The present article considers the third canon of the III council in Zaragoza, which regulates the... more The present article considers the third canon of the III council in Zaragoza, which regulates the stay of the laypeople in the monastery. This decree, as well as the Visigothic monastic rules, permit us to identify the main causes of conflicts that arise between monks and laity. In the second half of the 7th century the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo entered a crisis phase. Small and middling landowners went bankrupt, their lands were bought up for next to nothing or simply taken away by the magnates, who felt themselves with impunity because the royal power was weakened. In fact, the only refuge for the poor and disadvantaged was the monastery, the abbot of which could resist the arbitrariness of the magnates. As the “Regula communis” testifies, that whole families often entered the monastery, with wives and small children. All this affected the discipline of the monks. According to the canon of the council in Zaragoza, the laypeople prevent the monks from working and violate their daily routine. Conversations with the laity inspire monks with a desire to return to the world, to seek wealth and honors. According to church authors, this leads both to death for a particular monk, and to damage to the entire monastery and undermining monastic discipline. There was a big problem due to the conflicts over property, because, leaving the monastery, the monk began to demand back the funds invested by him. Thus, the laity appears as a serious threat to the monastic way of life. However, the council did not forbid the abbots to provide asylum to the needy, but only limited this right. From now on, only the poor and the oppressed can be accepted into the monastery, while their way of life should not cause complaints from the abbot. The guests should settle in buildings specially designated for this, thus limiting their contacts with the brethren. Despite the rhetoric of church authors that denounced the laity, the monastery remained a place of refuge for the socially unprotected segments of the population and in this sense was closely connected with society
Historia sin fronteras. En torno a las raíces del Europa. Estudios en honor del profesor Luis A. García Moreno, 2022
Este artículo trata de dar una descripción general de los estudios isidorianos en Rusia. El inter... more Este artículo trata de dar una descripción general de los estudios isidorianos en Rusia. El interés profesional por la historia de España, en concreto por la historia de la Alta Edad Media, es reciente. Los estudios de historia visigoda comienzan en los años sesenta y están asociados con el nombre de Alexander Korsunsky. En ellos, la figura de Isidoro de Sevilla, su pensamiento y su obra siempre están en el centro de atención. Hoy los textos isidorianos son estudiados por historiadores y filósofos especialistas en cultura antigua y medieval; el tema principal de muchos trabajos gira en torno a la manera isidoriana de citar y usar sus muy diversas fuentes. Algunas obras isidorianas fueron traducidas al ruso en su día, pero también van apareciendo nuevas traducciones, aunque hay muchas dificultades con el “juego de palabras” en el texto latino.
Le début du Moyen Âge est marqué par de profonds changements dans la culture et l’enseignement. T... more Le début du Moyen Âge est marqué par de profonds changements dans la culture et l’enseignement. Tandis que les écoles laïques disparaissent peu à peu, d’autres se développent à proximité des églises et des monastères. Partout surgissent des scriptoria au sein des monastères où les moines copient les livres antiques et en écrivent de nouveaux. Les moines et le clergé, plus instruits et érudits que les laïcs, jouent un grand rôle dans une culture qui devient de plus en plus chrétienne. Le nouve..
Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta. Seria I: Bogoslovie, Filosofiâ, 2013
The works of Isidore of Seville reveal several levels of knowledge. The fi rst and the highest is... more The works of Isidore of Seville reveal several levels of knowledge. The fi rst and the highest is wisdom (sapientia), which according to Isidore, is knowledge of divine things. This wisdom will most definitely lead the initiate to salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven. But the specific quality of wisdom is interpreted by Isidore in diff erent ways according to his various works. In those works which possess an encyclopedic character («Etymologies» and the first book of «Differences»), wisdom involves an understanding of how the world and the whole of the cosmos are organised. A wise man is able to comprehend the causes of both the visible and the heavenly world. On the contrary, a person's rationality (prudentia) is oriented towards worldly and secular things. It aims at distinguishing between good and evil and how best to arrange one's own life and final destiny. Rationality is connected with knowledge (scientia), which is bookish learning, and which Isidore treats as a part ...
The article is dedicated to the Latin concepts aequitas and iustitia in the works of Isidore of S... more The article is dedicated to the Latin concepts aequitas and iustitia in the works of Isidore of Seville. The "first Encyclopedic mind of the Middle Ages", Isidore was guided in his works (the "Etymologies", "Differences" and "Sentences", studied in this article) by the Roman legal tradition as well as the Christian tradition of use of these concepts. According to Isidore, justice ( iustitia ) is related to the written law ( ius ); this word is primarily used with reference to mundane justice and legislation. In the same time it may be a just legal order, established by God, and in this sense iustitia is partly associated with aequitas . On the contra? ry, an equity ( aequitas ) is based on natural law ( ius naturale ) and signifies the primordial order, natural and obvious to everyone. It's main feature is equality of all the people. Never? theless (even in the same Isidore's works) the concepts of aequitas and iustitia look like inter...
EnglishThe law (lex) is a basis of Roman legal tradition, as well as of the legal tradition of ki... more EnglishThe law (lex) is a basis of Roman legal tradition, as well as of the legal tradition of kingdom of Toledo, that was very influenced by Roman juristes. The conception of perfect law was elaborated by Isidore of Seville (570 – 636). He departed from the heritage of Antiquity as well as from biblical and patristic tradition.According to his interpretation lex is the supreme divine law, but at once it is a decree, promulgated by people. The perfect law is sound, reasonable and equal to each person. The laws are promulgated by king, but somehow they must to be approved by all the subjects, so they are equally binding for all. Isidore insists on the king’s law-obedience, that is a guarantee of stability. The royal laws must to serve to kingdom’s prosperity. Isidore borrowed the ideas of Roman jurists and philosophers but interpreted them in changed circumstances. francaisLa loi (lex) est une base de la tradition juridique romaine, ainsi que de la tradition juridique du royaume de T...
Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts... more Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts of Taio of Zaragoza and his Sententiarum libri V. The aim of the present essay is to study the ways in which Gregory's text was used by Taio to build his. As a case-study example, I focus specifically on the Taio's engagement with Gregory's concepts of judge and judgement because of their religious centrality. Taio, who dedicated to the judge a chapter of the fifth book, presents thee ideal judge not as one with the "technical" qualities of the knowledge of law, for example, but rather is one who must be a pious and God-fearing man. Isidore of Seville in his Sententiae described the ideal judge in sufficient detail, yet Taio did not use the treatise of Isidore. Instead, he preferred to follow fragments of the Moralia concerning the way of living of the righteous man. In fact, Taio used Gregory's text like a collection of bricks for his own treatise, embedding them in his own structure. Sometimes he shortened or altered the words of the original text, thus changing the content-and, in doing so, for instance, the righteous man of Gregory became the ideal judge.
This article focuses on a passage from letter I.6 of Pope Gregory I the Great addressed to the By... more This article focuses on a passage from letter I.6 of Pope Gregory I the Great addressed to the Byzantine noble Narses, with whom the Pope became closely acquainted in Constantinople. Gregory rebukes his addressee for trying to “plow the field of the Lord” with the help of oxen (bubali), which are unsuitable for this matter. Gregory also advises Narses to “smite them with the sword of his mouth”. In order to unravel the meaning of Gregory’s metaphor we analyze the context of his letter (including references to the Bible), as well as all his messages to Narses. Four extant letters touch on theological and church matters, so Narses could be close to the circle of patriarch John IV. His help to Gregory in the case of accused eastern presbyters or with Church Councils’ manuscripts could be metaphorically designated as “plowing the field of the Lord”. Letter I.6 by Gregory probably points to some theological or church dispute that took place in the patriarchal or imperial court. Bubali in biblical context are oxen unfit for plowing, because they are too ferocious. In view of the conflict between Gregory I and John of Contantinople bubali may designate any persons from the patriarch’s circle. The content of the letters shows how vividly Gregory was interested in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople and in Greek theology. The context of the messages allows us to make an assumption about what the Pope had in mind when speaking of bubali.
Mater Hispania: Христианство в Испании в I тысячелетии: пер. с лат. яз. / сост. протоиерей Андрей Кордочкин. - СПб.: Алетейя, 2018
This is a translation of "Vita s. Aemiliani" of Braulio of Zaragoza, with notes and introductory ... more This is a translation of "Vita s. Aemiliani" of Braulio of Zaragoza, with notes and introductory article.
The present article considers the third canon of the III council in Zaragoza, which regulates the... more The present article considers the third canon of the III council in Zaragoza, which regulates the stay of the laypeople in the monastery. This decree, as well as the Visigothic monastic rules, permit us to identify the main causes of conflicts that arise between monks and laity. In the second half of the 7th century the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo entered a crisis phase. Small and middling landowners went bankrupt, their lands were bought up for next to nothing or simply taken away by the magnates, who felt themselves with impunity because the royal power was weakened. In fact, the only refuge for the poor and disadvantaged was the monastery, the abbot of which could resist the arbitrariness of the magnates. As the “Regula communis” testifies, that whole families often entered the monastery, with wives and small children. All this affected the discipline of the monks. According to the canon of the council in Zaragoza, the laypeople prevent the monks from working and violate their daily routine. Conversations with the laity inspire monks with a desire to return to the world, to seek wealth and honors. According to church authors, this leads both to death for a particular monk, and to damage to the entire monastery and undermining monastic discipline. There was a big problem due to the conflicts over property, because, leaving the monastery, the monk began to demand back the funds invested by him. Thus, the laity appears as a serious threat to the monastic way of life. However, the council did not forbid the abbots to provide asylum to the needy, but only limited this right. From now on, only the poor and the oppressed can be accepted into the monastery, while their way of life should not cause complaints from the abbot. The guests should settle in buildings specially designated for this, thus limiting their contacts with the brethren. Despite the rhetoric of church authors that denounced the laity, the monastery remained a place of refuge for the socially unprotected segments of the population and in this sense was closely connected with society
Historia sin fronteras. En torno a las raíces del Europa. Estudios en honor del profesor Luis A. García Moreno, 2022
Este artículo trata de dar una descripción general de los estudios isidorianos en Rusia. El inter... more Este artículo trata de dar una descripción general de los estudios isidorianos en Rusia. El interés profesional por la historia de España, en concreto por la historia de la Alta Edad Media, es reciente. Los estudios de historia visigoda comienzan en los años sesenta y están asociados con el nombre de Alexander Korsunsky. En ellos, la figura de Isidoro de Sevilla, su pensamiento y su obra siempre están en el centro de atención. Hoy los textos isidorianos son estudiados por historiadores y filósofos especialistas en cultura antigua y medieval; el tema principal de muchos trabajos gira en torno a la manera isidoriana de citar y usar sus muy diversas fuentes. Algunas obras isidorianas fueron traducidas al ruso en su día, pero también van apareciendo nuevas traducciones, aunque hay muchas dificultades con el “juego de palabras” en el texto latino.
Le début du Moyen Âge est marqué par de profonds changements dans la culture et l’enseignement. T... more Le début du Moyen Âge est marqué par de profonds changements dans la culture et l’enseignement. Tandis que les écoles laïques disparaissent peu à peu, d’autres se développent à proximité des églises et des monastères. Partout surgissent des scriptoria au sein des monastères où les moines copient les livres antiques et en écrivent de nouveaux. Les moines et le clergé, plus instruits et érudits que les laïcs, jouent un grand rôle dans une culture qui devient de plus en plus chrétienne. Le nouve..
Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta. Seria I: Bogoslovie, Filosofiâ, 2013
The works of Isidore of Seville reveal several levels of knowledge. The fi rst and the highest is... more The works of Isidore of Seville reveal several levels of knowledge. The fi rst and the highest is wisdom (sapientia), which according to Isidore, is knowledge of divine things. This wisdom will most definitely lead the initiate to salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven. But the specific quality of wisdom is interpreted by Isidore in diff erent ways according to his various works. In those works which possess an encyclopedic character («Etymologies» and the first book of «Differences»), wisdom involves an understanding of how the world and the whole of the cosmos are organised. A wise man is able to comprehend the causes of both the visible and the heavenly world. On the contrary, a person's rationality (prudentia) is oriented towards worldly and secular things. It aims at distinguishing between good and evil and how best to arrange one's own life and final destiny. Rationality is connected with knowledge (scientia), which is bookish learning, and which Isidore treats as a part ...
The article is dedicated to the Latin concepts aequitas and iustitia in the works of Isidore of S... more The article is dedicated to the Latin concepts aequitas and iustitia in the works of Isidore of Seville. The "first Encyclopedic mind of the Middle Ages", Isidore was guided in his works (the "Etymologies", "Differences" and "Sentences", studied in this article) by the Roman legal tradition as well as the Christian tradition of use of these concepts. According to Isidore, justice ( iustitia ) is related to the written law ( ius ); this word is primarily used with reference to mundane justice and legislation. In the same time it may be a just legal order, established by God, and in this sense iustitia is partly associated with aequitas . On the contra? ry, an equity ( aequitas ) is based on natural law ( ius naturale ) and signifies the primordial order, natural and obvious to everyone. It's main feature is equality of all the people. Never? theless (even in the same Isidore's works) the concepts of aequitas and iustitia look like inter...
EnglishThe law (lex) is a basis of Roman legal tradition, as well as of the legal tradition of ki... more EnglishThe law (lex) is a basis of Roman legal tradition, as well as of the legal tradition of kingdom of Toledo, that was very influenced by Roman juristes. The conception of perfect law was elaborated by Isidore of Seville (570 – 636). He departed from the heritage of Antiquity as well as from biblical and patristic tradition.According to his interpretation lex is the supreme divine law, but at once it is a decree, promulgated by people. The perfect law is sound, reasonable and equal to each person. The laws are promulgated by king, but somehow they must to be approved by all the subjects, so they are equally binding for all. Isidore insists on the king’s law-obedience, that is a guarantee of stability. The royal laws must to serve to kingdom’s prosperity. Isidore borrowed the ideas of Roman jurists and philosophers but interpreted them in changed circumstances. francaisLa loi (lex) est une base de la tradition juridique romaine, ainsi que de la tradition juridique du royaume de T...
Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts... more Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts of Taio of Zaragoza and his Sententiarum libri V. The aim of the present essay is to study the ways in which Gregory's text was used by Taio to build his. As a case-study example, I focus specifically on the Taio's engagement with Gregory's concepts of judge and judgement because of their religious centrality. Taio, who dedicated to the judge a chapter of the fifth book, presents thee ideal judge not as one with the "technical" qualities of the knowledge of law, for example, but rather is one who must be a pious and God-fearing man. Isidore of Seville in his Sententiae described the ideal judge in sufficient detail, yet Taio did not use the treatise of Isidore. Instead, he preferred to follow fragments of the Moralia concerning the way of living of the righteous man. In fact, Taio used Gregory's text like a collection of bricks for his own treatise, embedding them in his own structure. Sometimes he shortened or altered the words of the original text, thus changing the content-and, in doing so, for instance, the righteous man of Gregory became the ideal judge.
This article focuses on a passage from letter I.6 of Pope Gregory I the Great addressed to the By... more This article focuses on a passage from letter I.6 of Pope Gregory I the Great addressed to the Byzantine noble Narses, with whom the Pope became closely acquainted in Constantinople. Gregory rebukes his addressee for trying to “plow the field of the Lord” with the help of oxen (bubali), which are unsuitable for this matter. Gregory also advises Narses to “smite them with the sword of his mouth”. In order to unravel the meaning of Gregory’s metaphor we analyze the context of his letter (including references to the Bible), as well as all his messages to Narses. Four extant letters touch on theological and church matters, so Narses could be close to the circle of patriarch John IV. His help to Gregory in the case of accused eastern presbyters or with Church Councils’ manuscripts could be metaphorically designated as “plowing the field of the Lord”. Letter I.6 by Gregory probably points to some theological or church dispute that took place in the patriarchal or imperial court. Bubali in biblical context are oxen unfit for plowing, because they are too ferocious. In view of the conflict between Gregory I and John of Contantinople bubali may designate any persons from the patriarch’s circle. The content of the letters shows how vividly Gregory was interested in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople and in Greek theology. The context of the messages allows us to make an assumption about what the Pope had in mind when speaking of bubali.
Mater Hispania: Христианство в Испании в I тысячелетии: пер. с лат. яз. / сост. протоиерей Андрей Кордочкин. - СПб.: Алетейя, 2018
This is a translation of "Vita s. Aemiliani" of Braulio of Zaragoza, with notes and introductory ... more This is a translation of "Vita s. Aemiliani" of Braulio of Zaragoza, with notes and introductory article.
The translation of a patchwork text from Late Antiquity requires extensive commentary and detaile... more The translation of a patchwork text from Late Antiquity requires extensive commentary and detailed explanations. For it is not only the exact wording that demands the reader's attention but connotations and intertextual relations should be decoded as well. This Russian translation of De ecclesiasticis officiis (DEO) of Isidore of Seville is an attempt to reveal to the reader the richness and complexity of this treatise. The introduction provides an overview of the historical context, the author and the treatise. DEO was especially significant for the politics of unitas, being an attempt to make the liturgy in Visigothic Spain uniform (this was accomplished at the fourth Council of Toledo). It is an important primary source for the studies of liturgical practice and clergy self-representation in the early seventh century in the Latin West; it noticeably influenced the Carolingian authors. To read DEO correctly, one should keep in mind that this treatise is written according to the canons of late antique poetics. Chapters two, three, and four explore these principles in action in the text of DEO. In the second chapter, Elena Marey considers the use of Ps.-Jerome’s writing De septem ordinibus ecclesiae in the second book of DEO Isidore extensively drew upon this treatise for quotations in his work. However, when describing the figure of the bishop DEO significantly diverges from its source. While for Ps.-Jerome the correlation of the bishop to the figure of Christ is decisive, —because the bishop is one, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily— Isidore never compares the bishop to Christ. At the same time, he pays a lot of attention to the episcopal duties and canonical norms. Thus, using and quoting his source, Isidore implicitly argues against it. While Ps.-Jerome’s bishop is concentrated on the contemplation, and the clergy accomplish the action, Isidore’s bishop is much more engaged in the active life himself. Whereas most of the direct or indirect sources of DEO are well-known, others are desperately lost, which is demonstrated by Liubov Chernin in the third chapter. Along with the traditional parts of the Christian representation of Judaism, DEO provides the reader with information that could not be found in the patristic sources. For instance, Isidore knows about minyan (that is, the quorum of the participants for the public prayer "among the Jews"). The account of the authors of the Old Testament in DEO is in a striking parallel to that of the Babylonian Talmud. However, it seems that Isidore hardly was acquainted with the Hebrew text. One should assume that there existed some intermediate sources between the Jewish tradition and the text of Isidore, which are lost. Sergey Vorontsov carries out the structural analyses of the treatise in the fourth chapter. Each piece of DEO that aims at explaining some point, consists of two parts: the first one clarifies the origin of a liturgical practice (mostly book one) or of a Church group (book two), discovering it in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the tradition of the Church; the second includes norms, duties and customs related to the subject, which are more or less derived from its origin. Chapters five and six address the two main topics of DEO. Andrey Volkov thoroughly studied the evidence regarding liturgical practices of the Spanish Church in the times of Isidore, comparing DEO with the liturgical documents of the subsequent periods. Being a treatise on liturgical exegesis, DEO does not provide a reader with detailed information on the liturgical practice, however, it is a unique source of information on this topic for early seventh-century Spain. Mikhail Birkin in the sixth chapter explains exactly how Isidore constructs the collective identity of the clergy. The symbolic meaning of the tonsure, the etymological exegesis of the word clerus, and the norms of virginity and literacy shaped this identity. Using the writings of Minucius Felix and Augustine Isidore alludes to early Christian communities and virginity. All these points reinforce the position of the clergy in the realm of the sacred and outside of the realm of the secular in the social space of late antique Spain. The last two chapters offer an interpretation of the two key notions of the treatise that was initially entitled De origine officiorum. The concept of origo (as argued by Sergey Vorontsov) correlates to the explanation of the roots of practices and groups in the Church, borrowed from the Scripture (especially Old Testament) and the custom of the Church. At the same time, origo possesses the connotations of rhetorical conjecture, juridic precedent and causa efficiens. In Antiquity, the causation had been especially relevant for the understanding of the divine law both in the nature of things and in history. However, in the patristic period, it was Scripture that became the main source of the divine law. Consequently, Isidore’s origo deals not with historical causality but with the exegesis of the Scripture. According to Mikhail Birkin, the concept of officium in the works of Isidore reflected the continuity and change of the late antique social space in Visigothic Spain. On the one hand, officia conserved the ancient connotations of the reciprocal duties that guaranteed the unity of the society. On the other hand, due to the influence of the famous treatise of Ambrose, the officia became a benchmark for each particular group inside the Church. Thus, each group received its model of social behaviour. The reciprocity of the officia remained crucial for the society, but these reciprocal relations were rooted in the grace of God. First of all, this grace was thought to be received through the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist. This introductory study is intended not only to represent the variety of attitudes to DEO but also to reveal the principles of the work (of writing?) of Isidore of Seville, define its novelty and creativity, explain the meaning of the treatise in the context of the seventh century Visigothic Spain. The commentary provides the reader with an intertextual analysis, explaining the use of quotations, allusions, and connotations.
A review on the new edition of the Braulio of Saragosse's letters by R. Miguel Franco and J.C. Ma... more A review on the new edition of the Braulio of Saragosse's letters by R. Miguel Franco and J.C. Martin.
Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts... more Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts of Taio of Zaragoza and his Sententiarum libri V. The aim of the present essay is to study the ways in which Gregory’s text was used by Taio to build his. As a case-study example, I focus specifically on the Taio’s engagement with Gregory’s concepts of judge and judgement because of their religious centrality. Taio, who dedicated to the judge a chapter of the fifth book, presents thee ideal judge not as one with the “technical” qualities of the knowledge of law, for example, but rather is one who must be a pious and God-fearing man. Isidore of Seville in his Sententiae described the ideal judge in sufficient detail, yet Taio did not use the treatise of Isidore. Instead, he preferred to follow fragments of the Moralia concerning the way of living of the righteous man. In fact, Taio used Gregory’s text like a collection of bricks for his own treatise, embedding them in his own structure. Sometimes he shortened or altered the words of the original text, thus changing the content – and, in doing so, for instance, the righteous man of Gregory became the ideal judge.
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Papers by Elena Marey
In the second half of the 7th century the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo entered a crisis phase. Small and middling landowners went bankrupt, their lands were bought up for
next to nothing or simply taken away by the magnates, who felt themselves with impunity because the royal power was weakened. In fact, the only refuge for the poor and disadvantaged was the monastery, the abbot of which could resist the arbitrariness of the magnates. As the “Regula communis” testifies, that whole families often entered the monastery, with wives and small children. All this affected the discipline of the monks.
According to the canon of the council in Zaragoza, the laypeople prevent the monks from working and violate their daily routine. Conversations with the laity inspire monks with a desire to return to the world, to seek wealth and honors. According to church authors, this leads both to death for a particular monk, and to damage to the entire monastery and undermining monastic discipline. There was a big problem due to the conflicts
over property, because, leaving the monastery, the monk began to demand back the funds invested by him.
Thus, the laity appears as a serious threat to the monastic way of life. However, the council did not forbid the abbots to provide asylum to the needy, but only limited this right. From now on, only the poor and the oppressed can be accepted into the monastery, while their way of life should not cause complaints from the abbot. The guests should settle in buildings specially designated for this, thus limiting their contacts with the brethren.
Despite the rhetoric of church authors that denounced the laity, the monastery remained a place of refuge for the socially unprotected segments of the population and in this sense was closely connected with society
Los estudios de historia visigoda comienzan en los años sesenta y están
asociados con el nombre de Alexander Korsunsky. En ellos, la figura de
Isidoro de Sevilla, su pensamiento y su obra siempre están en el centro de atención. Hoy los textos isidorianos son estudiados por historiadores y filósofos especialistas en cultura antigua y medieval; el tema
principal de muchos trabajos gira en torno a la manera isidoriana de citar y usar sus muy diversas fuentes. Algunas obras isidorianas fueron
traducidas al ruso en su día, pero también van apareciendo nuevas traducciones, aunque hay muchas dificultades con el “juego de palabras”
en el texto latino.
In the second half of the 7th century the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo entered a crisis phase. Small and middling landowners went bankrupt, their lands were bought up for
next to nothing or simply taken away by the magnates, who felt themselves with impunity because the royal power was weakened. In fact, the only refuge for the poor and disadvantaged was the monastery, the abbot of which could resist the arbitrariness of the magnates. As the “Regula communis” testifies, that whole families often entered the monastery, with wives and small children. All this affected the discipline of the monks.
According to the canon of the council in Zaragoza, the laypeople prevent the monks from working and violate their daily routine. Conversations with the laity inspire monks with a desire to return to the world, to seek wealth and honors. According to church authors, this leads both to death for a particular monk, and to damage to the entire monastery and undermining monastic discipline. There was a big problem due to the conflicts
over property, because, leaving the monastery, the monk began to demand back the funds invested by him.
Thus, the laity appears as a serious threat to the monastic way of life. However, the council did not forbid the abbots to provide asylum to the needy, but only limited this right. From now on, only the poor and the oppressed can be accepted into the monastery, while their way of life should not cause complaints from the abbot. The guests should settle in buildings specially designated for this, thus limiting their contacts with the brethren.
Despite the rhetoric of church authors that denounced the laity, the monastery remained a place of refuge for the socially unprotected segments of the population and in this sense was closely connected with society
Los estudios de historia visigoda comienzan en los años sesenta y están
asociados con el nombre de Alexander Korsunsky. En ellos, la figura de
Isidoro de Sevilla, su pensamiento y su obra siempre están en el centro de atención. Hoy los textos isidorianos son estudiados por historiadores y filósofos especialistas en cultura antigua y medieval; el tema
principal de muchos trabajos gira en torno a la manera isidoriana de citar y usar sus muy diversas fuentes. Algunas obras isidorianas fueron
traducidas al ruso en su día, pero también van apareciendo nuevas traducciones, aunque hay muchas dificultades con el “juego de palabras”
en el texto latino.
The introduction provides an overview of the historical context, the author and the treatise. DEO was especially significant for the politics of unitas, being an attempt to make the liturgy in Visigothic Spain uniform (this was accomplished at the fourth Council of Toledo). It is an important primary source for the studies of liturgical practice and clergy self-representation in the early seventh century in the Latin West; it noticeably influenced the Carolingian authors.
To read DEO correctly, one should keep in mind that this treatise is written according to the canons of late antique poetics. Chapters two, three, and four explore these principles in action in the text of DEO. In the second chapter, Elena Marey considers the use of Ps.-Jerome’s writing De septem ordinibus ecclesiae in the second book of DEO Isidore extensively drew upon this treatise for quotations in his work. However, when describing the figure of the bishop DEO significantly diverges from its source. While for Ps.-Jerome the correlation of the bishop to the figure of Christ is decisive, —because the bishop is one, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily— Isidore never compares the bishop to Christ. At the same time, he pays a lot of attention to the episcopal duties and canonical norms. Thus, using and quoting his source, Isidore implicitly argues against it. While Ps.-Jerome’s bishop is concentrated on the contemplation, and the clergy accomplish the action, Isidore’s bishop is much more engaged in the active life himself.
Whereas most of the direct or indirect sources of DEO are well-known, others are desperately lost, which is demonstrated by Liubov Chernin in the third chapter. Along with the traditional parts of the Christian representation of Judaism, DEO provides the reader with information that could not be found in the patristic sources. For instance, Isidore knows about minyan (that is, the quorum of the participants for the public prayer "among the Jews"). The account of the authors of the Old Testament in DEO is in a striking parallel to that of the Babylonian Talmud. However, it seems that Isidore hardly was acquainted with the Hebrew text. One should assume that there existed some intermediate sources between the Jewish tradition and the text of Isidore, which are lost.
Sergey Vorontsov carries out the structural analyses of the treatise in the fourth chapter. Each piece of DEO that aims at explaining some point, consists of two parts: the first one clarifies the origin of a liturgical practice (mostly book one) or of a Church group (book two), discovering it in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the tradition of the Church; the second includes norms, duties and customs related to the subject, which are more or less derived from its origin.
Chapters five and six address the two main topics of DEO. Andrey Volkov thoroughly studied the evidence regarding liturgical practices of the Spanish Church in the times of Isidore, comparing DEO with the liturgical documents of the subsequent periods. Being a treatise on liturgical exegesis, DEO does not provide a reader with detailed information on the liturgical practice, however, it is a unique source of information on this topic for early seventh-century Spain.
Mikhail Birkin in the sixth chapter explains exactly how Isidore constructs the collective identity of the clergy. The symbolic meaning of the tonsure, the etymological exegesis of the word clerus, and the norms of virginity and literacy shaped this identity. Using the writings of Minucius Felix and Augustine Isidore alludes to early Christian communities and virginity. All these points reinforce the position of the clergy in the realm of the sacred and outside of the realm of the secular in the social space of late antique Spain.
The last two chapters offer an interpretation of the two key notions of the treatise that was initially entitled De origine officiorum. The concept of origo (as argued by Sergey Vorontsov) correlates to the explanation of the roots of practices and groups in the Church, borrowed from the Scripture (especially Old Testament) and the custom of the Church. At the same time, origo possesses the connotations of rhetorical conjecture, juridic precedent and causa efficiens. In Antiquity, the causation had been especially relevant for the understanding of the divine law both in the nature of things and in history. However, in the patristic period, it was Scripture that became the main source of the divine law. Consequently, Isidore’s origo deals not with historical causality but with the exegesis of the Scripture.
According to Mikhail Birkin, the concept of officium in the works of Isidore reflected the continuity and change of the late antique social space in Visigothic Spain. On the one hand, officia conserved the ancient connotations of the reciprocal duties that guaranteed the unity of the society. On the other hand, due to the influence of the famous treatise of Ambrose, the officia became a benchmark for each particular group inside the Church. Thus, each group received its model of social behaviour. The reciprocity of the officia remained crucial for the society, but these reciprocal relations were rooted in the grace of God. First of all, this grace was thought to be received through the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist.
This introductory study is intended not only to represent the variety of attitudes to DEO but also to reveal the principles of the work (of writing?) of Isidore of Seville, define its novelty and creativity, explain the meaning of the treatise in the context of the seventh century Visigothic Spain. The commentary provides the reader with an intertextual analysis, explaining the use of quotations, allusions, and connotations.