Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

the Preface to his ‘book of sparks’, and its composition can be dated only by the works
from which he cites: at the earliest, 632, the date of the death of Isidore of Seville, the
most recent author; at the latest, c.750, the date of the oldest extant manuscript. 124 Its
editor therefore places the text at around 700. 125 It was a very popular text; more than
three hundred and fifty manuscripts ranging in date from the eighth to sixteenth century
are extant. 126 By this means alone, therefore, a selection of Caesarius’ work (albeit a very
limited one) became widely circulated.
Defensor used extracts from a masculine recension of Vereor in his chapters on
prayer (cap. 7), virginity (cap. 13, cited twice), fornication (cap. 21), and being watchful
of sin (cap.23). 127 De Vogüé posits that Defensor’s extracts came from a masculine rather
than the female recension by virtue of differences to the ‘female’ edition. These include
the sollicitae – solliciti change as noted above, but also alterations to the remaining body
of the letter Vereor: Defensor had access to a masculine recension of the complete text,
and not just that portion of it in the regula monachorum. 128 It may be that a slightly more
cautious approach to the use of a putative complete masculine recension should be taken
than that evinced by de Vogüé, however. 129 The changes to the original text of Vereor are
not those which particularly concern or include references to religious of a defined
gender; the alterations are to phrases of a more general nature. One such change, noted by
de Vogüé, is Defensor’s inclusion of the phrase Caesarius dixit: Sic lectione et oratione
debetis incumbere, ut interdum etiam manibus aliquod possitis exercere, as opposed to
the original Caesarius dixit: Sic lectione et oratione debetis incumbere, ut ante omnia
etiam manibus aliquod possitis exercere. 130 This can hardly be described as conclusive
proof that Defensor had access to a text of Vereor adapted in its entirety for a male
audience, or indeed, as de Vogüé acknowledges, that Defensor was even citing rather
than adapting.
124
Würzburg Mp. th. f. 13
125
H.-M. Rochais Defensor de Ligugé I, 9.
126
Ibid., 10.
127
Taken from Vereor 7,1; 7,13; 5,4; 4,10; 2,8.
128
De Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moniales, 287-9.
129
In his defence, de Vogüé’s uncertainty as to the conclusiveness of his argument – ‘Defensor cite-t-il ou
adapte-t-il?’(at p. 288, n. 2) – should be noted here.
130
De Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moniales, 288.
162