SELIM04.pdf


Xavier Campos, Selim 4 (1994): 121-123

ÆLFRIC REFERS TO BISHOP POSSIDIUS (WITH THE SOURCE)

POSSIDIUS,1 bishop of Calam2 since AD 397 up to his death in an un-

known date later than AD 437,3 also the writer of a Latin Vita Sancti Augus-

tini4 and an Indiculus dating all the works of Augustine of Hippo,5 is an au-

thor whose textual presence in the literature of the AngloSaxons had de-

served an intended entrance into the archives of Sources of Anglo-Saxon Lit-

erary Culture (SASLC), an ongoing project in the Center for Medieval and 

Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, 

USA.

However, Possidius’s intended SASLC  entry remains empty.6

This paper identifies both: a) one reference to Possidius in one of Ælfric’s 

Catholic Homilies, and b) the fragment from Augustine of Hippo’s De Civi-

tate Dei which Ælfric seems to have used as a source.

1 There is a Spanish biography of bishop Possidius introducing his own Vita Sancti 
Augustini in Obras de San Agustín en edición bilingüe, ed. V. Capánaga (Madrid, 
1969), i.295-02. This document also includes references to other Latin editions of 
Possidius’s Vita Sancti Augustini, several translations of this work into Italian, 
Spanish, Catalan, French, and German, as well as a few scholarly papers dealing 
with our bishop.

2 Calama, a city in the ancient Roman province of Numidia, has been identified with
present -day Guelme, in the north of Algeria.

3 It was in AD 437 when Genseric, leader of the Vandals from Spain invading the 
north of Africa, drew Possidius out of his episcopal see. (Capánaga, ed. 302).

4 The Latin text of this work is in V. Capánaga, ed. 303-65.
5 V. Capánaga, ed. 375-6.
6 F.M. Biggs, T.D. Hill, P.E. Szarmach, eds., with the assistance of K. Hammond, 

Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: A Trial Version (New York, 1990) 233.



Xavier Campos 
____________________________________________________________________

122

The homily where bishop Possidius is mentioned bears the following title:

«UII. KALENDAS IANUARII. NATALE SANCTI STEPHANI PRO-

TOMARTYRIS»,1 largely rendered from De Civitate Dei2 and different 

commonplaces from the New Testament.3

Forty Old English words shaping three sentences are the vehicle to the 

reference here described: 

Eucharius hatte sum mæssepreost on pam lande pe is gehaåten

hispania. se wæs Íearle geswenct mid langsumum broce. Ía

gebrohte se biscop Possidius. sum Íing lytles of Íære foresædan 

cyrcan Íæs eadigan stephanes. and se preost pu r h pæt wearÍ 

gehæled.4

The Latin text seemingly used as a source is the following:

1 Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: The Second Series Text, ed. M. Godden (EETS, 1979) 
12-18.

2 Obras de San Agustín. Edición bilingüe, ed. J. Morán (Madrid, 1965), xvii. 779. 
This volume contains the last ten books building up De Civitate Dei. Our present 
interest is centered upon Book 22, chapter 8, pp. 705-21.

3 On the one hand some biblical commonplaces are part of the translated text itself, as 
in ‘Criste. accipe spiritum meum. ? æt is crist onfóh minne gast’ (Godden ed., p. 
13) = Facts 7: 59; some others, on the other hand, are part of Ælfric’s final expla-
nations, as in ‘Min drihten miltsa him nyton hí hwæt hí dop’ (Godden, ed., p. 17) 
= Lk. 23: 34; ‘Drihten min. ne sete pu him Íæs dæda to synne’ (Godden ed.,p. 17) 
= Facts 7: 60; ‘? æt Ía wyrigendan godes rice ne geagniaÍ’ (Godden, ed., p. 17) = 
1 Cor. 6: 9; ‘lufiaÍ eowre fynd. doÍ pam tela Íe eow hátiaÍ’ (Godden ed., p. 18) = 
Lk. 6: 27; ‘gebbidaÍ for eowrum ehterum and tynendum. ? æt ge beon eowres 
fæder bearn se Íe on heofonum is’ (Godden ed., p. 18) = Matt. 5: 44-45.

4 M. Godden ed., p. 12.



____________________________________________________________________

123

Eucharius est presbyter ex Hispania, Calamae habitat, veteri morbo 

calculi laborabat, per memoriam supradicti martyris, quam

Possidius illo advexit episcopus, salvus factus est.1

This fragment had been slightly enlarged by Ælfric’s purpose to over-

come cultural distances. The additions he carried out actually explain wh at

hispania is, and provide both a) the hearer/reader with the necessary refer-

ence to supradictus martyr, and b) his text with an element absent from the 

Latin one (cyrcan instead of memoria) but necessary to the new narrative co-

herence within the Old English homily. One omis sion observed (Calamae

habitat) prevents the hearer/reader from sophisticated and unnecessary in -

formation. An alteration (langsum broc for morbus calculi) hides the precise 

hue of the Latin original.

The challenge now are MSS, booklists, quotations and citations to be 

identified.

Xavier Campos Vilanova

University Jaume I, Castelló

* † *

1 Augustine of Hippo’s De Civitate Dei 22: 8, 12, ed. J. Morán (Madrid, 1965), xvii. 
714-5.