La Bienfaisance et les Aumônes (De opere et eleemosynis) (review)

Cyprian of Carthage. La Bienfaisance et les Aumônes (De opere et eleemosynis).Edited by Michel Poirier. Sources chrétiennes 440. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1999. Pp. 203. 164 FF.

Michel Poirier's edition of the De opere et eleemosynis is the second volume of the series Sources chrétiennes devoted to Cyprian of Carthage. Poirier's contribution joins the 1982 edition of J. Molager, who produced the volume which includes Ad Donatum and De bono patientiae (Sources chrétiennes 291).

In the work, Cyprian chides his fellow Christians for their stinginess, and exhorts them to acts of charity. Such charity atones for sins and imitates the generosity of God. The work seems, at times, to be directed specifically to those who were in a position to do something (those of means) rather than generically to the community as a whole. In any case, (as Poirier demonstrates) through this short treatise Cyprian offer a theology or spirituality which undergirds pastoral charity.

There is, however, little in the text as we have it to indicate the precise circumstances of the work, viz., what might have elicited such a work by the Carthaginian bishop. The reckoning of the works of Cyprian given by Pontius in Vita 7 seems to place De opere et eleemosynis after Ad Demetrianum and De mortalitate, though it is by no means certain that this document itself is a reliable account; further, even if the historical value of the Vita could be ascertained, one need not read Pontius' passing references to the works of his bishop as a "chronology." Thus, commentators, while offering various suggestions as to the events surrounding the work and its precise date, must remain tentative, as Poirier does. There is no explicit reference to the plague of 252 nor to the persecutions associated with Decius (250-51) or Valerian (257-60). Further, the text does not seem to relate the penitential value of eleemosyna to the pastoral challenged posed by the rehabilitation of the lapsi. Consequently, in the absence of concrete internal evidence, Poirier offers the rough estimate 253-56. Further, in raising the question of genre, whether sermon or treatise, Poirier prudently answers "both," and explains how it is quite possible that the work which began as a sermon was reworked for wider circulation.

In terms of the text, Poirier bases his edition largely on the text established by M. Simonetti in 1976 (CCL 3A), itself a reworking of the text published by Hartel in the Vienna corpus (1868). Poirier's edition of the text makes use of an additional eleventh century MS which almost always contains the same reading as its contemporary Vaticanus latinus 202 (both of which Bévenot had identified as belonging to the same family of MSS).

Poirier's substantial introduction (c. 50 pp.) treats not only the occasion and date of the work, but offers reflections on the contents of the treatise, its terminology, its use of Scripture and its rhetorical style. Further, Poirier discusses Cyprian's theology of eleemosyna and, employing data drawn from his correspondence, seeks to describe the situation in the Carthaginian Christian community, emphasizing the bishop's role as patron.

In addition to the (often trenchant) annotations which accompany the text and translation, this edition contains thirty pages or so of additional notes which treat textual, syntactical, and interpretive issues with care and depth. Several of these additional notes should benefit scholars working on other members of the Cyprianic corpus. The volume includes a substantial bibliography, and scriptural, grammatical, name and subject indices.

Michael Heintz, The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana

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