Letter 11006: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect, to John, Chancellor.
Cassiodorus→John|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
imperial politics
Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect, to John, Chancellor.
Although every military service is carried out through established grades, and those who serve the orders of judges observe their proper sequence, your honor is recognized as being exempt from the usual order -- since you have been placed ahead of your own superiors. Those who are known to outrank you pay you deference, and by a reversed condition of justice you are regarded with reverence by men you are shown to follow in seniority. This unequal equality, this special decree, this singular favor, you exercise under the judge's very eyes -- and what appears to violate the order of things cannot reasonably be faulted.
No one may challenge you on the basis of seniority. Your passage through the ranks is itself your achievement, and you alone may confidently ignore what you compel others to observe. But such privileges are granted for outstanding merit. The man we have chosen must be believed to surpass all others in industry and loyalty. No one promotes a subordinate unless laudable virtue has made him an equal, since it is blameworthy to elevate an inferior unless his merits are seen to surpass the rest.
This praiseworthy precedent, this gracious judgment, this intimate service has assigned to you, from the twelfth indiction, the honor of the Chancellery -- so that you may guard the secrets of our council with faithful integrity. Through you, the petitioner is admitted to our presence. Through you, the suppliant's wish is made known to our ears. You are to carry out our orders without any taint of bribery, and manage everything so as to commend our justice.
Your conduct is the judge's reputation. Just as the interior of a house can rightly be judged from its entrance, so the mind of the presiding judge is recognized through you -- and rightly so, since everyone is seen to choose for his responses a person of the same quality he wishes all to believe he is.
Even the clothes worn against our bodies -- can they not make us look disgraceful if they are stained with some filth? And how much grace they bring us when they shine with commendable purity! Just so, an officer admitted to the judge's inner circle either adorns or stains his superior's reputation. When your agents sin, it is we who are blamed; when the spoils of the petitioner are sought, the presiding judge's good name is stripped away.
Consider whether we should neglect what we know can bring us blame. The most senseless man alive is one who does not seek to punish someone caught marauding through his own disgrace. Reflect on the name you bear. What you do behind the barriers [cancelli -- from which "chancellor" derives] cannot be hidden. You hold bright doors, open gates, windowed entrances -- and however carefully you close them, you inevitably open yourself to all. If you stand outside, you are not corrected by my gaze; if you step inside, you cannot escape the watchful eyes of observers.
See where antiquity chose to place you: you are visible from every side, since you work amid that brightness. Turn, therefore, your ears and mind to our instructions. Fix in your memory everything we command. Do not let our words pass through you like an empty pipe, which appears full only as long as water is known to flow through it. Be rather a reservoir: guard what you hear, do not pour out what you receive -- for it will profit nothing if only passing things please your ears and not everything is fixed deep in the chambers of your heart.
VI.
IOHANNI CANCELLARIO SENATOR PPO.
[1] Quamvis statutis gradibus omnis militia peragatur et tempora sibi custodiant, qui iudicum iussionibus obsecundant, tuus honor cognoscitur sollemni ordine non teneri, qui suis primatibus meruit anteponi. tibi enim reddunt obsequia, qui te praeire noscuntur et reflexa condicione iustitiae illis reverendus aspiceris, quos subsequi posse monstraris. hanc inaequabilem aequitatem, speciale decretum, singulare beneficium sub aspectu iudicis agis nec potest rationabiliter culpari, quod inpugnante ordine videatur assumi. [2] Nullus tibi de temporis qualitate praescribit. transgressio matriculae actio tua est et solus confidenter neglegis quod alios servare compellis. sed talia tibi pro excellentibus meritis conceduntur. dum credi debet omnes industria fideque superare, quem nos constat elegisse. nemo enim sequentem probat, nisi quem sibi laudanda virtus associat, quando vituperabile est inferiorem erigere nisi meritis alios videatur excellere. [3] Hoc igitur laudabile praeiudicium, sententiam gratiosam, militiam domesticam a duodecima indictione cancellorum tibi decus attribuit, ut consistorii nostri secreta fideli integritate custodias, per te praesentandus accedat, per te nostris auribus desiderium supplicis innotescat, iussa nostra sine studio venalitatis expedias omniaque sic geras, ut nostram possis commendare iustitiam. actus enim tui iudicis opinio est et sicut penetrale domus de foribus potest congruenter intellegi, sic mens praesulis de te probatur agnosci: non iniuria, quia talem unusquisque ad responsa sua videtur eligere, qualem se cunctos decreverit aestimare. [4] Vestes ipsae, quae nostris corporibus applicantur, nonne nos deformare possunt, si aliquo inquinamento sordescant? quanta vero gratia nos decorare videntur, cum laudabili puritate nituerint! sic miles ad secreta iudicis proximatus praesulis sui famam aut ornat aut maculat. in nobis siquidem peccant, qui alios gravant et dum spolium obsecrantis ambitur, fama praesidentis exuitur. [5] Considera, si neglegere debemus unde nos culpari posse cognoscimus. ultra omnes dementes est, qui ulcisci non appetit quem grassatum in suo dedecore comprehendit. respice, quo nomine nuncuperis. latere non potest quod inter cancellos egeris. tenes quippe lucidas fores, claustra patentia, fenestratas ianuas et quamvis studiose claudas, necesse est ut te cunctis aperias. nam si foris steteris, meis non emendaris obtutibus: si intus ingrediaris, observantium non potes declinare conspectus. [6] Vide quo te antiquitas voluerit collocari: undique conspiceris, qui in illa claritate versaris. proinde ad nostra monita aures animumque converte: fige menti omnia quae iubemus: non te tamquam vacuam fistulam dicta perexeant, quae tamdiu plena conspicitur, quamdiu in eam undae influere posse noscuntur. esto potius conceptaculum, quod audita custodias, quod suscepta non fundas: quia nihil proderit, si auribus tuis transitura placeant et in cordis sinibus se omnia non defigant.
◆
Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect, to John, Chancellor.
Although every military service is carried out through established grades, and those who serve the orders of judges observe their proper sequence, your honor is recognized as being exempt from the usual order -- since you have been placed ahead of your own superiors. Those who are known to outrank you pay you deference, and by a reversed condition of justice you are regarded with reverence by men you are shown to follow in seniority. This unequal equality, this special decree, this singular favor, you exercise under the judge's very eyes -- and what appears to violate the order of things cannot reasonably be faulted.
No one may challenge you on the basis of seniority. Your passage through the ranks is itself your achievement, and you alone may confidently ignore what you compel others to observe. But such privileges are granted for outstanding merit. The man we have chosen must be believed to surpass all others in industry and loyalty. No one promotes a subordinate unless laudable virtue has made him an equal, since it is blameworthy to elevate an inferior unless his merits are seen to surpass the rest.
This praiseworthy precedent, this gracious judgment, this intimate service has assigned to you, from the twelfth indiction, the honor of the Chancellery -- so that you may guard the secrets of our council with faithful integrity. Through you, the petitioner is admitted to our presence. Through you, the suppliant's wish is made known to our ears. You are to carry out our orders without any taint of bribery, and manage everything so as to commend our justice.
Your conduct is the judge's reputation. Just as the interior of a house can rightly be judged from its entrance, so the mind of the presiding judge is recognized through you -- and rightly so, since everyone is seen to choose for his responses a person of the same quality he wishes all to believe he is.
Even the clothes worn against our bodies -- can they not make us look disgraceful if they are stained with some filth? And how much grace they bring us when they shine with commendable purity! Just so, an officer admitted to the judge's inner circle either adorns or stains his superior's reputation. When your agents sin, it is we who are blamed; when the spoils of the petitioner are sought, the presiding judge's good name is stripped away.
Consider whether we should neglect what we know can bring us blame. The most senseless man alive is one who does not seek to punish someone caught marauding through his own disgrace. Reflect on the name you bear. What you do behind the barriers [cancelli -- from which "chancellor" derives] cannot be hidden. You hold bright doors, open gates, windowed entrances -- and however carefully you close them, you inevitably open yourself to all. If you stand outside, you are not corrected by my gaze; if you step inside, you cannot escape the watchful eyes of observers.
See where antiquity chose to place you: you are visible from every side, since you work amid that brightness. Turn, therefore, your ears and mind to our instructions. Fix in your memory everything we command. Do not let our words pass through you like an empty pipe, which appears full only as long as water is known to flow through it. Be rather a reservoir: guard what you hear, do not pour out what you receive -- for it will profit nothing if only passing things please your ears and not everything is fixed deep in the chambers of your heart.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.