Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T03:44:31.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘Austin's Labour’: Patterns of Governance in Medieval Augustinian Monasticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Darrel R. Reinke
Affiliation:
Chairman of the North Fremont Center for Local History, Aston, Idaho.

Extract

In Chaucer's portrait of the monk, we are given the image of a lord prior who took the “modern way,” especially in regard to monastic rules.

The rule of good Saint Benet or Saint Maur,

As old and strict, he tended to ignore;…

he let go by the things of yesterday,

and took the modern world's more spacious way…

Must he toil, as Austin bade and till the very soil?

Was he to leave the world upon the shelf?

Let Austin have his labour to himself.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Based on the evidence discussed below, the reference to “Augustinian monasticism” assumes a substantial degree of continuity among canonical, monastic, and mendicant followers of Augustine and his rule. In addition to the literature cited below, see Zumkeller, Adolar, Die Augustinerschule des Mitteralters: Vertreter und Philosophisch-Theologische Lehre,” Anatecla Augustiana 27 (1964): 167262;Google ScholarMayer, Cornelius Patrus and Eckermann, Willigis, eds., Scientia Augustiniana: Studien über Augustinus, den Augustinismus und den August nerorden (Würzburg, 1975).Google Scholar

2. On the history of the Rule of Augustine, see Verheijen, Lucien, La rèie de saint Augustin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1976).Google Scholar See also Hackett, M. B., “The Rule of Augustine and Recent Criticism,” The Tagastan 20 (1958): 4350;Google ScholarHartling, Ludwig, “Augustinusregel und Augustinerorden,” Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 54 (1930): 335359;Google ScholarZumkeller, Adolar, Zur handschriftlichen Uberlieferung und ursprunglichen Textgestaltung der Augustinusregel,” Augustiniana 11(1961): 425433.Google Scholar

3. On the early histories of the Augustinian Hermits, see Arbesmann's, Rudolph introduction to Liber Vitasfratrum (New York, 1943);Google Scholar also Arbesmann, , “Henry of Friemar's Treatise on the Origin and Development of the Order of the Hermit Friars and its True and Real Title,” Augustiana 4 (1956): 37145;Google Scholar“The ‘vita Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi’ in Cod. Laurent. Plut. 90 sup. 48,” Traditio 18 (1962): 319355;Google Scholar“Jordanus of Saxony's Vita S. Augustini: The Source of John Capgrave's Life of St. Augustine,” Traditio 1 (1943).Google Scholar

4. Recent scholarship has identified the three versions as follows: Praeceptum, the text most likely to have originated with Augustine; Ordo monasterii, considered by Verheijen to be a redaction by Alypius; Regula sororum, a rule for nuns, appended to Augustine's semon 211 (PL 33; 458–465). The common twelfth-century text combines phrases of the Ordo monasterii with the Praeceptum; for recent critical editions, see Verheijen, , Larègle de saint Augustin, pp. 417437;Google ScholarLiber Vitasfratrum, pp. 491–504.

5. In addition to Verheijen, see O'Carroll, James, “Monastic Rules in Merovingian Gaul,” Studies 92 (1953): 407419;Google ScholarPrinz, Friedrich, Frühes Mönchtum im Frankenreich: Kulturund Gesellschaft in Gallien, den Rheinlanden und Bayern am Beispiel der monastischen Eniwicklung (Vienna, 1965).Google Scholar

6. See Dickenson, John, The Origins of the Austin Canons and Their Introduction into England (London, 1950);Google ScholarLadner, Gerhard B., The Idea of Reform (New York, 1967), pp. 385402.Google Scholar

7. On this point, see especially Vogue, Adelbert de, “Sub Regula vel Abbate,” Rule and Life (Spencer, Mass., 1975), pp. 21631,Google Scholar and La communauté et l'abb dans la règle de saint Benoit (Paris, 1960), pp. 78186;Google ScholarSalmon, Dom Pierre, OSB The Abbot in Monastic Tradition (Washington, 1972), pp. 333.Google Scholar Also, Brown, Peter, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,” Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971): 80101;CrossRefGoogle ScholarGraus, F., “Die Gewalt bei den Anfangen des Feudalismus und die ‘Gefrangenenbefreiungen” der merowingischen Hagiographie,” Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte 1 (1961): 61156.Google Scholar

8. Zimmerman, Odo John, OSB, ed., St. Gregory the Great: Dialogues (New York, 1958).Google Scholar In a recent study, Kailius Hallinger has argued that Gregory did not even know the Rule of Benedict as he wrote his sketch of Benedict in the Dialogues: Hallinger, Kallius, “Papst Gregor der Grosse und der hl. Benedikt,” Studia Anselmiana 42 (1957): 231319.Google Scholar There is a brief note on this issue by Knowles, David, The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 750752.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. The text of the Aachen chapters may be found in Hallinger, Kallius, ed., Corpus Consuetudinem Monasticarum, 2 vols. (Siegburg, 1963) 1: 451453.Google Scholar For a discussion of the Aachen chapters, see Semmler, Josef, “Die BeschiOsse des Aachener Konzils im Jahre 816,” Zeitscrift für Kirchengeschichte 74 (1963): 1582.Google Scholar More broadly, see Hallinger, Kallius, Gorze-Kluny: Studien zu den monastischen Lebensformen und Gegensatzen im Hochmittelalter, 2 vols. (Rome, 1950).Google Scholar

10. PL 105: 805–954. See Dickenson, Austin Canons.

11. See Ladner, , Idea of Reform, 385.Google Scholar

12. See especially Dereine, Charles, “Vie Commune, règle de Saint Augustin et canonoines réguliers au XIe Siècle,” Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique 41 (1946): 365406.Google Scholar

13. PL 163: 703–704. Cited from Dickenson, Austin Canons, p. 165.Google Scholar For a list of early canonical customaries, see Dereine, Charles, “Coutumiers et ordinaires de chanoines réguliers,” Scriptorium 5 (1951): 107113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Martene, Edmond, ed., “Antiquae consuetudines canonicorum regularium S. Victoris Parisiensis,” De antiquis ecciesie ritibus (Antwerp, 1763) 3: 253291; 265266.Google Scholar

15. PL 163, pp. 496–497. See Dickenson, , Austin Canons, pp. 207208Google Scholar.

16. Constable, Giles and Smith, B., eds., Libellus de diversis ordinibus et professzonzbus qui sunt in aecclesia (Oxford, 1972), p. 73.Google Scholar

17. See Dereine, Charles, “Les coutumiers de Saint-Quentin de Beauxais et de Springiersbach,” Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique 43 (1948): 411442;Google ScholarSaint-Ruf et ses coutumes aux XI et XII siècles,” Revue Benedictine 59 (1949): 161182;Google ScholarPauly, Ferdinand, “Die Consuetudines von Springiersbach,” Trierer Theologische Zeitccrzft 67 (1959): 106111.Google Scholar The following is based primarily upon two customaries: Clark, John W., ed., The Observances in Use at the Augustinian Priory of S. Cites and St. Andrew at Barnwell, Cam bndgeshire (Cambridge, 1897);Google Scholar and Siegwart, Joseph, ed., Die Consuetudines des Augustiner Chorherrenstiftes Marbach im Eliass (Fribourg, 1965).Google Scholar

18. This is the view of Hallinger, , Corze-Kluny, pp. 870872.Google Scholar See also Constable, Giles, “Monastic Legislation at Cluny in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries,” in Stephen Kuttner, ed., Monumenta iuris Canonici: Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law (Vatican, 1976), pp. 151161.Google Scholar

19. See the introductory notes by Clark, John W., Barnwell, pp. xxxiiixxxiv;Google Scholar and Siegwart, Joseph, Marbach, pp. 5051.Google Scholar

20. Clark, , Barn well, p. 31.Google Scholar

21. See the discussion by Siegwart, , “Die ‘consuetudo’ als Ergänzung zur Regel,” Marbach, pp. 312, 103.Google Scholar

22. Clark, , Barn well, p. 43.Google Scholar

23. Siegwart Marbach, pp. 252–253.

24. This point draws, in particular, upon Knowles, David, From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders (Oxford, 1966), pp. 4958.Google Scholar Also Brooke, Rosalind B., The Coming of the Friars (London, 1975), pp. 89113.Google Scholar

25. On the early history of the Augustinian Friars, see especially Roth, Francis, “Cardinal Richard Annibaldi, First Protector of the Augustinian Order, 1243–1276: A Study of the Order before and after the Great Union of 1256”, Augustiniana. 2 (1952): 2660, 108149, 230247; 3 (1953):Google Scholar 21–34, 283–313; 4 (1954): 1–24. Also Kunzelmann, Adalbero, Geschichte der deutschen Augustiner-Ermiten, 2 vols. (Würzburg, 1970) 1: 1037.Google Scholar

26. Canstitutiones fratrum heremitorum Sancti Augustini (Venice, 1508).Google Scholar On the Augustinian Constitution, see Kunzelmann, , Geschichte, 1: 238253;Google ScholarGavotto, R., “The General and the Congregations in the O.S.A”. Analecta Augustiniana 35 (1972): 305372.Google Scholar

27. Expositio in regulam beati Augustini, PL 176: 881–924. The authorship has been discussed by Baron, Roger, “Hugues de saint-Victor est ii l'auteur d'un commentaire de Ia règle de saint Augustin?Recherche de science religieuse 43 (1955): 342360.Google Scholar There is a useful list of twelfth-century canonical and monastic commentaries in Caroline Bynum, W., “The Spirituality of Regular Canons in the Twelfth Century: A New Approach”, Medievalia et Humanistica 4 (1974): 324.Google Scholar Dominican Commentaries on the Rule of Augustine have been surveyed by Creytens, Raymundus, “Les commentateurs de la règle de s. Augustin du XIIe au XVIe siècle”, Archivum fratrum Praedicatorum 33 (1963): 121157; 34 (1964):Google Scholar 107–153; 35 (1965): 21–66; 36 (1966): 263–312.

28. Colker, M.C., “Richard of St. Victor and the Anonymous of Bridlington”, Traditio 18 (1962): 181227.Google Scholar

29. Penelope, Sister, ed., The Bridlington Dialogue: An Exposition of the Rule of Augustine for the Life of the Clergy (London, 1960).Google Scholar

30. PL 198: 439–610. See Bulloch, James, Adam of Dryborgh (London, 1958).Google Scholar

31. Especially useful are the following:Rhodes, James M., “Catalogue of the Library of the Augustinian Friars at York”, Fasciculus J. Willis Clark dictatus (Cambridge, 1909), pp. 296;Google ScholarStahleder, Erich, Die Handschriften der Augustinereremiten und weltgeistlichen in der Ehemahigen Reichsstadt Windsheim (Wurzburg, 1963), pp.3593;Google ScholarGutierrez, David, “De antiquis ordinis eremitarum Sancti Augustini bibliothecis”, Analecta Augustiniana 23 (1954): 164323;Google ScholarZumkeller, Adolar, Manuskripte von Werken der Autoren des Augustiner Eremienordens in mittleuropaeichen Biblitheken (Würzburg, 1966).Google Scholar

32. Analecta Augustiniana 2: 295–296. See the discussion by Humphreys, Kenneth William, The Book Provisions of the Medieval Friars, 1215–1400 (Amsterdam, 1964), pp. 6776.Google Scholar

33. Analecta Augustiniana 16: 616.

34. Analecta Augustiniana 3: 79.

35. Mattioli, P. Nicola, ed., Antologia Augostiniana, Vol. IV: Gli Evangelii B. Simone Da Cascia, Exposti in volgare dal suo Discepolo Fra Giovanni da Salerno (Rome, 1902).Google Scholar

36. Arbesmann, Liber Vitasfratrum.

37. The 1508 editon of the constitution, cited above, is the product of Giles of Viterbo's reform. See Martin, Francis Xavier, OSA, “The Augustinian Order on the Eve of the Reformation”, Miscellanea Historiae Ecclesiasticae (Louvain, 1965) 2: 71104,Google Scholar and “Giles of Viterbo and the Monastery of Lecceto: The Making of a Reformer”, Analecta Augustiniana 25 (1962): 225253;Google ScholarKolde, Theodor, Die deutsche Augustiner-Congregation und Johann von Staupitz (Gotha, 1879).Google Scholar

38. PL 176: 881, 924, 920, 921, 919, 922.

39. Bridlington Dialogue, p. 71.

40. PL 176: 921, 884, 899–900, 911, 893–894, 898. On the theme of teaching by example in canonical literature, see Bynum, , “Spirituality of Regular Canons”, pp. .324.Google Scholar

41. “De habitu exteriori et interiori”, PL 176: 897–898; 887, 889, 899, 924.

42. Southern, R.W., The Making of the Middle Ages (New Haven, 1962), p. 151.Google Scholar

43. See the discussion by Brown, Peter, “Society and the Supernatural: A Medieval Change”, Daedalus 104 (1975): 133151.Google Scholar

44. See Knowles, , From Pachomius to Ignatius, pp. 7677.Google Scholar

45. “In the first place, we should follow the life of Christ, which is our instruction; if we have the example of the apostles and other saints, this (the life of Christ) ought to be examined most carefully … Christ the living Son of God is foremost among the brothers and therefore he is the rule and norm of the brothers (regula et mensure fratrum)”. Cited from Steinmetz, David Curtis, Misericordia Dei: The Theology of Johannes von Staupitz in its Late Medieval Setting (Leiden, 1968), p. 139.Google Scholar

46. On the relationship between the mendicant orders and towns, see Freed, John B., The Friars and German Society in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1977);Google ScholarNyhus, Paul L., The Franciscans in Southern Germany, 1400–1530: Reform and Revolution (Philadelphia, 1975).Google Scholar

47. On the complex problem of Luther's relation to the traditions of his order, the editors of the Weimar Edition comment as follows: “Dabei bleibt das Sondergut des Augustinerordens in der Liturgie und im geistlichen Recht—das betrift etwa die gewichtige Obodienzfrage— noch im Dunkeln Denn es darf night zu gering geachtet werden, dass Luther nicht nur durch eigene Lekture, sondern auch im mundlicher Vermittlung an der Bildung seiner Zeit und seiner Umwelt Anteil empfing … Leider bleibt die für Luther nicht unwesentliche monastische Tradition weithin ungreifbar, weil gerade sie in der mundlichen Vermittlung (der Klosteransprachen und der individuellen Seelsorge) am starkesten lebendig war”.WA 55.1.1, pp. 29.