Ascetics, Authority, and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian: Second Edition

I. AN EXILE IN REVERSE

I AN EXILE IN REVERSE One of the chief inheritors of the traditions described above was John Cassian. Hilary and Martin had encouraged an or­ ganized monastic movement in certain parts of Gaul. The writings of Sulpicius had attempted to make their achieve­ ments more widely known, and to inspire with monastic ideals the pastoral life of the church. It remained for some­ one to give more detailed and lasting guidance on the daily conduct of asceticism, and to ensure adherence in Gaul to concepts of authority-of obedience and tradition in particu­ lar-that would maintain an ordered development within monasticism itself, yet still allow scope for ascetics within the pastoral sphere. Such was the effect, if not the intention, of Cassian's literary work. ' Unfortunately, little is known of Cassian's life before his arrival in Gaul, in 415.1 He was a native of the Dobrudja, in what is now Romania and Bulgaria, on the shores of the Black Sea;2 and, after a period in Bethlehem, he lived as an ascetic in Egypt for two years at least, if not longer.3 Apart from hints in his own writings, the only direct evidence concerning him after his departure from Egypt, in 399, comes from Palladius and Pope Innocent I, and refers to the role he played in a delegation from Constantinople to Rome, in 404, pleading the cause of Chrysostom.4 A reference in Gennadius states that Cassian then became a priest, settled in Marseille, and founded two I The commonly accepted date for Cassian's arrival in Marseille. The most clearly marshalled chronology of his life,with the fullest reference to the opinions of modern scholars, is given by H.-O. Weber, Die Stellung des Johannes Cassianus zur ausserpachomianischen Monchstradition (Munster,Westf., 1960), 1-5. 2 I follow, with O. Chadwick, the judgement of H.-I. Marrou, 'La patrie de Jean Cassien',OCP xiii {1947),588-96. 3See O. Chadwick, John Cassian, 2nd edn. {Cambridge, 1968),15-18. Unless otherwise stated,future references will be to this edition. 4Palladius,Dialogue, iii; Innocent,Ep. vii. 170 CASSIAN monasteries there. 5 All that can be said of the years between is that he seems to have retained his devotion to the ascetic movement. This obscurity has led some to despair of ever establish­ ing any chronology of Cassian's life. Of his career in Egypt there is no record, apart from his own formalized account, written after his arrival in Gaul. The only event mentioned there that can be linked with other sources is the publica­ tion, in 399, of a Paschal Letter of Theophilus.6 When Palladius wrote of Cassian's departure from Constantinople for Rome, in 404, he gave no real indication of when or why Cassian had come to the eastern capital, nor of what he did when the delegation had achieved its task. Even after 415, his career is marked out and dated merely by his literary products, which tell us virtually nothing about his other activities. Modern commentators often feel reduced on this account to ignore chronology altogether. They content them­ selves with an analysis of Cassian's writings under various headings, and with the problems of his intellectual roots, traced largely at a literary level by a comparison of texts.7 This is not only a counsel of despair, but bad history. To discover that a problem is impossible to solve is no justifica­ tion for saying that it is unimportant.8 It is clearly significant, for example, that Cassian became involved with John Chryso­ stom, regardless of whether it is possible to discover the details of that involvement. It may well be true that Chrysostom had no direct literary influence on Cassian's 5 Gennadius, De Scriptoribus Ecc/esiasticis, lxii (conveniently printed with Cassian, Inst., CSEL xvii, pp. cxv-cxvi). His phrase, 'a priest of Marseille' leaves open the question of where Cassian received the priesthood.For a description of Cassian's monasteries, see E. MaJe, La fin du paganisme en Gaule et les plus anciennes basiliques chretiennes (Paris, 1950), 155 ff., and F. Benoit, 'Le Martyrium rupestre de l'abbaye Saint-Vietor', CR, 1966, 110-25. 6 Cassian, Con. x. 2-5. 7 So, almost entirely, S. Marsili, Giovanni Cassiano ed Evagrio Pontico (Rome, 1936), and P. Munz, 'John Cassian', JEH xi (1960), 1-22; Chadwick, Cassian, to a lesser extent, although the events of Cassian's life are still, for him, largely literary events. Weber, Stellung, does not...