Monastic History
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Monastic History Class, France (Gaul)
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#set-monastic-history
Syllabi with you. We're getting number eight. We're moving up to France now, the present-day France, which at that time was the province of Gaul, Gallia, in the Roman Empire. I'd like to do the first two sections today, and I'm sure we can do that. So next time we'll begin with John Cashin on Wednesday, which means you need to read four books of the Institutes, which are given for you in the reader. I think we'll spend at least two classes on Cashin. So next week will be devoted to Cashin. Before we do this, however, I wanted to offer any time at all if you have anything to bring up about Augustine's On the Work of Marx. If not, we'll move on. That particular piece was written in response to a particular problem.
[01:03]
It was a polemic, right? Yeah. So it really isn't a rule, per se. No. It's not a generic thing. It's a particular treatise that he was asked to write against bum monks and long monks. It would have been even more tedious, I think, if you were reading the Rule of St. Augustine. That's why I chose him. See, I didn't want to just give you a whole slew of rules to read, because after two rules you'd just get... So I'm trying to give different stuff. Like the Life of Columba, you're going to enjoy it immensely. That's a whole different genre. It's this lovely little Celtic biography with miracles and cows and all kinds of stuff that's typical of that type of literature. Anything else about Augustine? I, myself, find the whole topic of Augustinian monasticism really, frankly, quite boring. And I'm just
[02:09]
as soon move on to France, because I'm not at all for Gallican monasticism. I've got five more maps for you. I noticed that the red light's saying, maintenance time. Whenever that happens, all of a sudden you see Michael Richards carrying it out for Fr. Bernard, and it's gone for a week or whatever. So I thought, eh, let's get the maps for the next few weeks. And I'm sorry, I forgot to do the chronology. I'm going to give you four pages of chronological tables to give you a thing with dates and people's names, so you're beginning to get an over-sweep. And I could give you a lot better ones, but they're in French. So I'm going to give you whatever I have in English. I'm going to give you, let's see, two Celtic, two Italy, two Celtic, and then the last one I give you, we're going to use
[03:13]
today. So you can just follow these maps of Italy and Ireland for the next, sometime in February, we'll get to them. Who's not here? So I'll put it in the mailboxes. Besides Jonah. Who? Right next to you. You're early. Okay, so just file, which one do you have? Okay. So just file, these are two Italian and two Irish for the next, during February. And Celtic. Two Celtic monastic and two Irish. I do two, but for what I'm using, that's
[04:32]
just a slide. Okay, and then this one we're going to use today. This one we'll use today. So hold on to that one. Yeah, I gave you two of one. Irish, Italy, you have a Celtic one and a Celtic one. Okay. Somebody has another one that doesn't matter. These are getting thrown anyway. Okay. Just quickly, let's look at that last map I gave you. Let me get to mine. No, it should say. It's coming right there. Okay. Now, I hope you have all these
[05:49]
maps in a folder in your diary because we're going to, some of them we're going to go back to much later. So I want you to bring the maps to class. Just get a folder from Jim if you don't have them and put all these tables and the maps, put all that stuff together. In other words, I'm not giving these just to show and tell. We're going to actually use these from time to time. So have them with you. Okay, on that particular map, I notice where Lorraine is. Do you see Lorraine? Right about the center of the, right about the center. This word here, Lorraine. Okay. Right about the center of the map. Do you see where Marseille is? Okay, just go to the right of Marseille. Okay, go back to Marseille
[06:49]
and go directly north and see where Arles is. You might want to just circle each one of those and make a quick reference. And then you're at Arles. Sort of go to 11 o'clock up by Tours and Poitiers. Do you see them? Tours and Poitiers. And then just north of Tours is Marmoutier. And then just southwest of Poitiers is Liguge, L-I-G-U-G-E. See that? Okay, those are the ones we're looking at today. So we're making a nice sweep there of territory in what at that time was the province of Gaul. Okay. The first topic I need to address just chronologically of importance would be Martin
[07:53]
of Tours. St. Martin of Tours was born in 316 and look what he dies. So many people died in this year. Biggies. Remember this is the year when the uprising in Egypt. That same year a number of monastic figures died. I think maybe even in August that year. Three or four of them did. And one of them died just before it happened. Remember? I forget who it was. But he was a big originalist. Really you can call Martin of Tours and monastic experts will call Martin of Tours the father of Gallican monasticism. The father of French monasticism. Does anyone remember his story? He has his famous story. Yeah. Do you remember
[09:02]
what he was at that time? Do you remember why? Why he was a soldier? Do you remember why? Do you remember where he was born? He was born to a military family. His dad was a military man. And although he was born in Hungary, they moved over to Italy because his dad was stationed there at that time. So the whole family went with him. And he became a catechumen at 10 years old. So he began his conversion process at the age of 10. And he felt himself drawn to a little band of monastic ascetics, semi-monastic
[10:10]
ascetics living out in the woods nearby, near the city of Pavia. And his dad got very upset and his dad enlisted him in the military at the age of 10. And so he was in the military a while until this famous episode, which was a conversion episode for him, as he was going along in military gear wearing a cloak. And he ran into, what was it, a big puddle or something like that? And there was a beggar and he laid down his cloak. No, no, he gave the cloak to the beggar. I'm mixing it up with another saying, who laid the thing off to the beggar who brought the cross. That's another story. He cut his military cloak in half to give to the beggar who was cold. And the beggar turned out to be Christ. And he
[11:10]
had a very powerful, sort of like a Pauline, powerful experience. And got himself baptized. He had been a catechumen for a long time. Got himself baptized and got himself out of the military by, which at this time would be called conscientious objector status. He did it back then. They let him out. And once he was released from military service, he went to a person who was famous. You'll see Hillary with two L's and one L. I didn't like to look to this way, so I put on the one. He went to Hillary of Poitiers, who was famous at that time in Gaul. And Hillary gave him minor orders. And they were forced into
[12:13]
exile. While he was with Hillary, they were forced into exile because of what was going to become a broken record. Why did they go into exile? Take a guess. Why would they pick up and move? Our Aryan invasion. Good. Although here it's an invasion already, but it's more of the Aryan controversy. But most of the Aryans were at Babani. So they had to get out of there because the Aryans got control at that time of Hillary's area. They had a short life, but they had to move away. And they went to a monastery near Milan. And then they went to an island, the island of Gallinaria near Genoa. You can also see that on your map there. Gallinaria, the island of Gallinaria is just the one up from Lerane. You see it? Remember where Lerane is just
[13:20]
central. Okay. And then in the year 360, they rolled back into charge, back in charge of the Poitiers area. So Hillary and Martin went back to Poitiers. And Martin originally founds the monastery of Vigouges, which is just near Poitiers, remember. It's just what, southwest? Yeah, southwest Poitiers. Very, very famous and important monastery, Vigouges. It's considered really the oldest monastery in Gaul. Not necessarily the oldest monastic group that might have been living, but the oldest monastery extant in Gaul. It's a little bit before Lerane. But he wasn't in his monastery very long because, as is typical with these great monastic founders,
[14:23]
they made him a bishop. They made him the bishop of Tours. And so he founds the monastery of Marmoutier as a bishop. And he lives there, at the monastery of Marmoutier. They didn't have a particular rule there. They didn't have a clearly defined rule like we saw with the Picomias. It was a rather strict life. Outside of prayers and meals, you had to be in your cell. You had to be in the cell. So obviously it was the spirituality of the cell that was very, very important. And they wore very rough clothing, like they had in the eastern desert experience. Sort of like hides and things. And there was no manual labor
[15:28]
in Martin's monastery. The younger monks did transcription work, transcribing books, translating and transcribing. And the older monks lived totally exclusively in contemplation, in the cell. Once in a while, they did pastoral work. Once in a while. Remember, he's a bishop. Once in a while, somebody's going to say, hey, actually he himself was a very active bishop. But once in a while, he called upon his monks to do a little work on some pastoral speaking. He worked an awful lot just in catechesis and converting. I mean, this area now, this is not necessarily a Christian area. It's Christian and pagan. And various barbarian groups throughout
[16:32]
the years and Aryans are still there. So he basically became a rural missionary. He devoted himself to taking care of the lower classes, giving them a fair shake, and converting pagans, trying to eradicate the remnants of paganism in the Roman province of Gaul. This is a quote from Monceau, M-O-N-C-E-A-U-L. This would be in your biography, Monceau. Quote, he was a simple, forceful, hard-working man, obstinate, strong-willed, right-minded, a slave to duty, a very good man, actually, always ready to come to his neighbor's aid. If he became a great apostle, a great bishop, and a great saint, it was because in him,
[17:32]
these simple and strong characteristics were on a heroic scale. And that was the real miracle of his life. The miracle of his destiny was the work of his faith. This is a very charismatic individual. And his example that he gave was infectious. After him, Gaul became filled with ascetics and monks, many of them hearkening to the Bishop of Tours, to St. Martin. His fame spread far and wide, especially because somebody, Sopiceus Severus, wrote the Vita Martini. This is not a canned alcoholic beverage. This is the life of Martin. And guess what this life is modeled on. The life of Martin. And you're going to see this all, you know, directly, you're going to see
[18:37]
the same miracles, some of the same sayings. It just becomes the standard way to write the biography of a saint. Or you fill in the blanks. The structure is there and you fill in the blanks. This particular life has lots and lots and lots of miracle stories about Martin's life, and paranormal occurrences and supernatural events surrounding his life, which helped to make him famous already in his lifetime. This is a quote from the Vita Martini. It's a nice quote. He even showed his prowess in the face of emperors. As Valentinian emperor refused to receive him in audience, Martin entered the palace as if it were his own.
[19:43]
He went straight up to the master of the world, and as the latter did not deign to rise in honor of the name of God, his seat was covered with fire, and the emperor was burnt in that part of his body that sat upon it. Unquote. He burned his butt. He actually is one of the most popular saints of all time. In France today there are over 3,900 parishes named Saint Martin. Incredibly popular saint throughout the centuries. Often the monasteries to come in these next few centuries that we're going to be entering in our look at Western monasticism, often when they built a monastery the first chapel was named Chapel Saint Martin. So the first place of worship for the monastery became a tradition.
[20:46]
Anything at all about Saint Martin's tour? Would any of these places have ruins next to it, or none of them would be still standing? I don't know if Ligujet is. Yeah? Yeah. But I don't know contemporary history of all these old places of which, how many ruins are still there. Now we're going to be talking about the Rannes. The Rannes is now a Cistercian house. I'll give you some history, but it was all kinds of things throughout the centuries. These places would be the same buildings that were built for a thousand years? Well, rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt. You know, like Cremantilly. We've gone through so many buildings. Lots of fires over the centuries. And then later on for the places that, you know, these old stone places, as you got to modern times, they wanted to insulate them and put in wood and stuff like that.
[21:50]
So there are very few that you have as the original, what originally was there. Often you have monastic foundations in later centuries being placed on the spots of the famous ancient ruins, that type of thing. Like Cluny, huh? You can still see the ruins of Cluny, what was left after the French Revolution. There's part of an apse still standing and whatnot. Well, not too far from Cluny is Taizé. Monastic foundation. It's not right on the property, but it's very close to it. And you can see that a lot. Sort of like refreshing the monastic memory tradition. This is not the St. Martin of... This isn't Father Martin's picture.
[22:51]
He's Martin IV. But this is the famous monastic Martin. Okay. Le Rhin is kind of... We're not talking about an island. It's not a city. It's not an island as such. It's like a whole archipelago of little islands. Okay? So a whole grouping of little islands. Marshland and islands. Maybe somewhat similar to the Venetian Lagoon. Venice and all those islands around, you know? That make Venice as such. But a little more marshy than that. It was in the province of Gallia, Narbonensis. So it was part of Gaul, and it was in the Narbonne section. You see in your map where it is.
[23:55]
It's right near a very famous area in southern France nowadays. You just look at those words near. Marseille, Nice, Cannes. We're talking Riviera. There was no Riviera in those days. This is Provence, basically, that we're talking about. This was no Riviera. Actually, at this time, it was Greek property. Greek priests owned this. Owned the area of southern France. Because Greece had spread out little settlements all along the coastline. Because they were a maritime civilization. And this one, at this time, is still Greek. In the beginning. Okay. At that time, it was a pretty dismal place.
[24:58]
I mean, there weren't Greeks living there as such. It was just like their property. Because no one really wanted to live there. People lived in cities nearby. In Marseille, in Nice. Which basically were not Christian cities at this time. Sort of a mixture. And this was sort of a marshland, swamp area on the coast of southern France. And it was infested with snakes. And the early monastics who went there worked quite a while killing snakes. And cutting swamp and channeling water. Just like the Cistercians did in the woods. Clear the land. Drain the ditches. Get some irrigation. There you go. That whole thing. And Honoratus was the founder.
[25:59]
He died in 429. He was the founder of Nara. And he was from Galia. Also, you know, the province of Galia. The Galia Belgica. So he was from the Belgian area of what was then the province of Galia. He founded it about the year 410. I'm not quite sure. It could be 409. It could be 411. He founded it after he went on a trip. Guess where he went? Egypt. He went to the deserts in northern Egypt. And saw the ascetics living there. And this is after the origin is controversial. So he's going there in sort of a peaceful time. Well, peaceful before the whole place is slaughtered. But it's not in a religious uproar right now.
[27:00]
He didn't go through Zionism. Huh? He didn't go through Zionism. No. No. Mostly ladies went with him. When he came back from Egypt, he went to this area with a group. And they started this foundation. First they had to work hard just physically clearing the place. And getting it a bit civilized. And he formed a type of monasticism which combined hermits and cenobites. Little small groups of cenobites living in huts. And hermits living in huts. And they're also associated like a laura. But some of them are living together. And others are living alone. Like it's as if some of our cells would have three or four lungs to them. That type of thing. And that was the setup at first. The first setup.
[28:00]
It's cold. It began to attract others who liked that idea. And the reputation went out. And they started having clusters of these huts all over these islands along the coast. So that the whole area became like a big cluster of huts. All along the coast there. And Oroatos, who had really become famous by that time, became the bishop of Oro. Which is north of Nara. Oro. And he was... As bishop, Oro becomes a place where monk after monk after monk becomes bishop. It's like this Laran Foundation. This Laran area was constantly filling the bishopric up there.
[29:03]
So they had a whole series of monastic bishops. Like we've seen happen elsewhere. Syria. Some in Palestine. The Palestine situation. Cappadocia. But the first one who succeeded him at Oro was Hillary. This is another Hillary now. Hillary of Laran. Or Hillary of Oro. He followed Oroatos as bishop. Which was really a problem. Because he was a zealot. And he was a real fiery temper and excitable individual. And even the Pope had to come down on him twice. Personally. Had to censure him personally for things he was doing.
[30:03]
He was too... He was like an eight out of control. In the Enneagram. Very, very authoritarian. Sort of like... Who's the figure reader? Or by mention the... Patton. They gave the classic number eight edge. General Patton. That's what he was in Oro. And caused a lot of problems. Still, later on, monk after monk after monk from Laran became the bishop. Wow. What is it? Well, at that time, it could be any number of things. It could be a political move. It could be designating your own successor and it being accepted. It could be by popular acclaim. The people... Remember like Augustine was forced into ordination? In the late 390s in North Africa. All kinds of things were happening at this time. The people were more in charge of the church at that time. Than the hierarchy. I mean, it's both and. But the people had a lot more say. About things like that. That will end shortly.
[31:05]
Was there much of a diocesan clergy at this time? Or was it basically a monastic? Existence of the church? In Gaulia? In Gaul, it's going to be more monastic in the beginning. Whereas in other parts of the empire, you have... Certainly have diocesan clergy. Who are the main ones in control. But certainly in Syria. Also in Egypt. Italy. But still monasticism at this point is pretty much a layman. Except for Augustine's thing. Augustine's thing was the clerical thing. Most of these monks are lay people. And the great figures often will have orders and whatnot. And every monastery will have some in orders. They're not a grouping of priests and such. And if you are a priest, sometimes you get pulled out of your monastery to become a bishop. So a lot of monks at this time did not take orders in order to stay in the monastery. We'll see that just a couple of generations down.
[32:11]
Where that becomes an issue. The last thing they want is orders. So is the church being spread basically by a monastic movement into that part of the empire? At least this area. Later on, the British Isles also. And there you have two monastic movements. You have the Celtic monasticism and the Roman monasticism. Meaning, head out in some countries. The reason I bring up Hillary is that even though he was a bad, naughty zoot in the Pope's mind, he wrote The Life of Honoratius, which is a famous monastic biography. And helped spread Leran's kind of monasticism. By the holy acts and life of Honoratius.
[33:13]
Two great abbots, famous abbots, succeeded Honoratius. Now we're back to Leran. We're out of the city and the bishop business. We're back to the monastic grouping in Leran. And the two that are the famous ones who followed him are 1. Maximus, who died in 460. And Faustus, Abbot Faust, who died in 485. And Faust, he saw Leran as sort of in a military framework. He saw it as the battleground with the demons. We're back to the desert again, huh? And he saw it as a training camp for getting ready to do battle with the demons. Oh, we've seen that before. But I mean, he brings that out in his writings.
[34:17]
He was a theologian. He was a very well-educated man who came to Leran to live in the wilds there. Of course, by this time, it's not so much wilds. It's fairly civilized. And he started building buildings and whatnot. He was also a diplomat. Very highly cultured person. This is Abbot Faustus. One of the neat things for Leran at this time is where everybody else in the Empire seems to be having problems off and on with barbarians. Or religious heresies taking over the area. One or the other, or both at the same time, as in the Aryan case. Leran escaped this, pretty much. At this time, they didn't have it. There were no barbarians near Leran at this time. The barbarians didn't want Leran. It's still swampy.
[35:19]
It's still a pretty wild place at that time. But we'll see some barbarians down the line. I'm going to give you a number of historical highlights of the history of Leran after a couple more minutes. But at least for this time, the beginning century of the foundation, they don't have to worry about that kind of hassle. Where everybody else is getting slaughtered, or exiled, or in and out of their monasteries, depending on who's in charge of the territory at any given moment. An amazing thing happened at Leran. What I'm getting into now is what makes Leran, for its time, monastically, very important. And that is, a large number of intellectuals gathered at Leran. Monastics who happened to be well-educated before they got there.
[36:22]
And they stressed on the study of scripture, and the fathers of the church, patristic studies, as well as the ancient classics. And they had a vibrant intellectual climate there. So all the monks who went there were schooled in this. Read the fathers, and read... Well, for the 5th century, that's real good. They're doing real good. And they become known as that, like a monastic intellectual. And it's off in the swamps, you know, off in the wild. But they had the intellectual slant. And they actually had a school there to teach even the rudiments of education to the children of the area. Now their main intellectual and educative energies went into their own monks, the formation of their own monks. But on the side, some of them were also teaching the children of the area.
[37:29]
Many monastic foundations now, during the next couple of centuries, even Celtic monks, are going to be sent to Leran for some edumacation. And so Leran's type of monastic culture, and the way of being a monk, is going to spread by all of these monks coming in, doing their education there, the monastic formation, Lerinsian style. You'll run into this adjective, Lerinsian, what that means, Leran, Lerinsian. This Lerinsian education and intellectual perspective. And they're going to take that back to their monasteries, and are going to affect the ways their monasteries are developing. Just a half century down the line, and continuing.
[38:34]
In that line, also, Leran became very, very important to the church. Not just because a number of its monks were elected or called forth to be bishops throughout the southern Gaul area, but because bishops sent their seminarians there, their clerics, to study. Because these monks had something really great, and they were covering all the bases. Scripture, patristics, history, and the classics. And so, many, many future abbots, bishops, some popes, did their studies in this little grouping of islands in the marshes, in southern France, Leran. And Leran became, throughout monastic history, sort of a pyramid. And you'd look back on, like one of those golden moments in monastic history.
[39:43]
Like the early years of the Cistercians, the early years of Cluny, Leran's experience, St. John's Abbey in the 1960s, early 1960s in America. And there's a number of these golden moments. Leran was one of them in monastic history. Many, many educators and missionaries who later went out throughout, not just Gaul, but throughout the then empire, were educated at Leran. Some of these great people who went to this school, or who went and studied there, were Hilary of Arles. Well, he became, he's one of the early ones. He became the bishop who followed Omeratus at Arles. The one who got in trouble with the popes. Vincent of Leran.
[40:46]
Faustus of Rietz. See if you know any of these. You wouldn't know any of those. I don't either. And many British abbots. And Caesarius of Arles. Caesarius of Arles. You'll notice that the fourth element we treat in Gallican Gnosticism will be Caesarius of Arles. He becomes the bishop of Arles, but he's a monk before that. And his basic formation is Leransian. And he will write a rule that becomes very, very important. Caesarius. We'll treat him a couple weeks down the road. Leransian education particularly spread to Britain and Ireland.
[41:53]
Mainly northern Britain. So the whole Celtic monastic climate is affected, education-wise, by Lerans. Anything before I give you a series of historical highlights about Lerans? Were they beginning to think by this point that the monastic life was not just a way of preparing for the coming Pharisee, but that they might actually be building some sort of civilization? Oh, definitely. That's certainly Leransian. They knew what they were doing. We can't really pinpoint where that shift took place, but one would think that if they were spending all this time and energy creating a culture, they weren't going to build that up if they thought the end of the world was going to come very soon. Right. The same thing is sort of happening, remember, in Cappadocia with Brazilian monasticism. But here it's more like they know they're teaching future bishops, future missionaries, future political leaders.
[43:01]
They know. And they know that they're spreading a certain word, a certain emphasis of civilization. And we're going to see it much more important down the line in the Temple Shrine in Benedictine, and that whole business. In the Carolingian experience, it becomes very evident. I mean, that's what it's all about. At this time, you see the roots of that. And again, notice it's the same general area. I mean, you have to go up north a bit. Same general area. Well, we'll remember in Syria, too, huh? Even those Syrian ascetics, the ones that began living in buildings and stuff, they started also the whole education thing, too, especially through the influence of... Echo! Echo! That means they've hidden them all today. Excellent. You wanted to say Isaac? I didn't quite get that. Okay.
[44:04]
So, just historical highlights. It's founded at about 410 by Onoratus. And during these early years, we're not necessarily talking about monasteries having independence. Like, if you have a monastic foundation, you're under the bishop in that area. I mean, that's understood. Okay? This is early times. So that ecclesiastically, you're under a bishop. You have to deal with the bishop in the area and whatnot. We don't know if exemption is such yet. Well, Faustus, Abbot Faust, actually got Lorraine exemption way ahead of his time. Through the council of Arles, he got monastic independence.
[45:05]
I mean, officially stated. Lorraine was hands-off. Nobody touches Lorraine. Okay? This is nice and early for that. We're going to see this become issues later on, down the centuries. Here, it's dealt with in the 5th century at Lorraine. Which seems to indicate, don't you think, that there were some problems already? Maybe that Faustus was saying, eh, we don't need this. They're not going to come in here and tell us how to teach or what to teach. There must have been something going on. Some kind of tensions. That he would take it to a church council and make it quite clear that hands-off. Lorraine? To the council of Arles. So it's no longer under any bishop. Oh, I don't know. I didn't study the acts of the council of Arles. But all I know is he got it done.
[46:07]
Or however he did it. Sometimes these things aren't through any great effort. It's like he slips money under the table or whatever. But at least he got it done. I'm not saying Faust did that. But we know what church history is, certainly. It's still done. Yes, it's true. Emanuele told me. In the year 575, the rule of Benedict is first brought to Lorraine. Brought by a monk named St. Virgil. He was Virgil at that time. He became St. Virgil later on. In the year 601, so what have we got? We're almost down two centuries. 601, this monk, Abbot Conan, or Chonan.
[47:14]
Conan. Conan. The Bulgarian. Conan the Bulgarian. He reforms Lorraine. Suddenly, in 601, Lorraine needs reformation. Well, this is going to be a constant theme throughout Gnostic history. Already gets to a point where it means it's gotten loose and ragged, and they need reformation. 601. In 658, a very famous English, I think Anglo-Saxon, monk, founder, Abbot Benedict Biscop, he is at Lorraine. We know he was there at that time, for a period. Okay, in the year 732, very sad moment for the history of Lorraine. And that is, remember now, Lorraine is a group of islands. More than one monastery.
[48:17]
One main big monastery, but other buildings, other settlements. St. Porcarius, so Porky. That's what it means. Piggy. Abbot Piggy. Who was Conan then? Abbot Piggy and 500... The Saracens. The Saracens, they were the particular group of Islamists who came up through... North Africa and Spain. But in 754, a famous emperor, Pepin the Short. Isn't that the Pepin that did the musical? He restored Lorraine. Yeah, so we're like, for 20 years, 22 years, there is no Lorraine. I mean, nobody's there. We're dead. But he brings it back in 754. You don't need to remember all these dates, you know.
[49:20]
I'm just sort of giving you a nice flow. Isn't Pepin the Short the father? Huh? Isn't Pepin the Short the father? Oh, I don't remember which Pepin it is. One of them Pepins was Pippin. Well, that... But they did that... It really was Pepin, wasn't it? They just changed it, made it Pippin, just like a nickname that was used. Yeah. I thought, I don't know. Yeah. In the years 812 to 838, you get a whole... So, you know, another 20-year period where they have Saracen raid after Saracen raid. Waves of them in ships are coming through and doing what havoc they can. So, you know, even though they escaped the invasions in the early history, they certainly had it in the 7th and 8th and 9th centuries. In the year 978, Pope Benedict VII attaches Lorraine to Cluny.
[50:29]
So, he puts it as part of the Cluniac Reformation. This is... Now we're talking about, you know, Benedictine. It becomes Benedictine as such. In a more formal way. We still don't have a Benedictine order. But you have, as you'll see in the centuries, especially through Benedict-Agnan, in the Carolingian experience, you have the rule of Benedict becoming the main rule among many that are being used throughout the empire for these various monastics. And that becomes a standard. And then you have the growth of what becomes the Benedictine family. Well, Lorraine did have the rule of Benedict brought to them in what was 4 or 5 something. 75, whatever it was. By Saint Virgil. But they didn't become... I mean, they were always independent during this time.
[51:31]
Suddenly in 978, they become part of Cluny. And so, the abbot... I remember that Cluny has a whole series of five very saintly abbots. And one not so saintly. And Myol, or Majolos, is one of those saints. One of the five great abbots of Cluny. He, at that time, was abbot of Cluny. He became the abbot of Naran, also. At that time. With that move by the Pope. In the year... Yes? Did the Muslims come just to wipe out Christianity? Or did they... Oh, sometimes it's just... Take stuff. Yeah. A lot like the Viking ways, also. A lot of it wasn't religious. It was just booty. Grab some booty. In the year 1047, speaking of Islam, the Saracens destroy, totally, Naran.
[52:32]
And the monks are not slaughtered. They're all carted off and made slaves. What a colorful history, huh? In the year 1094, Pope Urban II, who is a Cluniac, who is a monk, a former monk of Cluny, through the Benedictine Pope, grants Naran exemption. So it gets independent again. Hands off Naran again. And so, you know, obviously, though the monks were carted off to slavery and was destroyed, they rebuilt and started up again. Otherwise he wouldn't be giving exemption to a pile of rubble. You know, there's people living there. So, you know, that's how you know these things. It's a nice gesture. Yeah. In the years 1073, so 20 years before
[53:37]
that Cluniac Pope gives exemption, they started rebuilding. Okay? And we know it took them almost 20 years to rebuild the place, building a big monastery and a church. When they're exempt, does that mean exempt from Cluny? Exempt from other ecclesiastical powers. So they're independent now. Yeah. And in the year 1102, the exemption comes in stages. I mean, I don't have down here what they were exempt from. It usually means from Bishop. But also in certain instances it can mean even from the Pope. Even from the Pope. That happens on occasion in monastic history. It can also mean at certain times what they mean by this. They're totally hands-off to any of the lay rulers around the area who want their hands on the money and the grain and the wine, etc. Well, in the year 1102,
[54:39]
Pope Paschal II, who was another monk, ex-monk Pope, strengthened their exemption, gave them even more exemption. Jumping 200 years, in the year 1377, Pope Gregory IX escapes to Lorraine, hides out in Lorraine. I don't remember where he's hiding from. Who? Pope Gregory IX, 11th, excuse me. Pope Gregory XI. In the year 1464, I'm going to, a couple of these words we're going to meet down the line. Since we're doing a historical thing, we're going to run into them. 1464, Isnard de Grasse becomes the first commendatory abbot. Does anyone know what a commendatory abbot is? Is he a lay person? Or an ecclesiastical person
[55:40]
who is getting control of the financial life. Just. I mean, they never live there, they never function as abbot or anything, they just get the money. And superstitions have problems with that. Yeah. That's what a commendatory abbot is. Okay? In 1490, you have Lorraine at the apex of its power. 1490. It has 80 foundations. So it's like the big mother house of a huge group. And sort of modeled on Cluny. Because it was Cluniac for a while. That's not just at the archipelago, is it? Is that around various places? Southern France also, yeah. Not just the islands, no. In the year 1502, Cluny tries to reform again. But it doesn't work, huh? It doesn't work.
[56:41]
Cluny's gone through its heyday. So they're still seen as a Cluniac, even though they have exemption. They're still seen as like a Cluniac beacon of light, also. The same reformation. Really, they take over where Cluny went wrong. In the year 1515, Lorraine attaches itself to another congregation. The congregation in Padua. St. Justina. In Padua. Very famous. We'll be seeing that down the line. So there's another reformation movement in a congregation of St. Justina, Padua. And they attach themselves to that. In the year 1522, Pope Adrian VI escapes to Lorraine, hides out in Lorraine. I don't remember what he's running from, whether it's political or religious. 1522, don't remember.
[57:44]
In the year 1524, two years down the road, Spain conquers Lorraine. It becomes Hispanic. For a little while. In the next year, 1525, the King Francis I escapes and hides out in Lorraine. Are we seeing a pattern here, or what? Jumping a century, 1635, Spain owns Lorraine again. Spain likes Lorraine for some reason. And they occupy it. They don't just own it, they occupy it. Again in the 1630s and 40s, Lorraine is attached to Cluny. The St. Maur, so the Maurist, slant Clunyan reformation. In 1740, it's attached to the
[58:48]
Cassanese slant Cluniac movement. Now we're going to see all these things down the line, of how monasticism is going through its various reorganizations and reformations and whatnot. In the year 1788, that should give you a clue right there. 1788, bleak day for monasticism. It's secularized. It's like almost everything else in the entire world, monasticism. It's secularized. Jumping almost a century, in 1859, a bishop buys the island, the main island of Lorraine. There is a main island of Lorraine. And ten years later, he gives that island to a group of Cistercians from Senanque. Senanque. So it becomes, for the first time, Cistercian. And in the year 1933, these Cistercians at Lorraine
[59:51]
make four foundations in the world. One of them being Rougemont. Rougemont. Does anyone know where Rougemont is? What country? Close. Quebec. Quebec. Rougemont is a fascinating foundation in Quebec. It's not Trappist. It's Cistercian. It was Trappist as such. I met the novice master from Rougemont at Epiphany. He stopped in... He's doing a doctorate in Catholic Healer Liturgy. 1943,
[60:56]
the community needs to evacuate. The war? Yeah, the war. And the Germans occupy Lorraine. 1943, the monks hide out in the city of Cannes where the Cannes Festival was. Bitch. And the year 1944, and our time is up, monastic life is re-established in Lorraine, and today it exists with Cistercians at Lorraine. We'll start with John Cash and then next Wednesday.
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