The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia - eTheses Repository ...

opifices inter ipsos labores suorum operum amatoria turpia cantare non desinunt, atque ita
ora sua in cantibus et fabulis implicant, ut ab opere manus non subtrahant, quanto magis
serui Christi, qui sic manibus operari debent, ut semper laudem Dei in ore habeant, et linguis
eius psalmis et hymnis inseruiant”.
It is difficult to determine exactly what these fabulae or amatoria turpia entailed.
However, the continuance in this period of pagan diabolicas […] carmina, alluded to by
Martin of Braga, would indicate the possibility that monks may have known pre-Christian
tales and songs from their secular life; 199 the distinctly un-Christian activities of the monks
suggested by the monastic rules would also indicate that some were not averse to his kind of
behaviour. This is, however, pure speculation; it is entirely possible that the fabulae may
have included the simple re-telling of hagiographical or folk stories for example, yet it is
difficult to see why these should have been so vehemently banned. Instead, the rules
recommend chanting or silent praying in their place. Alternatively, fabulae may allude to
the idea of gossiping or idle „chit-chat‟, but this would have implied a semantic extension to
the word that does not function either diachronically or synchronically; all Romance reflexes
of fabula are tied in with the idea of a „tale‟ or „story‟ (Meyer-Lübke 1935: 3124).
These fabulae, amatoria turpia and diabolicas carmina all point to an oral tradition of
story-telling and songs. Of course, this should not detract from any importance attributed to
the use of the written word in Visigothic society, but rather show that there still existed in
seventh-century Iberia elements that are associated traditionally with oral activity.
199 De correctione rusticorum 16.
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