Alcimus Avitus, Michael Roberts Biblical and Pastoral Poetry

"Avitus's most frequently read and most famous work is his biblical epic, the Spiritual History (De spiritalis historiae gestis), which, along with a later work on virginity addressed to his sister Fuscina, represents the sum total of his surviving poetry. Despite the frequent presence of exegetical material, the Spiritual History remains a narrative poem, in which each section into which the poem falls (books 1-3, book 4, and book 5) owes its continuity to chronological progression, not to a sequence ofargument. The poem does not aspire to follow faithfully the sequence of the biblical narrative. While the events of books 1-3 are continuous, books 4 and 5 contain discrete episodes without any immediate chronological relationship with what has gone before. Instead, the connection is thematic: the first three books pivot on the Fall and its consequences, the last two books present contrasting narratives of redemption. The connection is made explicit at the end of the Spiritual History: the stain of sin humanity incurred by the crime of the first couple is washed away by baptism, symbolized by the waters of the Red Sea, and in book 4 by the waters of the Flood, from which a new offspring is born. The poem as a whole follows a cycle of original sin and redemption; it constitutes a history of Christian salvation, with the fortunes of the human race at its center. Avitus's understanding of the biblical text depends primarily on the distinction between historia and figura; his poem is a spiritalis historia, alert to both levels of meaning. Despite the centrality of figural interpretation to his poem, Avitus also contributes to the understanding of the biblical text at the literal/historical level. One last form of biblical exegesis in the poem might be calledthe homiletic, in which the Old Testament narrative plays an exemplary rather than a figural role, providing the poet with a source of moral instruction about the proper conduct of Christian life. In style, In Consolatory Praise is simpler than the Spiritual History, as befits its different genre. The poem is neither a typical speech of praise (laus) nor speech of consolation (consolatio). It begins as though in praise of Fuscina, but later the poet explicitly indicates such a laus would be premature before her death. As it goes on, the poem does contain some standard elements of treatises on virginity, but the praise of chastity does not play a formative role. As for consolation, the poem has little in common with the rhetorical consolatio, which typically consoles for someone's death. Instead consolatoria here apparently has its nontechnical sense: the poem serves in some way to assuage dissatisfaction or distress. The poem, in fact, is largely exhortatory in tone"--
Biblical and Pastoral Poetry was written by Alcimus Avitus, bishop of Vienne, in the late fifth or early sixth century. This volume presents new English translations alongside the Latin texts of the Spiritual History, his most famous work which narrates biblical stories, and verses addressed to his sister, In Consolatory Praise of Chastity.
Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne and a vigorous defender of Christian orthodoxy, was born into the senatorial aristocracy in southern Gaul in the mid-fifth century and lived until 518. The verse in Biblical and Pastoral Poetry was written in the late fifth or early sixth century. Avitus’s most famous work, the Spiritual History, narrates the biblical stories of creation, the Fall and expulsion from paradise, the Flood, and the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. He revitalizes Christian epic poetry, highlighting original sin and redemption and telling the history of Christian salvation with dramatic dialogue and rich description. In Consolatory Praise of Chastity—a verse treatise addressed to his sister, a consecrated virgin—illuminates the demands of the ascetic life from the perspective of a close family member. Avitus seeks to bolster his sister’s resolve with biblical examples of mental fortitude, constructing a robust model for female heroism. This volume presents new English translations of Avitus’s two extant poetic writings alongside the Latin texts.