UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Transformation Through Imitation: Biblical Figures as Moral Exempla in the Post-Classical World A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Elizabeth Bisbee Goldfarb 2005UMI Number: 3202785 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality ilustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3202785 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346, ‘Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346© Copyright by Elizabeth Bisbee Goldfarb 2005The dissertation of Elizabeth Bisbee Goldfarb is approved. S, Scott Bartchy day A Ms Joseph F. Nagy f oo ze Claudia Rapp, Committee Ci University of California, Los Angeles 2005 iiFor Keith iiiCONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiv Vira. ABSTRACT. IntRopucTION CapreR OVERVIEW 7 ANCIENT TEXTS RELATING TO HAGIOGRAPHY AND BIBLICAL SAINTS 17 ANCIENT CULT OF BIBLICAL SAINTS 20 ‘MODERN SCHOLARSHIP ON BIBLICAL SAINTS 25 InITATION AND THE LATIN VOCABULARY OF EXAMPLE 30 MODERN SCHOLARSHIP ON ANCIENT EDUCATION AND RHETORIC 38 [ANCIENT TREATISES RELATING 10 EDUCATION gt ‘ANCIENT THEORIES OF INOTATION 42 [ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL THEORIES OF IMITATION AND MEMORY 46 PACHOMIANS.. IytRopuction 61 NATURE OF PACHOMIAN ConPUs 63 IMITATION IN PACHOMIAN THOUGHT 79 ScnurTuRE AND Its PACHOMIAN IMITATION 87 IsITATION OF BIBLICAL FIGURES 110 ‘Tas Lives of Pachomius, ATHANASIUS, ANTONY, AND APOSTOLIC INHERITANCE 135 ConcLUSiON 153 162 AMBROSE.... IntRopuCTION 162 Exempla 1N De OFFicis: A SYNTHESIS OF CHRISTIAN AND CLASSICAL CULTURE 165 "AMBROSE AND CICERO: DIFFERENCES IN UsE OF Exempla 174 (Ormer TeAcuiNe TREATISES: De ABRAHAM, DE ViRGINIBUS, DE VIDUIS 190 PAUL BETWEEN PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE 220, CoNcLUSION 255 JEROME AND PELAGIUS... 264 ‘Two ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCRIPTURE AND IMITATION IN THE PURSUIT OF A HOLY LIFE 264 Exempla AND LEARNING T0 READ: EDUCATION 1N FOURTH CENTURY CHRISTIANITY 271 Exempla 1N PELAGIUS: AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF His THEOLOGY 293 ‘TeROME’S CHANGING VIEWS OF BIBLICAL. Exempla: 306 ‘Tae Lerrers To DeMETRIAS: 322 Conclusion 332 iv338 CASSIAN SCRIPTURE AND IMITATION IN CASSIAN 338 ‘TRANSMITTING HOLINESS BY WORD AND EXAMPLE 349 ‘THE ART OF ASCETICISM: APPROACHES To SCRIPTURE 366 ‘THE ART OF ASCETICISM AND IMITATION 377 ConcLuston 404, ConcLUsION... G13 436 BIBLIOGRAPHY... EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS 436 SECONDARY Works 448Abr. acw Against Nestorius Bacht, Verméichtnis Bartelink, Vie d'Antoine Baskin, “Job” Berton, “Abraham” Boon, Pachomiana Latina Brake, Athanasius Brown, Augustine Brown, Persuasion Cameron, Rhetoric Carruthers, Memory ccsL Chadwick, Cassian ABBREVIATIONS: Ambrose, De Abraham Ancient Christian Writers Cassian, On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius Heinrich Bacht, Das Vermitchtnis des Ursprungs: Studien zum frithen Monchtum I (Wurzburg, 1972) G.J.M. Bartelink, ed. and trans., Vie d'Antoine: Athanase d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1994) JR. Baskin “Job as Moral Exemplar in Ambrose,” Vigiliae Christianae 35 (1981): 222-231 Raymond Berton, “Abraham dans le De officiis ministrorum d’ Ambroise,” Revue des sciences religieuses 54.4 (October 1980): 311-322 Pachomiana Latina, Régle et éptres de S. Pachome, Spitre de S. Théodore et «Liber» de S. Orsiesius, Texte latin de S. Jéréme, ed. Amand Boon (Louvain, 1932) David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism Baltimore, 1998) Peter RL. Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley 1967) Peter R.L. Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late ity: Towards a Christian Empire (Madison, Averil Cameron, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: the Development of Christian Discourse (Berkeley, 1991) Mary J. Carruthers, The Book of Memory: a Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge, 1990) Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout and Paris) Owen Chadwick, John Cassian (London, 1968) viClark, Renunciation Colish, Stoic Conf. Consolino, “Exempla” Copt. Vita P. csco CSEL Davidson de Bruyn Delehaye, Légendes Demoen, Exempla De Romestin Doignon, “Judith” Doignon, “La Trilogie” Dhy. Elizabeth Clark, Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity (Princeton, 1999) Marcia Colish, The Stoic Tradition from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. vol. 2 (Leiden, 1985) Cassian, Conferences Franca Ela Consolino, “Dagli exempla ad un esempio di comportamento cristiano: il De exhortatione virginitatis di Ambrogio,” Rivista Storica Italiana 94.2 (1982): 455-477 Coptic (Bohairic) Life of Pachomius Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Louvain) Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesticorum Latinorum (Vienna) Ivor J. Davidson, translation and notes for Ambrose: De officiis (Oxford, 2001) Theodore de Bruyn, Pelagius's Commentary on St Paul's Epistle to the Romans (Oxford, 1993) Hippolyte Delehaye, Les légendes hagiographiques (Brussels, 1955) Kristoffel Demoen, Pagan and Biblical Exempla in Gregory Nazianzen: A Study in Rhetoric and Hermeneutics (Turnout, 1996) H, De Romestin, trans. St. Ambrose, Select Works and Letters, NPNF 2.10 (1896; reprint. Grand Rapids, 1989) Jean Doignon, “La premitre exposition ambrosienne de I'exemplum de Judith (De virginibus 2, 4, 24),” in Ambroise de Milan, XVI Centenaire de son election épiscopale (Paris, 1974), 219-228 Jean Doignon, “La trilogie forma, figura, exemplum, transposition du grec TYTIOE, dans la tradition ancienne du texte latin de s. Paul,” Latomus 17.2 (1958): 329-49 Cyprian, De habitu virginum viiDo DOM Driver, Cassian Dyck, Cicero Evans, Four Letters Evans, Pelagius Inquiries ex. coll. Exh. virg Ferguson, Pelagius Frankfurter, Elijah 3 GIC Life of Antony Goehring, “Fourth Letter” Goehring, Letter of Ammon Halkin, Pachomii Vitae Harpham, Ascetic Imperative Cicero, De officiis Ambrose, De officiis Steven D, Driver, John Cassian and the Reading of Egyptian Monastic Culture (New York, 2002) Andrew Dyck, A Commentary on Cicero, De offictis (Ann Arbor, 1996) Robert F. Evans, Four Letters of Pelagius (New York, 1968) Robert F. Evans, Pelagius, Inquiries and Reappraisals (New York, 1968) extra collectionem; These are letters transmitted outside of Ambrose’s own collection of his letters Ambrose, Exhortatio virgintatis John Ferguson, Pelagius (Cambridge, 1956) David Frankfurter, Elijah in Upper Egypt: The Apocalypse of Elijah and Early Egyptian Christianity (Minneapolis, 1993) First Greek Life of Pachomius (Vita Prima) The Life of Antony by Athanasius of Alexandria: The Greek Life of Antony, The Coptic Life of Antony, and an Encomium on Saint Antony by John of Shmun and a Letter to the Disciples of Antony by Serapion of Thumis, trans. A. Athanassakis, Tim Vivian, Rowan A. Greer (Kalamazoo, 2003) James Goehring, “The Fourth Letter of Horsiesius and the Situation in the Pachomian Community following the Death of Theodore,” in Ascetics, Society and the Desert (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1999), 221-240 James Goehring, The Letter of Ammon and Pachomian Monasticism (Berlin, 1986) Sancti Pachomii Vitae Graecae (Subsidia Hagiographica 19), ed. Francois Halkin (Brussels, 1932) Geoffrey Galt Harpham, The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism (Chicago, 1987) ViliHarris, Literacy Hors. Instruct. Hors. Letter Hors. Reg. Hors. Test. Inst. Inst. virg. Jacobs, “Demetrias” Jacobs, Remains JECS Kaster, “Declamation” Kelly, Jerome Komhardt, Exemplum Krueger, Writing Lausberg, Handbook LCL Leyser, Authority Litchfield, “Exempla” William V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, Mass, 1989) Instructions of Horsiesios Letter of Horsiesios Regulations of Horsiesios Testament of Horsiesios Cassian, Institutes Ambrose, De institutione virginis Andrew S. Jacobs, “Writing Demetrias: Ascetic Logic in Ancient Christianity,” Church History 69.4 (December 2000): 719-748 Andrew S, Jacobs, Remains of the Jews: the Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity (Stanford, 2004) Journal of Early Christian Studies Robert A. Kaster, “Controlling Reason: Declamation in Rhetorical Education at Rome,” in Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Leiden, 2001), 317-338 IND. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York, 1975) Hildegard Komhardt, Exemplum: Eine bedeutungsgeschichtliche Studie (Géttingen, 1936) Derek Krueger, Writing and Holiness: the Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East Philadelphia, 2004) Heinrich Lausberg, Handbook of Literary Rhetoric {English trans. M. Bliss et al. of 1973 edition, Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik] (Leiden, 1998) Loeb Classical Library Conrad Leyser, Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (Oxford, 2000) Henry W. Litchfield, “National Exempla Virtutis in Roman Literature,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 25 (1914): 1-71 ixMalherbe, Theorists Markus, End Martin, “Vox Pauli” MeLynn, Ambrose Miller, “Body” Morgan, Education Nauroy, “L’Ecriture’ NPNF Pétré, “Exemplum” Pétré, Tertullien Pach. Instruct. Pach. Letter Piredda PG PL Plinval, Pélage Abraham J. Malherbe, Ancient Epistolary Theorists (Atlanta, 1988) Robert A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1990) Thomas Martin, “Vox Pauli: Augustine and the Claims to Speak for Paul, An Exploration of Rhetoric at the Service of Exegesis,” JECS 8.2 (Summer 2000) Neil McLynn, Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital (Berkeley, 1994) Patricia Cox Miller, “The Blazing Body: Ascetic Desire in Jerome's Letter to Eustochium,” JECS 1.1 (Spring 1993) Teresa Morgan, Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (Cambridge, 1998) Gerard Nauroy, “L’Ecriture dans la pastorale d’ Ambroise de Milan,” in Le Monde latin antique et Iq Bible (Paris, 1985), 371-407 A Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. P, Schaff and H. Wace (Edinburgh, 1890-1900) Héléne Pétré, “Exemplum: Epoque patristique” in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, Ascétique et Mystique 4.2 (Paris, 1961), 1886-1892 Hélene Pétré, L'exemplum chez Tertullien (Dijon, 1940) Instructions of Pachomius Letter of Pachomius Anna Maria Piredda, “La tipologia sacerdotale del patriarca Giuseppe in Ambrogio,” Sandalion 10-11 (1987-88) 153-63 Patrologia Graeca, ed. J.P. Migne (Paris, 1857-1866) Patrologia Latina, ed. J.P. Migne (Patis, 1841-1902) Georges de Plinval, Pélage, ses écrits, sa vie, and sa réforme (Lausanne, 1943)= Quecke, Briefe Ramsey, Ambrose Ramsey, Conf: Ramsey, Inst. Rapp, “Moses” Rebenich, “Exempla” Rebenich, Hieronymus Rees, Heretic Rees, Letters Rondeau, Commentaires Rousseau, Ascetics Rousseau, Pachomius RSV s! Satran, Prophets Pachomian Rule: Precepts. Hans Quecke, Die Briefe Pachoms (Regensburg, 1975) Boniface Ramsey, Ambrose (London, 1997) Boniface Ramsey, trans., John Cassian: the Conferences (New York, 1997) Boniface Ramsey, trans., John Cassian: the Institutes (New York, 2000) Claudia Rapp, “Comparison, Paradigm and the Case of Moses in Panegyric and Hagiography,” in The Propaganda of Power: the Role of Panegyric in Late Antiquity (Leiden, 1998), 277-298 Stefan Rebenich, “Der heilige Hieronymus und die Geschichte - Zur Funktion der Exempla in seinen Briefen,” Rémische Quartalschrift fiir christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte, 87 (1992): 29-46 Stefan Rebenich, Hieronymus und sein Kreis. Prosopographische und socialgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (Stuttgart, 1992) BAR. Rees, Pelagius, A Reluctant Heretic (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1988) BAR. Rees, The Letters of Pelagius and his Followers (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991) Marie Joséphe Rondeau, Les Commentaires patristiques du Psautier (II'-V' sidcles): Exégese prosopologique et théologie (Rome, 1985) Philip Rousseau, Ascetics, Authority and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian (London, 1978) Philip Rousseau, Pachomius, The Making of a Community in Fourth-Century Egypt (Berkeley, 1999) Revised Standard Version of the Bible First Sahidic Life of Pachomius David Satran, Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine: Reassassing the Lives of the Prophets (Leiden, 1995) xiSatterlee SCh Schneelmelcher Simon, “Saints” Skidmore Snyder, Teachers Souter, Pelagius 1 Steidle 1984 Steidle 1985 Stewart, Cassian Stowers, Writing Theo. Instruct. Thraede Tomkinson V. Amb Craig A. Satterlee, Ambrose of Milan's Method of Mystogogical Preaching (Collegeville, Minn., 2002) Sources Chrétiennes (Paris) ‘Wilhelm Schneelmelcher, “Introduction to the Apocryphal Acts,” in New Testament Apocrypha, volume 2 (Louisville, 1989), 75-85 Marcel Simon, “Les Saints d’Israél dans la dévotion de ’Eglise ancienne,” Revue d’histoire et de Philosophie religieuses, 34.2 (1954): 98-127 Clive Skidmore, Practical Ethics for Roman Gentlemen: The Work of Valerius Maximus (Exeter, 1996) H. Gregory Snyder, Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews, and Christians (London, 2000) Alexander Souter, Pelagius’ Expositions of Thirteen Epistles of St Paul. I Introduction (Cambridge, 1922) Wolf Steidle, “Beobachtungen zu des Ambrosius Schrift De officiis,” Vigiliae Christianae 38 (1984): 18-66 Wolf Steidle, “Beobachtungen zum Gedankengang im 2. Buch von Ambrosius, De officiis,” Vigiliae Christianae 39 (1985): 290-298 Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (New York, 1998) Stanley K. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Philadelphia, 1986) Instructions of Theodore Klaus Thraede, Grundziige griechisch-romischer Briefiopik (Munich, 1970) ‘Theodosia Tomkinson, Saint Ambrose of Milan: On Abraham (Etna, California, 2000) Vita Ambrosii (Life of Ambrose) by Paulinus xiivan Uytfanghe, L’empreinte van Uytfanghe, Stylisation Veilleux, Pach. Koinonia Veilleux, Liturgie Virg. Vid. Viate. de Vogiié, “Monachisme” Weaver, Grace Webb, “Progymnasmata” Mare van Uytfanghe, “L’empreinte biblique sur la plus ancienne hagiographie occidentale,” in Le monde latin antique et la Bible (Paris, 1985) Mare van Uytfanghe, Stylisation biblique et condition humaine dans Vhagiographie ‘mérovingienne (600-150) (Brussels, 1987) Armand Veilleux, Pachomian Koinonia, volumes L-Il (Kalamazoo, 1980-8) Armand Veilleux, La liturgie dans le cénobitisme Pachdmien au quatriéme siecle (Rome, 1968) Ambrose, De virginibus Ambrose, De viduis Ambrose, De virginitate Adalbert de Vogilé, “Monachisme et église dans la pensée de Cassien,” in Théologie de la Vie Monastique: Etudes sur la Tradition patristique Théologie 49 ({Paris] Aubier, 1961), 213-240 Rebecca Harden Weaver, Divine Grace and Human Agency: A Study of the Semi-Pelagian Controversy (Macon, Georgia, 1996) Ruth Webb, “The Progymnasmata as Practice,” In Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Leiden, 2001), 289-316 xiiiACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people encouraged and inspired me on the way to finishing this dissertation. S. Scott Bartchy and the late Robert Benson guided my undergraduate thoughts about the history of Christianity and instilled in me a love for the subject. Professor Bartchy continued to provide stimulating discussions about history, teaching, and writing throughout my graduate career. The other members of my thesis committee, Ronald Mellor, Joseph Nagy, and Richard Rouse, were a source of many beneficial suggestions and interesting conversations. My committee chair, Claudia Rapp, was unfailingly willing to endure innumerable brainstorming sessions and drafts, week after week. Her wit and insight enlivened the process and ensured progress. My colleagues taught me many useful lessons over the course of our graduate and post-graduate careers. Several offered much-needed cheer and perspective, among them Mary Hope Griffin, Stephen Chappell, and Cynthia Villagomez. The clergy and congregation of St. Alban’s, Westwood supplied comfort and campus-adjacent parking, especially in my final year of writing, UCLA fellowships gave me financial support and the opportunity to introduce students to the late Roman world, A Multi-Campus Research Group fellowship allowed me to spend a semester in Berkeley, where I benefited from the discussions led by Susanna Elm and Rebecca Lyman, While in Berkeley I experienced true hospitality at the home of Gail and Stanley Keleman. Although Gail did not live to see this dissertation completed, I continue to feel heartened by her wide-ranging discernment, xivMy family has been endlessly patient. In particular, my late grandmother, Elizabeth Miles, aunt and uncle, Marilyn and Les Dimit, and above all my mother, Melanie Meyer, offered willing ears and illuminating questions about all things patristic and late antique. My most profound debt is to my husband, Keith Goldfarb, who provided aid and comfort, both technical and emotional, throughout. No one could have or even imagine a more supportive spouse, and the dedication of the dissertation is the smallest expression of my gratitude. xvVITA December 1994 B.A., summa cum laude, Study of Religion University of California, Los Angeles 1996-1998 Teaching Assistant, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles March 1998 MA., History University of California, Los Angeles 2000-2001 Teaching Fellow, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles PRESENTATIONS North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting. May 2002. “Worthy to Become Books of Spiritual Letters’: Imitation of Scripture in Pachomian Thought.” North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting. May 2004. “Perilous Precedents: The Dispute between Jerome and Pelagius over Biblical Saints.” xviABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Transformation Through Imitation: Biblical Figures as Moral Exempla in the Post-Classical World by Elizabeth Bisbee Goldfarb Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2005 Professor Claudia Rapp, Chair This dissertation considers the melding of classical exemplum and scriptural hero to form a distinctly Christian exemplum in late antique literature written for ascetic circles, It examines the effect of these new models on Christian views of imitatio, Scripture, and reading. Individual chapters treat the Pachomian corpus, Ambrose, Jerome and Pelagius, and Cassian. For all these authors, figures such as Moses and Paul presented authoritative scriptural models, available through reading even to those living apart from the world, as monks and ascetics. The Pachomian corpus shows one monastic community's diverse ways of linking imitation and Scripture in attempts to replicate biblical holiness. Changes in the community's self-perception affected choices and interpretations of exempla; the Pachomians also sought to imitate the sound of the Bible in their words and its forms in their writing. Ambrose’s reconfiguration of Cicero's De officiis permits comparison between a Roman and a Christian treatise on the role of examples in an instructional document. His expositions on female asceticism show a rising interest in Christian xviiexempla for women; his letters display biblical imitation in his own life. The works of Pelagius and the corresponding works of Jerome demonstrate opposing approaches to biblical exempla, Pelagius’ example-based view of Fall and salvation shows the theological effect of bringing exempla to the foreground. The letters of Jerome and Pelagius to similar correspondents, often women, mark disparate attitudes toward biblical exempla and teading as a guide for souls. Cassian sought to guide souls through text alone; imitation and Scripture are fundamental to this. Biblical exempla, however, with the exception of Paul, are rare. Instead, Cassian builds upon the changing Christian ideas about moral exempla as an essential link between imitation and scriptural text. These ideas inform Cassian’s portrayal of his remembered Egyptian monks as guides to ascetic experience. Although often ignored as commonplace in Christian literature, biblical exempla are essential to the study of reading, preaching, and imitation in early Chris ity. By detailing their import in differing late antique contexts, this study shows their significance to Christian changes in classical thought. XViliINTRODUCTION ‘This dissertation examines differing views of biblical saints as moral examples during the transition from the classical to the medieval world. Biblical saints include figures from the books of the Hebrew Bible as well as those described in the Christian Scriptures. Late antique writers used both as examples. Figures from the Old Testament intrigue me because of the considerable creative reinterpretation required in order to fit them into the ascetic world of Late Antiquity, but New Testament figures, of course, were significant and often used in innovative ways. Above all, the apostle Paul was a model in many different respects. In the works that I consider, Jesus as an example for behavior is surprisingly rare, although the Virgin Mary is frequently used as an example for women. The use of biblical figures as moral exempla is only a part of those figures’ representation and reception in the world of late antiquity. Moral examples are of particular interest, however, because they are at the heart of ancient and medieval ideas about education, imitation, and character formation. Examples of historical, mythical, or other figures were seen as essential to persuasion and moral change in both the ancient and the medieval world, Christian writers in a range of situations substituted Biblical figures for the classical heroes of the ancient world. The Christian change in the examples used made a difference in how examples were thought to influence people, and using these exempla affected their users’ perceptions of biblical interpretation, Although moral examples are ubiquitous in teaching and persuasion in the ancient world, and biblical figures are everywhere inChristian works, approaches to them varied considerably from author to author, and in differing situations. I examine four cases, from the fourth and early fifth centuries, in which examples played a significant role; and I consider the ways in which exempla were described, evoked, and imitated, how this Christian use represented a change from classical usage, and how it, in its turn, changed ideas about imitation, learning, writing, and example itself. The primary views that I will explore are those of the Pachomian monks; Ambrose; Pelagius and his opponent Jerome; and Cassian. All my subjects are fascinated with the ascetic life; they had ties to the Greek East, but with the exception of the Pachomians, they wrote in Latin for Western church audiences. All ancient cultures were obsessed with heroic forebears, but this was particularly true of the Romans. Biblical figures provided alternative heroic ancestors. In his Letter 58 to Paulinus, written in 395, Jerome includes a discussion of the thought of his day on imitation: Every mode of life has its own exponents. For instance, let Roman generals imitate men like Camillus, Fabricius, Regulus, and Scipio. Let philosophers take for models Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Let poets strive to rival Homer, Virgil, Menander, and Terence. Let writers of history follow Thucydides, Sallust, Herodotus and Livy. Let orators find masters in Lysias, the Gracchi, Demosthenes, and Tully. And, to come to our own case, let bishops and presbyters take for their examples the apostles or their companions; and as they hold the rank which these once held, Jet them endeavour to exhibit the same excellence. And last of all let us monks take as the patterns which we are to follow the lives of Paul, of Antony, of Julian, of Hilarion, of the Macarii. And to go back to the authority of scripture, we have our masters in Elijah and Elisha, and our leaders in the sons of the prophets; who livedin fields and solitary places and made themselves tents by the waters of Jordan.! Among the trends over the course of the fourth century that contributed to changing views of biblical saints was greater variety in the forms that a holy life could take. While the ascetic life was important in both Christianity and in the surrounding Mediterranean culture even before Constantine, the legalization of Christianity catalyzed wider interest in ascetic and other paths to sanctification. New paths demanded new models. Christians took over Old Testament saints by reconfiguring these saints as their own ancestors and models, and this was an important part of the Christian appropriation of the Hebrew Scriptures. As several scholars have noted, Jews and Christians competed for control of holy patriarchs and prophets.* Christian interest in Old Testament saints ‘was most prominent in the Greek East, particularly in Palestine, where both geographic 1 Jerome Letter $8.5: “habet unumquodque propositum principes suos: Romani duces imitentur Camillos, Fabricios, Regulos, Scipiones; philosophi proponant sibi Pythagoram, Socraten, Platonem, Aristotelen; poetae aemulentur Homerum, Uergilium, Menandrum, Terentium; historici Thucydiden, Sallustium, Herodotum, Liujum:; oratores Lysiam, Gracchos, Demosthenen, Tullium; et ad nostra uueniamus, episcopi et presbyteri habeant in exemplum apsotolos et apostolicos uiros, quorum honorem possidentes habere nitantur et meritum. nos autem habemus propositi nostri principes Paulos, Antonios, Tulianos, Hilarionas, Macarios; et ut ad scriptuarum auctoritatem redeam, noster princeps Helias, noster Helisaeus, nostri duces fili prophetarum. qui habetabant in agris et solitudine et faciebant sibi abernacula ‘propterfluenta Tordanis.” Latin in this and all subsequent citations of Jerome’s letters from Hieronymus: Epistulae. CSEL vols. 54, 55, 56.1. Letters 1-10: Vol. $4; Letters T1120: Vol. 55; Letters 121-154: Vol. 56.1; Leters ed. Isidor Hilberg 1910-1918; Second edition, expanded (Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen ‘Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996). English from St. Jerome, Letters and Select Works, trans. W.H. Freemantle, Vol. 6 of A Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, ed. P, Schaff and H. Wace (Edinburgh, 1893; reprinted Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 1-295. 2 See Marcel Simon, “Les Saints d’Israél dans la dévotion de I'Eglise ancienne,” Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuse 34.2 (1954): 98-127; Andrew S. Jacobs, “The Remains of the Jew: Imperial Christian Identity in the Late Ancient Holy Land," Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33.1 (2003): 23-45, and his Remains of the Jews: the Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004, 158-191memorials, such as the tombs of the prophets, and contention with Jewish rivals brought Old Testament figures to the forefront of Christian attention. These figures had a more ambivalent status in the Latin West than in the Greek East; even in the West, however, using them as heroic exempla, in addition to allegorical and typological interpretation, remade them as carriers of a Christian message. Christians sought to combine the heroes and events of Scripture with the heroes and events of the classical past; this was one motive for the Christian interest in histories and chronicles that combined both scriptural events and classical history, Not only did Christian writers seek to combine Christian and classical history,3 but they also presented Christian models for behavior in classicizing ways. Jerome’s long list of models, starting with Camillus and Fabricius, and ending with Elijah, Elisha, and the “sons of the prophets,” is an example of this. Although figures, from the New Testament, like Paul and the apostles, were not bones of contention between Jews and Christians, their significance was a matter of some debate among Christians themselves. Late antique Christians saw themselves as the heirs of the scriptural heroes from both testaments, but they reconstructed those heroes in many ways. Biblical figures were among the earliest Christian models, along with martyrs. The earliest Lives cast biblical figures in significant roles as models for their heroes.* 3 Christians also looked atthe Bible in general in classicizing ways. See for example Guy G. Stroumsa, “The Christian Hermeneutical Revolution and its Double Helix,” in The Use of Sacred Books in the Ancient World, ed. L.V. Rutgers et al. (Leuven: Peeters, 1998), 9-36. 4 See for example Simone Deléani-Nigoul, “L’ulilisation des modeles bibliques du martyre par les Gerivains du II siele,” in Le monde latin antique et la Bible, ed. Jacques Fontaine and Charles Piet (Paris: Beauchesne, 1985), 315-338.Although saints’ lives had a settled and recognizable form by the early medieval period,’ the fourth century saw a range of innovative approaches to both achieving and describing holiness. Any attempt in this period to achieve or describe holiness had as its background classical ideas about the modeling and fashioning of character. Classical thought about character formation included the differing but complimentary roles of instruction and example, both oral and written; and it considered the choice of appropriate examples and the optimal way to imitate them. Modern studies examining such ideas have considered them almost exclusively as a component of ancient education or rhetoric; thus they have looked primatily at the traditional character formation of very young elite males. This is mostly a result of the extant classical texts. Important as ideas about the nature of character formation were to the ancient world, they were not discussed theoretically all that much. The workings of imitation and examples were largely taken for granted. When they were discussed by classical authors, it was in the context of education and rhetoric. Late antique Christianity inherited both a group of flawed—if compelling — biblical models and a number of classical assumptions about the importance of models, both living and literary. With this legacy, ascetic and monastic Christians, in particular, faced the training of segments of the population that had not come under classical consideration: the illiterate (or newly literate adults), those literate in non-classical languages, and women. For all, scriptural models were not the only models for holiness, 5 Note life of Gregory the Great and remark of Gregory of Tours in James W. Ear, “Typology and Iconographic Style in Early Medieval Hagiography,” Studies inthe Literary Imagination, 8,1, (Spring 1975): 15-46.nor were scriptural figures the only way to understand and assimilate Scripture. But these figures were essential to the way that Scripture was understood in Christianity’s first century as religio licita, they were significant models at the dawn of hagiography, and imitation of them was an important component of Patristic education and rhetoric. ‘The project grew out of interests in the beginnings of hagiography and in classical education. Hagiographical texts, along with those related to ancient education, imitation, and rhetoric, are an essential background to my study, as are the modem works that examine such texts. I am most interested in hagiographical studies that discuss biblical saints in some way, and in studies of education and rhetoric that consider the role of imitation, particularly as it affects character. Models for imitation, both personal and textual, were essential to all ancient education. Teresa Morgan writes that “imitation occurs at every stage of the enkyklios paideia and forms one of its most important articulating features. Imitation is a prime means of moving the pupil forward.”$ Biblical figures left impressions both on the form of the Saint's Life and on the life and personal formation of anyone aspiring to saintliness. While recent works on hagiography have given some attention to the ways in which biblical figures stamped a Life, little attention has been paid to the ways in which they stamped a person. © Teresa Morgan, Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (Cambridge: University Press, 1998), 251.CHaprer OVERVIEW While biblical saints and imitation were essential to all the authors that I shall examine, they manifested their importance in a variety of ways. Among the monks of the Egyptian Thebaid, imitation of ascetic models was important from monasticism’s unrecorded beginnings, when it was quite likely necessary to survival. Athanasius of Alexandria's Life of Antony both heralded and encouraged the connection between imitation of scriptural figures and proper ascetic behavior. Pachomius (ca. 292-346) popularized cenobitic monasticism guided by his Rule. In the Pachomian koinonia, reading and memorization of written Scripture and obedience to the Rule combined with imitation of both scriptural figures and living monastic brethren to train monks. The Pachomians viewed the combination of person and written text as especially imitable. They considered both persons with textual authority and written texts with personal significance to be most able to form proper behavior in their readers or hearers. Their leaders evoked scriptural saints and imitated scriptural style in their sermons and instructions, clothing themselves and their words in biblical authority. And the Pachomians believed that they saw that biblical authority alive in their leaders, as those leaders spoke with the voice of Moses, or that of Paul, Although monastic molding always required both Scripture and imitation, the aspects of Scripture to be imitated and the ways in which that imitation was done varied over time, Pachomius himself appears to have associated his community with Israel in the desert. His followers quickly associated him with Moses, but in the period after Pachomius’ death they became interested in the apostles as models, first for asceticismand later for community. This was probably in response to Athanasius of Alexandria and his hagiographic subject, Antony the Great; each used exemplary biblical figures as well. ‘The Pachomian leaders following Pachomius, Theodore (in charge 350-368) and Horsiesios (in charge 346-380s), appealed to Paul the Apostle and Baruch, among others, and they sometimes took on the personae of significant biblical figures. Exempla who themselves were thought to have authored scriptural texts were often favored, Leaders viewed and addressed the community as successors of the apostles, as Israel in the desert, and as Israel in exile, often combining these models. For the Pachomians, imitation was not limited to scriptural figures. Later Pachomian leaders also imitated the sound of scripturality itself, blending tiny scraps of Scripture and phrasing that sounded scriptural with a few references to the situation in their own time to produce a more generalized vox seripturae, This scriptural voice imitated no one figure but instead Scripture as a whole, using its authority to address current events. Over the course of the fourth century, the changes in exempla chosen by the Pachomians and in the description of their significance show changes in community self-perception and self-presentation. With the Pachomians, we encounter the association of Scripture and written text Atthe outset of the monastic enterprise, and perhaps even in the earliest days of the Pachomian koinonia, the Bible was as much something heard and memorized as something read, But the notion of the “writtenness” of Scripture soon became important to the community. Pachomius himself associated writing with rules and command, which accounts, in part, for his written Rule, Successors saw Pachomius and the Rule as Moses and the Law. Examples complimented and enhanced written precepts. The Pachomianssaw Scripture as instruction on many levels; its exemplary figures demonstrated both how to live and how to write. The Pachomian corpus shows multiple interactions of Scripture and imitation in one monastic community over time. Scripture and imitation meet in exemplary scriptural figures, who stand between imitation and written text. In Ambrose’s work, we get a closer view of the transformation of Roman views of exemplary figures. While the classical background underlies all late antique literary work, even that written in languages other than Latin or Greek, the Pachomians were not responding directly to classical ideas, as Ambrose was. His works demonstrate an entirely different aspect of late antique ascetic changes in exempla from that shown in Pachomian works. The milieu of Ambrose, bishop of Milan from 374-97, was ascetic, but it was not monastic. Ambrose’ skill in allegorical interpretation, especially when faced with figures from the Old Testament, has been better remembered than his use of figures from both testaments as moral models. Such figures were especially important in works intended to educate or persuade, whether that education and persuasion was directed at an emperor, at Ambrose’s clergy, or at consecrated women, Ambrose’s treatise on duties for his clergy, De officiis ministrorum, is especially important to a study of the Christian changes in examples for imitation, because in it Ambrose has transformed an example-laden treatise by Cicero into a Christian work for clerics. Ambrose replaced Cicero's Roman models with biblical ones, but in addition many of the ways that Ambrose's exempla function as models for imitation are different from the ways in which Cicero used his ‘own models. In his version of De officiis Ambrose substitutes biblical figures fortraditional Roman ones, but he also presents his figures as more universally moral and suitable for general imitation, rather than imitable for one deed alone. In Ambrose’s work, the examples drive the argument rather than supporting it, and they often teach in their own words. Textual figures can take the place in Ambrose’s work that living figures occupied in Cicero's. In general, Ambrose’s moral examples are more likely to speak for themselves as textual teachers. In addition to De officiis Ambrose left several other works in which biblical models are held up as suitable figures for imitation. Among these are one treatise, De Abraham, which treats the same biblical stories from an allegorical and a moral view. Works written for female ascetics (De virginibus and De viduis) as well as those inspired by virginity (De virginitate, De institutione virginis, and Exhortatio virginitatis) also use biblical figures as moral examples; this is most common in works written specifically for instruction. In his works directed at women, Ambrose faced a rising problem in the late fourth century: ascetic women in need of suitable models. Ambrose had less difficulty choosing models for his own life, as some of his letters demonstrate. He imitated biblical figures and biblical style in his life and works. Like the Pachomians, Ambrose often elides scriptural time into his own by describing his own practice in terms of biblical heroes. Ambrose did not face rival claimants to holiness with their own biblical models, as did the Pachomians. Rather he used biblical models to recast his secular conflicts in the mould of Scripture. For example, Ambrose harangues Theodosius in the voice of Nathan, blending biblical narrative and contemporary events in his attempts to assert the primacy of the prophet. Ambrose does not merely take on the 10voices of biblical characters but a voice that evokes scripturality itself. As Gerard Nauroy has noted, Ambrose “speaks the Bible," weaving strands of Scripture together in his letters and using language that sounds that sounds scriptural even when it is not. Ambrose’s power arose not only from his ability to take on scriptural personae but also ability to speak with scriptural textuality, Among the models most favored by Ambrose was Paul the Apostle. Paul is a model for preachers generally, but he came to special prominence in the late fourth century. Part of this was renewed interest in his ideas, but part was also a fascination with the figure of Paul as a model for imitation. Paul served as a model teacher, writer, preacher, and ascetic. Some of his importance as an exemplum stems from his own exhortations to imitation. Further, Paul’s actions are vividly described by both Luke (in Acts) and Paul himself. All this leaves a textual presence that makes Paul optimal as a moral example. Paul’s own rhetorical strategy was governed, at least in part, by the conventions of paraenetic letters. Examples are essential to persuasion, as demonstrated by ancient handbooks of letter-writing, Paul’s letters required examples to persuade; the continued prevalence of paraenetic forms in the fourth century—sermon, letter, longer persuasive treatise—meant that examples remained essential. In Jerome's works the approach to scriptural figures and imitation is different again, Both the Pachomians and Ambrose were writing to instruct a settled community (although these communities were different) and in addition to present that community to 7 Gerard Nauroy, “L’Eeriture dans la pastoral d’ Ambroise de Mila,” in Le Monde latin antique la Bible, ed, J. Fontaine and C, Pits (Paris: Beauchesne, 1985), 371407. urthe outside world (although the presentation also differs between the two). Jerome (ca. 347-419/20) exhorted imitation to the recipients of his writings, and he wrote with an eye to the proper presentation of himself and his addressees to the outside world. But there is ‘not as much of a specific community like the Pachomian koinonia or Ambrose’s Milan here. Jerome does treasure his community at Bethlehem, and he praises the ascetic community at Rome; but his letters are to and about individuals, not corporate entities. Jerome's encounter with Pelagius shows the collision of two very different attitudes toward exempla and imitation. Both men were active in the decade just before 400 and that just after, although this was only a brief portion of Jerome's long writing life. Both were trained in Roman rhetoric and interested in reading and in education, Each gave ascetic advice in his literary letters. They wrote for similar audiences: elite ascetics, often including women. More than did either Ambrose or the Pachomians, Jerome and Pelagius faced the direction of souls at a distance. In this direction, both example and Scripture played important parts: examples, because they are intrinsic to paraenetic discourse, and Scripture, because it can serve as a guide for those set apart from the world, In Jerome’s work we see a very traditional Roman approach to exempla, similar to that of Cicero. Jerome uses biblical exempla to illustrate his points or as ornaments to his prose. He favors living exempla when he is able to recommend them, and he is more likely to advocate a biblical example when he is writing to someone unknown to him. In the work of Pelagius (ca. 350-ca. 425), by contrast, example and imitation are central. Pelagius’ conflicts with Jerome offer a view of an example and imitation-based theology and responses to it. Like Jerome, Pelagius wrote to individuals, often women, 12probably aristocratic, Because his views were considered heretical, few of his works have survived. But from all the evidence, Pelagius’ interest in a monastic community was even less than that of Jerome. Pelagius did not see a separate holy class or in fact a strong lay- monastic distinction. All were to seek holiness in and by their deeds, and the examples which prove this in rhetorical debate are among the examples which demonstrate this to contemporary Christians; all are taken from Scripture. Pelagius did not self-consciously suggest Christian models as replacements for classical ones. He had instead absorbed the idea of models for imitation; and he used them at a deeper level than did his contemporaries, to the point that in his theology the Fall was brought about by example; example is also responsible, although to a lesser extent, for redemption. Pelagius’ attitudes toward figures of the Old Testament made Jerome much more wary of biblical saints as moral exempla. In Jerome’s early work, for example his Letter 22 to Eustochium from 386, there is more willingness to advocate that the ascetic look directly to Scripture for inspiration, In Jerome's letters from after 400, he is much more reluctant to encourage unguided Scripture reading. Pelagius continued to see the Bible and its figures as models and guides. In the 420s, a century or so after Pachomius first instructed his community by letters and the beginnings of a Rule, Cassian (ca, 365-ca, 433) sought to reach his “coenobium of letters” through his Conferences and Institutes.* Cassian looked back to his encounter with monastic masters in the Egyptian desert some forty years previously 8 The phrase is Conrad Leyser’s: Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000), 59. 13and tried to convey their teachings through written text alone. Although Cassian’s teachers were not Pachomian monks, Cassian’s enterprise is connected to that of the Pachomians by his reliance on teachers entwined with written text. The Pachomians melded the two in the leaders who spoke in the style and personae of biblical saints, while in Cassian’s work the readers are taught by Cassian’s remembered Egyptian fathers, “[rJeceiving the very authors of the conferences into their cells, along with the books of the conferences, and as it were speaking with them.”? Along with the ideal of the Egyptian desert, Cassian inherited the language and concerns of the Latin-speaking West. Like Pelagius, Cassian uses the word forma for a moral example with shaping force; and as itis for Pelagius, the ultimate forma for Cassian is the Apostle Paul. Cassian’s Paul, like the Paul depicted by Ambrose, is a model of all virtues. Like the Paul presented by Pelagius, Cassian’s Paul is an example and teacher. Although Paul is the closest biblical example to Cassian’s reader, he is more distant in Cassian’s work than in the work of previous authors that I have discussed, More than did previous writers, Cassian was working with two levels of text, enlivening scriptural figures by means of figures who themselves existed only in written text. Cassian’s works were independent of living figures in a way that the works of the Pachomians, Ambrose, Jerome, and Pelagius were not, Although some of these earlier writers directed letters at people who did not know them, most of their exhortations are 9 Conf, part 3 prologue.2, trans. Boniface Ramsey: Latin from CSEL 13, ed. M. Petschenig: “ipsosque in cellulas suas auctores conlationum cum ipsis conlationum uoluminibus recipients, et ‘quodammodo cum eis ... conloquentes.” 14aimed, at least initially, at readers who could associate author with work. In addition, when previous writers gave moral examples, they often combined living and textual examples, the latter almost always scriptural. On occasion, previous writers presented biblical figures teaching on their own; these biblical teachers went beyond the functions of classical moral exempla. Cassian went even further. Relying on the approaches used by those previous writers to make biblical figures lively, Cassian leads his reader into conversations with his remembered Egyptian monks, instead of making figures like Moses or Paul present so that they can be more easily imitated. These monks give advice on monastic concerns, including the uses of Scripture as a way to holiness. They offer a variety of approaches to Scripture, using both scriptural words and scriptural figures. In Cassian’s presentation, biblical examples are especially prominent in his histories of monasticism. To know the founding figure of a monastic school is to understand the monks who follow and imitate him, But Cassian lived in a world in which Scripture was more analyzed than imitated. Cassian’s remembered monks, reconstituted in the written text of his Conferences, advocate several alternate ways to approach scriptural text, including melding a wide range of reading as well as meditating on a brief phrase of Scripture, leaving aside all else. Cassian wished to transmit the benefit of experience through written text, This, transmission of experience, rounding out the information given in words, was one of the important functions of an exemplum in persuasive texts like paraenetic letters, and it is the reason that examples are so important to teaching. While Cassian, like earlier authors, needs lively experience added to his precepts to impress them on the reader, he does not 15usually rely on traditional examples to provide it. Cassian’s many references to experience and his elaborate vocabulary for the concept show its importance to him. Cassian (and his monks) teach that proper understanding of Scripture requires appropriation of its text as one’s own voice. This can be done by aligning oneself with the text’s speakers or writers, for example Paul the Apostle. Steven Driver asserts that ideas of this kind about voice appropriation for understanding Scripture are also important to the ways in which Cassian wanted his own work to be read. The reader aligns himself with the textual Cassian in order to study with Cassian’s textual abbas..° Scripture and imitation are acting in concert to train the reader for the ascetic life, but the approaches to Scripture and imitation are novel. Although Cassian looks at Scripture and imitation in new ways, the thoughts of the previous century on scriptural imitation and on teaching that imitation by written text alone underlie Cassian’s textual monks. A study on biblical saints as moral exempla in the fourth and fifth centuries touches on late antique ideas about sainthood and the Bible, exempla both rhetorical and moral, imitation of such exempla, and imitation more generally. Classical texts considering any of these ideas (often much more briefly and obliquely than I would like) are important background to the thoughts of the Pachomians, Ambrose, Pelagius, Jerome, and Cassian, Modern scholarship on all these classical topics, and to some extent on their medieval successors, has also been essential in helping me sort out my patristic subjects. ‘The ancient texts relating to biblical saints almost never discuss the nature of imitation in 10 Steven D. Driver, John Cassian and the Reading of Egyptian Monastic Culture (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 66. 16any sense; the clearest statements about imitation are in ancient texts devoted to education and rhetoric. Modern scholarship sometimes brings thought on biblical saints together with thought on imitation, although not to the extent that I propose in this study In this section I shall first survey some of the evidence for late antique views of, biblical saints and their cult, then look at the work of the modern authors most essential to my study of the hagiographical background. I shall then briefly consider some of the modern works relating to ancient education, imitation, and rhetoric, and examine a little more closely some Latin and Greek words related to examples, and the classical texts most concerned with imitation as a component of moral formation. Finally, I shall compare some of the evidence from these classical texts with the results of scholarship on medieval memory and imitation, in order to clarify the differing roles of memory, imitation, precept and example in the transition from the classical to the medieval world. ANCIENT TEXTS RELATING TO HAGIOGRAPHY AND BIBLICAL SAINTS Hagiography in the broad sense was well defined by Hippolyte Delehaye: “tout monument écrit inspiré par le culte des saints, et destiné & le promouvoir."!! The term is, often limited, however, to a more narrow collection of texts, those having to do with some aspect of the biography of holy people. These accounts might cover an entire life or merely the events leading up to a holy death, Before the fourth century, biographical 1 Hippolyte Delehaye, Les légendes hagiographiques (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1955), 7accounts treated martyrs, or biblical figures, or people who were both.'? The earliest non- biblical accounts of biblical figures were the five great apocryphal Acts of the apostles (Andrew, John, Paul, Peter, and Thomas), composed in the second and third centuri All apocryphal Acts except that of John end with the martyrdom of the apostle, and these martyr accounts were “at an early date lifted out of the original [apocryphal Acts) and circulated separately." The fourth century saw the emergence of post-biblical vitae giving more attention to the saint’s life than to his death, starting with the Life of Antony, written in 357-358." Ina world where Christianity was legal, martyrdom was not the only path to holiness, and writers not only celebrated holy lives, but also composed a variety of writings instructing their readers on how they might live them, Although I will look at some biographical works, the Lives of Pachomius for example, my primary interest is in those works that are hagiographical in the broader sense, that is, they are works which promote the cult of the saints or even the cult of the holy. These include instructional letters, treatises, and rules. Some of them concern people whose reputation for holiness has lasted until our time—Pachomius, Theodore, Paula, Demetrias—but they also have a +2 Examples of martyr accounts include those of Polycarp (probably 156 C.E.), Perpetua and Felicitas (203) and Cyprian (258 or shortly thereafter) '3 See the introduction to these Acts by Wilhelm Schneemelcher in New Testament Apocrypha, volume 2, ed. Schneemelcher (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1989), 75-85. 4 Schneemetcher 76. 15 And continuing with the Lives of Pachomius (probably last quarter of the fourth century), Jerome's literary Lives of Paul, Hilarion, and Malchus (Life of Paul pethaps as carly as the late 370s, Hilarion and Malchus from the very early 390, al definitely before 393), and Sulpicius Severus’ Life of Martin (396), 18broader audience, those people of the patristic period who sought ways to a holy life, The works seek to instruct in the holy life at least as much as they seek to hold up a contemporary saint for imitation. In attempting such a life, and indeed in attempting almost anything in the ancient world, proper models were essential, and biblical models were among these proper models. Biblical saints figure in hagiographical texts in two main ways: as saints themselves, and as models for post-biblical saints, who (depending on the work) might be either dead, and accepted as holy figures, or still alive, and aspiring to holiness. The roles of biblical saints as models for post-biblical saints are the broad subject of the dissertation, but their roles as saints themselves, both in legend and in cult, are important background to this model function, and they are briefly considered here. First, as saints themselves, biblical figures accumulate hagiographical accretions on their stories, as in the great second and third century apocryphal Acts, or the many apocryphal Acts that followed from the fourth century on.46 Most of the later accounts of biblical saints concern figures of the New Testament, but one work is particularly interesting in the consideration of Old Testament saints as cult figures and as models. This is the Lives of the Prophets, which sought to extend the stories of Old Testament figures in ways that became part of their history, ways which were evoked when a figure such as Isaiah was held up as an example. 16 For these, see the discussion by A. de Santos Otero in New Testament Apocrypha, volume 2 (Louisville: Westminster, 1989), 427-482.David Satran plausibly identifies the Lives of the Prophets as an early Byzantine Christian work, from the fourth or fifth centuries, which has as its closest relations collections of stories about the desert monks like the Historia Monachorum.¥? In his strong insistence that this is an early Byzantine work, Satran opposes much previous scholarship, which has seen the work as a Jewish source from the first century C.E. As such, it would be a valuable witness to Palestine in the time of Jesus, and scholarly interest in this time and place has, in Satran’s opinion, forced a much earlier date than can be argued from the text of the work itself. If he is right about the later date for the text, it is another indication of interest in biblical figures in the late fourth century. Among the primary witnesses for the view of Old Testament figures as saints, the Lives of the Prophets show how stories, removed for the biblical text, may have changed to make them more interesting to a late antique ascetic worldview, and they demonstrate some of the associations to Old Testament figures characteristic of the late antique period. ANCIENT CULT OF BIBLICAL SAINTS Part of the problem in dating the Lives of the Prophets is that the graves of the prophets were venerated sites throughout the first half millennium of the Common Era.!8 Although this makes dating difficult, it serves as yet another witness to the cult of Old ‘Testament saints. Other sites associated with them were also the goal of pilgrimages and 17 David Satran, Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine: Reassassing the Lives of the Prophets (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1995), 62; Summary at 118-120. 58 See also Joachim Jeremias, Heiligengrdber in Jesu Umwelt, eine Untersuchung zur Volksreligion der Zeit Jesu (Gouingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1958). 20ceremonies, as described by Jerome (writing in 404 describing a journey undertaken twenty years earlier), Egeria (writing in the late fourth century) and Sozomen (writing in the mid-fifth century, but describing events during the reign of Constantine). Christians made pilgrimage to the Holy Land from perhaps the late second century onward, although the package tours of holy sites described by Egeria and by Jerome in his Life of Paula are a fourth century phenomenon. Jerome describes the hordes of demoniacs seeking healing at the graves of Elisha, Obadiah, and John the Baptist, and Egeria notes activities done at various holy sites in her Palestinian pilgrimage, for example: The cave where holy Elijah lay hid can be seen there to this day in front of the church door, and we were shown there the stone altar which holy Elijah set up for offering sacrifice to God. Thus the holy men were kind enough to show us everything, and there, too, ‘we made the Offering and prayed very earnestly, and the passage was read from the Book of Kingdoms. Indeed, whenever we arrived, I always wanted the Bible passage to be read to us.'® Gary Vikan writes that “the ritualized reenactment of biblical events was a topos of the early pilgrim’s experience”; so much so that the mimesis of biblical events changed artistic depictions of both biblical events and Holy Land pilgrims.” 19 Jtinerarium Egeriae 4.2-3: “Nam et spelunca, ubi latuit sanctus Helias, in hodie ibi ostenditur ante hostium eclesiae que ib est ostenditur etiam ib ltarum lapideum, quem posuitipe sanctus Helis ad offerendum Deo, sic etl sant singula nobis ostendere dignabatur Fecims ergo etibiabationems ct trtonem impensissimam, elects es ise locus de Hbzoregnorum: id enim nobis uel maxime ego desideraueram semper, ut ubicumgueuenissemus, semper ise locus de libro legretur." Lain from Bgéri, “urna de Voyage lnéraie) Sch 296, ed, Piere Maraval Pari : Editions du Cert, 197), English rom ‘Byerta's travels rans, and cometary John Wilkinson (London: SP.C.K., 1971). 29 Gary Vikan, “Pilgrims in Magi's Clothing: The Impact of Mimesis on Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art” in The Blessings of Pilgrimage, ed. Robert Ousterhout (Urbana and Chicago: University of Lilinois Press, 1990), 99, 21Sozomen describes practices at the Oak of Mamre where Abraham was said to have been visited by God.2! His account shows not only Constantine’s drive to capture the Holy Land for Christianity by building churches on crucial sites, it also gives a picture of veneration of a biblical figure as late as the fourth century, by Christians, Jews, and Pagans, at a particular site frequented by them all. The focus on loca sancta shown in these two examples is typical of the cult of Old Testament saints. For them, more than for apostles, martyrs, or later saints, the locations of their lives were important, partly because the Old Testament narrative is so bound up with the holy land, partly simply because Old Testament saints left fewer relics.?? Although one could not take the Holy Land out of the Old Testament stories, one could certainly take the Old Testament figures out of the Holy Land, and wholesale export of anything that could be claimed as their relics was probably underway by the mid to late fourth century. In Jerome’s defense of the cult of relics written against Vigilantius in 406, he describes the imperial translation of biblical relics: Was the Emperor Constantius guilty of sacrilege when he transferred the sacred relics of Andrew, Luke, and Timothy to Constantinople?... And at the present day is the Emperor Arcadius guilty of sacrilege, who after so long a time has conveyed the bones of the blessed Samuel from Judea to Thrace? Are all the bishops to be considered not only sacrilegious, but silly into the bargain, because they carried that most worthless thing, dust and ashes, wrapped in silk in golden vessel? Are the people of all the Churches fools, because they went to meet the sacred relics, and welcomed them with as much joy as if they beheld a living prophet 21 Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History 24, 22 See also Jacobs, Remains 174 ff. 22in the midst of them, so that there was one great swarm of people from Palestine to Chalcedon with one voice re-echoing the praises of Christ? They were forsooth, adoring Samuel and not Christ, whose Levite and prophet Samuel was. Its likely that Jerome was an eyewitness to the transfer of Samuel’s relics; for this is among the few mentions of named relics (rather than relics of “the martyrs” or “the apostles") in the work, and the most vivid description of relic veneration, Sozomen describes two inventiones of prophets, one of which he says took place in the mid 390s, at the end of the reign of Theodosius I (Habbakuk and Micah), and one in the mid fifth century, during the reign of Theodosius Il (Zechariah).?S He does not say that the relics were transported anywhere, but as he describes each find as a sort of stamp of biblical approval on the imperial reign, itis likely that they were moved to Constantinople. The story of the finding of Zechariah, given in some detail, includes an extra-canonical explanatory written text as well as the miraculously preserved body of the 2 Against Vigilantius 5, Lowe this reference as well as those on Sozomen to Andrew Jacobs; Latin from Contra Vigilantium in PL. 23 (S. Hieronymi opera omnia), cols. 353A~367C, ed. J.P. Migne. (Turnhout: Brepols, n.d.) 358C-359A: “Sacrilegus fuit Constantius imperator [, qui sanctas reliquias Andreae, Lucee, et Timothei transtulit Constantinopolim,... Sacrilegus dicendus est, et nunc Augustus Arcadius, qui ossa beati Samuelis longo post tempore de Judaea transtulit in Thraciam?... Stulti omnium Ecclesiarum populi, qui occurerrunt sancti reliquiis:et tanta laettia, quasi praesentem viventemque prophetam cemerent, susceperunt: unde Palaestina usque Chalcedonem jungerentur populorum examina: et in Christi laudes una voce resonarent? Videlicet adorabant Samuelem, et non Christum, cujus Samuel et levita et prophetes fut.” English from St. Jerome, Letters and Select Works, vol. 6 of A Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, ed. P. Schaff and H. Wace, trans. WH, Freemantle as Dialogue against Vigilantius (Edinburgh, 1893; reprinted Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 417-423. Jacobs notes (Remains 177) that Samuel's return to Constantinople might not be as ‘tiumphant as it appears at first glance: “does Samuel march in triumph with Arcadius, as his star general? (Oris he rather the foreign spoil, the defeated barbarian king?” 4 Sozomen Ecclesiastical History 7.29. 25 Sozomen 9.17; with the finding of Zechariah his Ecclesiastical History comes to an abrupt end, although he also proposed a description ofthe finding of Stephen the protomartyr, which is not extant 3prophet. Sozomen associates it with the story of Stephen, whose relics, discovered in 415, were responsible for many miracles on their journey outside Palestine.2 We do not have other sources for the Zechariah cult, or at any rate for a cult of the particular finding of Zechariah that Sozomen describes, but his vivid description shows an Old Testament figure who attracts a typical saintly miracle story.2” Translation of relics related to the Old Testament accomplished two primary goals: it allowed other cities (such as Constantinople) to build up their stores of relics, and it claimed Old Testament figures for Christianity. An attempt to transfer relics of Eleazar and Phineas there in 450 provoked a revolt among the Samaritans.** The Acta Sanctorum describes the movement of some relics of Elisha which apparently made it to the west, although not until the eighth century. They were found during the reign of the patriarch Theophilus (384~412), transferred later to Constantinople, where they were kept in the basilica of the Holy Apostles and then transferred during the reign of Theodosius III to Ravenna, as a result of the iconoclast controversy. But on the whole, although the transfer of relics gave impetus to cults of various Old Testament saints outside of 28 See Augustine City Of God 22.8; The “Letter of Lucian,” from the early ith century, tells the story of the discovery of Stephen's relics after Lucian of Caphargamala was told of their whereabouts by the Rabbi Gamaliel in a dream. See Lucianus “On the Discovery of Saint Stephen,” trans. Andrew Jacobs, Christianity in Late Anviquity, ed. Bart Ehrman and Andrew Jacobs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 361-365; Latin in S. Vanderlinden Revue des Etudes Byzantines, 4 (1946): 190-217, 27 There are a number of biblical Zecharias, as well as Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, and all often get conflated, But at least as Sozomen tells the story, mention of “Joash'” identifies this Zechariah as Zechariah son of Jehoiads, an Old Testament marty 28 Simon, “Saints” 98-127. 2 ThEodosy Spasky, “lie dan la tradition orientale," in Elie le prophate (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1956), 220. ee the Acta Sanctorum entry for Elisha, 14 June, column 786A, 24Palestine, an interest in such saints was much more an aspect of the Greek East than it was of the Latin West. Bernard Botte, who has written on several aspects of the cult of biblical saints, asserts that almost no saints of the Old Testament had a significant cult in the West? Few people undertook pilgrimage from the West to the Holy Land, and they did not think to imitate the veneration of Old Testament saints that they saw there. Biblical saints of the New Testament are an entirely different story. Their relics were significant at the beginning of the cult of relics—those of Peter and Paul in Rome and most notably those of the protomartyr Stephen.*# It appears to have been more a matter of custom than of theology that most Old Testament figures were not especially venerated as saints in the West.2? But interest in Old Testament figures as saints was centered on the Holy Land, and it diminishes in those regions which had less contact with it. MopERN SCHOLARSHIP ON BIBLICAL SAINTS Interest in Old Testament figures as models for post-biblical saints, either in reality or in hagiographic narrative, was much less geographically specific. Some of this can certainly be attributed to the popularity of the Life of Antony as a model for hagiography. David Brake has illuminated the importance of imitation of the saints in culte d'Eie dans IEglise Chrétienne,” in Elie le prophate (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1956), 213; see also “Le culte des saints de ' Ancien Testament dans l’Eglise chrétienne,” Cahiers Sioniens, vol. 3 (1950): 38-47. 31 See Augustine City of God 22.8, 52 Although see Simon, “Saints” 104-106.Athanasius’ thought: these saints were not limited to Old Testament models, and they included “angels, righteous figures of the Old and New Testaments, the apostles, and Christians of both the distant and recent past.”? In the Life of Antony, Elijah is especially prominent as a model. Brakke notes that “Moses, Elijah, Elisha and Daniel were Athanasius’ favourite examples of persons who, through ascetic discipline, rendered themselves worthy of divine revelations.” The Life of Antony, designed as a model life, cartied within it its own biblical models, which influenced both the behavior and the literary representation of ascetic figures both in the East and in the West. David Brakke has a particular interest in Athanasius’ use of scriptural models for moral conduct. His work, originally called Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism, considers both Athanasius’ use of ascetic ideals both for personal politicking and to create community. “The rhetoric of imitation was crucial to Athanasius’ vision of a diverse, yet ascetic Church: the imitation of various saints accounted for the Church's diversity, but this imitation always had ... [an] ascetic character.”*5 In Brakke's view, imitation of biblical saints was essential to Athanasius’ program. “[A]s individual saints formed themselves by imitating the saints’ o?tetct (‘way of life’), they formed a corporate noAvtetc (‘commonwealth’)."3 Brakke’s careful analysis of these themes in 33 David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1998; paperback reprint of Athanasius and the Polities of Asceticism [New York: Oxford University Press, 1995}, 163-4 34 Brake, Athanasius 250. 35 Brake, Athanasius 13. % Brakke, Athanasius 163, 26Athanasius’ thought gives a clear example of the working out of such ideas in one man's life and work and has been essential to my reflection on them. But other authors had other approaches to biblical saints and imitation, and it is some of these approaches that I wish to explore. Marc van Uytfanghe has looked at the influence of Scripture, including scriptural figures, on the hagiography of the third through fifth century in the West ani Merovingian successors..? His work on early hagiography is more germane to my study; in it, he analyzes the Life of Cyprian by Pontius, that of Martin by Sulpicius Severus, and that of Ambrose by Paulinus. All are stamped with the Bible in many ways, including an interest in biblical figures as models, although this modeling is most explicit in the earliest life, that of Cyprian, written in the mid-third century. In his Life Sulpicius presents a Martin who has a “caractére implicitement biblique,””? although he is compared above all to New Testament figures, especially John the Baptist and Paul. In his miracles, however, there are clear reminiscences of Elijah and Elisha. Finally, in the Life of Ambrose, the emphasis is more on fulfillment of Scripture than on “nominative typologies,” but such typologies are in any case limited to Elisha and Elijah. Van 57 patristic: “L’empreinte biblique sur la plus ancienne hagiographie occidentale,” in Le monde latin antique et la Bible, ed. J. Fontaine (Paris: Beauchesne, 1985); Merovingian: Stylisarion biblique et condition humaine dans Vhagiographie mérovingienne [600-750] (Brussels: AWLSK, 1987) 38 “D‘aprds son hagiographe, Cyprien joignaita!'imitation du Christ celle des «justes» de Ancien Testament.” van Uytfanghe, “L’empreinte” $78, 39 van Uyefanghe, “L'empreinte” $87. * van Uytfanghe, “L’empreinte” 594: “caccomplissements» de paroles scriptuaires” vs. “typologies nominatives».” 27Uytfanghe notes that in both Cyprian’s and Ambrose’s cases, the hagiographers may have taken some of their descriptions of biblical imitation from the writings of their subjects, He has few general conclusions beyond the idea that these lives offer models of biblical comportment adapted to current circumstances and mark their subjects as the inheritors of biblical holiness. He notes the preference among the Old Testament figures for the prophetic and miracle-working models offered by Elijah and Elisha. But like most writers interested in hagiography, van Uytfanghe focuses more on the form of the Lives and on the effect that biblical models may have had on this form than on the imitation of these models and any theories about such imitation; I am more interested in the imitation and the theories behind it. Derek Krueger, who writes on hagiography and authorship in the Greek East between the fourth and seventh centuries, gives much more attention to the question of biblical imitation in hagiographical texts, He examines “lives, miracle collections, and narrative hymns”! with special attention to the role of the author and to the act of writing more generally. This focus allows him to broaden his approach from the study of the effects of one written text on another to an examination of authorial imitation, Krueger does not consider the “vexed” question of the author's intention, that is, most of the time he avoids considering the author separate from the text. He concentrates instead on creatures standing somewhere between person and written text: authors of hagiography, 41 Derek Krueger, Writing and Holiness: the Practice of Authorship inthe Early Christian East (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 3 2 Krueger, Writing 9 28authors within the Bible, those whose writing did not merely describe an ascetic task but also was that task. This emphasis on a sort of semi-textual figure allows a greater exploration of imitation that is personal, rather than merely textual. Hagiographical text is bound up with imitation. The reason that the saint's life exists at all is to allow its readers to attempt to duplicate the life and manners of its, subject. And writing facilitates imitation. “An imitation by one person of another would inevitably lapse into repetition and parody.... One can, however, imitate a text without parody, for the text is already an imitation and is not necessarily degraded by further imitation." As G.G. Harpham points out, ascetic practice—the discipline of a holy life—also makes the ascetic more imitable.“* But when we examine not only hagiographical text but also the hagiographer, we sce forms of imitation and ascetic practice occurring simultaneously in the text and by the text. Imitation, often of biblical figures, is thus quite important to Krueger's ideas about the hagiographer, and his close examination of the asceticism of authorship shows new aspects and techniques of biblical imitation. In the end, however, he is interested ‘more in considering aspects of Christian authorship than aspects of imitation, But because Krueger looks at techniques of imitation in his exploration of early Byzantine hagiography, his work is important to my study, although there is little overlap between authors or even types of text studied, 4 Geoffrey Galt Harpham, The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism (Chicago: University Press, 1987), 13. +4 Harpham, Ascetic Imperative, especially pp. xv, 13, 42 29IMITATION AND THE LATIN VOCABULARY OF EXAMPLE Tt was not until recently that anyone thought much about hagiography beyond considering whether the stories narrated in Lives had happened or not, with perhaps some thought as to their possible provenance if deemed legendary. As the works that I have discussed above show, this is by no means so any longer. Scholars have scrutinized “tout monument écrit inspiré par le culte des saints, et desting a le promouvoir™ from a bewildering variety of angles. Such broad interest is not, however, typical of scholarship on the nature of imitation in the ancient world, Scholars have considered imitation and exempla almost exclusively in studies of education and rhetoric. This is not all that surprising, because ancient works touch on theories of imitation and exempla only in works relating to education and rhetoric, and they do not discuss them at any length there. Most modern attention to exempla, in particular, has been on their rhetorical, evidential use: exempla as stories to argue a point. Modem scholars have usually looked at collections of exempla. Thus there are studies on Valerius Maximus,“ and on exempla in Gregory Nazianzen,4” as well as on medieval collections of examples.*® which sometimes include ancient and patristic background. Scholars of the medieval period, who have 45 Dalehaye, Légendes 2. 46 Clive Skidmore, Practical Ethics for Roman Gentlemen: The Work of Valerius Maximus (Exeter: University Press, 1996); W. Martin Bloomer, Valerius Maximus and the Rhetoric of the New Nobility (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1992) 47 Kristoffel Demoen, Pagan and Biblical Exempla in Gregory Nazianzen: A Study in Rhetoric and Hermeneutics (Tumhout: Brepols, 1996). 48 Peter von Moos, Geschichte als Topik (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1988); C. Bremond and J. LeGoff, L'