Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

consideration, and aspiration can be said to represent the difference between Caesarius’
sources and his own rule, can a reading of the text reveal whose experiences or
aspirations made the difference? The foregoing discussion of Caesarius’ intentions and
career as a monastic author needs to be balanced by a consideration of those of the first
two abbesses, Caesaria I and II. Although, as Klingshirn points out, it remains impossible
to date the sections of the rule with any degree of certainty, it is evident that the
development of the Regula spans their abbacies. 183 Caesaria the Elder died after 524 but
before 528, so she was abbess during the early stages of the Regula, the sub-sections
inspired by older texts and, possibly, by Augustine. 184 The final part of the ‘original’ rule,
chapters 36-47, and the Recapitulatio must therefore be considered in the light of the
abbacy of Caesaria the Younger. Caesaria II’s entry to St John as a child meant that she
was exposed to the formative influence of a respected and perhaps loved aunt, who was
also her spiritual leader and her matertera, or surrogate mother. 185 In a very real sense,
therefore, the younger Caesaria’s view of what being an abbess entailed and of the
monastic life in a broader sense were a continuation of the elder’s.
Many of the precepts in the rule are derived from Cassian, and Caesaria I’s
influence may be felt here. One of Cassian’s ‘signs’ of humility is ‘if [the monk] governs
his tongue, and is not over talkative’. 186 In the Regula virginum, this is simplified to
‘They should never speak in a loud voice’, 187 with the addition of the Scriptural citation
‘Let ... all clamour be removed from you’ [Eph. 4:31]. This speaks of a combination of
knowledge of Cassian, and of community life, particularly when, as in the Regula, it is
placed in conjunction with the requirement that the nuns sleep in a communal dormitory.
Caesaria, as the recipient of Cassianic tradition during her temporary sojourn at the
monastery of St Sauveur in Marseille, was doubtless aware of the virtues of silence when
a large number of women were in close proximity to each other. Her influence probably
lay at the root of Caesarius’ union of these two ideas.
183 Klingshirn, Caesarius, 119.
184 V.Caes I, 58.
185 See J.T. Schulenburg, Forgetful of their Sex: female sanctity and society, 500-1100 (Chicago, 1998),
cap. 6 for other examples of monastic aunts and nieces as surrogate mothers and daughters.
186 Inst, IV, 39.
187 RV 9.
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