De duodecim abusivis saeculi
Template:Short description Template:Italic title {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (“On the Twelve Abuses of the World”), also titled simply De duodecim abusivis,<ref name=":0" /> is a Hiberno-Latin treatise on social and political morality written by an anonymous Irish author between 630 and 700,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or between 630 and 650.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During the Middle Ages, the work was very popular throughout Europe.
Origin
In the manuscripts, the work is frequently ascribed to a named author, most commonly Saint Cyprian or Saint Augustine; this led to early editions being published among the works of these authors.<ref name=":0" />
In 1905, however, John Bagnell Bury pointed out that it quoted from the Latin Vulgate, which was incompatible with an attribution to Cyprian or Augustine. He pointed out that the ninth abuse was quoted almost entirely in the Collectio canonum Hibernensis, where it was ascribed to Saint Patrick; and that extracts from the same section were quoted in a letter addressed by Cathwulf,Template:Refn circa A.D. 775, to King Charles the Great, and preserved in a ninth-century manuscript. He concluded that this evidence “proves that the treatise is older than A.D., 700, and strongly suggests that its origin is Irish, that it was ascribed in Ireland to Patrick, and travelled to Gaul under his name.”<ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref>
In his 1909 edition,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> Siegmund Hellmann (de) adduced further evidence, establishing it as the work of an anonymous Irish author of the 7th century.<ref name=":0" /> Since then, its author is conventionally known as Pseudo-Cyprian.
Sources
The text is based largely on the Bible, containing “over thirty citations from the Old Testament and twenty-three from the New excluding the Gospels, with nineteen more from the Gospels”;<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> these citations are made from the Latin Vulgate.<ref name=":4" />
Ever since Hellmann's edition,<ref name=":1" /> the Rule of St. Benedict has also been regarded as an important source.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Néill, Ó. "Romani influences on seventh-century Hiberno-Latin literature." Ireland and Europe: The Early Church (1984): 280-290.</ref> Hellmann regarded the ordering of the text into twelve abuses as a reversal of the twelve steps of the ladder of humility from the seventh chapter of the Rule.<ref name=":0" /> Breen thought it was more probable that it drew instead from the Regula Magistri, a different text which was itself a source for that chapter in the rule of St. Benedict.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /> Constant Mews argues instead that it draws on the model of the twelve modes of forgiveness in the Irish penitential of Cummian.<ref>Mews, Constant J. "The De XII Abusivis Saeculi and Prophetic Tradition in Seventh-Century Ireland', in Prophecy, Fate and Memory in the Early and Medieval Celtic World, ed. Jonathan Wooding and Lynette Olson. Sydney, 2020, 125-147: 139-43.</ref> Meanwhile, Joyce argues it adapts the model of linguistic abuses from the twelve vices of grammar defined by Donatus.<ref>Joyce, Stephen J. "'Each in the Calling to Which They are Called': Images of Authority in the De XII Abusiuis Saeuli." Addressing Injustice in the Medieval Body Politic, ed. Constant J. Mews and Kathleen B. Neal. Amsterdam, 2023, 87-109: 92-3.</ref>
The text also seems to have drawn on various of the Church Fathers, although none are cited by name; particularly, Origen, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Rufinus, Jerome, Cassian and Gregory the Great.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />
Hellmann<ref name=":1" /> thought that the text drew on St Isidore. Almost everyone agreed with this,<ref name=":0" /> but Breen<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> did not.
Twelve abuses
De duodecim abusivis condemns the following twelve abuses:<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>
| lang}} | Abuse |
|---|---|
| lang}} | the wise man without good works |
| lang}} | the old man without religion |
| lang}} | the young man without obedience |
| lang}} | the rich man without almsgiving |
| lang}} | the woman without modesty |
| lang}} | the lord without virtue |
| lang}} | the argumentative Christian |
| lang}} | the poor man who is proud |
| lang}} | the unjust king |
| lang}} | the negligent bishop |
| lang}} | the people without discipline |
| lang}} | the people without law |
Influence
The work was very influential, both directly and through the Hibernensis; especially the ninth abuse, the unjust king.<ref name=":0" />
There is some direct evidence for the text's popularity in tenth-century England. Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester is known to have donated a copy to the Peterborough house.<ref>Sawyer no. 1448. See Michael Lapidge, "Surviving booklists in Anglo-Saxon England." Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Basic Readings, ed. Mary P. Richards. London, 1994. 87–167: 117–9.</ref> Ælfric of Eynsham drew on a version included in Abbo of Fleury's {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} for his Old English treatise {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, in which the section on the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} was translated whole.
Hellmann points out the extensive influence of the work upon Carolingian writings, such as the mirrors for princes, and later political literature.
Later, the work was quoted by multiple medieval theologians and scholars such as Vincent of Beauvais and John of Wales. Translations and adaptations in multiple vernacular languages were prepared.<ref>See Constant J. Mews and Kathleen B. Neal, "Justice and Its Abuse in the Medieval Body Politic." Addressing Injustice in the Medieval Body Politic, ed. Mews and Neal. Amsterdam, 2023. 15-34.</ref>
See also
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
- Wisdom literature
Notes
References
Further reading
- Breen, Aidan. "The evidence of antique Irish exegesis in Pseudo-Cyprian, De duodecim abusivis saeculi." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 87 (1987), Section C. 71–101.
- Breen, Aidan, and Constant J. Mews, "On the Twelve Abuses of the Age. A Translation." Addressing Injustice in the Medieval Body Politic, ed. Constant J. Mews and Kathleen B. Neal, Amsterdam, 2023. 325-351.
- Meens, Rob. "Politics, Mirrors of Princes and the Bible: Sins, Kings and the Well-being of the Realm." Early Medieval Europe 7 (1998): 345–57.
- Ó Néill, Pádraig P. "De Duodecim Abusivis Saeculi". Dictionary of the Middle Ages. vol-4. 1989. Template:ISBN
- Throop, Priscilla. Vincent of Beauvais: The Moral Instruction of a Prince with Pseudo-Cyprian: The Twelve Abuses of the World Charlotte, VT, MedievalMS, 2011.
- Ælfric's De octo vitiis et de duodecim abusivis gradus: the text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 178, ed. R. Morris, Old English Homilies. Early English Text Society 29, 34. First Series. 2 vols. London, 1868. 296–304; the text in London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian D.XIV, ed. Ruby D.-N. Warner, Early English Homilies from the Twelfth-Century MS. Vespasian D.XIV. EETS 152. London, 1917. 11–9.
- Two Aelfric texts: The twelve abuses and the vices and virtues: An edition and translation of De duodecimo abusiuis and De octo uitiis et de duodecimo abusiuis, ed. and trans. Mary Clayton. Woodbridge, 2013.
External links
- Monastic Manuscript Project, De duodecim abusivis saeculi.
- Aidan Breen, 'Towards a critical edition of De XII Abusivis : Introductory essays with a provisional edition of the text and accompanied by an English translation', Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) PhD thesis, Department of History, 1988, pp 488. PDF online at TARA.