Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

sermons and writings within the diocese of Arles, for the benefit of priests, and through
them the people, and also to monks. In addition to the sermons aimed at monastic
communities, Caesarius also prepared a Regula monachorum for the male communities
he oversaw. 15 This regula monachorum was a summary of the final version of the
women’s rule produced in the 530s, although it has some substantial differences from its
inspiration. 16
Partly these differences stem from the destinations of the two rules. While the
Regula virginum was intended for a particular community, the regula monachorum
contains no references to an individual monastery. Caesarius describes it merely as ‘a rule
that one should have in a monastery where there is an abbot’. 17 The Regula virginum
contains several references to particular locations within the complex of St John, but the
regula monachorum is composed in much more neutral terms for wider usage. 18 In
contrast to the rule for nuns, which Caesarius himself named a regula sanctarum
virginum, the manuscript tradition of the rule for monks shows that it had no such title or
description: indeed, as de Vogüé has pointed out, the word monachus appears nowhere in
the rule. 19 As in the case of the Regula virginum, Caesarius’ rule for monks, which seems
to have been intended for all the monks of his diocese, reflects his own feeling of urgency
to build the best possible dedicated life in general to act as a standard for the Christian
population of the diocese of Arles as a whole.
Only two Regula monachorum manuscripts survive. The text was not included in
Benedict of Aniane’s Codex regularum, although Holste inserted it into his edition of
1661. 20 De Vogüé suggests that this implies a lack of circulation of the rule when
15
The Regula monachorum [Reg. Mon.] is in Morin II, 149-155. A newer edition and further commentary
is available in de Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moines.
16
The Regula virginum was established as the earlier text by A. de Vogüe, ‘La Règle de Césaire d’Arles
pour les moines: un résumé de sa Règle pour les moniales’ Revue d’Histoire de la Spiritualité (1971) 369-
406, which also discusses the relationship between the two rules.
17
Reg. Mon. 1: In Christi nomine regula qualem debeant habere in monasterio ubi abba est quicumque
fuerit. De Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moines, 204.
18
De Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moniales, 43.
19
De Vogüé, Oeuvres pour les moines, 165.
20
M-E. Bouillet ‘Le vrai ‘Codex Regularum’ de saint Benoît d’Aniane’ Revue Bénédictine 75 (1965) 345-
50, at 345-9.
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