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

problem is that they can never be answered, at least to the level that is required by scholars
more used to working with historical records than with abstract linguistic theory. However,
once again it is the case that even if readers do not agree with the conclusions of this thesis,
the fact that it has brought into question issues of linguistic continuity and the problems of the
relationship between Latin and Romance means that it has, in part, succeeded. There is a
clear case that, in the eyes of the author, linguistic issues continue to remain outside
mainstream historical studies, despite constituting an important part of the daily lives of the
people or communities studied. Indeed, how can one fully study a society without
understanding the language its inhabitants spoke, thought and wrote in? The reason for this
neglect is perhaps that any conclusions are invariably too hazy to be attractive to most
scholars, but this does not mean that they do not merit discussion. The success enjoyed by
Roger Wright and his theory has varied depending on the academic field, but it does seem to
be increasingly the case that his theory, although clearly not fact, is now an accepted factoid
by many scholars within historical disciplines. This is an unfortunate situation because there
still remain substantial problems with his interpretation, one of the biggest of which, the
problem of deponent and synthetic passive verbs, has been discussed in this thesis.
Notwithstanding individual conclusions for each section, what seems to be very clear
from this thesis is the necessity to understand audiences on a micro-level and the need to be
careful with overarching generalisations. The most problematic term is perhaps that of
„monastic‟ itself, which can surely encompass a whole spectrum of communities. When
talking about lectio, for example, it cannot even be taken for granted that each monk would
have had access to the same materials or scriptural reading, and so the ability of different
audiences to take part in lectio must have varied. The same can be said for issues
surrounding literary culture and linguistic situation: each individual was different and so
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