65 A reconsideration of the ideal of stability in Byzantine monasticism the different aims and preoccupations of their authors and the different historical contexts. Stabilitas loci does not sufficiently do justice to these past contexts. From this discussion of late-antique texts follows that diverse attitudes to mobility existed, dictated by their own contexts. As for the aim of this chapter, it was sufficient to review just a few late-antique texts to criticise the current scholarly discourse. There is no pan-Byzantine ideal that we can use uncritically as a reference point for framing monastic mobility. A question for further research would be what attitudes to mobility and immobility are found in the middle-Byzantine period. In the rest of the thesis, I will make a start with such. As will be suggested, also in these centuries attitudes were diverse. Monastic mobility may be represented as negative, neutral or positive. The thesis will demonstrate that even within the same genre, and even within one text, there are various discourses on mobility and immobility. It suggests therefore that we should focus on a plurality of attitudes when trying to understand issues of mobility in Byzantium, rather than taking a single ideal as a reference point for framing monastic mobility. 1
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