Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

monasticism 771
evidence of its contacts across the Channel), he established a monastery at
Luxeuil in Burgundy, some 150 km north of Condat. It developed eventually
into an important centre of medieval monasticism, together with
Bobbio, which Columbanus founded later in northern Italy. He died in a.d.
615.
There is a certain irony in this startling and far from welcome intrusion.
Fifth-century monks had made a contribution to developments in Ireland,
often via Britain and its more immediate Celtic neighbours: not only
Patrick, but also shadowy figures like Riochatus (a friend of Faustus of
Riez), 93 the disciples and successors of Ninian at Whithorn (the famous
Candida Casa, dedicated to Martin of Tours), 94 and of Illtud and David in
Wales. 95 Now the influence began to flow strongly in the other direction.
Columbanus’ original rules – the Regula monachorum and the Regula cœnobialis
– were written during his earliest years in south-eastern Gaul, before a.d.
610. They owed something to Benedict (proving his growing influence) but
more to the older traditions of Basil and Cassian. Like Cassian,
Columbanus issued more theoretical advice than positive prescriptions.
The harsh and repetitive punishments of the Regula cœnobialis – five blows
for this offence, fifteen for that – are disappointing in their allusions, betraying
only in the baldest terms the silence, order and deference expected of
each monk. 96 But more than a century of Irish independence had carried
the monastic society of the island away from the stifling control of the
secular nobility, harnessed it to a more pastoral concern for rural converts,
and charged it with a Celtic vigour and that righteous attachment to high
standards in dedication and observance so obvious in the writings of the
Welshman Gildas (died c. 570). 97 Not surprisingly, the emphasis estranged
Columbanus from royalty in Gaul, especially Theuderic II of Burgundy
and his notorious grandmother Brunhild. Thanks to his admiration for
Gregory the Great and his loyalty to Roman authority generally, he
acquired an increasingly detailed knowledge of Benedict’s achievements in
Italy, continued to introduce his principles into his own regime, and eventually
crossed the Alps in search of more sympathetic surroundings.
Two issues have, for more than a generation, dominated the study of
Benedict: the relationship between his own Rule and the Regula magistri, and
93 Sid. Ap. Ep. 9.9. 94 Bede, HE iii.4.
95 Illtud may have come from northern Gaul. Much of our information comes from later hagiography,
which is unreliable; but dedications and archaeology provide useful hints. Ireland is well placed in
the wider European context by Mayr-Harting (1991) esp. (for our purposes) 33–9, 78–85.
96 Columbanus’ works are edited by G. S. M. Walker (Dublin 1957). Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms, provides
extensive, documented, convenient reference. See also Clarke and Brennan (1981) and the commentaries
provided by Adalbert de Vogüé (1989) in collaboration with Pierre Sangiani and Sister
Jean-Baptiste Juglar.
97 His preoccupations were not predominantly monastic; but he may have been a pupil of Illtud, and
he travelled abroad as far as Rome in the Ostrogothic period. For some background, see Higham (1994).
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