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

However, it is also found where Classical Latin might expect ab or ex to express
provenance. For example: “Grande malum de Aegypto exire”; 484 “Quod uerbum si de ore
eius effugerit, poenitentiae subiacebit”; 485 “Hi qui de paupertate in monasterio conuertuntur
non sunt despiciendi ab eis qui saeculi diuitias reliquerunt”; 486 “Satisfactio delinquentium
haec est: in officio fratribus constitutis, peracto poenitentiae tempore, uocatus is qui
excommunicatus est, soluet statim cingulum, humique extra chorum prostratus iacebit, agens
poenitentiam, quousque expleatur celebritas, cumque iussus fuerit ab abbate de solo surgere,
ingrediensque in chorum, data oratione pro eo ab abbate, et respondentibus cunctis amen,
surgat”. Note that the last two examples both attest the continuance of ab, „by‟. The use of
ex is also still attested, despite coming to be replaced in Romance by de. For example: “Qui
ex paupertate ad monasterium ueniant, non extollantur in superbiam, quia se ibi aequales
aspiciunt iis qui aliquid in saeculo uidebantur”. 487 Here, ex is being used in exactly the same
sense as the example given above: “Hi qui de paupertate in monasterio conuertuntur non
sunt despiciendi ab eis qui saeculi diuitias reliquerunt”.
The monastic rules, then, show that de has undergone the changes associated with later
Latin, primarily coming to largely replace ab and ex in some instances. However, it seems
that although ex and ab would be eventually lost in Romance, this has not yet occurred, and
the examples taken from the monastic rules show the fluid nature with which they continue to
be used.
484 Common Rule 5.
485 Rule of Fructuosus 11.
486 Rule of Isidore 4.
487 Rule of Isidore 4.
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