Apotaktikoi – apotaktitai: Étude sur la terminologie monastique (Égypte – Jérusalem – Asie Mineure)

The subject of this paper is wider than its title suggests. Besides gathering and discussing all the texts in which the terms apotaktikoi and apotaktitai appear, the paper exploits them for a study of the radical trend of asceticism which used these terms (as well as other terms: eremitai, sakkophoroi, hydroparastatai). Though having the same origin (being derived from the verb aποτaσσεσθαι, ‘to renounce’), the terms apotaktikoi and apotaktitai did not apply to exactly the same phenomena, nor were they used in the same geographical areas. The diferences in their use are related to the diferent kinds of organisation of the Christian communities, especially as regards the degree of centralisation. The development of the hierarchical Church did not eliminate the forms of radical asceticism that were characteristic of the fourth century, but tended to weaken them.