Cassian’s influence on western monasticism and spirituality was profound and lasting.
His monastic regulations and spirituality influenced Benedict of Nursia and many later
monastic writers. His transmission of the ideas of Evagrius, especially on apatheia or
purity of heart, was crucial for western spirituality. The Rule of St. Benedict ‘s
requirement that the Conferences be read to the monks during meals ensured that
generations of monks would be shaped by the ideals of asceticism and prayer that Cassian
had gleaned from the desert ascetics.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: CAESARIUS OF ARLES; MONASTICISM; MYSTICISM]
Cassian, John. Opera. PL 49–50.
——. Opera, ed. Michael Petschenig. CSEL 13, 17. Vindobonae: apud C. Geroldi filium, 1886–88.
——. John Cassian: Conferences, trans. Colin Luibheid. New York: Paulist, 1985.
Chadwick, Owen. John Cassian: A Study in Primitive Monasticism. 2nd ed. London: Cambridge
University Press, 1968.
——. Western Asceticism. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1958. [Translation of selected Conferences.]
Rousseau, Philip. Ascetics, Authority and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1978.
CASTEL, JEAN
(ca. 1425–1476). Grandson of Christine de Pizan and son of another Jean Castel,
secretary of the French dauphin, the future Charles VII, Castel became a Cluniac monk at
Saint-Martin-des-Champs ca. 1439. In 1461, Louis XI transferred there from Saint-Denis
the official chronicles of France and appointed Castel an official chronicler. In 1468, he
composed for Jean de Bellay, bishop of Poitiers, his Spécule des pécheurs, a long
moralizing poem. He also exchanged ballades with Georges Chastellain. He was named
king’s secretary in 1470 and two years later was nominated abbot of Saint-Maur-des-
Fossés, where he spent his last years. Castel is the presumed author of a Mirouer des
dames et damoyselles et de tout le sexe femenin, a meditation on worldly vanity written in
a mixture of French and Latin. Although he is mostly forgotten today, Martin Lefranc
considered him one of the best poets of the day and Jean Molinet spoke of his importance
as a historian.
Charity Cannon Willard
Castel, Jean. Lo specchio delle dame et altri testi del XI sec., ed. G.A.Brunelli. Florence: Sansoni,
1958.
Bossuat, Robert. “Jean Castel, chroniqueur de France.” Moyen âge 64 (1958):285–304, 499–538.
Brunelli, G.A. “Jean Castel et le ‘Mirouer des Dames.’” Moyen âge 62 (1956):93–117.
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