Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

) Regula Tarnantensis
The Regula Tarnantensis is the second of those dating from the sixth century to
make use of the Regula virginum. It was composed for an unknown monastery and is
only known from its inclusion in Benedict of Aniane’s Codex Regularum. As de Vogüé
suggests, the monastery was probably in the south of Gaul, as it makes use of the rules of
Caesarius (for virgins) and Aurelian (for monks), alongside those of Pachomius, Basil
and Augustine. 158 The only piece of information with which to locate it is that it was next
to a river wide enough to require a boat to cross it (R. Tar 4,5). 159 In terms of dating, it
appears to predate the regula Ferrioli, since the latter uses elements of it, and de Vogüé
therefore dates it to the third quarter of the sixth century. 160
Of the twenty-three chapters of the rule, the first thirteen are based on a variety of
sources, and chapters fourteen onwards derive largely from Augustine’s Praeceptum. 161
The use of the Regula virginum is evident in a variety of areas. As with the Regula
Ferreoli (see below, 106-9), the author of this rule re-used Caesarius’ provision for the
reading of the rule before allowing a postulant formal entry. 162 The regula Tarnantensis
also quotes extensively from Caesarius’ prohibition on private living quarters and
individual wardrobes (RTar 2; RV 9), and from his warning on coming late to work
(RTar 5; RV 12). Interestingly it is possible to see that the author of the regula
Tarnantensis tended to use Caesarius’ Regula virginum in preference to the Regula
monachorum, even though he himself was writing for monks. In his use of Caesarius’
decree that no-one could choose their own work, for instance, he uses the version from
the nuns’ rule rather than that for monks (RTar 12; RV 8). The interest of the Regula
Tarnantensis therefore lies mainly in the suggestion that the influence of the Regula
158 A. de Vogüé, Les Règles Monastiques Anciennes (400-700) Typologie des Sources 46 (Turnhout, 1985),
59. The rule is available at PL 66: 977-986. See also F. Villegas, ‘La ‘Regula monasterii Tarnantensis’.
Texte, sources et datation’, Revue Bénédictine 84 (1974) 7-65.
159 Villegas, ‘La ‘Regula monasterii Tarnantensis’’, 7.
160 De Vogüé, Les Règles Monastiques Anciens, 59.
161 Villegas, ‘La ‘Regula monasterii Tarnantensis’’, 8.
162 RTar 1; RV 58.
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