ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a text from seventh-century Ireland, the De XII abusivis saeculi (DDAS), widely copied throughout the medieval period as by either Cyprian or Augustine, that deserves to be considered an important influence on ethical and political theory in the Latin West. While Cary Nederman has made a profound contribution to appreciating the legacy of Cicero in these matters, DDAS offers a synthesis of biblical ethical principles, strongly based on the teaching of the Old Testament prophets, that would continue to surface in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, alongside classical tradition. Its ninth chapter, about a bad king, much cited in the Carolingian period, provides a foundation for the Mirror of Princes genre, so much developed in the later medieval period. The 12 abuses discussed in DDAS, however, address a range of groups in society, culminating in its criticism of people without law. Even if subsequent writers, like John of Salisbury, would go much further in unpacking classical teachings about justice in society, DDAS provided a biblical basis for complaining about oppression through the abuse of power.
