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Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great

Online ISBN:
9780191678127
Print ISBN:
9780198208686
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great

Conrad Leyser
Conrad Leyser

Lecturer in Medieval History

University of Manchester
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Published online:
3 October 2011
Published in print:
5 October 2000
Online ISBN:
9780191678127
Print ISBN:
9780198208686
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book examines the formation of the Christian ascetic tradition in the western Roman Empire during the period of the barbarian invasions, c.400–600. In an aggressively competitive political context, one of the most articulate claims to power was made, paradoxically, by men who had renounced ‘the world’, committing themselves to a life of spiritual discipline in the hope of gaining entry to an otherworldly kingdom. Often dismissed as mere fanaticism or open hypocrisy, the language of ascetic authority, the book shows, was both carefully honed and well understood in the late Roman and early medieval Mediterranean. It charts the development of this new moral rhetoric by abbots, teachers, and bishops from the time of Augustine of Hippo to that of St Benedict and Gregory the Great.

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