- Gyrovagues
Gyrovagues (sometimes Gyrovagi or Gyruvagi) were wandering or
itinerant monk s without fixed residence or leadership, who relied on charity and the hospitality of others.The term is used to refer to a kind of monk, rather than a specific order, and may be pejorative as they are almost universally denounced by
Christian writers of theEarly Middle Ages . They were denounced as wretched byBenedict of Nursia , who accused them of indulging their passions and cravings. Augustine called them Circumcelliones and attributed the selling of fakerelic s as their innovation. Cassian also mentions a class of monk, which may have been identical, who were reputed to be gluttons who refused to fast at the proper times.Up until the time of
Benedict , several attempts had been made by varioussynod s at suppressing and disciplining monks who refused to settle in acloister . With the establishment of theRule of St. Benedict in the8th century , thecenobitic anderemitic forms ofmonasticism became the accepted form of monasticism within theChristian Church , and the wandering monk phenomenon faded into obscurity.Legacy
After the eighth century, the term Gyrovagi was sometimes used pejoratively to refer to degenerate monks within a
monastery , or to travelling salesmen.ources
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Rule of St. Benedict
*The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
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