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‘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

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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

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34. Analecta Augustiniana 3: 79.

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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

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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

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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.