Extract
[...] This progression of the laicization of knowledge within the monastic space is however not without troubling contemporaries, as certain contemporaries report. Thus Theolept of Philadelphia, who lived in part under the reign of Michael VIII Palaeologus at the end of the 13thand century, warns against this opening, which would be accompanied by the penetration of secular vices into the heart of the monastic space, in his "Instruction on the duties of common life". The secularization of monastic life is also accompanied by an opening to bookish knowledge not only for the sake of pure knowledge or scientific practice, but also administrative: the activity of copyists is indeed essential to the proper functioning of the Empire, which relies on knowledge abundantly developed by monks over the centuries. [...]
[...] The monastery of Saint-Jean du Prodrome of Petra at the time of its foundation century) The foundation of the monastery at the end of Antiquity is attested by primary sources in the early hours of the general diffusion of Christianity and its progressive domination between the IVand and the Vand centuries. Thus 'Jean Mauropodos, monk and archdeacon of the monastery of the Prodrome and Baptist Jean of Petra', whose biography is itself subject to caution according to the research in paleography dedicated to a form of prosopography. [...]
[...] Raymond Janin, "The Byzantine Monasticism in the Middle Ages"," Revue des études byzantines, vol no pp. 5-44. Venance Grumel, "The Medical Profession in Byzantium during the Comnenian Era"" Revue des études byzantines, vol no pp. 42-46. Immaculada Pérez Martin, "The Secularization of Byzantine Monasticism in the Macedonian Era: Manuscript Evidence"", in Olivier Delouis Le Saint, the monk and the Byzantine, Paris, Sorbonne pp. 563-588. [...]
[...] Marcelle Ehrhard, 'The Book of the Pilgrim of Antoine of Novgorod', Romania, vol no 1932. John Thomas, Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders' Typika and Testaments, Washington, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection pp. 246-273. Anne-Marie Cheny, 'The Eastern Roman Empire, a New Area of Research in the First Half of the XVII [...]
[...] This 'neo-Byzantine' foundation of the monastery places it under the high patronage of the empire and the patriarchs. In fact of its power, the monastery of Saint-John-Prodrome of Petra represents the alliance of the two powers, temporal and spiritual, within an institutionalization of Christianity and the empire without ambiguity. However, where the monastic rule was reintroduced, it is the conjugation of lay and ecclesiastical knowledge that is highlighted by contemporaries. This is evidenced by the development not only of religious practices within it, but, gradually, of liberal arts such as medicine and rhetoric in the university canons of the time. [...]
