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

culture. A possible terminus ante quem for its composition is provided by the tenth canon of
the Second Council of Seville in 619, over which Isidore presided as bishop of the city, which
mentions the “coenobia nuper condita in prouincia Baetica”, taken to refer to the monasteries
for which it was written (Ruiz & Melia 1979: 79). Isidore‟s close friend, Braulius of
Zaragoza, in his Renotatio librorum diui Isidori, also places the monastic rule between 615
and 619. It is as yet still unclear for whom the monastic rule was written, although two of the
manuscripts carry the dedicatory titles honorianensi and honoriensi (Ruiz & Melia 1974: 81).
The site of this monastery is yet to be identified.
The Rule of Fructuosus of Braga was composed probably for the monastery of
Compludo, founded in 646. 46 Fructuosus was certainly one of the most accomplished
founders of monasteries in early medieval Iberia, and communities at Compludo, San Pedro
de los Montes, San Felix de Visona and Peonense can be associated with him. Indeed, in his
Life there are named nine monasteries specifically, and in addition it is noted that
“monasteria plurima fundauit”. 47 Fructuosus was clearly an educated individual, the son of a
high-ranking military father who achieved some kind of education. 48 The sole surviving
letter from Fructuosus to Braulius of Zaragoza is also revealing, in which he asks to be sent
Cassians‟ Institutiones and the Lives of Honoratus and Germanus by Hilary and Venantius
46 Life of Fructuosus 3, “Nam construens coenobium Complutensem, iuxta diuina praecepta, nihil sibi
reseruans, omnem a se facultatis suae supellectilem eiiciens et ibidem conferens, eum locupletissime
ditauit, et tam ex familiae suae, quam ex conuersis e diuersis Hispaniae partibus sedulo
concurrentibus, eum agmine monachorum affluentissime compleuit”.
47 Life of Fructuosus 8.
48 Life of Fructuosus 1, “ducis exercitus Hispaniae proles [...] tonsoque capite cum religionis initia
suscepisset, tradidit se erudiendum spiritualibus sanctissimo uiro Conantio episcopo”.
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