Behind the Abbot's Back: Clerics within the Monastic Hierarchy

monastic communities of the late antique Latin West. Its first part demonstrates how the clerical hierarchy introduced by monk-presbyters and monk-deacons challenged the purely monastic power structure - based, above all, on the abbot's supreme authority. It turns then to three organizers of mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Behind the Bishop’s back. The middle and lower clergy in Late Antiquity
Main Author: Szafranowski, Jerzy (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: [2019]
In: Sacris erudiri
Year: 2019, Volume: 58, Pages: 285-303
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Religious life / Church / Hierarchy / Authority / Abbot / Presbyter / History 30-600
IxTheo Classification:KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
KCA Monasticism; religious orders
RB Church office; congregation
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Description
Summary:monastic communities of the late antique Latin West. Its first part demonstrates how the clerical hierarchy introduced by monk-presbyters and monk-deacons challenged the purely monastic power structure - based, above all, on the abbot's supreme authority. It turns then to three organizers of monastic life active in the sixth century - Eugendus of Jura, Aurelian of Arles, and Benedict of Nursia - who, each in his own way, ensured that the appointment of monks to clerical ranks would leave the monastery's hierarchy intact - or even reinforce it. In conclusion, it is argued that the problems provoked by monastic clergy were alleviated by the strict separation of monastic and ecclesiastical hierarchies, which is demonstrated particularly in the Benedict of Nursia's Rule. This, in turn, contributed to the steady process of the clericalization of Western monasticism.
ISSN:2295-9025
Contains:Enthalten in: Sacris erudiri
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1484/J.SE.5.119457