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

uitae duratus [...] ac transcendens aetatem adulescentiae in iuuentute sua senectutem
tetigerit” 346 (note also the employment of gradatio, with the three stages of life following the
path from young to old); 347 “tunc enim libera seruitute Deo quisque famulatur, quando
nullius carnalis conditionis pondere premituri‖; 348 “proinde Christi seruus, qui cupit esse
uerus discipulus, nudam crucem ascendat nudus, ut mortuus sit saeculo, Christo uiuat
crucifixo”; 349 “uestimentum uero et calceamentum sic eis praebeantur, ut absque foco
frigoris ab eis asperitas arceatur”. 350 A further type of antithesis, and perhaps gradatio, can
be found in the Rule of Fructuosus: “cuiusque tanta debet sermonis et uitae consonantia esse,
ut id quod docet uerbis, confirmet operibus sedulis, et bis acuto praecedent gladio, quidquid
alios informat uerbo, iugi ipse great studio, ut nec sermonem operatio destruat, nec e contra
operationem bonam sermo inconueniens frangat”. 351
4.8.1 Figurative Language
The use of techniques such as metaphor and simile is a significant feature of many
prose styles and one that is especially prevalent in Greco-Roman authors; the monastic rules
are no exception. Ancient views on the subject were that the appropriate use of metaphor in
particular was “one of the chief sources of charm and grandeur in style” (D‟Alton 1931: 92)
346 Rule of Isidore 2.1.
347 Compare Etymologies 11.2: “Gradus aetatis sex sunt: infantia, pueritia, adolescentia, iuuentus,
grauitas atque senectus”. For Isidore, adolescentia refers to the ages of fourteen to twenty-eight;
iuuentus refers to the ages of twenty-eight to fifty; senectus is any age above of seventy.
348 Rule of Isidore 4.3.
349 Common Rule 1.
350 Common Rule 8.
351 Rule of Fructuosus 12. This is possibly a reference to the belief that the „pen was mightier than the
sword‟, e.g. Ad Hebreos 4.12, “uiuus enim est Dei sermo, et efficax et penetrabilior omni gladio
ancipati”.
138