Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

made his collection with the purpose of the edification of others. Clearly, texts originally
aimed at a specifically male or female community were deemed suitable to be read and
used by communities of either gender. As has already been seen in previous chapters, the
teachings of Caesarius had long been sent to and used by male religious. To what extent
did the original intended constituency of a rule – monks or nuns – matter? Did Benedict
perceive the Regula virginum primarily as a text dealing with female religious life, a text
dealing with religious life, or a text by the eminent Caesarius which just happened to fit
his current purposes? Benedict’s regard for Caesarius makes him a difficult case study for
issues of gender, because it seems likely that his monastic material would have been used
whatever Benedict’s opinion on female religious life happened to be.
Benedict’s inclusion of Caesarius’ Regula virginum therefore has a number of
possible explanations and contexts, most of them interrelated. Caesarius’ stock among
Carolingian theologians was high in any case, and the relatively widespread circulation of
his monastic writings made them a natural choice for inclusion. That the works of
Caesarius of Arles were held in considerable esteem by Carolingian theologians is borne
out by the re-use of material from sermons and church councils in addition to the
monastic rules which form the main focus of this thesis. 73 Caesarius himself re-used
existing patristic sermons (approximately one third of his sermons derive from older
material) but reconfigured the content in order to provide shorter and simpler texts for
more practical and more generally applicable usage. His aim was to make a significant
body of spiritually beneficial material accessible to as many people as possible. 74 For
Carolingian preachers such as Paul the Deacon, writing for Charlemagne, the Caesarian
sermons therefore provided a ready supply of teachings on Christian virtue. 75 The number
73 G. Morin, Sancti Caesarii episcopi Arelatensis Opera omnia I (Bruges, 1937-42); reprinted as CCSL
103, 104. Morin briefly introduced the significance of the sermons in his ‘The homilies of St Caesarius of
Arles: their influence on the Christian civilisation of Europe’ Orate Fratres XIV (1940) 481-6. See also G.
Bardy ‘La prédication de saint Césaire d’Arles’ RHEF 29 (1943) 200-36, and for a general overview of
Caesarius’ ‘legacy’, the last chapter of Klingshirn, Caesarius.
74 On Caesarius’ skills as a preacher, see in particular Klingshirn, Caesarius, 146-51, and W.M. Daly
‘Caesarius of Arles, a precursor of medieval Christendom’ Traditio 26 (1970) 1-28, at 8.
75 Extract from an (unidentified) sermon cited by Paul the Deacon in the first section of his homiliary,
no.80. Noted by R. McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789-895 (London,
1977), 105. For further discussion of Paul the Deacon’s career, see J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish
Church (Oxford, 1983) 200-1. The sermons of Caesarius found a further audience through their use in
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