The Medieval Church · c. 775–784
The Conflict of the Vices and Virtues
De Conflictu Vitiorum et Virtutum
Ambrosius Autpertus · c. 730 – 784
What it is
Each vice speaks in its own voice and the answering virtue replies with a verse of scripture: pride against humility, gluttony against abstinence, anger against patience. It is a debate script rather than a treatise, and short enough to memorise.
Why it lasted
Copied for eight hundred years under the names of Augustine, Ambrose, and Isidore, which is why it was so widely read. Its speaking vices stand behind the whole medieval tradition of psychomachia in sermon, drama, and cathedral sculpture.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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