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

primary sources. 115 In some cases, the monastic rules themselves specify that external
authority had to be sought; the Common Rule, for example, states that if a complaint is issued
against the monastery itself, then the abbot must turn over its investigation to a qualified
layman. 116
The question also deserves to be asked: if monasteries were potentially rearing flocks,
farming and exploiting the land, where were they doing this? Areas of impenetrable
wilderness do not generally lend themselves to agriculture, yet some monasteries seem to
have also been communities that could own large amounts of land. References to keeping
cattle and flocks or agricultural activities must presume at least a small amount of land, but
when monks complained that they spent so long away from their duties of opus Dei
shepherding flocks that they would lose their heavenly reward, it must be imagined that these
comprised sizeable estates (notwithstanding, of course, complaints driven by monks with an
aversion to physical effort). 117
In her masterly study, Wood (2006) has traced the development of the proprietary
Church and shown that endowment and patronage was alive and well in Visigothic Iberia
(ibid.: 18-25; also Dodds (1990: 12); an in-depth and comparative study of the topic in early
medieval Italy can be found in Costambeys (2007)). Despite the lack of surviving cartulary
115 For example, Bede in reference to Lindisfarne (Life of Cuthbert 16), “Neque aliquis miretur, quod
in eadem insula Lindisfarnea, cum permodica sit, et supra episcopi, et nunc abbatis ac monachorum
esse locum dixerimus; reuera enim ita est”. However, this was not always the case, and Gregory the
Great had gone so far as to oppose vehemently such a union. For a discussion of the historical
evolution of the abbot, see Salmon (1972: 3-48).
116 Common Rule 3.
117 Common Rule 9, “et quia solent nonnulli qui greges custodiunt murmurare et nullam se pro tali
seruitio putant habere mercedem cum se in congregatione orantes et laborantes minime uidentur,
audient quid dicunt patrum regulae”.
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