Prosper of Aquitaine: De Providentia Dei

149 Pages·1989·7.91 MB·English

by  Miroslav Marcovich (ed.)

PROSPER OF AQUITAINE
DE PROVIDENTIA DEI
SUPPLEMENTS TO
VIGILIAE CHRISTIANAE
Formerly Philosophia Patrum
TEXTS AND STUDIES OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE
AND LANGUAGE
EDITORS
j. DEN BOEFT - A.F.J. KLIJN - G. QUISPEL
j.H. WASZINK - j.C.M. VAN WINDEN
VOLUME X
PROSPER OF AQUITAINE
DE PROVIDENTIA DEI
TEXT, TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY
BY
MIROSLAV MARCOVICH
E.J. BRILL
LEIDEN • NEW YORK • K<Z>BENHA VN • KOLN
1989
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marcovich, Miroslav.
Prosper of Aquitaine, De providentia Dei: text, translation, and
commentary / by Miroslav Marcovich.
p. cm. -- (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, ISSN
0920-623X ; v. 10)
ISBN 9004090908
1. Prosper, Aquitanus, Saint, ca. 390-ca. 463. De providentia
Dei. 2. Providence and governance of Cod--Early works to 1800.
3. Suffering--Religious aspects--Christianity--Early works to 1800.
I. Title. 11. Series.
BR65.P6443D45 1989
231 ' . 5--dc20 89-36313
CIP
ISSN 0920-623X
ISBN 90 04 09090 8
© Copyright 1989 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche
or any other means without written permission from the publisher
PRINTED IN THE NETHF.RLANDS RY E..J. RRILL
EDUARDO DES PLACES, S.1.
DDD

CONTENTS
Preface ................................................ IX
Text and Translation
Commentary ........................................... 68
Index verborum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 115
Index locorum Sacrae Scripturae .......................... 135

PREFACE
At the beginning of the fifth century Gaul had greatly suffered first from
a catastrophic flood, second from the equally devastating raids first of the
Vandals, then of the Visigoths, lasting ten full years (ca. A.D. 406-
415).1 Finally, at the beginning of 415 king Ataulf left Gaul for Spain
(Tarraconensis). Accordingly, the most suitable date for the poem De
providentia Dei is A.D. 416.
The immediate occasion for the composition of the poem was the suffer
ings of the innocent people (38, ultima pertulimus), specifically, the com
plaints of the unbelievers, "Why did God allow this to happen? Does He
care for the mankind at all?" Consequently, the author's main objective
is to prove God's lasting and watchful providence over the universe and
mankind (87 -94). And after covering much theological ground in his
wide-ranging and learned poem, the author returns to the plight of Gaul
in his passionate peroration (897 -972).2
Ca. 860, Hincmar of Rheims (806 - 882) quoted nine passages from our
poem (total, 60 lines) in his treatise De praedestinatione dissertatio posterior,
while naming Prosper of Aquitaine as their author. 3 Prosper (died after
A.D. 455) appears as the author also in the only extant manuscript of the
poem-cod. Mazarinensis 3896 (copied ca. 1535)-and in the editio princeps
of the Works of Prosper (Lyons, 1539).
But already in 1565, Jean Soteaux and Jean Hassels denied the poem
to Prosper on the grounds that it contained Pelagian (or rather Semi
pelagian) elements, absent in Prosper's works Epistola ad Rufinum, De
ingratis, etc.4 And this seems to be the predominant opinion even today.5
I Compare Pierre Courcelle, Histoire littiraire des grandes invasions germaniques, troisieme
edition, Paris, 1964, 79 fT., esp. 96-98; Michael P. McHugh, The Carmen de Providentia Dei
Attributed to Prosperoj Aquitaine: A Revised Text With an Introduction, Translation, and Notes. Diss.,
The Catholic University of America, Patristic Studies, Vo!. 98, Washington, 1964, 18 - 24.
2 A deliberate Ringcomposition is enhanced by the repetition of some key words at the
beginning and closing of the poem. For example: 9 invictum ... vigorem : 941 animi vigor;
13 strage ruina / : 923 prostrata ruina I; 15 sub tempestate malorum / : 910 sub tempestate laborum /;
34 Geticis : 905 Geticas; 45 popularier igni / : 926 populati cordis in aula /; 46 vasa ministerii :
928 vasa Dei; 59 usta . . . ab urbe : 906 domus usta; 88 and 100 rudibus : 969 rudibus, "the
beginners. ' ,
3 P.L. 125, pp.442 BC and 445 A-D.
4 Divi ProsperiAquitanici ... Opera. [Studio)oannis Soteaux), Lovanii, ex officina).
Bogardi, 1565, fols.179-190. Compare Soteaux's Epistola ad Lectorem: " ... Carmen de
providentia Dei a D. Prosperi opusculis removendum duximus, quia Pelagianae doctrinae est, cui
Prosper infestissimus foit. Docet enim optimum quemque non plus gratiae accipere a Deo quam pessi
mum: sanctos patres ex lege naturae bonos fuisse: a voluntate nostra praeveniri auxilium Dei, et alia
multa errori Pelagii consona ... "
5 Compare, e.g., McHugh [supra, n.l), 10-18, esp. p.17 n.37; Aime Solignac, in
x PREFACE
However, following L. Tillemont (1712),6 Max Manitius (1888-
1891),7 especially L. Valentin (1900),8 and R. Helm (1957),9 I have else
where argued for the authorship of Prosper. 10 It suffices here to adduce
these two arguments. First, the alleged Semipelagianism cannot serve as
an argument against the authorship of Prosper, since we must allow for
a personal theological development of the au thor between 416 (De providen
tia Del) and 426 - 430 (Epistola ad Rufinum and the poem De ingratis). The
same argument applies to the theological evolution of Augustine, who in
428 wrote:
Quid autem habes quod non accepisti? Si autem et accepisti, quid glori
aris quasi non acceperis? [1 Cor. 4:7]. Quo praecipue testimonio etiam
ipse convict us sum, cum similiter errarem, putans fidem, qua in Deum credi
mus, non esse donum Dei, sed a nobis esse in nobis, et per illam nos
impetrare Dei dona, quibus temperanter et iuste et pie vivamus in hoc
saeculo.11
Second, as the Commentary demonstrates, the coincidences in doctrine,
imagery, diction and lexicon between De providentia Dei and Prosper's
De ingratis and Epigrams are of such a magnitude that they undoubtedly
suggest one single poet for all three works. In addition, as U. Moricca
(1932)Y especially M.P. McHugh (1964),13 G.E. Duckworth (1968),14
Dictionnaire de spiritualite 12 (Paris, 1985),2452, "Oeuvres d'authenticite peu probable."
a
6 Memoires pour servir l'histoire ecclesiastique des six premiers siecles, 16, Paris, 1712,
p.731.
7 "Uber das Gedicht de Providentia divina," Zeitschrijt fur die osterreichischen Gymnasien 39
(1888) 580-584; "Beitriige zur Geschichte friihchristlicher Dichter im Mittelalter,"
SBAkademie Wien 117 (1889), Abh.12, p.20 f.; 121 (1890), Abh.7, p.14; Geschichte der
christlich-lateinischen Poesie his zur Mitte des 8. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart, 1891, 170-180.
8 Saint Prosper d'Aquitaine. Etude sur la littirature latine ecclisiastique au cinquieme siecle en
Gaule. These pour le doctorat ... Bordeaux, Toulouse, 1900, 767 -831 and 893 f.
9 In RE 23 (1957) 884-887, s.v. Prosper Tiro.
10 M. Marcovich, "The Text of St. Prosper's De Providentia Dei," Illinois Classical
Studies 8 (1983) 108-121. I argued there that a Christian author of the renown of Prosper,
in his Epigrams and De ingratis, could not have borrowed ideas and diction so freely from
a contemporary compatriot poet of Gaul without running the risk of being exposed as a
plagiarist (109 f.).
11 Augustine, Liber de praedestinatione sanctorum 3.7 (P.L. 44, p.964 B).
12 Storia della let/eratura latina cristiana, IlL 1 , Torino, 1932, p.41 f.
13 Supra, n.l, pp.182-255.
14 "Five Centuries of Latin Hexameter Poetry: Silver Age and Late Empire,"
T.A.P.A. 98 (1967) 77 -150, esp.126-139 and 144, No.25: "Prosper's De ingratis and the
De providentia Dei, of uncertain authorship, are amazingly similar in most important
respects; e.g. choice of patterns, distribution of spondees and dactyls, percentage of
fourth-foot homodyne, frequency of repeated, opposite, and reverse patterns. We find
here strong arguments to support the view that Prosper of Aquitaine was indeed the author
of the De providentia Dei. "