003) PL Patrologia Latina (Ed. J-P. Migne. Paris: 1844 - 1855) MGH Monumenta Germanicae Historica (1819 - ) ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1972 - ) Sp. Spanish Ptg. Portuguese Cat. Catalan CS Church Slavonic Rus. Russian Pol. Polish TLL Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (Leipzig, 1900 - ) Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: 0.1 Outline of Thesis i - ii 0.2 Context of Thesis ii - v 0.3 Rationale of Thesis v - viii 0.4 Terms and Definitions viii - xii CHAPTER ONE: PRECEPTIVE LITERATURE AND MONASTIC RULES 1.1 Introduction 1 - 3 1.2 The Need to Regulate Monastic Life 3 – 5 1.3 Defining a Monastic Rule 5 – 14 1.4.1 The De institutione uirginum et de contemptu mundi 14 – 15 1.4.2 The Epistle 16 – 21 1.4.3 Pragmatism 21 – 23 1.4.4 Overall Conclusion: A Monastic Rule? 24 CHAPTER TWO: THE VISIGOTHIC MONASTIC RULES AND THEIR VISIGOTHIC CONTEXT 2.1 Introduction 25 - 26 2.2 The Visigothic Monastic Rules 26 - 28 2.3 Visigothic Monastic Literature 29 - 31 2.4 The Monastic Rule and Their Historical Context 31 - 33 2.5 Daily Life: The Opus Dei 33 - 35 2.6 The Opus Manuum 35 - 41 2.7 Monasteries in Visigothic Society 41 - 52 2.8 Regional Variation and the Peculiarity of Galician Monasticism 52 - 61 2.9 Conclusions 61 - 62 CHAPTER THREE: LITERACY, MONASTIC RULES AND TEXTUAL COMMUNITIES 3.1 Introduction: Literacy, Monasticism and Visigothic Iberia 63 - 65 3.2 Understanding Literacy 65 - 66 3.3 Literacy and Early Christianity 67 - 68 3.4 In nomine Patria et Filea et Spiritua Sancta: Literacy and Linguistic Contexts 69 - 74 3.5 Approaching Visigothic Literacy 74 - 80 3.6 Visigothic Oral Culture 80 – 82 3.7 Lectio tibi sit adsidua: The Role of Literature in Visigothic Monasteries 82 – 87 3.8 Uses of Literacy 88 – 93 3.9 Illiteracy and Aurality in the Visigothic Monastery 93 – 100 3.10 Visigothic Monasteries as Textual Communities 100 – 104 3.11 Conclusions 104 - 105 CHAPTER FOUR: LITERARY, TECHNIQUE AND STYLE IN THE MONASTIC RULES 4.1 Introduction 106 - 107 4.2 Monastic Rules and the Concept of Literature 107 - 113 4.3 The Monastic Rules as Technical Literature 113-117 4.4 Cato‟s De Agricultura and the Monastic Rules: A Stylistic Comparison 117-122 4.5 The Literary Abilities of Isidore and Fructuosus 122 - 125 4.6 The Oral Nature of the Language of the Monastic Rules 126 - 131 4.7.1 “Не къ невѣдущимъ бо плшемъ, но преизлѝха насьіщшемся сладости книжньія”: The Use of Formal Literary Techniques 131 - 133 4.7.2 Alliteration 133 - 135 4.7.3 Anaphora 135 - 136 4.7.4 Hyperbaton 136 - 137 4.7.5 Polyptoton 137 4.7.6 Antithesis 137 - 138 4.8.1 Figurative Language 138 - 139 4.8.2 Figurative Language in the Common Rule: A Case Study 140 - 144 4.9.1 Synonymy and the Tumor Africus 144 - 148 4.9.2 Synonyms and Learned / Unlearned Vocabulary 148 – 151 4.9.3 The Tumor Africus 151 - 157 4.9.4 Semitic Influence 157 - 160 4.10 Biblical Borrowings 160 - 163 4.11 Patristic Borrowings 163 - 166 4.12 Conclusions 167 – 168 CHAPTER FIVE: ISSUES OF LANGUAGE IN THE MONASTIC RULES 5.1 Introduction 169 5.2 Language Consciousness in the Ancient World 169 - 172 5.3 Modern Definitions of the Language of the Monastic Rules 172 - 177 5.4 Christian Latin 178 - 182 5.5 Ancient and Modern Sensibilities towards Language 182 - 185 5.6 The Context of Language Use and Language Change in the Seventh Century 185-186 5.7 Sermo Plebeius uel Rusticus: Language Consciousness in the Monastic Rules 186 - 196 5.8 Language Standard and Choice of Linguistic Register 196 – 200 5.9 The Latin of the Monastic Rules 200 – 203 5.10 Verbal Morphology 203 – 304 5.11 Prepositional Syntax 204 – 206 5.12 Pronominal Syntax 206 – 207 5.13 Conjunctions 207 – 210 5.14 Quod 211 5.16 Vocabulary 211 – 216 5.17 Three Interesting Borrowings: Paximatium, Monophagia, Saio 216 – 218 5.18 Regionalisms 219 – 224 5.20 Conclusions 224 CHAPTER SIX: LATIN OR ROMANCE? LATIN SYNTHETIC PASSIVE AND DEPONENT VERB FORMS IN THE MONASTIC RULES 6.1 No one knows exactly when it ceased to be Latin: Approaches towards Latin and Romance 226-229 6.2 The Thesis of Michel Banniard 229 - 230 6.3 The Thesis of Roger Wright 230 - 232 6.4 Latin / Romance and its Relevance to the Monastic Rules 233 6.5 The Importance of the Synthetic Passive and Deponent Verbs and Their Disappearance 233-236 6.6 Dating the Disappearance of Synthetic Passive and Deponent Forms 236-238 6.7 The Evidence of the Monastic Rules: Frequency Analysis 238 - 243 6.8 Further Analysis of Appearance 243 - 246 6.9 Further Analysis of Use 246 - 250 6.10.1 Traditional Approaches to the Loss of Synthesis 250 – 252 6.10.2 Political Decline and Simplification 252 – 255 6.10.3 Contact Linguistics 255 – 256 6.10.4 The Linguistic Cycle 257 6.10.5 Ecological Linguistics 257 – 259 6.11 A New Proposal for the Loss of the Passive 259 – 266 6.12 The Relationship between Synthetic Passive and Deponent Verbs 267 – 268 6.13 The Monastic Rules and the Wright Thesis 268 – 273 6.14 The Wright Thesis: General Conclusions 273 – 277 6.15 Loquendum est Russice et scribendum Slavonicae 278 – 288 6.16 Monastic Rules and Other Texts 288 – 292 6.17 Conclusions 292 - 293 Concluding Remarks 294 - 299 Bibliography Introduction 0.1 Outline of thesis This thesis is concerned with the three surviving monastic rules that were written in seventh-century Visigothic Iberia: the Rule of Isidore, the Rule of Fructuosus and the Common Rule.