Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Aspects of the Recapitulatio emphasize the importance of the abbess in shaping
the nature of communal life more clearly than anywhere else in the rule. Caesarius’
statement that the pre-existing rule should be void is somewhat puzzling. Since the
Recapitulatio does not mention many requirements of the previous rule, was it now to be
the case, for instance, that the nuns no longer needed to be literate, were permitted maids,
and could curse their sisters in religion at will? Obviously not, but the importance
Caesarius gave to the statutes in the Recapitulatio meant that judgement and
interpretation were everything; interpretation that would be the role of the abbess,
mediating between the demands of two sets of requirements and the everyday life of the
nuns.
Some chapters of the existing rule are repeated, such as the prohibitions on secret
letters and parcels, individual cells and private meetings. 198 These injunctions are
condensed into one chapter in the Recapitulatio, suggesting that Caesarius also saw it as a
chance to organise more effectively the items he had taken from earlier rules. Other
chapters are modified, perhaps suggesting ongoing lapses. All work was now to be done
for the good of the community; nuns could no longer undertake work for themselves even
if the abbess might have granted permission. 199 Rather than diminishing her authority, it
is likely that Caesaria herself may have suggested this measure to help her monitor an
increasingly large number of daughters. 200 In practical terms, an expanding monastery
would quickly require the physical activity of all of the nuns to keep it functioning.
Similarly, in a monastery which still had no defined habit, it was Caesaria’s vigilance
which kept control over the garments that the nuns wore. Caesarius’ tasks elsewhere must
suggest that Caesaria had passed on to him the need to legislate against such garments.
Caesarius therefore repeated his injunction against black, white or ornamented clothes,
and added at this stage a prohibition on crimson clothes and beaver skins. 201 This is a
valuable reminder of the probable background of most of the nuns, for whom the
renunciation of such items was not only a personal deprivation but also a symbol of
198 RV 61, echoing RV 27 (the abbess); RV 51, echoing RV 9 (cells), 38 and 40 (private conversations for
abbess and nuns), 25, 30 and 43 (secret parcels). RV 54 concerns secret letters, repeating RV 25.
199 RV 57, repeating RV 29.
200 V.Caes II, 47: there were over two hundred nuns at Caesarius’ death.
201 RV 55.
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