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Abstract
This dissertation studies the problems raised by ascetic vagrancy for the development, promotion and social acceptance of "orthodox" monasticism up to the council of Chalcedon. Drawing on a wide range of sources from the third century (e.g., the Ps.-Clementine Letters on Virginity, the Acts of Thomas) to the fourth and fifth centuries (e.g., Gregory of Nyssa's On Virginity, the Book of Steps, the Ps.-Macarian Great Letter, Augustine's On the Work of Monks, the Life of Alexander Akoimetes, John Chrysostom's homilies, Nilus of Ancyra's On Voluntary Poverty and Asceticon, heresiologies, conciliar acta, legal codices), it documents the pervasion and deeply-rooted existence of an ascetic arrangement based on literal interpretation of Gospel precepts and imitation of Jesus and his apostles, whereby elite ascetics offered their communities spiritual edification in return for material support. Taking a comprehensive approach which focuses on specific practices (wandering, material dependency and enthusiastic behavior), it circumvents the anti-heretical and hierarchal typologies constructed to marginalize this lifestyle e.g., "Messalians," "circumcellions," "gyrovagi"). Its methodological approach is social history, especially the urban social history of the late Roman empire. It therefore places these ascetic practices and the issues they raised within their contemporary social as well as monastic context.
My study demonstrates that an "apostolic" monastic model characterized by absolute poverty, material dependency and teaching preceded, and later competed with, the "orthodox" (coenobitic) model characterized by manual labor, moderate poverty and withdrawal from urban areas. It shows how this earlier model became repudiated in the fourth and early fifth centuries for social, cultural and doctrinal reasons, not least because charismatic monks challenged the privileges now claimed by the church hierarchy. Indeed, many accused of wandering and begging were patronized (as client philosophers or spiritual advisors) by urban aristocrats, and thus wielded considerable authority outside episcopal control (especially in Constantinople). This study therefore examines in addition not only how monastic patronage encouraged social mobility and promotion of certain forms of monastic "decorum," but also the role that patronage played in the political and doctrinal rivalries surrounding the synod of the "Oak" (403), the councils of Ephesus (431, 449), and Chalcedon (451).