40 Chapter 1 with the three vows in Benedict’s Rule,127 a reflection on the ramifications of the origin on the interpretation of the Byzantine context is missing in the scholarly literature. This contributes to an uncritical usage of the term, while there is every reason to be critical. The origin of the term stabilitas loci, and why Herman (and others) came to use it, will not be discussed in more detail here, although as part of a general critical evaluation of historiographical developments in Byzantine Studies such discussion would be a desideratum.128 For the scope of this dissertation, another case will suffice to make the point clear. In the historiography of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Byzantine monasticism was often referred to as the ‘Basilian Order’.129 The interpretation of Eastern Roman monasticism was made in analogy of understandings on monastic orders in western Europe. However, it has now long been clear that there were no orders in the Byzantine orthodox Christian tradition, also no Basilian one.130 Instead, every communal monastery could have its own set of rules and generally there was great variety and flexibility of monastic practices.131 Without ideas of western monastic orders in mind, the idea of a ‘Basilian Order’ would most likely also not have arisen. The issue of monastic orders therefore illustrates well why using a western concept unto an Eastern Roman context can be problematic. Without the interpretation of Benedictine monasticism in mind, Herman and later scholars would mostly likely never have applied the term and concept of stabilitas loci to an Eastern Roman context. The following re-evaluation therefore stands in a tradition of re-examining ideas taken from western medieval context and applied to another. 1.3 Stabilitas loci: the concept Issues concerning the term aside, the concept of stabilitas loci is problematic when considering the late-antique Eastern Roman sources. The remainder of this chapter will 127 Herman at least recognises this, as he started his article by asking whether a comparable ideal is found in an Eastern Roman context. Herman (1955), p. 115. Subsequent scholarship often does not reflect on the origin of the term as associated with the Rule of Benedict (e.g., no such recognition or reflection is found in Auzépy (2009), which in addition to Herman is one of the few studies that has an examination of evidence for norms and ideals related to monastic mobility as its focus, nor in the recent publication of Mitrea (2023b), while both are using the terms stabilitas or stabilitas loci). 128 As Kaldellis has noted, investigations into the origins and development of our field, and particularly the (political) ideologies that have shaped our current understanding of the Eastern Roman Empire, have been relatively few compared to other fields (such as Classics), and this is a lacuna that we should further delve into. Kaldellis (2019), p. 29. When investigating why Herman asked the question whether the Benedictine concept of stabilitas loci could also be applied to Byzantium, we might start with the work of De Meester (1942). Besides ancient texts, Herman referred to De Meester in his article. Perhaps not coincidentally, De Meester was a Benedictine monk. He collected what he thought were the ‘Rules’ of Byzantine monasticism; one of the ‘regulations’ he wrote down was a list of circumstances under which it would have been justified for a monk to leave a monastery. De Meester (1942), pp. 53-54; 393-396. 129 See the historiographic reflections in Talbot (2019), p. 5. 130 John Thomas proved that although some of Basil’s ideas were influential in Byzantine monastic foundation documents, these typika did not follow one-on-one Basil’s Rules. Moreover the diverse monastic practices (also between communal monasteries) has now sufficiently been explored to discredit the idea of orders in a Byzantine orthodox Christian context. See Thomas and Hero (2000), pp. 21–29; Talbot (2019). 131 See the general reflections on Eastern Roman monasticism in the Introduction, p. 18
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