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

Another feature prevalent within such breuitas is the employment of list structures, often
used for attributes that should be either sought, or else avoided, by a monk. Although
sometimes anaphoric in character, they can also be simple sentences of lists: “grauiori autem
culpae obnoxius est si temulentus quisquam sit; si discors; si turpiloquus; si feminarum
familiaris; si seminans discordias; si iracundus; si altae et rectae ceruicis; si mente tumidus
uel iactanti incessu immodaratus; si detractor; si susurro uel inuidus; si praesumptor rei
peculiaris; si pecuniae contagio implicitus; si aliquid praeter regularem dispensationem
superfluum possidens; si fraudator rei acceptae aut commissae sibi aut minus
commissae‖; 297 “abbas uel praepositus e propriis semper coenobii monachis eligantur; uir
sanctus, discretus, grauis, castus, charus, humilis, mansuetus et doctus‖. 298 Sometimes these
might also be numbered: “primum horas canonicas, id est, primam, missis operariis in
uineam; tertiam, sanctum Spiritum in apostolos descendisse; sextam, Dominum in crucem
ascendisse; nonam, spiritum emisisse; uesperam, Dauid cecinisse‖. 299
The employment of lists also gives rise to examples of both asyndesis and
polysyndesis: “autumni uero uel hiemis tempore, usque ad tertiam legant, usque ad nonam
operentur, si tamen est quodlibet opus quod fiat. Post nonam iterum usque ad duodecimam
legant, a duodecima meditentur atque ad uesperam‖; 300 “cautela et moderatio et pudicitia et
fides et sinceritas ornant habitum monachi”. 301
297 Rule of Isidore 17.
298 Rule of Fructuosus 20.
299 Common Rule 10.
300 Rule of Fructuosus 6.
301 Rule of Fructuosus 12.
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