Iberian Fathers, Volume 2

Introduction

INTRODUCTION The Consensoria Monachorum1 is a form of monastic pact, intended for use with some type of Rule, just as the Pact already translated was attached to the Common Rule, attributed to Fructuosus. It was a legal agreement to be subscribed with the signatures of the monks. A full account of the title, contents, and unique nature of the Consensoria has been given by Professor Bishko, who assigns it to Galicia in the years 650-675. It contains references to the armed violence experienced in that area when abbeys were attacked by kinsmen seeking to recover property donated by a relative when he professed monasticism. The biblical quotations were made from an Old Latin version rather than from the Vulgate. One citation in Chapter 3 from prophetic literature seems to be apocryphal. This translation is based on the text in PL 66.993-996 and on variants indicated in the notes from another version edited in an appendix to works of Augustine in PL 32.14471450 as well as other manuscript readings printed by Bishko. There are more recent editions by A. C. Vega, La regia de San Agustin (El Escorial 1933), and R. Arbesmann and W. Hiimpfner, Iordani de Saxonia Liber Vitasfrat1'llm (New York 1943) 485-88. Listed as no. 1872 in Dekkers, Clavis palnlll! /aliI101'1l1ll. 215 ...