Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Franks, Caesarius found himself part of a Catholic kingdom, in which there were not only
other metropolitan bishops but also royal and aristocratic wielders of power who had
interests in the Christian government of cities, monasteries and the people therein. This
was the situation Aurelian inherited – indeed, his selection as bishop was the result of
Childebert’s involvement.
As Klingshirn suggests, ‘these displays of patronage furnished opportunities for
forging good relations with the Gallo-Roman cities under their control.’ 133 For his part of
this new episcopal-royal alliance in making foundations such as these, Aurelian did not
allow the community to forget whence its resources had come. The prologue to the rule
opens with the salutation ‘Sanctis et in Christo venerandis fratribus in monasterio, quod
deo miserante ac iubente rege Hildeberto fecimus’. 134 Outside endowment was crucial to
its foundation, and this was echoed by a reminder close to the end of the rule for monks:
‘…by the favour of God worthy and sufficient resources have been collected for you’. 135
The second point of importance stems from a list of relics, attached to this
liturgical document, that Aurelian gave to his monastery. 136 Among the three confessors
listed is Caesarius. Unfortunately the list does not specify the nature of the relics, but the
degree of recognition accorded to the former bishop is immediately noticeable. It is also a
point of interest that relics of Caesarius had been distributed within five years of his
death. The possession of relics differentiated it from Caesarius’ own foundations, which
had none in his own lifetime. 137
The material situation of this foundation also differed from that of Caesarius.
Indeed, it was probably in part a response to the advent of royally sponsored monasteries
133 Klingshirn, Caesarius, 262-3. Childebert and Ultragotha also founded a xenodochium in Lyon.
134 ‘To the holy and honoured in Christ brothers in the monastery, that we founded by the mercy of God
and the order of king Childebert’. The text of the rule is available in PL 68: 385-398. See also A. Schmidt,
‘Zur Komposition der Mönchsregel des Heiligen Aurelian von Arles’, I (critical edition), Studia Monastica
17 (1975) 237-256; II (commentary), Studia Monastica 18 (1976) 17-54; for a French translation, V.
Desprez (ed.) Règles Monastiques d’Occident IVe – VIe siècle (Bagnolles-en-Mauge, 1980) 223-251.
135 ‘Et ... deo propitio digna et sufficiens vobis facultas conlata est’. Reg. Aureliani monachorum 54.
136 Edited in P. Bernard, ‘Les diptyques du monastère’, 13-14.
137 Klingshirn, Caesarius, 263.
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