490 Lizzi Testa
with precise testamentary instructions about the foundation and endowment
income of the future monastery. There were also cases of monasteries built in
the heart of the city within their founder’s own domus and with an adjoining
oratory: in her will, for instance, the patrician Rustica assigned a third of her
entire property to her monastic foundation in the city of Naples.53
Male Monasteries in Northern Italy
It was probably within the same ascetic context as Marcella, that is in Rome
rather than during his exile in the East,54 that Bishop Eusebius of Vercelli, once
a lector in the entourage of Pope Julius, had learned how to create a sort of
monastery for consecrated virgins55 and to combine “monastic restraint with
the discipline of the Church” in order to create a stricter means of devotion
for his clergy.56 The result was a kind of clerical—monastic centre established
on the initiative of a bishop and organized as a seminar for ascetic priests.
The first of its kind in the West, Eusebius’ experiment proved very influential,
and sparked a movement that spread quickly throughout northern Italy. Of the
centres that soon followed, the best known are the “Cenacle of Aquileia”, which
was attended by Jerome and Rufinus between 370–3,57 and the monasterium of
Milan, which, as Augustine recalled in his Confessions, was located outside the
walls of the city at the time of Ambrose.58
53 Gr. Magn., Ep. 3.58, ed. Norberg, pp. 206–7; Rizzo, Papa Gregorio Magno e la nobiltà in
Sicilia, p. 229.
54 On the influence of Roman ascetism rather than Eastern models, Lizzi Testa, “Le origini
del Cristianesimo”, p. 372; cf. Ps.Max., Sermo 7.2, ed. Mutzenbecher, p. 23: instar orientalis
propositi.
55 Ps.Max., Sermo 7.2: “propositum virginitatis instituit... monachorum introduxit forte
servitium.” During his exile, Eusebius also turned to sanctae sorores as well as fratres; see
Eus. Verc., Ep. 2.11.1, ed. Bulhart, p. 109. For inscriptions of Vercelli’s virgines, dated between
the 5th and 6th centuries, see Bruzza, Iscrizioni antiche vercellesi, pp. 309–13; 316–18, nn.
132–3; also Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 5, no. 6741, ed. Mommsen; cf. Roda, Iscrizioni
latine di Vercelli, pp. 130–1.
56 Ambr., Ep. 14 extra Coll. (63M., 66 and 71), ed. Zelzer, pp. 270 and 273: “monasterii conti
nentia et disciplina Ecclesiae... ut et in civitate positus instituta monachorum teneret
et ecclesiam regeret ieiunii sobrietate.... Namque haec duo in attentiore Christianorum
devotione praestantiora esse quis ambigat, clericorum officia et monachorum instituta?”.
57 Rufin., Apol. 1.4, ed. Simonetti, with Lizzi Testa, “Christianization and Conversion”,
pp. 14–15, nn. 54–6.
58 Aug., Conf. 8.6.15.3, ed. O’Donnell.