Malachias Hibernicus (Malachy of Limerick, ca. 1300)

Malachias Hibernicus (Malachy of Limerick, ca. 1300) OM. Irish friar, moral theologian and preacher, active in the Limerick friary. He produced a treatise De Veneno Septem Peccatorum Mortalium Eorumque Remedia , which has survived in at least 36 manuscripts (frequently together with Grosseteste’s De Oculo Morali ). The work, meant ‘ad informare populum’ about the poision of sins, contains sixteen chapters [i.) Quod triplici ratione omne peccatum veneno comparatur; ii.) Triplex remedium contra peccatum in generali; iii.) De primordiali veneno peccati et principali, scilicet superbia; iv.) Triplex superbie remedium; v.) De veneno invidie; vi.) De triplici remedio invidiae et quibus invidia comparetur et quanta mala ex ea sunt orta; vii.) De veneno irae; viii.) Remedium contra iram; ix.) De veneno acidie; x.) De remedio acidie; xi.) De avaritie veneno; xii.) De remedio avaritie; xiii.) De veneno gule; xiv.) De remedio gule; xv.) De veneno luxurie; xvi.) De remedio luxuriae]. Aside from a systhematic treatment of the vices, the work also harbours a range of interesting (albeit merely fantastical and mytholigical) statements about Ireland and the moral inclinations of its people. According to the 1518 edition of the work, as well as according to Wadding and John Bale’s Index (Basel, 1559), 242-3, Malachy would have been master of theology at Oxford. There is no further evidence to support this. Malachy’s work shows a wide reading and a firm grounding in theology, yet refers almost exclusively to authors from before 1200 (Aside from the Bible and Augustine, Malachy cites for instance Pliny’s Historia Naturalis , Aristotle’s De Animalibus and Ethics , Avicenna, Isidore, Boetius, Papias’ Commentator super Boetium de Disciplina Scholarium . Seneca’s Epistulae , the Moralia and the Pastorale of Gregory the Great, works by Jerome, Ambrose, and Orosius, the Apologi of Aesop, Cicero’s De Officiis and De Tusculanis Quaestionibus , Martianus Capella, the Historia Alexandri Magni de Proeliis , works by Fulgentius, Beda, Dioscorides, Galen, Chrysostom, Valerius Maximus, the Physiologus, Bernard of Clairvaux’s Epistolae , Constantonus Africanus, and Alexander Nequam). This does not indicate a degree course in scholastic theology. Maybe, Malachy had followed a lectorate course or an equivalent form of theological education at one of the studia generalia (in Oxford or Cambridge) or at one of the more important custodial schools in the English province. Our friar probably should be identified with the Franciscan friar Malachias of Limerick who in 1286 was in the picture for the position of Archbishop of Tuam [cf. Sbaralea Supplementum, I, 507 & Bullarium Franciscanum III (Rome, 1763), 573; Sweetman, Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland II (1877), 311-312, 340; Esposito, The English Historical Review 33 (1918), 362-3].

Works

• Septem peccatorum mortalium venena eorumque remedia describens: qui dicitur Venenum Malachiae : Augsburg, UB, Cod. II.1.2° 68 ff. 146ra-148va (an. 1448)

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• Paris, BN, Lat. .>> A lengthy listing of the other MSS (36 in all) is given by Espito. Op. Cit., 364-366. The majority of these manuscripts was ascribed to more famous authors, such as Robert Grosseteste and John of Wales. For an early modern edition, see: F. Malachie Hibernici, ordinis minorum , doctoris theologie, strenui quondam divini verbi illustratoris necnon vitiorum obiurgatoris acerrimi Libellus, septem peccatorum mortalium venena eorumque remedia describens: qui dicitur Venenum Malachiae (Paris: In Officina Henrici Stephani, 1518). A critical edition with translation appeared as: Malachy the Irishman, On Poison. A Study and an Edition , ed. & trans. Ralph Hanna, Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020).

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• Conciones : MS ?

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Literature