Asceticism and monasticism, II: Western

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521812443.030

28 - Asceticism and monasticism, II: Western

from Part IV - Christian Beliefs and Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Marilyn Dunn

Edited by

Augustine Casiday and

Frederick W. Norris

Show author details

Augustine Casiday: Affiliation:
University of Wales, Lampeter
Frederick W. Norris: Affiliation:
Emmanuel School of Religion

Book contents

Get access

Summary

The beginnings of Western monasticism

Writing after the sack of Rome and the death of his friend, the Roman aristocrat and ascetic Marcella, in 410, Jerome attempted to describe the beginnings of Christian monasticism in the city over fifty years earlier:

In those days, no highborn lady at Rome had made profession of the monastic life or had ventured – so strange and ignominious and degrading did it then seem – to call herself a nun. It was from some priests of Alexandria and from pope Athanasius and subsequently from Peter [sc., his successor as bishop of Alexandria] who to escape the persecution of the Arian heretics, had all fled for refuge to Rome … that Marcella heard of the life of the blessed Anthony, then still alive, and of the monasteries in the Thebaid founded by Pachomius and of the discipline laid down for virgins and for widows…

While ascetic groups had existed in the West in the second and third centuries, the arrival of monasticism can be dated to the 340s when Bishop Eusebius of Vercelli, who had returned from exile in the East, imposed chastity and communal life on his clergy. From the 350s onwards, the Life of Anthony began to make an impression on Western readers. St Augustine recalls, in his Confessions, how his friend Ponticianus converted to the religious life when he came across an ascetic group at Trier and there read the Life. By the 370s, Ambrose, bishop of Milan, had introduced monastic life to his diocese as well as presiding over the public veiling of women who had dedicated themselves to a life of virginity. Knowledge of monasticism had already reached Gaul, when Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, returned from exile in the East.

Keywords

Benedict's Rule fifth-century Christianity Columbanian monasticism Frankish aristocracy monastic rules Western asceticism Western monasticism

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 669 - 690

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521812443.030 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ambrose, . On virginity (Patrologia Latina 16); trans. Callam, Daniel (Toronto, 1980).

Augustine, . Confessions, trans. Chadwick, H. (Oxford, 1991).

Augustine, . Praeceptum. Sr Agatha Mary et al., trans., Saint Augustine: The monastic rules (Hyde Park, NY, 2004).

Benedict, . Rule (Sources chrétiennes 181–6). Ed. Fry, Timothy, RB 1980: The rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with notes (Collegeville, MN, 1981).

,Caesarius of Arles. Rule for virgins (in Sources chrétiennes 345). Trans. McCarthy, Maria C., The rule for nuns of Saint Caesarius of Arles: A translation with a critical introduction (Washington, DC, 1960).

Cassiodorus, . Institutes. Trans. Halporn, James L., Institutions of divine and secular learning and on the soul (Liverpool, 2004).

Clark, Elizabeth A. Ascetic piety and women’s faith (Lewiston, 1986).

Clark, Elizabeth A. The Origenist Controversy: The cultural construction of an early Christian debate (Princeton, 1992).

Francis, Clark. The pseudo-Gregorian dialogues (Leiden, 1987).

Clarke, Howard B. and Brennan, Mary, eds. Columbanus and Merovingian monasticism (Oxford, 1981).

Gillian, Cloke. This female man of God (London, 1995).

Columbanus, . Works. Ed. Walker, G. S. M., Sancti Columbani opera, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae II (Dublin, 1957).

de Jong, Mayke. In Samuel’s image: Child oblation in the early medieval West (Leiden, 1996).

de Vogüé, Adalbert. ‘L’auteur du Commentaire des Rois attribué à S. Grégoire: Un moine de Cava?,’ Revue bénédictine 106 (1996).Google Scholar

de Vogüé, Adalbert. ‘The Master and St Benedict: A reply’, English historical review 107 (1992).Google Scholar

Marilyn, Dunn. ‘ Tánaise ríg: The earliest evidence’, Peritia 13 (1999).Google Scholar

Marilyn, Dunn. ‘Gregory the Great, the vision of Fursey and the origins of purgatory’, Peritia 14 (2000).Google Scholar

Marilyn, Dunn. ‘Mastering Benedict: Monastic rules and their authors in the early medieval West’, English historical review 105 (1990).Google Scholar

Marilyn, Dunn. ‘The Master and St Benedict: A rejoinder’, English historical review 107 (1992).Google Scholar

Marilyn, Dunn. The emergence of monasticism. From the desert fathers to the early middle ages (Oxford, 2003).

Guy, Ferrari. Early Roman monasteries. Notes for the history of the monasteries and convents at Rome from the V through the X century, Studi di antichità cristiana 23 (Vatican, 1957).

,Gregory of Tours. History of the Franks (Monumenta Germaniae Historica – scriptores rerum merovingicarum I.1); trans. Thorpe, Lewis (Harmondsworth, 1974).

Guevin, , Benedict, M. ‘The beginning and end of purity of heart: From Cassian to the Master and Benedict’, in Luckman, Harriet and Kulzer, Linda, eds., Purity of heart in early ascetic and monastic literature (Collegeville, MN, 1999).Google Scholar

Kassius, Hallinger. ‘Papst Gregor der Grosse und der heiliger Benedikt’, in Steidle, B. ed., Commentationes in Regula Sancti Benedicti, Studia Anselmiana 42 (Rome, 1957).Google Scholar

Hunter, , David, G. ‘Helvidius, Jovinian and the virginity of Mary’, Journal of early Christian studies I (1993).Google Scholar

Hunter, , David, G. ‘Resistance to the virginal ideal in late fourth-century Rome: The case of Jovinian’, Theological studies 48 (1987).Google Scholar

Georg, Jenal. Italia ascetica atque monastica. Das Asketen- und Mönchtum in Italien von den Anfängen bis zur Zeit der Langobarden (Stuttgart, 1995).

Cassian, John. The conferences (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 13); trans. Ramsey, Boniface (New York, 1997).

Cassian, John. The monastic institutes, consisting of On the training of a monk and The Eight Deadly Sins (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 17); trans. Bertram, Jerome (London, 1999).

Kelly, J. N. D. Jerome. His life, writings and controversies (London, 1975).

Klingshirn, W. Caesarius of Arles (Cambridge, 1994).

Mathew, Kuefler. The manly eunuch. Masculinity, gender ambiguity and Christian ideology in late antiquity (Chicago, 2001).

George, Lawless. Augustine of Hippo and his monastic rule (Oxford, 1987).

Life of the fathers, trans. and ed. James, Edward (Liverpool, 1985).

Lives of the Jura fathers (Sources chrétiennes 142); trans. Vivian, T. et al. (Kalamazoo, MI, 1989).

Salvatore, Marsili. Giovanni Cassiano ed Evagrio Pontico, Studia Anselmiana 5 (Rome, 1936).

François, Masai. ‘La “Vita patrum iurensium” et les débuts du monachisme à Saint-Maurice d’Agaune’, in Autenrieth, Johanne and Brunhölzl, Franz, eds., Festschrift Bernhard Bischoff, zu seinem 65 Geburtstag (Stuttgart, 1971).Google Scholar

Jo Ann, McNamara and Halborg, John. Sainted women of the Dark Ages (Durham, NC, 1994).

Jo Ann, McNamara. The ordeal of community (Toronto, 1993).

McNeill, John T. and Gamer, Helena. Medieval handbooks of penance (New York, 1990).

Gisela, Muschiol. Famula Dei: Zur Liturgie in merowingischen Frauenklöstern (Münster, 1994).

Palladius, . Historia Lausiaca (Palladius, Historia Lausiaca). Ed. Butler, C., The Lausiac history of Palladius, II. The Greek text edited with introduction and notes, Texts and Studies 6.2 (Cambridge, 1904); also Bartelink, G. J. M., ed., Palladio. La storia Lausiaca (Milan, 1974); trans. Clarke, W. K. Lowther, The Lausiac history of Palladius (London, 1918).

Ottorino, Porcel. ‘San Gregorio Magno y el monachato. Cuestiones controvertidas’, Monastica, Scripta et documenta 12 (Montserrat, 1960).Google Scholar

Friedrich, Prinz. Frühes Mönchtum in Frankenreich (Munich, 1988).

Joyce, Salisbury. Church fathers, independent virgins (London, 1991).

Salzman, M. R. The making of a Christian aristocracy: Social and religious change in the Western Roman empire (Cambridge, MA, 2002).

Clare, Stancliffe. St Martin and his hagiographer: History and miracle in Sulpicius Severus (Oxford, 1983).

Columba, Stewart. Cassian the monk (New York, 1998).

The Rule of the Master (Sources chrétiennes 105–7); trans. Eberle, Luke and Philippi, Charles (Kalamazoo, MI, 1977).

Michele, Tosi. ‘I monaci colombaniani del secolo VII portano un rinnovamente agricoloreligioso nella fascia littorale Ligure’, Archivum Bobiense 14 (1992).Google Scholar

Wemple, , Suzanne, F. Women in Frankish society: Marriage and the cloister 500 to 900 (Philadelphia, 1981).

Carolinne, White. Early Christian Lives (Harmondsworth, 1998).

Book contents

28 - Asceticism and monasticism, II: Western

Summary

Keywords

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive