Article contents
Late Visigothic Bishops, Their Schools and the Transmission of Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
A galaxy of enlightened bishops, inheritors and transmitters of the highly developed Hispano-Roman intellectual tradition, graced the Church in seventh-century Spain. Braulio, Taio, Ildefonsus, Eugene I, Eugene II and Julian, all depend more or less directly upon the great St. Isidore of Seville (600–636). He in turn was educated by his brother, Leander, in the last quarter of the sixth century. Lynch emphasizes the uniqueness of the system by which these men were formed in what he calls a ‘bishop's school,’ an expression which underlines the very intimate relationship which incorporated the students into the bishop's familia in contrast to the more formal cathedral school, especially as it developed in Carolingian times.
- Type
- Miscellany
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Fordham University Press
References
1 Lynch, C. H., Saint Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa (631–651): His Life and Writings (Washington 1938) 20.Google Scholar
2 Ibid. Google Scholar
3 Fontaine, J., Isidore de Seville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique (Paris 1959) 8f.Google Scholar
4 Altamira, R., ‘Spain under the Visigoths,’ CMH 2 (1913) 192.Google Scholar
5 Fontaine, , op. cit. 9.Google Scholar
6 Lot, F., ‘A quelle époque a-t-on cessé de parler Latin?’ Archivum latinitatis medii aevi, Bulletin du Cange 6 (1931) 111.Google Scholar
7 Sister Patrick Jerome Mullins, O.P., The Spiritual Life According to Saint Isidore of Seville (Washington 1942) 10, n. 57, citing the De officiis ecclesiasticis 2.9.4. Google Scholar
8 Lot, loc. cit. Google Scholar
9 Fontaine, op. cit. 6. Google Scholar
10 Ibid. Google Scholar
11 Ibid., 6f.Google Scholar
12 Mullins, , op. cit. 5; Fontaine, op. cit. 7 who quotes M. Díaz y Diaz's interpretation of a passage in the De monachis perfectis to support the possibility of a monastic education for Isidore. The emphasis on sacris litteris in the passage inclines me to think that this was only the traditional monastic education in scripturis not in litteraturis. Google Scholar
13 Lynch, , op. cit. 20f.Google Scholar
14 Mansi VIII.785 translated by Mullins, op. cit. 4. Google Scholar
15 Lynch, , loc. cit. Google Scholar
16 Mansi X.626 translated by Lynch, op. cit. 23; cf. Mullins, op. cit. 167. Google Scholar
17 Koeppler, H., ‘De viris illustribus and Isidore of Seville,’ The Journal of Theological Studies 38 (1936) 32.Google Scholar
18 Brehaut, E., An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville (New York 1912) 87.Google Scholar
19 Mullins, , op. cit. 12.Google Scholar
20 McKenna, S., C.SS.R., Paganism and Pagan Survivals in Spain up to the Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom (Washington 1938) 136; cf. 136–42 for ad iscussion of Isidore's policy concerning the pagan classics and their use.Google Scholar
21 Roger, M., L'Enseignement des lettres classiques d'Ausone à Alcuin (Paris 1905) 200f., but he explains that fear of keeping alive ideas and customs which Christianity wished to combat was greater in a Latin culture than in Brittany and Ireland (p. 201).Google Scholar
22 PL 81.16f. Google Scholar
23 Op. cit. p. 11.Google Scholar
24 Varro, Cicero, Virgil, Quintilian, Pliny the Younger, Aulus Gellius, Festus, Servus Grammaticus, Macrobius, Vegetius (A. Lawson, C. ‘The Sources of the De officiis ecclesiasticis of St. Isidore of Seville,’ Unprinted thesis in the Bodleian (Ms. Eng. Th. C 56) summarized by the author in Revue bénédictine 50 (1938) 26–36.Google Scholar
25 Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus and the Babylonian Talmud (ibid. 26). Google Scholar
26 Cyprian, Lactantius, Jerome, Augustine, Cassian, Innocent I (all quoted directly), Origen, Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose, Gregory Nazianzen (in Rufinus’ translation), Leo I, Gelasius, Vigilius, Prudentius, Paulinus of Nola, Salvian, Gennadius, Pseudo-Jerome (ibid., pp. 26 and 28); Isidore refers indirectly to the works of Clement of Alexandria, Serapion, Epiphanius, the Apostolic Constitutions, Cyril of Alexandria, Victorinus, Juvencus, Sedulius, Ambrosiaster, Evagrius, Faustus of Riez, Mamertus, Fulgentius, Benedict and Paschasius the Deacon (ibid.). Google Scholar
27 Ibid. 32.Google Scholar
28 Isidore reproduces several creeds and the canons of the councils of Nicaea (325), Antioch (341), III Toledo (589) (ibid. 29). Google Scholar
29 Mullins, , op. cit. 11 recognizes that the use of seventy-five Greek words in the Etymologiae is inconclusive evidence.Google Scholar
30 Lawson, , op. cit. 35.Google Scholar
31 Ziegler, A. K., Church and State in Visigothic Spain (Washington 1930) 55–88.Google Scholar
32 Martin of Braga compiled a series of eighty-four fragments including Greek, Spanish and some forged canons, for which last Martin himself was probably responsible (P. Fournier and Le, G. Bras, Histoire des collections canoniques en Occident 1 [Paris 1931] 65).Google Scholar
33 P. Séjourné, Le dernier père de l'Église: Saint Isidore de Séville, son rôle dans l'histoire du droit canonique (Paris 1929) 489. Google Scholar
34 Fournier, , op. cit. 68.Google Scholar
35 Lawson, , op. cit. 34. Séjourné (loc. cit.) thinks that Isidore's concern for clerical education evident in Canon 24 of IV Toledo influenced seminary education up to the Council of Trent!Google Scholar
36 Fournier, op. cit. 71. Google Scholar
37 Séjourné, loc. cit. Google Scholar
38 Fournier, loc. cit. Google Scholar
39 Ibid. 69. Fournier summarizes its contents which are derived, he says, from excellent sources, and are classified chronologically and geographically. A glance at the contents of Hispana offers convincing proof of its excellence: it comprises a preface, an index, the acts of the Greek councils, some miscellaneous documents (e.g., Epistola formata of Atticus), an account of the African councils from a source used by Hispana alone, canons of ten councils of Gaul up to I Orléans (511), fourteen Spanish councils (to IV Toledo, 633), Capitula Martini, Sententiae attributed to Agde, and 104 decretals. Addenda to the definitive form found in most manuscripts include the Definitio fidei of the sixth general council, five pontifical letters, more Gallic councils to V Orléans (549) and additional Spanish councils to XVII Toledo in 694 (ibid. 68).Google Scholar
40 Brehaut, , op. cit. 87; for forerunners of Isidore, the Roman encyclopedists, cf. ibid. 38–41; E. Pérez Pujol, Historia de las instituciones sociales de la España goda 3 (Valencia 1896) 501.Google Scholar
41 Synonyma. 2.65 (PL 86. 860).Google Scholar
42 Cap. cit. 32. There is a new edition of De viris illustribus: Carmen Codóner Merino, El De viris illustribus de Isidoro de Sevilla, Theses et Studia Philologica Salamanticensia 12 (Salamanca 1964).Google Scholar
43 Ibid. 12. Google Scholar
44 PL 82.65; ibid. 96.102. Google Scholar
45 Koeppler, , op. cit. 19; cf. Fontaine, ‘La bibliothèque profane de Seville,’ op. cit. 735–62.Google Scholar
46 J. de Ghellinck, S.J. ‘Diffusion, utilisation et transmission des écrits patristiques’, Gregorianum 14 (1933) 377. Google Scholar
47 McNally, R. E., S.J., ‘Isidoriana,’ Theological Studies 20 (1959) 432.Google Scholar
48 Ibid. 434.Google Scholar
49 Anspach, A. E. ‘Das Fortleben Isidors im VII bis IX Jahrhundert,’ Miscellanea Isidoriana (Rome 1936) 323–56. Cf. also Fontaine, J. 's valuable introduction to Isidore of Seville, Traité de la Nature (Bordeaux 1960) where he discusses the dissemination of Isidore's work throughout early medieval Europe. Bischoff, B., ‘Die europäische Verbreitung der Werke Isidors von Sevilla,’ Isidoriana (Leon 1961) 317–45 describes the diffusion of Isidore's writings in Spain, Italy, France, England and Ireland in the pre-Carolingian period and underlines his importance as a link between the patristic and early medieval biblical and theological studies, as well as between classical and medieval cultures.Google Scholar
50 Fontaine, , op. cit. 5.Google Scholar
51 McKenna, , op. cit. 142.Google Scholar
52 Lynch, , op. cit. 22.Google Scholar
53 De viris illustribus, c. 6 (PL 96.201).Google Scholar
54 Lynch, , op. cit. 24.Google Scholar
55 Ibid. 52.Google Scholar
56 Ibid. 163.Google Scholar
57 Ibid. 149.Google Scholar
58 Ibid. 163.Google Scholar
59 Ibid. 151.Google Scholar
60 Ibid. 151–3.Google Scholar
61 Ibid. 209.Google Scholar
62 Ibid. 210.Google Scholar
63 Ibid. 26. Braulio would be surprised at this appellation as he condemned the classical learning with which his works are nevertheless imbued (ibid. 160).Google Scholar
64 Ibid. 158.Google Scholar
65 Ibid. 165.Google Scholar
66 Cf. Fontaine, ‘La Renaissance isidorienne: sa nature et ses limites,’ op. cit. 863–88. Google Scholar
67 PL 80.657 (Letter 11) and 687f. (Letter 42) cited by Lynch, op. cit. 159. Google Scholar
68 J. de Ghellinck, S.J., Le Mouvement théologique du XIIe siècle (Brussels 1948) 33. Google Scholar
69 Ibid., cf. also Lynch, op. cit. 158, 164.Google Scholar
70 PL 80. 690 (Letter 42). Google Scholar
71 Sister Athanasius Braegelmann, O.S.B., The Life and Writings of Saint Ildefonsus of Toledo (Washington 1942) 51. Google Scholar
72 Fontaine, ‘Les Coordonnées de l'astronomie isidorienne,’ op. cit. 434–589. Google Scholar
73 Braegelmann, , op. cit. 51.Google Scholar
74 Laistner, M. L. W., Thought and Letters in Western Europe, A.D. 500 to 900 (London 1931) 130; J. Pérez de Urbel, ‘Eugen II,’ Lexikon für Theologie u. Kirche III2, 1174.Google Scholar
75 Braegelmann, , op. cit. 52.Google Scholar
76 Laistner, , loc. cit.Google Scholar
77 Braegelmann, , op. cit. 8.Google Scholar
78 Ibid. 51 citing G. von Dzialowski, Isidor u. Ildefons als Litterarhistoriker (Münster 1898) 145.Google Scholar
79 PL 96.43. Google Scholar
80 Elogium edited by F. de Laurenzana, Sanctorum patrum Toletanorum … opera 1 (Madrid 1782) 94f.Google Scholar
81 Braegelmann, , op. cit. 32.Google Scholar
82 Ibid. 36.Google Scholar
83 Laistner, , op. cit. 135.Google Scholar
84 Braegelmann, , op. cit. 36–41.Google Scholar
85 Ibid. 58.Google Scholar
86 Ibid. 133–5.Google Scholar
87 Ibid. 125.Google Scholar
88 Ibid 170.Google Scholar
89 Murphy, F. X. C.SS.R., ‘Julian of Toledo and the Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom in Spain,’ Speculum 27 (1952) 1–27.Google Scholar
90 Laistner, , op. cit. 131.Google Scholar
91 Engels, O., ‘Julian von Toledo,’ Lexikon für Theologie u. Kirche V2, 1200.Google Scholar
92 Cf. Murphy, , op. cit. 10–19 for a consideration of the vexed question Wamba's deposition, Julian's attitude toward it and its legality.Google Scholar
93 Braegelmann, , op. cit. 4–22.Google Scholar
94 Murphy, , op. cit. 7.Google Scholar
95 Ibid.; cf. also Veija, A. Valencia, La doctrina escatalogica de San Julian de Toledo (Lugo 1940).Google Scholar
96 Ghellinck, De, Le Mouvement théologique 117.Google Scholar
97 Murphy, , loc. cit. Google Scholar
98 Ibid. Google Scholar
99 Laistner, , op. cit. 132.Google Scholar
100 Murphy, , loc. cit.; Manitius, M. Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911) 131f. and Beeson, C. H., ‘The Ars grammatica of Julian of Toledo,’ Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle 1 (Rome 1924) 50–70.Google Scholar
101 Laistner, , loc. cit. Google Scholar
102 Murphy, , op. cit. 10; idem, ‘Julian of Toledo and the Condemnation of Monothelitism in Spain,’ Mélanges J. de Ghellinck (Gembloux 1951) 361–77.Google Scholar
103 McKenna, , op. cit. 142; Lynch, op. cit. 20, thinks the Spanish level of learning and culture was superior even to that of the Irish in the same period.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by