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

eference is also made to characters such as Loth, Susanna, Solomon and Anianas and
Saphira. 425 Generally, the quotations and references should be seen not necessarily as literary
tropes, but rather as educational devices, serving to support the teachings of the monastic
rules, and also no doubt to impart knowledge of the Bible.
4.11 Patristic Borrowings
The authors of the monastic rules also freely draw upon earlier sources, nominally the
Church Fathers, throughout their writings. The Rule of Isidore has received the most in-
depth studies regarding its sources and borrowings (Díaz y Díaz 1963; Susín Alcubierre
1967), perhaps because of the overall importance of its author, although it has also been
demonstrated that there exist substantial borrowings between the monastic rule and his De
officiis and the Sententiae (Robles 1997: 42-43). Unfortunately, there exist no other writings
from Fructuosus to make such a comparison, save two letters. 426 However, what is clear is
that all three monastic rules draw upon earlier writings, and borrowing would seem to have
been a feature of regular literature. Where they do occur, borrowings are not normally
verbatim but rather paraphrased; in discussing Vulgate citations in Augustine, Houghton
(2008b) has defined recently the useful terms „primary citation‟ and „secondary citation‟,
referring to those taken from a codex and those derived from memory. As might be expected,
many of these borrowings are taken from other ascetic literature and Augustine is the most
popularly cited, perhaps unsurprisingly so given his the popularity of his writings and the
close contacts between Iberia and North Africa in antiquity. However, Jerome in particular is
also fairly frequent, as are occasional borrowings from the other Visigothic monastic rules.
424 Common Rule 5.
425 Rule of Fructuosus 6; Common Rule 2, 4.
426 The Epistola ad Braulionem (PL 80, 690-692) and the Epistola ad Recesinthum regem (MGH
epist. 3, 688-689).
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