The "Gregorian" Dialogues and the Origins of Benedictine Monasticism

Download or read book The "Gregorian" Dialogues and the Origins of Benedictine Monasticism written by Francis Clark and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-25 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book condenses and updates the author's two-volume work, The Pseudo-Gregorian Dialogues (Brill, 1987), surveying and clarifying the controversy which that work rekindled. It presents the internal and external evidence showing cogently that the famous book which is the sole source of knowledge about the life of St. Benedict was not written by St. Gregory the Great as is traditionally supposed, but by a later counterfeiter. It makes an essential contribution to the current reassessment of early Benedictine history. It also throws much new light on the life and times of St. Gregory, and confutes the age-old accusation that he was "the father of superstition" who by writing the Dialogues corrupted the faith and piety of medieval Christendom.