In the study of Egyptian monasticism, the past twenty years have seen increased focus on the economic and social realities of life in monastic communities through the use of non-literary sources, i.e., archaeological, epigraphical, and papyrological. Much of this work has been on the activities revealed by these sources, including the organisation of monastic communities, craft production, and land and estate management. One point that has not received dedicated treatment to date is the nature of the relationship(s) between such communities and lay populations, especially in a fashion that connects the relevant evidence with broader studies on the economy of late antiquity. Monastic Communities in Context aims to bridge this gap. Wegner’s central focus is the different forms of dependence encountered in the papyrological record and how they influenced the ‘social performance’ (p. 14) of monasteries, primarily from the fourth to eighth centuries (the long late antiquity). The study, developed from Wegner’s 2017 doctoral thesis, is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on three case studies, which are among those best known to scholars of Egyptian monasticism and the economy of late antique Egypt, that illuminate this topic from different perspectives. They are the Apions, Dioscorus of Aphrodito, and the monastery of Apa Apollo at Bawit. The study’s second part casts a wider net in order to incorporate relevant material that reveals the realities of monastic economy and of power and authority.
The first chapter examines the relationship of monasteries with the great estate of the Apions, an aristocratic landowning family that is well-documented in the Oxyrynchus papyri from the late fifth to early seventh century. The case study is supplemented by that from a much smaller dossier that survives within the archive of Dioscorus of Aphrodito (on whom see below), that of Flavius Ammonios, who owned an estate in the Antaiopolite nome. The evidence mainly shows that these elites supported monasteries through gifts (prosphorai), but Wegner demonstrates that there is some evidence of transactions in the opposite direction, a point that is often overlooked as it is less prominent in the sources. And the issue of the nature of the surviving sources is an important methodological one raised in this study. Letters and legal documents, such as those that form the Ammonios archive, provide greater opportunities to examine the nature of relationships between groups and individuals. However, such information is more limited in account documents, which form the majority of the Apion archive. The image of the relationship that emerges from accounts therefore is one that is largely transactional and also unidirectional, obscuring other – possibly personal rather than institutional – relationships that exist between the parties.
The sixth-century Aphrodito archive of Dioscorus of Aphrodito is the focus of chapter two. In total, 27 monasteries appear in the textual record as landowners in the local communities around the town and in its more distant environs. The evidence points at little direct exploitation of the land by monastics. They instead used lay people both as intermediaries (subletting land, and even on occasion administering the monastery directly) and as tenants. This use of lay intermediaries was particularly the case for local monasteries, while external communities (i.e., those located further away) tended to have more direct involvement in land management – a situation perhaps the reverse of what we would expect. However, here lies a methodological issue. As Wegner emphasises, our view of monastic management and relationships at Aphrodito is dominated by the archives of Dioscorus, and so the question arises of how representative this corpus is of lay and monastic interactions in the area. What glimpses we do get from other monasteries suggest that other local elites also worked with monasteries, suggesting that Dioscorus is not unique, simply prominent through the nature of the surviving Aphrodito corpus.
Turning away from the elite view presented in the first two case studies, chapter three examines the material from the monastery of Apa Apollo at Bawit. This corpus extends the period so far covered to the eighth century, and so after the Arab conquest of the mid-seventh century. It also shifts the perspective from that of an outsider (even one connected with the operational aspects of monastic affairs) to the internal operations of a monastery and its records concerning other groups. In this respect, Bawit is the best available corpus. The surviving, published papyrological record is extensive, and it can be studied in conjunction with the archaeological remains of the community (a point that Wegner does incorporate, albeit briefly, alongside the unwavering focus on the papyri). In contrast to the monasteries that appear in the first two chapters, the monastery of Apa Apollo was a large institution, in terms of its physical structures, number of monks, and landholdings. The corpus reveals that the institution itself was directly involved in the management of its property (i.e., without resorting to the use of lay intermediaries as at Aphrodito). Additionally, the material reveals that individual monks also acted independently of the central administration by entering into contracts with workers and lending money, although it is unclear if the resulting profits were retained by individuals or became part of the monastery’s resources. These individual business activities show that not all monks were always concerned with the quintessential economic activities presented in the normative literature, e.g., basket-making and weaving. In contrast to the literary sources, though, which primarily predate the Arab conquest, the Bawit material largely reflects a different socio-economic reality, a point that Wegner draws out in the following chapters.
Chapter four is the most substantial in the volume. It brings together and builds on the information from the three main case studies, incorporating evidence from other communities. Wegner here examines broader themes, seeking general trends and identifying outliers. The study is divided into three categories: agriculture, crafts and transport, and fiscality. Focus is given to the decision-makers within communities and how they were appointed, including the balance between meeting the spiritual need of the monks and maintaining the monks and physical structures used by the community. The discussion here may ruffle a few scholarly feathers, based as it is on pragmatic concerns and rational solutions. However, Wegner’s close attention to the details of documents from different communities presents a convincing image of the practical requirements faced when appointing community leaders, who needed to be managers who could potentially shoulder financial burdens and not just lead on the strength of their spiritual reputation. This was especially important in the changing financial situations of the late seventh and eighth centuries, when monastic communities faced financial burdens (notably the poll tax) that were not felt by earlier communities. A key point that emerges throughout is the heterogenous nature of the communities, which required responses to quite specific individual circumstances. These needs in turn produced multiple models of organisation and strategies of external relations (networks), wherein solutions were pragmatic (i.e., for the survival of the monastery) rather than efficient (e.g., in terms of maximising economic gains).
The last chapter turns to the question of monasteries as rural elites and patrons. Another methodological point that Wegner highlights is that the papyrological evidence provides only snapshots. It is not therefore possible to develop a coherent image of monasteries as both clients and patrons. Nevertheless, broad strokes can still be drawn. As clients, the discussion builds on the evidence presented in chapters one and two (Apions and Dioscorus). Two main types of patron support to monasteries are identified: (1) material; (2) political and juridical. The motivations for this provision of support are difficult to determine and Wegner highlights the risk of viewing actions through a cynical lens in which actions are driven by social gain, reminding us that sincere religious motivations cannot be discounted. Turning to monasteries as patrons, Wegner weaves together the literary evidence from Shenoute’s writings and Pachomian letters with the papyrological sources in order to look at monastic intervention in lay affairs. Monks are presented as patrons in two key ways: as mediators and intercessors, and as providers of credit. Monastic isolation gave them impartiality, and their relationship with God bestowed upon them the benefit of divine wisdom, making them ideal mediators in lay disputes (although, it is not as clear how successful they necessarily were when they did become involved). In terms of credit, the best-attested activity of individual monks is moneylending, a business in which monasteries rarely engaged at an institutional level. Instead, institutional involvement in credit was in non-cash debt (i.e., debt paid in labour), which produced rural hierarchies in which monasteries served as patrons.
In lieu of a final concluding chapter, some final remarks in chapter five draw together the multiple discussions and emphasise the “phenomenal diversity of the Egyptian monastic movement” (p. 312). While the totality of the evidence meets the criteria for identifying monasteries as rural elites, and therefore also patrons, no single monastery ticks all the boxes. Indeed, complexity is one of the main take-ways from this volume. From the beginning, Wegner emphasises the heterogenous nature of monasticism in Egypt and that it is impossible to produce a single, unifying account of monastic economy and social life. To this point, it should be stressed that the cases that Wegner presents will be further nuanced following the future publication of even more sources. Beyond the study of Egyptian monasticism, Monastic Communities in Context is an important contribution to discussions of patronage networks in late antique Egypt and a vital bridge between scholarship on the late antique economy and monasticism – topics that draw upon contemporary material but which very rarely come together. Wegner interweaves material familiar to both disciplines, demonstrating confidence in working with the range of Greek and Coptic papyri, and in so doing helps to fill gaps created by disciplinary divides.