The Concept of conuersus between Personal and Monastic Identity at the End of Late Antiquity (the Case of Visigothic Spain)

Abstract

This article deals with the question of models of personal identity in an epoch (7th cent.) the sources of which testify to the decay of introspection and the in­dividuality of the author. Conuersio, which in the 5th century denotes change in the mode of living, or, in a narrower sense, becoming a monk, was one of the key moments in autobiographical narratives and self-descriptions in Late An­tiquity and Middle Ages. The focus of the present paper is not on what the authors of Visigothic Spain say about themselves, but on the texts, where they describe the identity of the convert. The main sources used are the chapters on conuersi in the second book of Isidore’s Sententiae (ca. 560–636), Isidore’s Synonyma, which is a dialogue between Homo and Ratio – resulting in the conversion of Homo – and the chapters on conuersi (novice monks) of the Visigothic monastic rules. As a result, we can outline a certain invariant of the convert’s identity, which both Synonyma, where the social status of Homo is in no way de­fined, and the rules, which regulate the status of the novice, share. This identity is defined by conceptualizing suffering as the correcting actions of God, by be­ing situated between the perishing, whom the convert has just left, and those chosen for salvation, by realizing one’s own inequity and weakness, by virtues of patience and humility. In case of the monastics these elements of identity refer to the process of entering the monastic confraternity and renouncing the world, obeying the correcting actions of the abbot. In conclusion, I put forward a hy­pothesis that seeks to explain the specific character of the analyzed descriptions of identity (rows of sententiae and catenae of synonymous expressions in a dia­logue). On the one hand, reading these texts served as a spiritual exercise aimed at forming identity, on the other hand, partaking in these exercises implied ex­periencing religious “frustration” as a prerequisite, which led to yearning for stereotypical forms.