As pointed out in the introductory chapter, we have no pre-Conquest Latin manuscript of De duodecim abusiuis from England. The earliest surviving manuscript from England is probably Salisbury, Cathedral Library, 168, but this is a text of the Augustine recension, whereas Ælfric certainly used a manuscript of the Cyprian recension. I have chosen, therefore, to transcribe the text from Oxford, Jesus College 3, fols. 120v-128r, as a good example of the kind of text that Ælfric used: this is a text of the Cyprian recension, in a manuscript written in England (probably Cirencester) in the twelfth century.

The text is set out here in accordance with the conventions of modern punctuation and abbreviations have been silently expanded. Some obvious errors have been corrected. Some omissions, necessary for the sense, have been supplied. References to Breen in the apparatus are to what he terms his interim edition, ‘Towards a Critical Edition’.

De duodecim abusiuis

Incipit epistola sancti Cipriani martyris de duodecim abusiuis

Duodecim abusiua sunt seculi. Hoc est: sapiens sine operibus; senex sine religione; adolescens sine obedientia; diues sine elemosina; femina sine pudicitia; dominus sine uirtute; christianus contentiosus; pauper superbus; rex iniquus; episcopus negligens; plebs sine disciplina; populus sine lege. Sic suffocatur iusticia. Haec sunt duodecim abusiua seculi per quae seculi rota, si in illo fuerit, decipitur et ad tartari tenebras nullo impediente iusticiae suffragio per iustum Dei iudicium rotatur.