a little late today. From now on, we'll go later, until everybody's here, and then we'll start, and we'll go accordingly. So we'll go to about 11 and 04. OK, you want to hold one for Ezekiel and one for Terry? OK, Terry. I need to ask Ezekiel a question. These are just chronological tables that you just put with your maps. We don't need them today, but they're interesting to look what's happening in history, who's being born, with the monastic foundations that are being made, all together there in tables. Kind of interesting, and it's a neat little tool. Some of these things you'll see, dates differ. There's just certain things they don't. They have to make an educated guess, and they just don't always have the corresponding. They're off two or three years, or whatever. Do you know if Ezekiel has a reader?

[01:03]

He started off not with one, but I think we ended up with the next one, because I have nine sets. He has one? Good. OK, so Monday, remember to bring your reader, volume one, because we'll be in Celtic monasticism. And then you can hand them in. You're done with them. Last time around, somebody kept the two-volume reader. I had 10 of them in, and I'm down to nine. I don't want to go down to eight or seven this year, so let's make sure they get in, get in for the next time we teach this course. You already gave us one of these. Did I? Did you do the volume? That's right, I did. Oh, yeah, I copied the wrong table. I have another chronology table. I'll bring it to you. Thank you for pointing that out.

[02:05]

That's all you needed, the stereo. Huh? Did you need the mic? Yes. What's Monday next week? Yes, because the novices are going on a trip Thursday-Monday. So next, yeah, next Wednesday. Good. So it turns in that way. Yeah. He must have come late to class yesterday. No, I announced it at the beginning. Oh, that's why. OK. What I want to do today is finish up Cashion, and at least get a good chunk of Caesarius done. And I'll do my bibliography stuff and talk in general about Caesarius once we finish Cashion. Also, I've got to talk barbarians today a little bit. So just in general, then, some of the main monastic things that Cashion gets into in his various writings.

[03:09]

Certainly, the battlefield, the spiritual battlefield. That is, the whole perspective of Cashion regarding the desert, the monastic desert, is one of the spiritual warfare, and the whole soldier thing. He's not tunnel-visioned into the soldier thing, like some other monastic writers are, but it's there. The whole business about fighting demons and sowing the virtues in one's life while getting rid of the weeds in the garden in one's life, that whole thing is there, for the spiritual reality. The eight-headed dragon is there also. What do I mean by the eight-headed dragon? Just for review. Right. And where did he get that from?

[04:10]

Who did... I'm sorry. Whom did he get that from? No, it was Evagrius. Although Pecomius might have... You know, it wasn't like Evagrius invented it. I mean, it was in the Egyptian desert already, too, but Evagrius is the one who's, like, famous for it. So I shouldn't have... It's not only Evagrius. But he's the... Did you notice this workshop? I was just telling Paul before, the workshop that Robert's going to, the Abbots and Priors, did you notice that there's four things on Cassian and four on Evagrius? And for those of you who don't know Jeremy, he's the one who came here and gave us talks on Evagrius, Ponticus, and I was going to do it for the Abbots. The St. John's Abbey, the liturgical press, Evagrius just put out his smaller version. We have the full version out of St. Anselmo's. And this is a condensed version, this nice paperback out of the liturgical press,

[05:13]

and we have it now in the bookstore, if you're in Evagrius. So the eight-headed dragon, that is, there's this dragon in the desert, and there are eight heads on this dragon, and during your life in the desert, you better find your way to slaying, cutting off these eight heads if you're going to stay alive as a monk. And those eight heads are gluttony, fornication, or lust, avarice, or greed, anger, dejection, vainglory, pride, which is a lot like vainglory, and accedia. And accedia, again, A-C-C-E, you'll see different spellings, accediae or accedia. Sorry for the silence. That's a particular monastic

[06:14]

principle sin that gets lopped off by Pope Gregory the Great. Is it the sixth? Forget his number. And he locked that off because it became a seven deadly sins for the whole church, not just the monks in the desert. And this was a particular problem. The monks had the desert right around the time of day when the sun was so hot, and they would go into delusions and had all kinds of lustful desires and dejections and despair and whatnot. And that was called accedia, or the noon-day demon. Okay. Also, for him, for Cassian, in his spiritual message, it's very important that the monk let go of the past. Don't dwell on it. Don't keep dredging up nice guilt feelings

[07:18]

and whatnot. Let it all go. It's totally worthless, and just let it go, which is a very healthy perspective to have. Pretty good for the fourth century. Also, he saw temptation as a positive thing, a positive opportunity to prove yourself, again, within this arena of the warfare, the monastic warfare perspective. Very important in Cassian, the Scala Perfections, the ladder of perfection. We're going to see this so many times in monastic history again, notably in John Climacus, Bernard, to a certain degree in Benedict with his degrees of humility, Guigo, the Carthusian,

[08:18]

and others. We're going to keep running into this. They used the ladder. You take each step and you go through a process. And that whole, you know, it was a very easy-to-understand, handy tool, handy image to use. And it's consistent in monastic literature. The Scala Perfections. His Scala Perfections you will find in book four of the Institutes. I don't know if you read book four. Book four of the Institutes. And I can, let me read a quote from book four. It gives you the Scala so you can see what the steps are. I've done a, I did a whole series of retreat, preach retreat conferences on this one paragraph to nuns years ago, when I've been to nuns, on passions, passions,

[09:20]

or passion, passions, passion, passions, a matter of perfection. Let me read this. And you can, each time I go like this you've got another step. In order that all these things which have been set forth in a somewhat lengthy discourse may be more easily stamped on your heart, and may stick in your thoughts with all tenacity, I will make a summary of them so that you may be able to learn all the changes of, changes of heart by reason of their brevity and conciseness. Hear then in a few words how you can mount up to the heights of perfection without any effort or difficulty. The beginning of our salvation, and of wisdom by the way, is according to scripture the fear of the Lord. From the fear of the Lord arises salutary compunction. What's compunction? It's not a word we use a lot. Sorrow or remorse.

[10:20]

Good, good. So, fear of the Lord, compunction. From compunction of heart springs renunciation. That is, nakedness and contempt for all possessions. So letting go, letting go. From nakedness is begotten humility. From humility, the mortification of desire. Through mortification of desire, all faults are extirpated and decayed. And by driving out faults, virtues shoot up and increase. So, through mortification, then getting rid of faults and acquiring virtues. It's sort of like a revolving step. There's two steps that keep working together, going around. By the budding of virtues, purity of heart is gained.

[11:22]

Puritas cordis. This is real important. Passion. And by purity of heart, the perfection of apostolic love is acquired. So it ends in apostolic love. It starts out with the fear of the Lord, so respect, not fear in the sense of being totally petrified. Fear of the Lord and respect for God and seeing your dependence on a God, creator God, with whom you have a relationship. Fear of the Lord in that sense. Okay, another big... Yes? Benedict gets that right in front of me. Because Benedict starts out with the fear of the Lord. Passion is real important to Benedict. Another major point in Passion is incessant prayer. Again, he gets this from the Egyptian desert.

[12:23]

And that is the whole notion of praying always. One way or another, although in the Egyptian desert it was usually done through monologistic prayer or one-word mantra-type prayer or one phrase. But in Passion and in later monastic prayers it can mean a number of things. As long as you... Whatever you're doing, you're doing it personally. Purity of heart in Passion can mean a number of things. And he uses all of these phrases interchangeably to mean purity of heart. And that is apatheia, of course. That's the word. This is the notion he got from Evagrius, but he didn't use the same term so he wouldn't get in trouble. He got in trouble anyway. Might as well use the word. Love of God. Purity of heart. Love of God. He uses the same in the same context. Holiness.

[13:25]

Tranquility. Sanctification. Freedom from all disturbance. All those phrases mean the same thing for him. They all mean purity of heart. Immobility he uses also. If you run into the word immobility he means purity of heart. He isn't petrified into inactivity. But he means immobility in the sense that you're present to the present. Immobility in that sense. How did Cassian's monasticism then in reality form itself? We've got this nice theory in these books and we see some general dynamics of his theology, his monastic spirituality. What do we know about his type

[14:27]

of monastic life as was lived in his monastery? Well, we know that he discovered quickly that monks in Gaul could not live exactly what people were living in the Egyptian deserts. It was just too extreme. Too ascetical. And so he had to moderate. He had to relax the rules that were enforced in the Egyptian deserts. And he used Basil, Saint Basil the Great, in order to moderate. So he put that together with the setup in Egypt and came up with a more moderate format for designing monastic life. Even though his communities were cenobitic, we know that Cassian himself had a predilection for at least semi-Aramitic, if not the Aramitic.

[15:29]

And that predilection causes some confusion because sometimes he probably unknowingly contradicts himself. Because he's writing for cenobites or whatever and he forgets that and he goes into this Aramitic thing. There's not always a strong consistency there. And they've discovered that the reason for that is that this is his own thing. He's not quoting people. Often when he's going into this Aramitic versus cenobitic, as I mentioned yesterday, it's his own thing. One prepares for the other. He did not want to imitate Leran. Leran. Leringen. What is Leran? A cluster of islands.

[16:31]

Known for? Akish. They kept getting destroyed over and over again. Yeah. Education. That's the main thing, the scholarship. Cassian didn't want any part of that. So he didn't model himself on the Leringen monasticism in that sense. They also had certain clerical activity. And he knew others like Basil had clerical activity going on. He didn't want any of that either. He was very clear about that. But at the same time, we know that his communities that he set up within a generation were also were also ended up supplying priests and bishops to go. Because they have good people and the church is going to pull those good people out of them. I just just translated yesterday

[17:33]

a chapter in Peter Damian's life where he's made a bishop. He's hauled and he's hauled to Rome, literally, to the papal court. According to the biographer, St. John of Livy, who was prior after him. And they said, well, we've heard a lot about you. We've seen a lot of work you've been doing and we want you to accept the bishopric. And Peter Damian wanted no part of it. And so, Pope Stephen IX or the 11th, I forget which was first, the X or the I, threatens him with excommunication. And only then, with the threat of excommunication hanging over his head, did he accept the bishopric. But you have this happening all the time in the first, you know, six centuries of monasticism. So many really good people are being pulled out of the monasteries

[18:33]

and out of their hermitages and monasteries and made bishops and archbishops. Sometimes popes. Often against their will. So, it happened in caches, houses too, even though he didn't want that to happen. It was not a clerical monasticism. He had a one-year novitiate and evidently, this is innovation. A full year is a novitiate. We've looked at novitiates somewhat before, like Pacomian set up. Also, with the novitiate, there wasn't any or it was a three-day thing. With caching, you have a full year of novitiate. The abbot of the house governs the community along with a pocket of elders around him. Sort of like a domestic council or a senior council, as we call the most benedicted houses nowadays. Junior monks

[19:38]

confess to elder monks. It has nothing to do with priesthood. We're not talking that brothers confess to the priest. No. The young monks just coming in confess their faults to the abbots, the older ones. This is consonant with the desert, what was going on in the Egyptian desert. Same thing. It's a matter of accountability and also the abba disciple. I'm getting cold. In Cachin's monasteries, the monks all left the monastery on the weekend and they went to town for the Eucharist. We've heard that before. Obviously, this guy's been to Egypt. There's certain things he's really maintained. He maintained as much as he could

[20:43]

of the Egyptian ideal. But there were certain things he just had to change. And in no time at all, of course, even his houses are going to, they're going to have their own priests and have their own Eucharist and whatnot. But they started up by going to town to the local parish for Eucharist on the weekends. Well, we're talking fourth century. Mortification. Mortification in Cachin's monasteries, you really were up to your own on that. He felt that people are unique and different people are drawn to different mortifications and penances and whatnot. And all of that is done on a case-by-case basis. Everybody doesn't have to whip themselves or whatever, you know, the particular mortification is. They deal with that through the discretion of the abbot or the elders. Food in moderation.

[21:47]

Sleep in moderation. So not too much sleep and yet not, you know, a lack of it. They needed it for the cold climate also. You run across that a lot, that word moderation, a lot, that notion in Cachin. That's why he's famous for it. And the brew of Benedict also seems to have gotten that flavor from him. And so, historically speaking, when you think of moderation in Anastasism, you think of Benedict, the Benedictine rule. But really, it's just promo-gaining and able once the, well, Benedict's made a blanket rule for the whole, I don't want to say kingdom, the whole empire. That's why we look at Benedict because Benedict did Cachin's work. He took Cachin and it spread. And so, a modern approach to Anastasism. What influence

[22:52]

did he have on the rule of Benedict that I have or haven't mentioned? The degrees of humility, as you pointed out, are directly from Cachin. Well, there's a few little differences. The main schema is there. The whole notion of strict obedience, that of the importance of obedience, and this kind of obedience, not just robot obedience, but really listening to the spirit in obedience. Key notion that Ruben would fix right on. That, in connection with the renunciation of your own self-will, your own stubbornness, this is my schedule, or this is my time, or my, this is not, Benedict would have no tolerance of that, not even with Cachin. It's not a question of my, my, me, but our. Sound familiar?

[23:56]

Also, spiritual direction. What Cachin has to say about spiritual direction, you find in the rule of Benedict, coming a couple generations down. It really depends on Cachin for these realities. Also, the whole procedure of how you take novices in and what you're looking for. Benedict, again, gets this from Cachin. Finito. I should say this one last thing here. Going back to, just put a little note if you're taking notes, go back to the main ideas that you get from Cachin, telos and scopos. Even Robert uses this, this terminology once in a while, these reflections and stuff. Cachin's famous for it. Telos and scopos. Basically, with telos and scopos, you're talking about the long-term goal and the short-term goal. So the telos for Cachin is

[24:58]

the kingdom of God, the long-term goal, this kingdom of God. But the scopos, it's like sort of getting a, you know, a closer view, is purity of heart. Okay? So the goal is kingdom of heaven. How do you get there in practical terms? Well, purity of heart. How do you get the purity of heart? At, read Cachin. It gives you a whole list of what to do and who to be. Okay. Caesarius. Caesarius of Arles is extremely important. And we didn't know that until this century. We didn't know how important he was to monasticism until this century. He was the bishop of Arles. Some of his writings got lost for centuries and were found later. But we didn't realize the profound effect that Caesarius had

[25:59]

on people and movements until fairly recently. Do we have Caesarius in English? No. Well, we have three volumes of his sermons and I can give you the numbers of the sermons if you want to read the sermons that have to do with monasticism. And they are numbers 4, 6, 7, and 8, 75, 78, 233 through 238. There's three volumes in the Fathers of the Church series. Nice English. Sister Mary Magdalene Mueller OSF gave us, thanks to her, we've had Caesarius in English. The sermons. But Caesarius also wrote

[27:00]

A Rule for Monks and A Rule for Nuns. We have The Rule for Nuns in French. We have all the writings he did for nuns in French. We don't have The Rule for Monks yet. It hasn't come out. It will come out in French. I don't know when this stuff is going to come out in English. Nothing's been written in English basically on Caesarius. Nothing. I mean, we don't have an authoritative critical edition on Caesarius. Until now. It's... I just ordered it last month. And we should get it any day now. And we'll finally have something in English and it's being toted as the first one in English. We'll see what it's like. I forget what university it's coming out in. Anyway, I caught it in one of these little catalogs. Okay. Who is this Caesarius? Um...

[28:01]

I think probably it's important for me to do the... to do the... just to show what kind of world we're into right now. And then look at Caesarius. Okay. The list of... This is a list of some of the major barbarian groups right now occupying various parts of what was the Roman Empire. What still is in some people's minds. And which is already decrepit and gone in other people's minds. There's certainly a mixture and disarray. Um... We're talking Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, Lombards, Lombardy. Burgundians, Burgundy. Franks, France. Alemany, or Alemania, or Germany. Swaby, Angles, Anglo-Saxons. Anglo-Saxons. Frisians, who are the Frisians? Does that ring a bell to anyone? The Roman Frisians. The Frisians.

[29:01]

Yeah. They killed somebody. They killed one of our babies. The Frisians. As he was trying to to um... harm the sex community. As he was trying to evangelize them. Boniface. Boniface. He's the one that worshipped the old, old tree. He chopped it down. Um... They chopped him down. Boniface. Incredibly important person. We'll get to him later. Anyway, this is the group of Frisians. Also the Celts. Um... What's going on right now with these people? The Germanic... The Celts began to move already around 400. Okay? So already they've been there half a century by the time Caesarius is born. Um... They move into Gaul. The Celts. They've also moved into Italy. We don't normally think of Celts in Italy.

[30:05]

We think, oh Ireland Celtic. Uh... They were all over the place. And they were a fierce group. Fierce group who screamed at the top of their lungs when they attacked. This blood... That's what they were known for. Um... Just... They just... They were all you know hairy and... They were rather frightening. They were the most frightening of all the groups when they were on the war path. But they were in Italy. They were into Bohemia. They were into Greece. Macedonia. Galatia. They were all over the British Isles. That's really where they end up. Uh... Also northern France they end up there with the um... What kind of French do I have in me? Brittany. Brittany is Celtic. Where did they come from? East... They're all coming from the east. They're all coming out of the Russian steppes and Mongolia and...

[31:07]

They don't know. They just came. Waves and waves of them. Um... The Germanic groups, many of these are Germanic groups. You can call them Germanic groups. They end up in what the Germans became. Of course all of these groups are bringing their own languages with them. And these languages get all mixed up. And we have their languages in us and our languages and... Et cetera. Um... The Germanic groups came at this time from southern Scandinavia. So the Alimani and the Lombards and they're coming right now. They're moving out of southern Scandinavia into this whole area. What will be Germany and France and Switzerland and Austria and that whole area in there. They're moving west and then south. And they spread and they cause a lot of problems. Um...

[32:08]

They moved... See they moved... These groups moved into where the Celts weren't. So the Celts had like southern Europe covered. And they took the northern Europe and then they moved into the northern You'll see them all fighting one another. A lot of politics going on. Um... So mainly if you look at northern... The northern Germany northern Germanic let's say area. You're talking you're talking the Scandinavian groups that came down. If you're looking at east Germany who formed what becomes east Germans you're talking Goths and Vandals and Lombards and Burgundians although Burgundians were also going to France. Um... And their kingdoms really didn't last all that long. But of course

[33:10]

they were there and as a blood group and an ethnic group continued on and intermarried and whatnot. Um... Western Germans I would have been the Franks the Alemanni the Swabie take that back. Yeah no no part of the Swabie part of the Swabie the um Angles and Saxons now of course these are going to move on you can just see by their names but they're they're in western Germany at this time and the Frisians and they a lot of these the ones that stay behind anyway the Angles and Saxons move on to a great extent into the British Isles later on and get pushed there are the ones that stay behind become a lot of these little city states that you have little kingdoms and whatnot all over in the ensuing centuries but a

[34:19]

group of castles with the Lord and off they go with their banners and whatnot a lot of these are from these groups that will come to being in Merovingian times and Carolingian times okay what's the situation around 511 so when um you have Cesare is right in his middle age what what's going on regarding these these groups well the Celts have now have gotten Wales and Ireland and of course that's what they're going to become famous for that and Brittany the Angles and Saxons have Eastern Britain so you see they just in four thirty three forty years they've been warring they've been driving one another in and out and it's just a constantly change flux but 511 you have basic areas that they moved into and that's where they they hold

[35:19]

forth from then on the Visigoths and the Swabians have Spain the Franks and Burgundians have Gaul what is now France the Franks and Burgundians the Ostrogoths they have Italy this is important because we're going to run into these again the Ostrogoths have Italy Switzerland and the Adriatic and the Vandals they take Northern Africa okay the emperor who reigned until 511 from 481 to 511 was Clovis he was the emperor of France and they were all united at this time so they were pretty strong forces and people like Caesarius have to

[36:19]

deal with these people with the defeat of some of the groups the Alemanni and the Visigoths once they were defeated Orthodox Catholicism could get a strong hold because until then it was Arianism because the two groups I just mentioned were had embraced Arianism so you have up in France you have Caesarius coming just coming to focus at a time when this is in flux Arian Orthodox Arian depending on who's in power in a given year because there's always a period like that gradually you have a unification of what becomes more or less by the 7th century France okay that's the area we're talking about in general

[37:21]

who is Caesarius Caesarius of Arles was born around 469 they're not sure on the exact year that looks like what it would have been and he was born he was born in 469 and 47 and he was born in a town called Chalon-sur-Loire I have all the words you need spelling for out there and in the next thing we know is that in 488 so when he was 18 or 19 years old he was tortured for the diocese the diocese of Chalon so this is a diocesan city and he served there for two years as a tonsure cleric we know that in 490 or 491 so when he's about 20 21 years old he enters Leran he enters

[38:24]

that monastery down there and he's going to get some good education the abbot at that time is our friend Abbott who's your favorite abbot of Leran Porky Abbot Piggy Porcarius the one who slaughtered the 500 of his monks later on Abbot Porky is in charge very evidently very good administrator very holy man just I had an unfortunate name it means Piggy soon he became a seller so he had a real talent for not just money but for organizing things and watching things he was made seller like father Bernard for our community and he didn't last very long he had to be removed by popular demand of the monks

[39:24]

of Leran because he was so tight that they weren't getting even their basic necessities and they revolted and his zeal cost him his office he was very he had a predilection for being real hard on himself with personal asceticism and he kind of like was ruining his health at Leran so he had been sent away for reasons of health due to his own mortifications and he wasn't sent away exiled as a monk he was still a monk but he got sent away to a place to a healthier climate where people would help him take care of himself and get his act together again and this was in the city of Arles where he was sent to and he

[40:24]

was there for some years Arles was very important at this time because it was sort of like the crossroads of this whole section of Gaul crossroads of what Visigoths Ostrogoths Franks and Burgundians the Franks and Burgundians are the ones that are eventually going to win this area but you also have Visigoths there right now okay very important city at this time we know that sometime before 499 he was sent there for health reasons in 499 he's put in charge of a monastery there's a monastery that needs a reformation the name of the monastery is , Trancatay Trancatay and it's the daughter house of Loran it's one of these many foundations

[41:25]

of Loran it's in its gold record right now golden era and he's put there to reestablish discipline to get a good monastic life going again which he does however Teodoric

[45:10]

is in charge of Gaul right now that year I mean he's just whoever's got the most soldiers huh no it's a whole area a whole area and right now he has the power to summon see this particular ruler is more more than just a local situation you're talking the emperor of what's left of the empire and he set up his court in Ravenna on the Adriatic on the Adriatic okay 513 on the way back to Gaul he stops off at Rome and there Colt Simachus gives him the power what is power this is

[46:11]

real it's real important it's a big step for him to get the power it's a white august made from wool blessed on the east of St. Agnes A plus A plus it's made from lambs wool unity with the papal sea very good very good at this time at this time and in ensuing centuries the pallium is extremely important later on Boniface I mentioned who was in charge of the empire as far as the church was concerned incredible power the pallium is a sign that you have the authority of the pope too there's no appeal you are it and you can make changes and that's

[47:12]

it okay enough about the pallium I didn't have to say anything else you filled it in perfectly every little detail although the history of the pallium is kind of murky in the beginning and it changes now it's sort of an honorary thing but back then extremely powerful to receive this pallium he gets it so he goes back to Gaul and he's made the vicar of the holy sea for all of Spain next thing we know 10 years have gone by and this whole series of councils starts and he's the man doing it because he's got the pallium he's in charge of the church in this whole area the fourth council of Auro is in 524 where are we down to? I don't have it there because we had to spell it already that year or the next early the next year there's a crisis at the monastery for women at St. John's

[48:12]

Monastery he was always in close contact with them helping them through their difficulties and forming the monasticism Cesario the elder dies his sister dies and the second abbess is that's right Cesario the younger who is his niece and life can continue there was some kind of crisis but it kept on going in 527 a couple years down we have the council of Carpentra why are these councils important? because each of these councils is dealing with very nitpicky but important decisions that have to be made how do we develop a church here? how do we form a church? how do we make dioceses? who's going to be in charge of what? how do we get everything set up? he's setting up the church in France

[49:12]

in Gaul I should say at this time in 529 extremely important council the second council of Orange what happens at the council of Orange? I mentioned that already yesterday yes the semi-Pelagian controversy so who gets condemned at this council? Cashion and who is the champion of Cashion? here's the irony who's the champion of Cashion? and who uses Cashion in forming his rules? and who's in charge of this council that condemns Cashion? it's very ironic of course he's obviously a council it's a council it's not one man but he's in charge of this council the same year they have the second council

[50:15]

of Bison none of these are important to write down it's just to remember Caesarius a whole series of councils setting up the church setting up the monastery in a place where constant change fluctuations going on all the goths are fighting one another just a mess in 533 he's in charge of the council of Marseille that's the last one he is heading up and he's done an incredible amount of work for the church in the year 534 we're getting close to his death he gets done the final version of the rule for nuns and so over a 30 year period 20-30 year period he's revising the rule he's adding more it's obviously a rule that's being formed out of lived communities experience and at

[51:15]

the end you get that rule that rule becomes extremely important down the line in other convents and monasteries what you get then is you get the development of the national Gallican church under Cesare it's extremely important and he reformed he formed and then reformed already in his lifetime the whole ecclesiastical jurisdiction thing the whole governmental apparatus in this area he wrote an awful lot we know about him basically through the life of Cesare that was written by this bishop Ciprian of Toulon and four of Cesare's own monks and it's written within seven years

[52:15]

of his death this bishop collaborated with four of his own monks so they feel fairly confident about the content there looking beyond the usual cliche things that go into the lives of saints but certain things they feel where there's a question of well this could be true do you think it really happened they feel very confident because it was so close to his life at that time and written by a bishop who was very close to him and very close to the Gallican church this is considered this life of this saint of Cesare's is considered the most authoritative and authentic life of a saint you could find in the whole Merovingian period and there are lots of Merovingian life in somebody this is the one they feel most

[53:15]

confident about in the whole period I wrote Merovingian on here if you don't understand Merovingian period is the one just before Carolingian and Charlemagne and that part the Merovingians are in charge of the Franks are in charge of that area before we go into the Carolingian reform Carolingian period the rule for monks that he wrote was based on his monastic life at Leran and it was written for the brothers who lived with him at Arles so he had he gathered a little group around him while he was bishop something like Augustine and he wrote this rule for them going back on his own experience it basically was Leringian monasticism but

[54:17]

Leringian monasticism that was moderated or the blanks were filled in by another rule and what whose rule would that be take an educated guess no who is he in the church who is he in the church what he's a bishop he gathers around him rule of Augustine here's we have some first evidence of Augustine's rule having real effect on tradition however at the same time this is something that's turned upside down this is usually the opposite of what you'll see in monastic history so he wrote his rule for monks okay and he was reflected in his own experience of Leringian he took

[55:17]

the rule of Augustine and patented a little bit and then he looked to another rule that already existed to fill in the blanks and to give more structure and that was the rule for nuns he had written usually it's the other way around you have a monastic reformer who does the rule for monks and then they just erase male and put female and then it's made the rule for nuns they add a few feminine things here the rule for nuns is the basic document interesting and this rule for nuns outside of the obvious practicality of it's formulated over a long period of years because they keep running into practical problems so they have to make rules outside of that kind of structuring that goes on over a 20-30 year period Cesare basically used one

[56:17]

person to fill in all the blanks and give the structure for the rule for nuns and that person was not Augustine but Cassius the person that his council condemned at the second council of Orange this rule for nuns this rule for women is the first rule for women besides Augustine's and even Augustine's rule for women this is the first rule for women authoritative fully developed monastic rule for women it was lost during the middle ages so this rule for nuns was lost and it was only found and republished in the 17th century we're still at 4 minutes

[57:22]

so I can go a little bit into the provisions are we almost finished some of the interesting things from this rule first rule for women what do you get well you first of all you get an innovation and that is you get legalized mandated enclosure these nuns are locked in for their own protection and for contemplation there is a postulancy here before a bishop under a postulant director you give up all your possessions you take nothing with you into the house the abbess who is under the local bishop should be primarily concerned with spiritual direction and spiritual concerns she also was in charge of discipline the routine of the house and the property

[58:22]

and money and all of that stuff but in the rule the most important thing is the spiritual aspect there were various officials in the rule or there are various officials named in the rule to what we find in monasticism nowadays however under the abbess the property as such was placed on in the hands of a male steward who could take care of difficulties that might arise over property rights or work that needs to be done or repairs or whatever well this is common also in houses of women today also they had common dormitories the furnishings were very simple they made their own garments they did their own spinning and weaving blah blah blah they all took turns in the kitchen

[59:23]

they did a lot of fasting and they had a very strict rule for silence they didn't have any recreation there was no recreation at all everyone had to learn how to read and they also had some manuscript copying going on by those who could write they very rarely received visitors and they had a penal code and various punishments and what not obviously this developed along the way to meet problems that came up this rule was adapted for monasteries of men later on and adopted outright in total by famous convents down the line one of the most famous was St. Radagunda's convent 200 nuns in the city

[60:26]

of Poitiers what does Poitiers bring to mind we'll review excellent Hilary of Poitiers by the year 534 we are going to finish 534 when the rule got its final form Radagunda's convent which adopted was 200 nuns a large monastic foundation using this rule you get what you end up with is a whole cluster of convents using Caesarius' rule so it becomes a tradition in the formulation of monastic rules just when the rule of Benedict is going to be gaining ground down the couple centuries down you lose this one's lost as I say it wasn't founded until the 17th century so its influence was less

[61:26]

than it could have been but it had a profound influence pre-Benedict and during Benedict during the couple centuries one other mention is Aurelius of Arles he took over after Caesarius and he also wrote two rules but he's not so famous but I just mentioned him because he also has Arles after his name and he's a monastic writer okay so next Monday we begin Celtic monasticism so you want to read those sections from A Life of Palomba great start

[62:06]

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