Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Caesarian text package
booklet
x generations of copies, C6th-C9th x generations of copies, C6th – C12th
Vatican, Cod. Reg., ms. Lat. 140 Toulouse, Bibl. Munic., ms. 162
The circulation of this booklet of Caesarian material – which did not include the Regula
virginum itself – suggests that interest in Caesarius’ guidance on monastic matters, his
explorations of the coenobitic ethos, were of interest to communities who did not require
the rule itself. The fact that this collection was disseminated separately to the Regula
virginum, and that there were indeed more manuscripts of this collection circulating in
the period before the ninth century, suggests that there was strong demand for works
which guided female dedicated life without being prescriptive. One may speculate that by
the eighth century, therefore, women devoting their lives to God evidently had more need
of ideological works which left them free to find their own practical paths to holiness,
than of rules which governed the minutiae of their existences. The existence of this
collection makes it clear that female religious life remained in a strong state, but lived
beyond the bounds of the monastery wall. The next chapter will discuss this hypothesis
further.
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