..

,,
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The Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., Memorial Scholarship and Lecture Fund
The Ninth Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., Lecture
Honorary Patrons
The Right Honorable Lord Caradon
The Honorable Sir Steven Runciman
Mrs. Beatrice Brademas

Patrons
Dr. John Brademas Dr. John Koumoulides
Dr. D. James Brademas Mr. George P. Livanos
Mrs. Patricia Brademas Mr. Aris Panayotopoulos
Mr. George Condaras
Mr. Angelos N. Canellopoulos
Mr. Martin D. Schwartz
Dr. Richard Burkhardt
Attitudes Toward Self-Inflicted
Dr. Philip Ball, M.D.

The Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., Memorial Scholarship and Lecture Fund was
Suffering in the Middle Ages
established in 1976 at Ball State University in honor of the late Stephen J.
Brademas, Sr., of South Bend, Indiana. The purpose of the fund is two-fold:
first, through education and a program of cultural exchanges, to help promote
better understanding and greater appreciation of the history and culture of
Greece as well as to contribute to the strengthening of bonds uniting the peoples
of Greece and the United States; and second, through the annual lectures, to help
bring distinguished individuals to the Ball State University campus and contribute GILES CONSTABLE
to the cultural enrichment of the university community with new ideas and
historical interpretations of important past and contemporary situations.

Previous Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., Lecturers

The Honorable Sir Steven Runciman The Right Honorable Lord Caradon
Professor John Anton Sir Edward Peck
Professor John E. Rexine Professor Joseph Gill, S.J .
Professor James H. Bilington Sir Ronald Syme
Giles Constable

Dr. John T. A. Koumoulides, Professor of History, Ball State University, is

the Administrator of the Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., Memorial Scholarship and
Lecture Fund, Department of History, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
47306.
Contributions to the Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., Memorial Scholarship and Lec-
ture Fund are tax-deductible. Contributions are made to The Ball State University
Foundation and are designated for the Stephen .J. Brademas, Sr., Fund (A. N.
no. 3852), and sent to: Director, Ball State University Foundation, Ball State
University, Muncie, Indiana 47306, U.S.A.
HELLENIC COLLEGE PRESS
Brookline, Massachusetts 02146
1982
 ..... .,
•
© Copyright 1982 by the Stephen J. Brademas, Sr. \
\ Introduction
Memorial Scholarship and Lecture Fund
My late father used to tell his children that he would probably never
leave us much\ money-which
, was indeed the case- but that he would
Published by Hellenic College Press
insure us all a first class education; and that was also the case and, of course,
50 Goddard Avenue
far the richer legacy.
Brookline, Massachusetts 02146
That a lecture series should have been established in his name and in
All rights reserved. the state in which he lived all his adult life and, moreover, at a university
with which his family had had so many links would have greatly pleased
him.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data That this series was the result of the inspiration and tenacity of purpose
Constable, Giles. of a young scholar who had become my father's friend and really one of
Attitudes toward self-inflicted suffering in the the members of the Brademas family would have pleased him all the more.
Middle Ages. Therefore, on behalf of all of us in the Brademas family, I want to ex-
press our appreciation to Professor John Koumoulides for without his
(The Ninth Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., lecture) energy and effort, these Stephen J. Brademas, Sr. Lectures, which have
Bibliography: p. brought so many eminent scholars to Ball State University, would not have
1. Asceticism- History-Middle Ages, 600-1500- been possible.
Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Suffering-Religious John, my mother thanks you, my brother Jim thanks you, my sister
aspects- Christianity- History of doctrines-Middle Eleanor thanks you, my brother Tom thanks you, and I thank you.
Ages, 600-1500- Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Tem- For the first time, I am participating in this series not as a politician
perance (Virture)- History-Addresses, essays, lectures. but as an academician. It has been almost a year and a half since 1 left
I. Title. II Series: Stephen J. Brademas, St., Capitol Hill and nearly nine months since I assumed the duties of President
lecture ; 9th. of New York University.
BVS025.C66 1982 248.4'7'0902 82-23239 My new post may therefore entitle me to the privilege of presenting
ISBN 0-916586-87-1 to you a distinguished scholar; twice a graduate of my own university,
Harvard; the Lea Professor of Medieval History at Harvard and, since 1977,
the Director of Dum barton Oaks, the Research Center for Byzantine Studies
in Washington, D.C. and an important part of Harvard University.
In fact, when I lived in Washington I was gratified to be just around the
corner from Dum barton Oaks and to have become a friend of our guest,
and 1 am pleased still to be a member of the Board of Advisors of Dum bar-
ton Oaks.
Under the leadership of our guest lecturer, Dumbarton Oaks has been
thriving.
He has worked hard to cultivate there an enviroment conducive to both
serious scholarship and the enjoyment of Dum barton Oaks by a wider audi-
ence.
1l1e flowering of Dumbarton Oaks has been both physical - with its
beautiful gardens and lovely buildings - and intellectual, with its growing
The Ninth Stephen J. Brademas, Sr., Lecture was given on
Thursday, 25 March 1982 at BALL STATE UNIVERSITY, s
Muncie, Indiana

Sayerleche
BtaotRblbltothek
••n . . ,.h. .. .,.
 .., ., ... •
library, expanded fellowship and museum of pre-Columbian art. AlTITUDES TOWARD SELF-INFLICTED SUFFERING
Medieval History is the particular field of scholarly interest of our guest IN THE MIDDLE AGES
and an active interest it is; the list of his published books and articles fills The subject of this paper may seem at first sight to be a long way from
page after page. contemporary concerns. The practice by many people in the Middle Ages,
We are all honored by his visit to Indiana today. and the approval by almost all, of voluntary, often self-inflicted, physical
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to present to deliver the ninth mortifications, such as fasting, celibacy, and flagellation, are today among
Stephan J. Brademas, Sr. Lecture, Professor Giles Constable of Dum barton the st~angest and least attractive aspects of medieval life, with regard to
Oaks and Harvard. which we are inclined to agree with Gibbon that the sufferings and devo-
tions of the early monks must have destroyed, as he put it, 'the sensibility
Dr. John Brademas both of the mind and of the body.' This is not to say that we approve of
President unrestrained indulgence of our bodily desires but that we tend to regard
New York University self-inflicted punishment as a sign of spiritual and psychological disorder
and not, as was believed in the Middle Ages, of a proper and praiseworthy
attitude toward oneself and God.
Upon closer consideration, however, it becomes clear that, while the
causes for which people are prepared to suffer now are different than they
were then, the desire, and perhaps even the need, to suffer is also present
in modern society. I have a file of clippings from popular works showing
that we no less than our ancestors believe that merit, achievement, and a
sense of personal worth can be acquired only by effort and, frequently,
suffering. I am thinking not only of those in risky professions, like soldiers
and athletes, whose de termination to win and break records often involves
suffering and even physical damage, but also of creative artists, scholars,
and anyone who tends to feel, with the traveller, Wilfred Thesiger, that
'the harder the way the more worthwhile the journey.' Many people feel
a need to toughen themselves for possible future suffering. The ascetic
element in social revolutions can be clearly seen in Savonarola, Calvin,
and Robespierre and is far from dead in our own times. Modern social
activism is likewise often inspired by a desire to do something, preferably
something hard and dangerous, in order to express one's deepest convic-
tions and to bear witness, in an unmistakeably religious sense, against
some of the most flagrant abuses in modern society.
The psychological basis of this attitude is still not fully understood,
but it is found in most major religious systems. There is nothing peculiarly
Christian, either medieval or, as has been said, Protestant, I in the belief
that pain may be a source of power and grace and thus of value to human
beings. Emile Durkheim, the pioneer sociologist of religion, regarded asce-
ticism as an essential element in religious life and said that both in the higher
and in primitive religions, 'The positive cult is possible only when a man is
trained to renouncement, to abnegation, to detachment from self, and con-
sequently to suffering.' This attitude is found in Buddhism and Islam and

6 7

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at certain times even in Judaism, which among the world religions is per- world. Second, the classical emphasis on the integrity of the individual
haps the least sympathetic to asceticism. Students of anthropology and was never entirely lost in Christianity. And third, the doctrine of justi-
folklore have also stressed the importance of voluntary suffering in rites fication by faith (which is today associated primarily with the Reformation
of purification, initiation, and atonement. There is evidence that animals, but which had important early roots, especially in the works of St. Augus-
under some circumstances, will impose sufferings on themselves in the tine) tended to play down tlie significance of voluntary works and es-
same manner as human beings. Fasting and rigorous exercise are known to pecially of ascetic practices. 3 Dualism as a philosophical or metaphysical
have psychological as well as physiological effects, including a tendency doctrine, holding that good and evil, or mind and matter, are two radically
towards introversion and a reduction of sexual desire. Recent research distinct and rival principles in the world, has always been rejected by
suggests that great physical exertion may indeed produce hormonal Christians, especially during the early centuries, in opposition to the be-
changes that account not only for an oblivion to pain but also for the liefs of the Manichaeans. As a religious temper, however, dualism has
sense of well- being known among athletes as 'runner's high.' played an important part in the history of Christian asceticism and apo-
William James in his book entitled Varieties of Religious Experience calypticism. The sources of this practical dualism in Christianity are
distinguished six motives, or psychological levels as he called them, for obscure. It certainly does not derive from Judaism and is more strongly
ascetic practices: first, 'a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted marked in the New than in the Old Testament. Christ called on man to
with too much ease'; second, 'the love of purity, shocked by whatever deny himself in Matthew 16.24-26, Mark 8.34-36, and Luke 9.23-25,
savors of the sensual'; third, 'the fruits of love, that is, they may appeal to and St. Paul in Colossians 3.5 said that Christians should 'Mortify ... your
the subject in the light of sacrifices which he is happy in making to the members which are upon earth.' There are many other biblical passages
Deity whom he acknowledges'; fourth, they 'may be due to pessimistic and examples, including the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist,
feelings about the self, combined with theological beliefs concerning ex- which were cited in the Middle Ages to encourage, if not command, self-
piation'; fifth, • in psychopathic persons, mortifications may be entered dental and voluntary physical mortifications.
on irrationally, by a sort of obsession or fixed idea'; and sixth, 'ascetic These precepts fell on receptive ears in Late Antiquity, when a 'wave of
•.
exercises may in rarer instances be prompted by genuine perversions of pessimism' swept over pagans as well as Christians, almost all of whom
the bodily sensibility,' that is, by what would today be called masochism, practiced asceticism in one form or another. 'Contempt for the human con-
a term that had not been invented at the time James was writing. Even dition and hatred of the body,' wrote E. R. Dodds, 'was a disease endemic
masochism, however, according to Freud and his followers, is not totally in the entire culture of the period ... an endogenous neurosis, an index of
irrational or without some expectation of personal benefit. 2 To these intense and widespread guilt-feelings.' 4 It may be that a broad socio-
motives should be added, according to Kenneth Kirk in the Vision of God, psychological explanation, still to a great extent unexplored by scholars,
the spirit of competition, of which the psychological basis is also very un- underlies the origins of the attitudes we are studying. Among Christians,
clear. Not all these motives apply as well to the Middle Ages as to the post- these attitudes found a specific institutional framework in monasticism.
Reformation period, with which James was principally concerned. The title The monks of Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land in the third and fourth
of his book shows that he emphasized that religious motives varied and often centuries were among the most heroic exponents of a life of complete
overlapped in individual cases. He also stressed that physical pain was renunciation and voluntary physical suffering. The monks who lived in the
taken for granted by our ancestors and that attitudes toward it have changed Nitrian desert in Egypt were looked upon as models of ascetic practice.
in recent times, when freedom from pain has come to be considered almost They were called 'athletes of Christ' and were filled with a spirit of indiv-
a right. idualism and competition. As Cuthbert Butler put it, 'They ioved to "make
Orthodox Christianity has traditionally taken a relatively positive at- a record" in austerities, and to contend with one another in mortifications;
titude toward the material world and the human body. The reasons for and they would freely boast of their spiritual achievements.... The practice
this are not my primary concern in this paper, but I might mention three of asceticism constituted a predominant feature of this type of Egyptian
relevant points. First, and most important, Christianity took over from monac1tism. Their prolonged fasts and vigils, their combats with sleep, their
Judaism the inheritance of monotheism, with its belief in one transcendent exposures to heat and cold, their endurance of thirst and bodily fatigue,
and omnipotent God and consequent belief in the goodness of the created their loneliness and silence, are features that constantly recur in the au then-

8 9
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tic records of the lives of these hermits, and they looked on such austeri· tion, especially to Christ, Who voluntarily suffered on the cross for the sake
ties as among the essential features of the mon ~stic state.' of mankind. The question of whether monasticism, historically considered,
It is not my intention to enter at length in this paper into a description should be seen , as a substitute for martyrdom is disputed by scholars,
of the specific types of self-imposed sufferings practiced by monks and but there is no doubt that many of the early monks regarded themselves,
nuns, and occasionally by members of the clergy and laity, in the Middle and were regarded by others, as the successors of the martyrs and confes-
Ages. They may be divided, broadly speaking, into negative and positive sors and that the desire to suffer with and for Christ inspired their self-
mortifications, that is, into forms of deprivation and the active imposition inflicted austerities. The example of Christ Himself, according to the bio-
of suffering. Among the former are chastity, poverty, and obedience, which grapher of Daniel the Sty lite, shows that man can please God by suffering.
are respectively the renunciation of sexual satisfaction, including marriage, Ascetic practices also served the more immediate purpose of warding
of property, and of self-will. Fasting involves giving up the pleasures of the off temptations to sin. Nearly all the devils and demons who attacked men
table; solitude, of human company; silence, of conversation and, as St. and women in the Middle Ages (and who can be seen in representations
Basil stressed, laughter. Humility requires the subordination of one's own of the temptations of St. Anthony and in the paintings of Hieronymus
wishes and ideas to those of another. These are all aspects of temperance. Bosch) were personifications of sensual desires. In the early centuries they
Among the positive asceticisms, which are the most incomprehensible to may also have stood for the tendencies to revert to pagan beliefs and
us, are the wearing of chains and iron plates and shirts known as /orica, practices. Pliny in his Natural History recommended tying lead plates
immersions in cold water, rolling in thorn bushes and nettles, living on to the loins and hips as an antiaphrodisiac, and the countless monks who
pillars, flagellation and the discipline of whips, and liturgical exercises wore lorica, and the more familiar hair-shirts or ci/icia, were motivated
involving long and painful practices such as standing in a particular posi- less by a desire to suffer than to avoid fleshly temptations. The Egyptian
tion for a long time or repeated genu flexions. Even the kiss, as of the earth, hermit who thrust his fingers into the flame of a candle when he was
the diseased, or the feet of the poor, was considered an ascetic act of mor- tempted by a woman - and whose example was being cited, and followed,
tification and humiliation. Some of these practices, such as wearing no
clothes or shoes, were both negative and positive. Illness or infirmity was ·. a thousand years later - took no satisfaction in the suffering but saved his
chastity thereby. (The woman, incidentally, died of the shock, but she was
likewise considered not only a deprivation of health but also a test by God later revived by the hermit's prayers and lived a virtuous life.) The morti-
of His servitors. Ascetic homelessness or expatriation was both a renuncia- fication of immersion in cold water, of which examples can be found in the
tion of home and family and an assumption of a harsh life of solitude and twentieth century, had the same purpose. Gregory the Great specifically
wandering. said that St. Benedict changed his lust into pain by rolling in nettles and
The Vitae patrum and lives of later medieval saints, and other contem- thorns.
porary sources, dwell at length on the nature of these practices, but they There may have been in some of these practices an element of genuine
shed little light on the motives behind them, with which I am principally dualism in the sense of an almost instinctive rejection of anything material
concerned here. The three most prominent motives were the expiation of or fleshly. Theologically, this feeling found its clearest expression in some
sin, the expression of devotion, and the avoidance of temptation, which of the early rivals of Christianity, such as Manichaeism, and in puritanical
doubtless mingled with less clearly perceptible survivals of ancient elements heresies like Montanism and, later, Catl1arism, which can be considered
of purification and atonement. It is no accident that these practices devel- both as a rival religion to Christianity and as a heresy. Many monastic
oped, among pagans as well as Christians, at a time when society was per· leaders, including Basil of Caesaria, were influenced by philosophical
vaded with a sense of failure and guilt, which expressed itself in dislike of dualism and held that monks must dematerialize themselves by cutting
the material world and especially of the human body. Suffering was seen themselves off from the physical world as much as possible. This de-
as a means not only of expiating guilt in the present world but also of materialization could take either one of two basic forms, which in practice
averting punishment in the next. The term 'punishment' today refers prin- doubtless overlapped. The first of these, which is still with us today (to
cipally to retribution, and the term 'penance' to expiation, but they both judge from the passages I have cited), is the result of a desire for mastery
derive from the Latin poena. over the body and a determination not to be governed by purely rna terial
The willing acceptance of suffering was also a way of expressing devo- needs, either for food, warmth, sleep, or other lower, as they were called,

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desires. the end of man's journey away from this world toward the next. St. Jer·
The second, and more interesting, form of dematerialization was based orne popularized the concept of spiritual nudity in the phrase, much cited
on the belief that man is placed between the animals and the angels on the later, 'naked to follow the naked Christ.' In the East the concept was put
scale of created beings and is therefore in a position of constant tension more simply by the great Byzantine hymnwriter Romanos, who said that,
between the material and spiritual natures. The body, according to this 'Fasting gives me~ eternal life.'
view, while good in itself and essential for life in this world, is something For western monks these ideas were embodied in the Rule of Bene·
to be left behind, so that man can be as free as possible from material needs dict, of which the full debt to eastern monastic spirituality has only re·
and desires. Many monks in the East strove to attain a state of impassivity, cently-been proved by the researches showing its dependence on the ear·
apathy, or theorla, as it was called, which approximated in its extremes a lier rule known as the Regula Magistri. 1 It is now known that Benedict
Yoga-like superiority to physical suffering. Their object was to achieve (or whoever wrote the rule that goes under his name) was much less orig·
inal as a monastic theorist than was once believed, though his stature as
the bios angelikos, the life of the angels, who were by their nature imma· ,_ a legislator and administrator has emerged unscathed. The earlier views
terial and above physical needs. To live above the requirements of the body
was at the same time to recover the perfect peace and contentment of the stressing the contrast between pre-Benedictine and Benedictine monastic·
Garden of Eden and to anticipate the pleasures of paradise. Askesis for them ism, especially with regard to ascetic practices, have been revised. His rule
was a process of training and exercise, not unlike that of the athlete, and has been described as 'unintelligible without the Cassianic and Basilian
led to a higher end. The great Alexandrian theologians Clement and, above thought behind it' and as providing a framework for 'Evagrian spirituality
all, Origen formulated the bases of an ascetic theology in which the Christian as interpreted by Cassian.' Although the principal emphasis of the rule,
way of life was seen as a school for sinners and training ground for souls. as in the works of Basil and Cassian, is on privative rather than active
Their ideas were used by Evagrius Ponticus in the late fourth century in mortifications, and especially on poverty, chastity, obedience, and silence,
the first real system of monastic spirituality, with steps leading up to the self-inflicted suffering was not excluded, and life in a strict Benedictine
pure intellect of God by a progressive stripping of the soul and removal of .' house was one of great, and sometimes extreme, physical hardship.
Monastic life in the West in the early Middle Ages was not Jed exclu-
sin. Action and contemplation were, for Evagrius, closely associated and
interactive stages of a single monastic life. These ideas were transmitted sively according to the Rule of Benedict, however, and during the so·
to the West especially by John Cassian, who in the early fifth century called period of the Regula mix ta, or mixed rule, from the sixth to the
established two monasteries in southern France which were for over a cen- ninth century, every religious house had its own way of doing things, and
tury the spiritual centers of western monasticism. Cassian, like Evagrius, many types of monastic life, some of great severity, were found in west·
regarded the vita actualis, or active life, not as a life of work in the world ern Europe. Eastern influences persisted in southern France and in Bur-
but as the practice within a monastery of ascetic virtues which prepared gundy, especially in the 'perpetual prayer' (laus perennis) monasteries,
the way for a life of contemplation. where the monks served in shifts worshipping God twenty-four hours a
St. Augustine examined some of these ideas in his sermon On the Use· day. The monks in Ireland were famous at this time for their austerities,
fulness of Fasting,6 which is concerned not so much with the material which included rigorous fasting, ascetic immersions and tests of chastity,
aspects of fasting, or its scriptural justification, as with abstention gen- and praying in painful positions. Another form of asceticism that was
erally not only from food but also from sin, love of the world, discord, popular among Irish monks, and of which the character and historical
and even heresy. Only man, who is in a middle position between ani· importance have only recently been fully recognized, was penitential
mals and angels, can make this offering to God. 'If then the flesh bend· pilgrimage or exile. Solitude in the sense of separation from the world
ing toward the earth is a burden to the soul,' Augustine wrote, ' ... so · had alwayo& been recognized as an essential element in monastic life, and
far as every man delights in his own higher life, so such a degree does he St. Basil, among others, stressed the need to break all familial ties. The
lay aside his earthly burden. This is what we do by fasting.' Later he went state of being a stranger, without a home, was considered an ascetic ideal
on to say that, 'By abstaining from the joy of the flesh, joy of the soul is comparable to poverty and humility and was eagerly sought by Irish
acquired .... Accordingly, for us the purpose (finis) of our fastings is for monks, who set out from their homeland as expatriates, sometimes en·
our journey.' Here too, therefore, ascetic practices are seen as a means to trusting themselves to the sea in boats without either sails or oars. Their

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wanderings, which had such important results for the foundation of new when the pope was morally unable to keep the barefoot and penitent em-
monasteries and the conversion of large areas of Europe, were basically peror waiting in the snow for more than three days, and Henry IV in
ascetic rather than missionary in purpose. essence got what he wanted . The sacramental efficacy of blood was uni-
Some of these wanderers, and other monks all over Europe, settled versally recognized at that time, and the crusades have been described as
down as hermits, living either a classical eremitical life in the woods or a sacrifice, in the biblical sense, enlarged to the dimensions of the entire
a cave, alone or with a few companions, or as a recluse, walled up in a world. Ascetic practices were also used as a means of exorcism, and both
cell or small house usually in close proximity to a church or monastery. Bede and Walafrid Strabo, in his Life of St. Gall, describe how places were
These forms of solitary life were in principle - and often in fact, since consecrated by fasting.
recluses, and frequently also hermits, depended for food on the surround- As the Middle Ages progressed, there was a tendency for these auster-
ing community- no more cut off from the world than life in a monastery, ities to become even more severe and emotional in character, and to spread
but they involved a higher degree of physical hardship and presented a outside monastic circles. Around the turn of the millenium a number of
greater opportunity for ascetic practices. ascetic and devotional exercises appeared, or became more general, which
This was the heroic age of monasticism In the West, and many monks
""' were a standard aspect of spiritual life in the late Middle Ages. These in-
endured suffering In order to show their devotion to Christ and bear cluded all-night vigils; copious weeping; ascetic recitations from the Bible,
witness to the superiority of Christianity over paganism. For Bede, a wil- especially the Psalms, often accompanied by prostrations, genuflexions,
lingness to suffer and even to die for the sake of truth was a character- breast· beating, and whipping; penitential foot- washing; the wearing of hair-
istic of the monastic life or, as he called it, apostolic life, referring to the shirts, chain· mail, and pia tes of metal; flagellation; praying with outstretched
common life of the apostles in Jerusalem after the death of Christ. Ascet- arms and in other painful positions, which had previously been a specialty
ism was regarded as pleasing to God, and Gregory of Tours in his History of Irish monks; and processions and pilgrimages dressed in sack-cloth, with
of the Franks cited examples of tortures imposed on themselves by monks bare feet or on the knees, and burdened with metal weights or a wooden
simply in order to increase their suffering. Jonas said that the fastings and cross. 1 do not intend to trace the history of each of these practices in
~
mortifications of St. Columban propititated Christ and atoned for evil detail. I shall rather look at a few practitioners of these types of asceticism
thoughts. The Irish monks in particular adopted many practices designed and study some characteristic manifestations of this ascetic spirit in order
to test their virtue and endurance. Among these was a type of spiritual to discover the attitudes and motives behind it.
marriage which was known in the early church, and appeared again in the The first figure I shall discuss is one of the most celebrated and extra-
eleventh and twelfth centuries, by which a male and a female ascetic . l. vagant ascetics of the entire Middle Ages, Dominic Loricatus, a monk of
lived together, and even shared the same bed, in a chaste union. Many ? 1 J 1 Camal;idoli who died in I 060 and whose Life was written by Peter Damiani,
years later James of Vitry told of a departing crusader who had his child- · w~imself a fierce ascetic and an influential friend and advisor of
ren brought to him in order to increase his suffering and hence his merit. Pope Gregory VII. Dominic derived his name Loricatus from the /orica or
Self-inflicted suffering also served some practical functions in society. metal plates which he hung on his body and which by the time of his
For the holy man, it was a source of power, as the biographer of Daniel death had grown in number to eight, hanging around his neck, hips, and
the Stylite realized when he stressed the amazement of those who saw legs. He also prayed for long periods with his arms ex tended !lnd performed
him. To the extent that he was outside secular society, and not bound by numerous penitential genuflexions or metanea, as they were called. But
its standards, he could act as an arbiter and impose his decisions. Few he is most famous for his heroic self- flagellation. According to Damiani,
people are unaffected by the sight of suffering, especially when it is self- he was in the habit of beating himself while reciting the Psalms and gave
imposed, and in Ireland particularly fasting was u'sed in the Middle Ages himself a thousand blows for each ten Psalms and performed a hundred
(as it is today) as a means of bringing pressure and of righting a perceived metanea for each fifteen, making a total of fifteen thousand blows and a
wrong. The Liber vitae of Durham records that some sons prostrated them- thousand metanea for each full recitation of the Psalter. He regularly re-
selves for the sake of their mother, with bare feet and tears in the middle cited twenty Psalters in six days and once reached nine (though never,
of the night, seeking divine aid against one Gasbert, 'since there was no Damiani says, ten) Psalters in a single day. Some scholars have said that he
human aid.' Something like this probably happened at Canossa in 1077, and Damiani originated the practice of penitential flagellation. This is not

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true, since earlier examples of the practice can be found. The discipline A new ascetic value was given at that time to the practices of both pover-
of whips, or simply the discipline, had long been used in monasteries as ty and manual labor in monasteries. Traditionally, monastic poverty was
a punishment. Dominic and Damiani contributed greatly, however, to the individual and spiritual: the monk must be personally without property
spread of voluntary flagellation, 'this discipline of the new rite,' as Damiani's and above al~ poor in spirit, though the monastery might be rich. Poverty
biographer John of Lodi called it. In the twelfth century it became a regu- in this sense was very much like humility and obedience. The eleventh and
lar observance in many monasteries, in spite of the warnings and occasional twelfth-century reformers, on the other hand, emphasized true economic
opposition of monastic leaders, and it culminated in the thirteenth century poverty and institutional as well as personal divestment: the monastery as
with the foundation of the order of Dis~iplinati specifically for the purpose well as the monks must be poor. The pauperes Christi were those who had
of flagellation. Long processions of flagellants were a familiar sight in the freely given up their worldly goods and fully committed themselves to
late Middle Ages and can still be seen, I am told, in some parts of the Amer- God. At times they were almost obsessed by the dangers of wealth and wel·
ican continent today. comed all the more the hardships of extreme poverty. In the thirteenth
The second figure I shall look at is Stephen ofObazine, who died in 1159, century poverty became the heart and soul of the mendicant movement,
almost exactly a century after Dominic. He started life as a well-to-do and particularly of the teaching of Francis of Assisi, whose whole life was
layman and then became a secular priest and a popular preacher, prac- devoted to the ideals of poverty and mendicancy.
ticing various austerities such as hair-shirts, rigorous fasts, and ascetic im· In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, begging was considered
mersions, when necessary breaking the ice with an axe. Finally he decided beneath the dignity of monks, and the corollary of poverty was not men-
to renounce the world entirely and having left his native soil, as his bio- dicancy but manual labor, which served the double purpose of economic
grapher says, began to go with bare feet into exile. After a while he settled support and physical mortification. For Bernard of Clairvaux and other
down with a single companion at Obazine, in the Limousin, leading a spiritual writers of the twelfth century work, of various types, filled the
life of rigid poverty, manual labor, and ascetic mortification. They beat role of the active life which for Cassian and the early monastic theorists
each other whenever they felt sleepy, and they wore their clothes in winter had consisted primarily of ascetic exercises. While more research needs to
frozen stiff, not because they needed washing, the biographer says, 'but for be done on the emergence of the modern attitude toward work, it seems
the sole desire of suffering.' Stephen travelled barefoot and, like Dominic to have been above all in the twelfth century that the ancient and early
Loricatus, wore metal plates next to his skin. He kept strict silence, ex- medieval depreciation of manual labor was replaced by a more positive
cept when celebrating the holy offices, and practiced intensive prayer and view of work as an active m.eans of salvation and self-fulfillment.
psalmody, accompanied by many genuflexions. This discipline relaxed These developments took place not only in monasteries. The fiercely
somewhat as disciples gathered aroung him, but I am not concerned here individualistic, and greatly admired, hermit Gezzelin of Trier never joined
with the later history of Obazine, interesting as it is, except to note that a religious house. He lived alone, without any habitation or clothing, and
in 1142 the brothers officially adopted the Benedictine rule and became nourished himself on grass and roots, having, as a contemporary said, 'the
monks and in 1147 joined the Cistercian order. sky in place of a roof, the air in place of clothes, and the support of flocks
It is no accident that both Dominic and Stephen were members of in place of human food.' John of Salisbury, who was a secular cleric and no
reformed monastic orders, because the winds of asceticism blew strongly ascetic, said of himself in the Policraticus that: ·
through the monasteries of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and affected I know a man ... subjected to constant assault of diseases, though they
many of the old as well as most of the new houses. Flagellation was prac- do not exceed what he can bear, who rejoices that the lascivity of his
ticed at Monte Cassino and at Cluny, and the poet Bernard of Cluny recom- flesh has been crushed and his spirit aroused and strengthened in the
mended wearing lead plates next to the skin in order to repress carnal knowledge of God, contempt for the world, and exercise of virtue.
desires. The Cluniac cardinal Matthew of Albano, writing about 1132, even He desires that while the senses of his soul and body may be preserved
described the celebration of matins in winter as a great torment. 'What intact [This is a reference to l TI1essalonians 5. 23.] the violence of
madmen,' he asked, taunting the critics of the allegedly easy life at Cluny, disease will not draw him away from his activities. He expects and wei·
'would dare to ascribe that to pleasure of self- glorification?'

16 17

_.,_
 ' .. ,.,
'
comes from the hand of the Lord some flagellation, though light and Charles the\ Good, count of Flanders. In the words of the historian Gal bert,
tolerable to the infirm. Bertulf fled with bare feet, 'voluntarily (sponte) performing penance for
It is uncertain here whether the flagellation to which John referred was his sins, in order that God might be merciful to such a sinner.' When he
i!
actual whipping or simply his ailments. There is no doubt, however, about was captured 1 he was found to have left a trail of blood on the ground.
the active mortifications of the regular canon Dodo of Hascha, in Frisia, Actions such as these were not motivated by dualistic repression of
who died in 1231. He spent his life, in the words of his biographer, 'in the body or by love of suffering for its own sake. Real dualism was rare
unremitting weeping and grieving, groaning and praying for himself and for among orthodox Christians at this time especially owing to the condem-
the entire holy church of God.' He ate 'one meal a day, eating fish and beer nation by many contemporary heretics of all material things, including
one day and bread and water the next; on Friday he ate nothing.' As to the eucharistic elements and the wood of the cross. The Cathars and
clothing, still according to his biographer, 'First, seven iron plates girded Albigensians in particular were dualists in their avoidance of all rna terial
his flesh around his sides, two around his arms; over these was a hair-shirt; aspects of life. Catholics were therefore careful to limit their objections
after this an iron lorica was put on; finally he had two woolen tunics, to the misuse of matter (that is, a question of the will) rather than to mat-
and a scapular above, and so he remained day and night without changes.' ter itself. There remained a strong element of practical dualism, however.
He slept on a hard bed, with a mat for a blanket and a concave stone, with John of Salisbury rejoiced that disease had crushed the Iascivity of his
a piece of cloth in the cavity, for a pillow, 'following the example of our flesh, and St. Francis considered mortification a means of controlling 'the
Lord Jesus Christ, Who was placed in a manger wrapped in rags.' He rose lower nature which leads him [man] into sin.' Such an unimpeachably
in the middle of the night for matins, and he then spent the rest of the orthodox theologian as Hugh of St. Victor praised the new orders of monks
night in prayer, discipline, and various sorts of genuflexions, performing precisely for their physical austerities. 'For while they lacerate their flesh,'
'five hundred genuflexions each day and night, and frequently more.' 'His he said, 'they enrich the spirit; while they weaken the flesh, they strengthen
knees were calloused like those of a camel, and since he was a true wor- the spirit; while they take something away from the outer flesh, they add
shiper of God, the Lord therefore performed many miracles through him.' greatly to the inner spirit.'
These examples cover the period from the early eleventh to the early There was a growing tendency in the twelfth century, which may be
thirteenth century and illustrate the continuity as well as the changes in associated with crusading spirituality, to see the Christian as a soldier en-
the attitudes towards self- inflicted suffering in the central Middle Ages. gaged in warfare against the powers of evil. Military metaphors had long
Behind them all lay a pervasive sense of sin, resembling what Dodds called been used in Christian spiritual writings, but in the early Middle Ages the
the 'intense and wide-spread guilt-feelings' in Late Antiquity. This was miles Christi was an obedient follower or occasionally an individual warrior.
nourished not only by theological teachings about the depravity of man Now he was increasingly seen as a knight in the service of Christ. A secular
but also by personal feelings of inadequacy and remorse among laymen as knight gave his /orca to the hermit Wulfric of Hazel bury 'as to a stronger
well as monks and clerics. The tender social consciences of men like Robert soldier,' and Wulfric wore it until it slipped off his shoulders in old age.
of Arbrissel and Stephen of Obazine were specially aroused by the sufferings This military metaphor doubtless also encouraged the ascetic competi-
of the poor, sick, and unfortunate in an age of generally growing material tiveness that we have already observed among the ,early hermits. Domi-
prosperity and social mobility, when the traditional ways of dealing with nic Loricatus constantly strove to beat his own records after he had out-
stripped all others.
misfortune in society were proving increasingly inadequate. It is significant
that many of the reformers, including Bernard of Clairvaux and Francis of This stress on the inner and emotional nature of asceticism, and its effect
Assisi, came from the ranks of the ruling and privileged classes. The sola on the spirit, was characteristic uf twelfth-century spirituality, which em-
cruciendi vo/untas of Stephen of Obazine when he wore frozen clothing phasized the motive of love both as a quasi-martyrdom and sacrifice for
was inspired by guilt and a desire to share the sufferings of the poor. Great Christ and as a passionate desire to imitate and suffer with Him. Self-
nobles like Boniface of Tuscany in the eleventh century and William of sacrifice is likewise a dominant theme in the secular love literature of the
Aquitaine In the twelfth agreed to be whipped in order to expiate their twelfth and thirleenth cenluries, with which the spiritual writings have
sins. Yet more remarkable was the barefoot flight of Provost Bertulf of many affinities. Devotion to the human Christ was especially marked in
St. Donatien at Bruges, one of the chief conspirators in the murder of the religious personalities of some of the fiercest ascetics, whose tears and

18 19
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groans increasingly expressed, as Berliere pointed out, their sympathy for have modified the needs of the body and the physical exertions of asceti·
the sufferings of Christ as well as their remorse for their own sins and who cism have reduced the capacity for pain, but the mind transformed what
sought in their actions to imitate every aspect of Christ's life on earth. for some would literally have been a source of agony into a source of hap·
Peter Damiani specifically cited the example of Christ in his defense of piness and P.eace and a sense of being in harmony with others and with the
flagellation and expressed his own fervent desire to copy Christ. 'I would immaterial forces that govern the universe.
like to undergo martyrdom for Christ,' he wrote in one of his letters, 'but I would not want to leave you with the impression that indiscriminate
I have no possibility for it now that the [persecuting] zeal has ceased. I or purposeless suffering, either voluntary or involuntary, was admired by
show at least the desire of a fervent soul by destroying myself with beating. serious men and women in the Middle Ages, though there were doubt·
For if the persecutor should strike me, I would beat myself, since I would less people then, as now, who were impressed by, and even enjoyed, the
voluntarily expose myself to be beaten .... The king of martyrs Himself, mere act of suffering and physical violence. It may have served as a sort of
Christ, likewise was delivered not only by Judas but also by the Father vicarious release for feelings that could not be expressed directly. Likewise
and by Himself.' Dominic Loricatus and Stephen of Obazine were both said today, many people enjoy tales of horror and scenes of violence. The
to have carried on their bodies the signs or stigmata of the wounds of Christ, sufferings of the saints, and the stories of their lives, may have played some-
and while these may have been symbolic, there is no question that Dodo thing of the same role in medieval society. 8 Thoughtful people looked
of Hascha not only imitated the infant Christ, as has been mentioned, but below the surface of the exterior actions, however, and tried to discern
also bore visible marks on his body in the places of Christ's wounds 'in the motives, warning against flamboyant or excessive ascetic practices.
order to suffer with the crucified One.' For although Francis of Assisi, so From the earliest times there was an insistence, perhaps inspired by fear
far as is known, was the first visible stigmatic whose wounds were probably of dualism, on discretion in self-imposed sufferings and an awareness of
not self-imposed, many people in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, both the dangers of hypocrisy. St. Paul himself warned the Corinthians against
male and female, felt the pain of Christ's sufferings, and some inflicted His delivering the body to be burned but not having love. The story in the
wounds on themselves as evidence of their desire to suffer with Him. Ac· Vitae patrum about Abbot John, who decided after fasting in the wilder-
cording to the great fifteenth-century Franciscan preacher Bernardino of ness for eight days to be a good man rather than an angel, was cited as an
Siena, St. Paul did not say that we should understand Christ Crucified 'but example of the temptation of extravagant asceticism, and even a rigid
that we should feel within ourselves, as lie felt on the cross. Hoc enim ascetic like Daniel the Stylite did not force his body beyond what it could
sentite in vobis. And this is the difference,' Bernardino continued, 'between endure, saying that he ate what was necessary. The author of a homily
feeling a thing from outside it, from inside it, and from partaking in it.' On Perfect Monks, .written in Spain in the late sixth or early seventh cen-
The participation in and interiorization of the sufferings of Christ was tury, stressed that the Devil often sent the temptation to fast or lie on the
a central aspect of late medieval mysticism, and a source of ineffible exal· ground in order to keep monks from their proper occupations. The earliest
tation for those who experienced it. 'Suffering alone is sufficient prepara· commentaries on the Rule of Benedict, which were written in the Carolingian
tion for God's dwelling in man's heart,' said Eckhart in one of his sermons. period, also do not stress bodily austerities and in their discussions of fasting
'It makes man Godlike.' Likewise for Catherine of Siena, suffering was a deal with such issues as the permissibility of eating fowls.
means of progressing toward the vision of God. 'It is for me the greatest The fear of hypocrisy was reflected in the tendency to admire austeri·
consolation, when I suffer some evil,' she said, according to the Legenda ties and mortifications that were kept secret or were revealed only in
maior, 'because I know that through that passion I shall have a more per- confidence. Cassian maintained that fasting should be secret as well as re-
fect vision of God. For this reason the tribulations are not only not bur- strained and that it was good not in itself but only as a means toward vir·
densome to me but also delectable to my mind, just as you and the others tue. Austerities, such as wearing a hair-shirt under comfortable clothing,
who converse with me can perceive every day.' were sometimes discovered only after death, as were the stigmata of Dodo
Catherine was a shrewd psychologist, and her reference to her sufferings of Hasch a. St. Arnulf, who died as bishop of Soissons in I 087, wore a spiny
as delectabiles menti meae brings out the element of sublimation which branch under his clothes, according to his biographer, 'in order to extinguish
must not be forgotten when we consider voluntary or self· inflicted suffering entirely within himself the smile and emotion of worldly joy ... while
either in the Middle Ages or today. Not only may the fact of abstinence exhibiting to everyone, however, a happy and joyful countenance.' Espe-

20 21
 ... • ()
"
cially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the sentiment against displays Venerable of Cluny, citing I Corinthians 13.3, said that it was useless to
of asceticism seems to have grown, as a· resu i. not only of the excesses of practice austerities without love. And the great preacher, and later cardinal,
the past but also of the new stress on interiority. Ascetic extravagance came James of Vitty remarked in his biography of Mary of Oignies, after de-
to be regarded with suspicion. Many of the religious leaders of the time, scribing with admiration her ascetic devotions, including the stigmata, that,
and a number of the new monastic and canonical rules and customs, urged 'I say this not to commend excess but to show fervor. In these, and in many
discretion in this regard and even forbade unauthorized or supererogatory others, however, ... ' he continued, 'the discreet reader will observe that the
mortifications of the flesh. According to the late eleventh-century consti- privileges of the few do not make a general rule .... We should therefore
tutions of Camaldoli, for instance, where Dominic Loricatus had been a adri11re rather than imitate what we read certain saints to have done at the
monk not long before, flagellation was to be practiced for the sake of hu- private instigation of the Holy Spirit.'
mility, not of torment, and in imitation of the Passion. They established There was agreement among serious churchmen at that time, and later,
that in this and other mortifications, 'Each monk ought to do what he can that meaningful sufferings must be an expression of devotion and that outer
bear and utility advises or divine grace inspires. For in such matters force actions must be correlated to the inner life. The moral stress on intention
does not Impose but voluntary offering advises.' In some rules an increasing in the twelfth century touched the practice of asceticism no less than the
concern was also shown for the physical health of monks and nuns in fields of theology and law. Interior devotion was as necessary in fasting
matters such as adequate food and sleep. You will remember that John of as in prayer, according to the author of the Bridlington Dialogue. 'Fasts
Salisbury specified that his flagellation, though welcome, should be light that are performed for human praise,' he said, 'do not please God.' The
and tolerable to the infirm. body should not be made to suffer more than it could reasonably bear,
Bernard of Clairvaux was an ascetic himself, who ruined his health by and moderation must be the rule. 'Let sleep be brief, food light, drink
excessive fasting, and a fervent admirer of the hermit Gezzelin. He praised easy, clothing humble.' These words are from Petrarch's treatise On the
physical hardship and bodily afflictions, including regular discipline, 'by Solitary Life, and they reflect the tradition of medieval monastic spirituality
which,' he said, 'we live not by our own but by another's will,' and stressed as well as the classical ideal of temperance. They are a reminder that many
that they must be willingly and voluntarily born. He was at the same of our own ideals, though differently formulated today, were shaped in the
time an experienced and sensitive spiritual advisor and acutely aware of Middle Ages. The standards and systems of values at that time were, need-
the dangers of excessive zeal and self-will in ascetic practices. In his treatise less to say, different from those that prevail today, but the spiritual ideals
On the Steps of Humility, where he described the successive vices which and psychological needs- to justify ourselves and, if necessary, to suffer
a monk must overcome in his ascent to God, Bernard gave under the fifth for what we believe in- arc still with us and show that the study of his-
step, singularity, a classic picture of the hypocritical and loveless ascetic tory can deepen our understanding not only of the past but also of the
who, caring more for appearances than substance, fasted when the other present.
monks ate and prayed alone in the corner filling the ears of those outside
with groans and sighs. 'But although these things which he does with singu-
larity but without sincerity raise his reputation among the more innocent,
who praise the works they see without discerning whence they proceed,'
Bernard concluded, 'the poor wretch is grievously deceived when they call
him blessed.'
Parallel passages can be found in many twelfth- and thirteenth-century
works. Robert of Arbrissel, the founder of Fontevrault, who was criticized
for his own asceticism even by his admirers, urged the countess of Brittany,
In a letter written probably In 1109, to use 'discretion in all matters, in
abstinence, fasts, vigils, prayers' and not to kill herself, 'since whoever kills
the flesh, kills its inhabitant,' that is, the spirit. The kingdom of God, he
said, lies not in food and drink, but in grace and peace. Abbot Peter the

22 23

I.
 .. .. • •
Notes \ Bibliographical Note
1. Pierre Teilhardde Chardin, Letters to 1\vo Friends, 1926-1952(New
\
York, 1968) p. 187, writing in 1947 about Gide's La porte etroite, said Since this paper was prepared for a general audience, I have kept the
that the 'idea of a value of sacrifice and pain for the sake of sacrifice and notes to a minimum and used them to elucidate points that might other-
pain itself' was an expression of Gide's 'native Protestant education' and wise be unclear and to indicate my indebtedness to authors and works not
'a dangerous (and very "Protestant") perversion of the "meaning of the specifically mentioned in the text. The following indications may be help·
Cross".' Dame Laurentia McLachlan, the abbess of Stanbrook, said almost ful, however, to those who are interested in pursuing the subject further.
the opposite: "We all know what happiness of heart can be found in the ·- The original sources for the paper are mostly the Vitae or biographies
pain of mind and body that God sends us, or in the case of bodily suffering of saints, of which there is a useful list in the Bibliotheca hagiographica
that 1s self-inflicted .... We all have to suffer if God is to make anything of latina (Brussels, 1898-1901 ), of which a new edition is in preparation. They
us.' In a Great Tradition: The Life of Dame Laurentia McLachlan (New can also be located in any of several dictionaries of saints, such as (for
York, 1956)pp. 101-2. Benedictine saints) Alfons M. Zimmermann, Kalendarium benedictinum
(Metten, 1933-8). A number of the Lives cited in this paper have been
2. According to Jack Douglas, The Social Meanings of Suicide (Princeton,
translated into English: see Clarissa P. Farrar and Austin P. Evans, Biblio·
1967) p. 372, citing T. Reik and S. Rado: 'Masochism led Freud and
. graphy of English Translations from Medieval Sources (New York, 1946)
others to believe that men can and frequently do will suffering for the self,
and the supplement by Mary A. H. Ferguson, Bibliography of English
but they have seen this willing of self-suffering as being the result of ex-
Translations from Medieval Sources, 1943·1967 (New York and London,
pectations of "secondary gain," either through "victory through defeat"
1974). Two useful collections of translations, both including Lives cited
or "less defeat through preemptive punishment".'
here, are Elizabeth Dawes and Norman H. Baynes, Three Byzantine Saints
3. Some of the material in this paragraph is derived from the Oxford (Oxford, 1948) and Clinton Albertson, Anglo-Saxon Saints and Heroes
Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1974), which should (New York, 1967). The essential collections for Ireland are Charles Plum-
be consulted for further details. mer's Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (Oxford, 191 0) and Lives of the Irish
4. E. R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects Saints (Oxford, 1922). The three saints whose lives are particularly discussed
of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine (Cambridge, here are Dominic Loricatus, whose Life by Peter Damiani can be found in
1965) pp. 18 and 36. This can be compared with the well-known view of the Patrologia latina, CXLIV, 1012-24, Stephen of Obazine, of whose
J. B. Bury attributing the decline of the ancient world to 'a failure of nerve' Life there is a new edition by M. Aubrun, Vie de Saint Etienne d'Obazine
and J. N. Cochrane's exposition of the 'moral and intellectual failure of (Clermont, 1970), and Dodo of Hascha, whose Life is found in the great
the Greco- Roman mind' in the fourth century. Acta sanctorum, edited by the Bollandists, in the volume for March, III,
5. Edward Cuthbert Butler, Benedictine Monachism, 2nd ed. (London, • 848-9.
1924) pp. 13-14. See also Derwas J. Chitty, The Desert a City: An Intro· Of the non-hagiographical sources cited here, at least three are available
duction to the Study of Egyptian and Palestinian Monasticism under the in good recent translation: Tire Lives of the Desert Fathers, tr. Norman
Christian Empire (Oxford, 1966) pp. 32-3.
Russell (London and Oxford, 1980); Gregory of Tours, The History of
the Franks, tr. Lewis Thorpe (Harmondsworth, 1974); and Bede's Ecclesi-
6. S. Dominic Ruegg, Sancti Aurelii Augustini De utilitate ieiunii: A astical History of the English People, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B.
Text with a Translation, Introduction and Commentary (Washington, D. C., Mynors (Oxford, 1969). Not available in English, but of great interest for
1951). The quotations are on pp. 69 and 77. the subject of this paper, are two collections of exempla (stories used in
7. See Bernd Jaspert, Die Regula Benedicti-Regula Magistri- Kontro- sermons) by James of Vitry: The Exempla or Illustrative Stories from the
verse (Hildesheim, 1975), where the index of persons (pp. 508-19) is a Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Thomas F. Crane (London,
guide to the huge bibliography on this topic. 1890) and Die Exempla aus den Sermones feriales et communes des Jakob
8. See the remarks of Hippolyte Delehaye, Les passions des martyrs et von Vitry, ed. Joseph Greven (Heidelberg, 1914). Most of the other
les genres litteraires (Brussels, 1921) pp. 273-87. non-hagiographical works from before the thirteenth century are printed

24 25
 'a .. • ..
in serviceable, though often antiquated, editions in thePatrologia latina. The Musurillo, 'The Problem of Ascetical Fasting in the Greek Patristic Writers,'
translation from Bernard's The Steps of Humility is by George B. Burch Traditio, XII (1956) 1-64, and on celibacy, Bernhard Klltting, Der Zolibat
(Cambridge, Mass., 1940). The passages from Eckhart and Bernardino of in der a/ten Kirche (MOnster in W., 1968). The theme of ascetic homeless-
Siena are from the books of Franz Pfeiffer and Iris Orfgo, respectively. Full ness is treated in the brief work of Hans von Campenhausen, Die asketische
references to the sources recommending moderation, and restraint, some of Heimatslosigkeit im altkirchlichen und frllhmittela/terlichen Monchtum
which are more obscure, will be given in the article I plan to write on this (Tllbingen, 1930), and also in my article on 'Monachisme et p~lerinage au
subject. Moyen Age,' Revue historique, CCLVIII (1977) 3-27, where further refer-
Among secondary works, in addition to the three general books by ences will be found. On syneisactism ('the chaste living together of a male
Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Fonns of the Religious Life, William and female ascetic'), see Roger Reynolds, 'Virgines subintroductae in Celtic
James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and Kenneth Kirk, The Christianity,' Harvard Theological Review, LXI (1968) 547-66. The topic
Vision of God, · which are cited early in the paper, I have used Uta Ranke- of the stigmata in the eleventh and twelfth centuries will be covered in my
Heinemann, Das friihe Monchtum. Seine Motive nach den Selbstzeugnissen forthcoming article on 'Miracles and History in the Twelfth Century.' There
(Essen, 1964) and Peter Nagel, Die Motivierung der Askese in der a/ten is a large literature on flagellation, beginning with the old but still useful
Kirche und der Ursprung des Monchtums (Berlin, 1966). On Basil and works of Jean Mabillon, Annales 0. S. B., IV (Lucca, 1739), esp. 513-15,
Cassian, see, respectively, David Am and (Emmanuel Amand de Mendieta), and Edmond Mart~ne, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus, IV (Antwerp, 1738)
L 'asc~se monastiquede Saint Basile(Maredsous,1949) and Owen Chadwick, 229-33. There is an article on flagellation by Paul Bailly in the Dictionnaire
John Cassian, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1968). There are several interesting de spiritualitt!, V, 392-408, and a collection of articles entitled// movi-
articles in Theologie de Ia vie monastique. Etudes sur Ia tradition patristique mento dei disciplinati nel settimo centenariodal suo inizio (Perugia, 1962).
(Paris, 1961 ). See also Violet Mac Dermot, The Cult of the Seer in the The contributions by G. G. Meersseman and Jean Leclercq are especially
Ancient Middle East (London, 1971) and the article by Peter Brown, 'The valuable for the purposes of this paper.
Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,' Journal of Roman Relatively little work has been done on the subject of moderation and
Studies, LXI ( 1971) 80-101. restraint in ascetic practices, upon which I plan to write an article. The im-
Articles on Abnegation, Abstinence, Asceticism, and other specific portant article of Bernhard Schmeidler, 'Anti-asketische A.usserungen aus
practices (including the ascetic kiss) can be found in the Dictionnaire de Deutschlands im 11. und beginnenden 12. Jahrhundert,' Kultur und Uni·
spiritualite (Paris, 1932 ff.) Several of these are by Louis Gougaud, whose versalgeschichte (Festschrift Walter Goetz) (Berlin and Leipzig, 1927)
two books on Devotions et pratiques ascetiques du moyen tige (Paris and 35-52, must be used with some caution owing to its stress on the Germanic
Maredsous, 1925; Eng. t:. by G.C. Bateman, 1927) and Ennites et reclus. character of the reaction. Some interesting indications of the growing
Etudes sur d'anciennes fonnes de vie religieuse (Liguge, 1928) should also concern for the physical health of monks and nuns can be found in Gerd
be consulted. Among general works on Christian asceticism those of Mar- Zimmermann, Ordensleben und Lebensstandard. Die cura corporis in den
cel Viller and Karl Rahner, Aszese und Mystik in der Vllterzeit (Freiburg Ordensvorschriften des abendliindischen Hochmittelalters (MUnster in W.,
im Br., 1939) and Anselme Stolz, L 'asc~se chretienne (Chevetogne, 1948) 1973) esp. 147,215-6,234-5, and 459.
are useful, as is the older work of Otto Zockler, Askese und Monchtum,
of asceticism in the central Middle Ages. There is relevant material in
Albert Dresdner, Kultur- und Sittengeschichte der italienischen Geist·
lichkeit im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert (Breslau, 1890} and in Jean Leclercq,
La vie parfaite. Points de vue sur /'essence de /'etat religieux (Turnhout
and Paris, 1948; Eng. tr., 1961). The otherwise valuable work of Ursmer
Berliere, L'ascese benedictine des origines a Ia fin du X//e siecle(Paris
and Maredsous, 1927) devotes comparatively little attention to self-in-
flicted mortifications on account of its stress on Benedictine monasticism
as a moderate life of silence, prayer_, and work. On fasting, see Herbert

26 27
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GILES CONSTABLE

Giles Constable was born in London and received his B.A. and Ph.D. in
history from Harvard University. He taught at the University of Iowa be-
fore returning to Harvarrl, where he in 1966 became the Lea Professor of
Medieval History. He is presently director of Harvard's Dum barton Oaks
Research Library and Collection. He has lectured at the Center for Ad-
vanced Studies of Medieval Civilization at Poitiers and is a fellow of the
Medieval Academy and the Royal Historical Society. He has been an assis-
tant editor of Speculum. Among his books are Petrus Venerabilis (1956),
Monastic Tithes from their Origins to the Twelfth Century (1964), The
Letters of Peter the Venerable (1967), and two volumes of collected
articles ( 1979-80).

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