Lauren Mancia
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Much ink has been spilled on the western inheritance of medieval Benedictine monks of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. But what influence did the eastern Church Fathers have on western monastic writers like John of Fécamp (d. 1078) and Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109), and how did some of the so-called innovations of this high medieval monastic period actually stem from accessible eastern texts? In this paper, I will trace the influence of eastern authors (particularly Byzantine and Syriac authors like Ephraem the Syrian, Gregory of Nazianus, Evagrius Ponticus, and John Climacus) on medieval monks from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, focusing particularly on the writings of John and Anselm. When attention is paid to these Greek and Syriac inheritances, the role that Italian monks like John and Anselm played in such a transmission is clarified; the perceived originality and “genius” of such monumental western monastic figures is nuanced; and the genealogies of motifs embraced as paradigmatically western medieval— motifs like affective devotions to the crucified Christ, for instance— become complicated.