Within Christian tradition, complaints about abuses within society and religious practice tend to recur in every generation. Yet particular periods generate more acute moments of anxiety which leave their mark in the written record. The chronological distribution of surviving manuscripts of the De XII abusiuis saeculi suggests that after an initial surge of interest in this text on the continent in the ninth century, there was a period of relative decline in the tenth century, followed by a multiplication of copies in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. One could argue that this simply reflects a broader explosion in scribal activity during this period. In this chapter, however, I shall explore how DDAS provided a stimulus for a renewal of interest in religious life. Two categories in particular were missing from its list: those in religious life and those holding positions of responsibility within religious life. I shall explore how DDAS, which had circulated for many centuries within a monastic milieu, would find a new lease on life in the twelfth century in communities of canons regular, committed to the Rule of Augustine.

DDAS makes no explicit reference to monks, abbots, or clerics. While it does have an important chapter about a negligent bishop, its failure to make explicit reference to the way of life of a monk or an abbot would provoke Hugh of Fouilloy (c. 1100–c. 1174) to compose a quite different treatise, De duodecim abusionibus claustri [DDAC], with which it is often confused. Hugh certainly knew DDAS, identifying it as a work of Augustine when he mentions its discussion of an old man without religion.