
Contents
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In the Shadow of Sidonius In the Shadow of Sidonius
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Avitus’s World: Bishops and Burgundians, Ascetics, and Aristocrats Avitus’s World: Bishops and Burgundians, Ascetics, and Aristocrats
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Poetic Theory and Practice: the Prologue to the De spiritalis historiae gestis Poetic Theory and Practice: the Prologue to the De spiritalis historiae gestis
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The Problem of Episcopal Eloquence: A Detour to Arles The Problem of Episcopal Eloquence: A Detour to Arles
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Framing the CCL Framing the CCL
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The Ascetic Poetics of the CCL The Ascetic Poetics of the CCL
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6 The Poet and the Virgin: Avitus of Vienne’s De Consolatoria Castitatis Laude
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Published:July 2024
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Abstract
This chapter identifies and explains an ascetic poetics within the writings of Avitus of Vienne, a nephew of Sidonius Apollinaris. Interpretation focuses on Avitus’s poem, De consolatoria castitatis laude, composed to encourage his sister, a Christian nun, in her virginity. Fundamental to Avitus’s oeuvre are efforts to delineate a theory of Christian poetry that could mitigate tensions between his role as a Christian bishop and his commitments to classical literary traditions. This chapter proposes several strands of ascetic discourse as keys for decoding the language with which Avitus outlines and performs his poetic program. Close reading reveals that rhetorical and lexical elements of the bishop’s rationale derive from ascetic writings about the relationship between Christian speech and conduct. Analysis uncovers Avitus’s affinity with proponents of Lerinian asceticism, including Caesarius of Arles. Situating Avitus among these ascetic authors sets his poetic anxieties and procedures in new light. He emerges as an innovator of a tradition of regional Christian poets conflicted by competing poetic and ascetic imperatives. In the poem for his sister, Avitus produces a “chaste” form of poetry for a Christian virgin that stylistically enacts some of the very virtues of asceticism he recommends to her.
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