ABSTRACT
One of the most important writers to carry the prophecies of the Sibyls into the medieval period was a student of Augustine, Quodvultdeus (d. 439), Bishop of Carthage. His Sermon against Jews, Pagans, and Arians, concerning the Creed (Sermo Contra Judaeos, Paganos et Arianos Sermno de Symbolo) includes a version of the Sibyl Erythraea’s acrostic poem from Augustine’s City of God. It is from this version that the Versus Sibyllae de die Judicii,1 (Sibylline Verses on the day of Judgement, sometimes called the “Song of the Sibyl”) were derived. Paul the Deacon (c. 720-799) included these Sibylline verses and other parts of Quodvultdeus’s sermon in his eighth-century homily, the Vos Inquam, which was used as a lectio or reading, during the matins at Christmas. By the early twelfth century this lectio was standardized and included in breviaries, homilaries, and lectionaries in Benedictine and Cistercian houses throughout Europe.2 The widespread acceptance and use of Quodvultdeus’s sermon in the liturgy and drama of the period is connected to the attribution of this sermon to Augustine, whose authority promoted the use of Quodvultdeus’s oration of the prophets, and contributed to the phenomenal dissemination of the Sibylline acrostic.
