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This is an interesting theme. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few
narrative examples of reactions against excessive asceticism:
1.) In the early 12th century _Life of John of Warneton, bishop of Therouanne_
by Walter of Therouanne, the old and ailing bishop is urged to moderate the
harshness of his regimen of fasting, for the sake of his health.
2.) The mid-12th century _Restoration of St. Martin's_ by Herman of Tournai
contains several interesting stories that criticize excessive asceticism.
E.g., Herman tells of the nun Mainsendis, who was made by her superior to do
pennance for a very minor indiscretion by lying for several days, despite the
fact that she was ill and bed-ridden, in a bed outside under the drain from the
kitchen wash-bins. When the abbot of the house found out, he put a stop to
this outrage, and the monks extolled Mainsendis as being like St. Alexis.
Herman had a vested interest in this story, since Mainsendis was his own
mother. More broadly, Herman's account of the crisis of abbot Odo's leadership
reads as a condemnation of the idea that monks should live as genuine paupers,
begging for their bread and then sharing it with the naturally poor; during a
famine, the monks revolted when forced to eat bread made from oatmeal, and set
up Herman's father Raoul as the provost over the house. Indeed, Raoul
successfully built up a rich portfolio of villae, mills and altaria that made
St. Martin's a very wealthy house. The Franciscan story in a microcosm? I'm
sure you've considered the whole usus pauper matter already? I think that Lynn
Nelson has a translation of the _Liber de rest._ out by now, from CUA, but I've
not yet seen it so I can't be certain.
3.) Finally, I think a story that Gregory of Tours tells might be pertinent, at
least as an illustration of the mindset of moderation. A young monk was given
the chore of watching over the freshly cut grain in the field, when a sudden
rain storm rose up; the monk fell to the ground and prayed, and the rain fell
everywhere except on the crops. Seeing this, the monk's superiors chastised
him and, if I recall, assigned some penance or another to him, claiming that he
must not allow such signs of sanctity to fill him with pride. Wasn't it P.
Brown who concluded that for the early M.A. the only good saint was a dead one?
Such might apply to heroic ascetism as well?
Dave Van Meter
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