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

In addition to the production of food, physical labour also included the many
industries required to keep the monks clothed and sheltered. In addition to carpentry and
building work, there was a need for a fuller (fullo), shoemaker and cobbler (calcearius, sutor)
and weaver (lintearius). A monastery also needed to be run smoothly, and as such the
monastic rules describe the day-to-day administration of the community. For example, the
sacristan was responsible for loaning books, 90 and Isidore mentions a monk “cui
dispensationis potestas conmissa est”, 91 suggesting a role best translated as „bailiff‟ or
„steward‟.
2.7 Monasteries in Visigothic Society
As Kulikowski (2004: 304) observed, Visigothic society was played out over three
fora: the city, the country and „the wilderness‟. He highlighted that although Visigothic
urbanism had indeed changed since the Roman period, political and social life remained, in
many aspects, urban. Christianity, however, had given the rural environment an auctoritas 92
of its own through, for example, the construction of churches in association with villas, which
could attract great congregations: “The wilderness was an alternative locus of power and
authority to the city-based, and thus essentially social power of the bishop” (Kulikowski
ibid.: 304; see also Percival 1997; Ripoll and Arce 2000; Chavarría Arnau 2004: 83-84). The
urban episcopate was also mirrored by the powerful figure of the rural hermit. Indeed,
uel longe profiscentium qualitates. Ut et uolatilium esibus infirmi sustententur et longinquo itinere
destinati, si aut a principe uel episcopo sperantur pro benedictione et obedientia, degustare non
metuant”.
90 Rule of Isidore 8.
91 Rule of Isidore 21.
92 Activities associated with desertum/eremus and solitudo were often portrayed positively. However,
this must still be contrasted with words such as rusticus and paganus, which are often negative.
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