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

coenobion, „monastery‟: “Ipsa quoque collatio erit uel pro corrigendis uitiis, instruendisque
moribus, uel pro reliquis causis ad utilitatem coenobii pertinentibus”; 520 abbas, „abbot‟:
“Abbas interea eligendus est in institutione sanctae uitae duratus”; 521 hebdomadarius,
„weekly elected reader‟:―cibi tamen quibus reficiantur, teneri et molles ex industria ab
hebdomadariis coquantur”; 522 praepositus, „prior‟: “Abbas uel praepositus e propriis semper
coenobii monachis eligantur”; 523 iunior and senior, „junior and elder monk‟: “Iuniores senes
et corpore non nimium inbecilles ex se ipsos ministros religant, qui tam senioribus reliquis
quam etiam et aegrotis uicissim ministrent et languentibus suo obsequio pietatis et
beniuolentiae opus inpendant‖; 524 decanus, „dean, monk in charge of groups of ten other
monks‟: “Quod si in aliquo quae diximus deprehensi fuerint, continuo ab ipso suo decano
uirga emendentur”; 525 monasterium, „monastery‟: “Conuersum de saeculo Patrum decreta
docent non suscipiendum in monasterio”; 526 cellula, „monastic cell‟: “Nullus peculiariter
separatam sibi ad habitandum cellulam expetat”. 527
The lists above are by no means exhaustive, but intend to demonstrate the presence of a
Christian lexis. Some of the words, such as saeculum and dominus, are not Christian
neologisms, but rather Classical Latin words that have taken on a new semantic value. Other
words, such as psalmus and gehenna are lexical borrowings, typically borrowed from Greek
or Hebrew. All of these demonstrate the monastic rules to be texts whose Latinity was
520 Rule of Isidore 7.1.
521 Rule of Isidore 2.1.
522 Common Rule 8.
523 Rule of Fructuosus 19.
524 Rule of Fructuosus 23.
525 Common Rule 6.
526 Rule of Fructuosus 10.
527 Rule of Isidore 19.2.
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