Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

poison of the devil’. 152 Aurelian’s version is even briefer: ‘Non juretis: quia Dominus
dixit: Nolite jurare’ (‘Do not swear: because the Lord said: do not swear’), to which,
admittedly, he does add another scriptural citation. 153 The respective chapters of these
rules were gradually stripped back to their basic message.
As in the rule of Caesarius, Aurelian provides for the entertainment of visiting
religious. Both forbid the provision of meals for relatives, bishops, lay people or local
dignitaries. In a slight relaxation of this stricture, Aurelian also permits the entry of
‘approved’ lay men, whom the monks could meet in the presence of the abbot, the prior
or another senior monk. 154 While Caesarius and Aurelian’s rules for nuns permit the entry
of dedicated women of unblemished character and travelling abbots and monks, 155 the
latter’s rule for monks forbids the entry of any women, whether a relative or not, and
whether religiosae or saeculares. 156 This is in itself a useful reminder of the continued
existence of such women who did not reside in formally defined and enclosed
communities. It also begs the question of why such dedicated women might have wanted
to enter a community of men. Clearly the widowed mothers or sisters of the inhabitants
might have visited; a more intriguing possibility might be that of the nuns of St John
making the pilgrimage to visit relics there. In any case, neither men nor relics were to be
accessible to women.
In one difference with the monastery of St John, the provisor did not have to be a
religious. Aurelian notes that ‘even the provisors of the monastery, if they wear lay habit,
will not be permitted to enter’. 157 This was repeated in his rule for nuns. This might
reflect Aurelian’s closer connections with his royal patrons: those acting as stewards for
the abbey might be in some senses have been co-appointed by all those with an interest in
the monasteries.
152
RV 3 : ‘Iuramentum et maledictum velut venenum diaboli fugere et vitare contendant’.
153
Reg. Aureliani monachorum 9.
154
Reg. Aureliani monachorum 16.
155
RV 39; 40. Reg. Aureliani virginum 14.
156
Reg. Aureliani monachorum 15.
157
Reg. Aureliani monachorum 19.
104