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

“Qui grauioribus culpis et criminibus se deliquisse cognoscunt primum in eos optamus
regulae colla submittere, sub probatissimo abbate in monasterio desudare, et cuncta
retroacta peccata tamquam aegrotos medico spirituali seniori manifestare, et sicut publice
peccauerunt, publice paenitere, et paenitenda ultra non committere”. 359
“quia et tunc medicus ab incisione suspendet, aegrotum, cum eum per medicamina
cognouerit esse sanandum; cibos uero tales ei praebere mandamus qui nec lasciuiam
nutriant, nec nimis corpus affligant” 360
On the one hand, the use of medical imagery presents clear biblical parallels. Both
Jesus and his disciples were portrayed as being involved heavily in healing, with seventy-two
accounts of healings or exorcisms throughout the four Gospels (Porterfield 2005: 21). The
importance of healing in Christian mythology, therefore, might suggest medical metaphors to
be popular on that basis alone. On the other hand, medicine in particular is a topic that
would probably have been familiar to the authors of the monastic rules. Isidore had dedicated
book four of his Etymologies to the topic of medicine, and so had certainly given thought to
the topic (Fletcher (1919); Ferraces Rodríguez (2005)). In addition, all three monastic rules
make reference to infirmaries, suggesting that sickness and ill-health had a substantial
presence in Visigothic monasteries. This connection is suggested elsewhere. For example,
the bishop Masona was said to have “xenodochium et monasteria aedificat”. 361
359 Common Rule 19.
360 Common Rule 19.
361 Lives of the Fathers of Merida 5.3.1.
141