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

noted how Pachomius, for example, was inspired by the visit of an angel who gave him a
written copy of precepts for his group of ascetics. There continued to be an audience for such
preceptive texts such as the Didache and the Regula Fidei of Tertullian and Origen (Outler
1939; Hall 1992: 61-63). Indeed, the later use of the Disticha Catonis from the early
medieval period onwards shows just how widespread the popularity of such texts could
become (Surtz 2003). The popularity of preceptive literature is particularly apparent in
monastic institutions, which throughout the medieval period, at least, were fond of preceptive
literature in the form of customaries that regulated not only daily life, but also liturgical
matters (Donnat 2000).
1.2 The Need to Regulate Monastic Life:
Shakespeare declared infamously that “cucullus non facit monachum”. 16 Indeed, the
regulation of the monastic profession was a problem that had necessitated some type of
legislation centuries before the medieval mendicant fraudsters, who would dress as monks in
order to beg for money (Jotischky 2002: 66). 17 The need for a monastic rule amongst
cenobitic communities is made clear by the ancient authors and their dismissal of unorthodox
practices, a topic that will be discussed further in Chapter Two. Isidore of Seville, for
example, makes mention of sarabaitae or remobothitae, a type of monk which he describes
as “teterrimum atque neglectum”. 18 The reason for this is precisely because they lived
outside accepted regulation: “Construunt enim sibi cellulas, easque falso nomine monasteria
16 Twelfth Night 1.5.48.
17 Many „real‟ medieval monks were also seen as corrupt. The fourteenth-century Libro de Buen
Amor (503), for example, relates, “Yo vi a muchos monges en sus predicaciones, Denostar al dinero
et a sus tentaciones, En cabo por dinero otorgan los perdones, Assuelven el ayuno, ansi fasen
oraciones”.
18 De ecclesiasticiis officiis 2.9.
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