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

4.7.3 Anaphora:
The use of anaphora has already been mentioned in the use of list-type sentences,
reflective of the spoken language. As both a rhetorical technique and also indicative of the
spoken language, anaphoric sentences are frequent in the monastic rules. More often than
not, it is found in the repetition of prepositions, and normally in small groups of three or four
occurrences: “patri honorem debitum referentes erga seniores obedientiam, erga aequales
incitamenta uirtutum, erga minores boni exempli magisterium conseruabunt”; 331 “proinde isti
non debent despicere quas delegates oues habet, quia exinde non unam sed multas
consequuntur Mercedes, inde recreantur paruuli, inde fouentur senes, inde redimuntur
captiui, inde suscipiuntur hospites et peregrini”; 332 “qui prius in monasterio conuersus
fuerit, primus ambulet, primus sedeat, primus eulogiam accipiat, primus communicet in
ecclesia”. 333 Anaphora of this type is to be found readily.
However, sometimes the authors of the monastic rules make use of extended
anaphora; for example, ten uses of et in the Common Rule: “Si certe aliquis insecutor
monasterii accesserit, et aliquid auferre conauerit, et per uim tollere uoluerit, uni de laicis
causam iniungat, et ipsi fidelissimo Christiano, quem uita bona commendat, et fama mala
non reprobat; qui et res monasterii absque peccato iudicet, et quaerat; et si usus iurandi est,
hoc faciat sine iuramento et poena; et non tantum pro rerum lucro, sed ut persecutorem
humilem et mansuetum ad ueniam postulandam reducat”; 334 and twenty seven uses of alius
de in the Common Rule: “alius de genealogia, et de sua gente fatetur esse principes: alius de
331 Rule of Isidore 3.2.
332 Common Rule 9.
333 Rule of Fructuosus 23.
334 Common Rule 3.
135