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

e writing in „later Latin‟. This raises the question: how might they have viewed the
language the monastic rules were written in?
Whilst the Rule of Fructuosus does not refer explicitly to language use, the Common
Rule does so only in its mention of interlinguistic synonymy: “lectum tamen sternere
mandamus corio aut psiatho, quod Latine storea nuncupatur”. Whatever the meaning behind
this phrase, it says little about the author‟s concept of the language, other than it is not Greek.
However, in the preface to the Rule of Isidore there is a very interesting phrase, where the
author professes to have written the text “sermone plebeio uel rustico”:
“plura sunt praecepta uel instituta patrum maiorum, quae a sanctis patribus sparsim
prolata reperiuntur, quaeque etiam nonnulli altius uel obscurius posteritate composita
tradiderunt, ad quorum exemplum nos haec pauca uobis eligere ausi sumus, usi sermone
plebeio uel rustico, ut quam facillime intelligatis quo ordine professionis uestrae uotum
retineatis”.
In this passage, Isidore contrasts his use of the “sermo plebeius uel rusticus” with the
“altius uel obscurius” language of some predecessors, so that the audience might be able to
understand most easily (“ut quam facillime intelligatis”). This profession to have written in a
lower register of language is in many ways typical of early Christian writers, and highlighting
the language as such was an act of humility that extended back further into the Latin tradition
(Auksi 1995). It certainly remained widespread in Visigothic hagiography. To cite a few
examples: Braulius of Zaragoza notes in his Life of St. Aemilian: “Melius siquidem est ut uera
minus erudite quam ut ficta enarrentur eloquenter, quod in Euangeliis Saluatoris perfacile
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