Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T18:07:00.969Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Late Roman and Byzantine Legislation on the Monastic Life from the Fourth to the Eighth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Charles A. Frazee
Affiliation:
professor of history inCalifornia State University, Fullerton, California.

Extract

Christian monasticism in the East has three sources: the original rule of the founder or that of a reformer, laws issued by the Roman emperors, and the canons of church councils. The purpose of this article is to study the latter two, which have received little attention in the scholarly work on monastic life. The close association between church and state, unique to the East, made it incumbent upon the leaders of both the secular and religious hierarchies of Byzantium to oversee the development of monasticism from the fourth to the eighth century. Those 400 years mark the first and normative period of legislation dealing with the monastic life.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1982

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. Libanius, of Antioch, , “Oration Two,” in Selected Works, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 2628.Google Scholar Other monastic critics are mentioned in Fliche, Augustin and Martin, Victor, eds., The History of the Church, trans. Messenger, E. (New York, 1949-), vol. 4Google ScholarThe Christian Church in the Roman Empire, ed. Jean Rémy Palanque et al (1956), pp. 491494.Google Scholar Legislation on ascetics was enacted at the local councils of Elvira, Ancyra, and Gangra. See Mansi, Johannes, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, rev. ed., 54 vols. (Graz, 1960), 2: 25, 513521, 10951100.Google Scholar

2. Sozomen, , History of the Church 1. 13. 1 (Bidez and Hansen, p. 27);Google ScholarSocrates, , History of the Church 1.11 (Migne, PG67. 101102).Google Scholar

3. Valentinian and Valens to Modestus, Praetorian Prefect, 1 January 370, in The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitution, ed. Pfarr, Clyde (Princeton, 1952), p. 351;Google ScholarCassian, , Collationes 18, ed. Pichery, E., Sources chrétiennes 64 (Paris, 1959), pp. 1819.Google Scholar

4. Jerome, , Chronicle, twelfth year of Valens, in Eusebius, Eusebius Werke, ed. Helm, Rudolf (Berlin, 1956), vol.7, Die Chřonik des Hieronymus, p. 248;Google ScholarSocrates, , History 4. 24 (Migne, PG67. 521523).Google Scholar

5. Cassian, , Collationes 18 (Pichery, pp. 2122).Google Scholar

6. See Morison, Ernest F., St. Basil and His Rule (Oxford, 1912);Google ScholarClarke, W. Lowther, The Ascetic Works of St. Basil (London, 1925);Google ScholarNagel, Peter, Die Motivierung der Askese in der alten Kirche und der Ursprung des Mönchtums, Texte und Untersuchungen 45 (Berlin, 1966).Google Scholar

7. Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius to Tatianus, Praetorian Prefect, Theodosian Code 16. 3. 1 (Pfarr, p. 449).Google Scholar See also Rousseau, Philip, Ascetics, Authority, and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian (New York, 1978),Google Scholar for the growth of monastic influence in the later fourth century.

8. Butler, Cuthbert, trans., The Lausiac History of Palladius (Hildesheim, 1967), pp. 419420;Google ScholarFestugière, André-Jean, ed., Historia monachorum in Acgypto, Subsidia hagiographica 53 (Brussels, 1971), pp. 4142.Google Scholar

9. Edict of Theodosius I, 17 April 392, Theodosian Code 16. 3. 2 (Pfarr, p. 449).

10. Arcadius, and Honorius, to Caesarius, , Praetorian Prefect, 26 07 398, Theodosian Code 16. 2. 32 (Pfarr, p. 446).Google Scholar

11. Evagrius, , History of the Church 1. 13 (Bidez and Parmentier, pp. 2123);Google ScholarSozomen, , History 6. 27. 10 (Bidez and Hansen, p. 276);Google ScholarFrend, W.H.C., “The Monks and the Survival of the Eastern Roman Empire,” Past and Present 54 (1972): 610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Arcadius, and Honorius, to Eutychianus, , Praetorian Prefect, 27 07 398, Theodosian Code 9. 40. 16 (Pfarr, p. 257).Google Scholar

13. Socrates, , History 7. 14 and 15 (Migne, PG67. 765769).Google Scholar

14. Ibid., 7. 22 (Migne, PG 67. 785).

15. Theodosius, and Valentinian, to Taurus, , Praetorian Prefect, 15 12 434, Theodosian Code 5. 3. 1 (Pfarr, p. 107).Google Scholar

16. Constantine to the People, 3 July 321 (Pfarr, p. 441).

17. Gratian, , Valentinian, , and Theodosius, to Hypatius, , 9 12 382, Theodosian Code 11. 16. 15 (Pfarr, p. 308).Google Scholar

18. Theodosius, and Valentinian, to Maximus, , Praetorian Prefect, 14 03 441, Novels of the Sainted Valentinian Augustus 10. 2 (Pfarr, p. 525).Google Scholar See also Boyd, William K., The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code, Columbia University Studies in the Social Sciences 63 (New York, 1905), pp. 8284.Google Scholar

19. Ada conciliorum oecumenicorum, ed. Schwartz, Eduard (Berlin and Leipzig, 1922-), vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 355Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Ada). See also Oeding, Leo, “Die Kanones von Chalkedon in ihrer Bedeutung für Mönchtum and Klerus,” in Das Konzil von Chalkedon, ed. Grillmeier, Alois and Bacht, Heinrich, 2 vols. (Wurzburg, 1953) 2: 604617;Google ScholarNissen, Waldemar, Die Regelung des Klosterwesens in Rhomäerreiche bis zum Ende des 9 Jahrhunderts (Hamburg, 1897), pp. 1218.Google Scholar

20. Valentinian, to Firminus, , Praetorian Prefect, Novels of the Sainted Valentinian Augustus 35. 1. 3 (Pfarr, p. 546).Google Scholar

21. Acta 2. 1. 354–355.

22. Canon 16 (Acta 2. 1. 357).

23. Canons 6, 7, and 8 (Acta 2. 1. 353).

24. Acta 2. 1. 358.

25. Canon 18 (Acta 2. 1. 357).

26. Maurice to Archimandrites of Aelia and to the monks of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Sinai, Acta 2. 1. 483–489.

27. Evagrius, , History of the church 3. 14 (Bidez and Parmentier, pp. 111114).Google Scholar See also Charanis, Peter, Church and State in the Later Roman Empire: The Religious Policy of Anastasius I, 491–518, 2d ed. (Thessaloniki, 1974), pp. 4759.Google Scholar

28. His “life” is found in Baynes, N.H. and Dawes, E.S.A., Three Byzantine Saints: Contemporary Biographies of St. Daniel the Stylite, St. Theodore of Sykeon and St. John the Almsgiver (Oxford, 1948), pp. 1624.Google Scholar

29. Novel 131 in Justinianus, Corpus juris civilis, vol. 3, Novallae, (Schoell and Kroell, pp. 654655).Google Scholar

30. John, of Ephesus, , Lives of the Eastern Saints, ed. Brooks, E. W., Patrologia orientalis 17 (Turnhout, 1923), pp. 2021.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 26.

32. Pargoire, Jules, L'église byzantine de 527847 (Paris, 1905), pp. 6769;Google ScholarGranić, Branco, “Die rechtliche Stellung und Organisation der griechischen Klöster nach dem justinianischen Recht,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 29 (1929): 934.Google Scholar

33. See Gribomont, Jean, “Saint Basile,” in Théologie de la vie monastique: Études sur la tradition patristique (Vienna, 1961), pp. 99114.Google Scholar

34. Novel 5, Corpus juris civilis (Schoell and Kroell, pp. 28–35).

35. Novel 67, Corpus juris civilis (Schoell and Kroell, pp. 344–347).

36. Novel 79, Corpus juris civilis (Schoell and Kroell, pp. 388–400).

37. Novel 133, Corpus juris civilis (Schoell and Kroell, pp. 666–676).

38. Novel 123, Corpus juris civilis (Schoell and Kroell, pp. 593–625).

39. John of Ephesus, Lives, pp. 551–553.

40. Novel 123, Corpus juris civilis (Schoell and Kroell, pp. 593–625).

41. Edict 110 in Dölger, Franz, ed., Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des oströmischen Reiches, 5 vols., (Munich and Berlin, 1931-1965), 1: 14.Google Scholar

42. The acts of the council are found in Mansi, vols. 11 and 12.

43. Canon 4 (Mansi, 11: 943); Canon 77 (Mansi, 11: 978); Canon 44, (Mansi, 11: 966); Canons 40–43, (Mansi, 11: 962–963).

44. Theophanes, , Chronography, anno mundi 6186–6187 (de Boor, pp. 367369).Google Scholar

45. Canons 45 and 49, (Mansi, 11: 966–967).

46. On the iconoclast period, see Bryer, Anthony and Herrin, Judith, eds., Iconoclasm (Birmingham, 1977);Google ScholarMartin, E. J., A History of the Iconoclastic Controversy (London, 1930);Google Scholar and Henry, Patrick, “What Was the Iconoclastic Controversy About?Church History 45 (1976): 1631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47. Canons 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20, and 22 (Mansi, 12: 752–756).