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

evidence, which has been used skilfully for later periods to help reconstruct the historical
context (e.g. Davies 2007), Visigothic literature suggests substantial levels of patronage and
benefaction and the construction of monasteries on private land. Indeed, the Common Rule
reveals that monasteries and churches were being created on private estates, a process
reminiscent of the ad hoc creation of early churches in Late Roman villae. 118 Valerius also
reveals that he was taken to a church on an estate owned by a certain Ricimer. 119 It is also
apparent from a story concerning a certain Paul, a bishop of Merida, that private donations to
the church did occur. Having miraculously cured a woman of an illness, she and her husband
donated half their land to the bishop, with the other half to be donated once they had died.
Although Paul at first refused the donation, the lands given to him were of such size that he
became a great landowner. 120 Although there is no explicit mention of Paul founding a
monastery, he was certainly involved in a monastic orbit, since he later sent his long-lost
nephew to a monastery as an oblate. 121 There is also a story of a chapel being built at a
monastery “through the munificent bounty of good Christians”. 122 The influence of patrons
or bishops meant that monasteries could also play a role in the political landscape. For
example, the sixth-century saint Desiderius was banished to an island monastery after being
accused falsely of rape by a mentally ill woman called, ironically, Iusta. 123
118 Common Rule 1, “Solent enim nonnulli ob metum gehennae in suis sibi domibus monasteria
componere et cum uxoribus filiis et seruis atque uicinis cum sacramenti conditione in unum se
copulare et in suis sibi ut diximus uillis et nomine martyrum ecclesias consecrare et eas tale nomine
monasteria nuncupare”.
119 Ordo quaerimoniae 4.
120 Lives of the Fathers of Merida 2.
121 Lives of the Fathers of Merida 4.
122 Valerius of Bierzo Replicatio 9.
123 Sisebut Life of Desiderius 4.
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