Letter 1004: Faustus, from Ennodius.

Ennodius to Faustus. Having trusted the assurance of a lector and provoked by the sweetness of persuasive speech, I came near to believing that a thing of virtue was a vice; and while I credited the diadems of words with more force than my own conscience, I fell into a fault which my mind did not recognize. Not so does the fawning hunter delude the deer with a whistle and his cunning snares, nor so does the master hand arrange the nets, which are themselves to be sought, with their many-colored dyes that feign the terror of feathers, as the discourses of Your Greatness held me captive and of my own accord stretching out my face to the halter. Unaware of any offense, while you assailed me, I long inquired whether I was innocent. I thought one thing about your letter, another about my own intention. Who, I ask, was ever so charming a perpetrator of an accomplished crime that he would believe it a vindication if he confessed himself to have committed military misconduct by another man's command, since no one can justly believe another's crime on the basis of a man's confession about himself? But I suppose the person was without right and law and was composed of mere craftiness, one to whom even in copying another's writing the practice grants an image of truth, and shameful enticements procure a likeness of authenticity. I do not wish to attack anyone's name, nor to assume against my conscience the role of an accuser: it is enough that my modesty be set up at its post; let others be tossed about by the uncertainties of the winds. Yet I, even if I were driven to command such things by the spurs of beloved reading, would defend myself by the imitation of the patriarchs. By theft Jacob overcame the seniority of his firstborn brother, by whose benefit he obtained the headship which nature had not given him. David, while he wandered through pathless places in his eagerness for flight and through the narrow corners of the earth, drove off hunger with the loaves of the showbread, and against the prohibitions of the law - which has lesser stings - he put to flight the hunger of his body. I, however, the fasting which my unfed soul had conceived from the divine books, was obliged to endure for a long time with wasting bowels, until the conceived plague should run on to the vital secret places. The prophet Daniel withdrew from the royal inner chambers the divine teachings, which, a chaste and imitable plunderer, he added for his own instruction. What does it profit to go through them one by one, when, for the defense of the one assailed, a single person from those recalled suffices as a witness of conscience? - which person, nevertheless, provided beforehand for his own modesty and, so to speak, for his natural weakness, by a necessary petition. For consider whether, even after my denial, I am one who has made himself guilty. You assert that the Libyan teacher wept over the pears taken away from him. Rightly is that to be expiated with lamentations which the belly acquires at the cost of one's modesty. Perhaps the things he carried off were worthless, doomed to perish either by neglect or by use or by storm; yet, according to the apostle, he was not free of fault as a plunderer: he loved the flesh more than the soul. The prophet Tobit confronted committers of this sort and testified with a divine voice, saying: it is not lawful for us to eat anything stolen. When he had said "to eat," he did not say: it is not lawful for us to read anything stolen. Josiah, as history relates, the purloined papyrus instructed. Would I, a mere little man, not do this - I whom you, against the powers of my talent, goad on with the spurs of words to the loving of knowledge? But I return to the best of men, the perpetrator, as you write, of so great a crime, who, violating his faith on both sides, granted neither you security nor me the completion of the deed, if I wrote it. May it fall to me, with Your Greatness preserved, in the presence of so great a man set before me, according to the commands of God, to stroke his back, as my mind is disposed.

IIII. FAVSTO ENNODIVS. Anagnostici fidem secutus et suadae orationis sapore prouocatus, pene uitium esse credidi rem uirtutis et dum plus sermonum diademata credo ualere quam conscientiam, culpam quam mens non agnoscebat incurri. non sic ceruis sibilo artificibus insidiis blandus uenator inludit, non ita pinnarum mentita formidinem discoloribus fucis ultro expetenda retia manus magistra conponit, quemadmodum me captum et sponte capistris ora porrigentem magnitudinis uestrae tenuere sermones. commissi nescius uobis inpugnantibus diu utrum essem innocens inquisiui. aliud sentiebam de epistula uestra, aliud de proposito meo. quis rogo fuit patrandi sceleris tam uenustus admissor, qui purgationem crederet, si alieno se fateretur praecepto suo 1 pernitiem T; tyUdbarum ci et ti permutationes in hill codici- bus non infreguentes quas T et L aoK exhibent imm ubi momenti esse uidebatwr non notaui fallaciam L 2 ad B 8. I . 4 aliud fori ius aliud b, alia fori uis (ius BL) alia BLPTV 5 triclinis L\' conuersationem B 8 inpa«Msoha L sta eras . IIII. 11 anagnostici Sirmanagnistici BLPTV, amici b, anagnostae uel anamnisti coni . Schottus in mg . suade B, suaoae LV, suaue PT\', suaui Т\'b orationi T 12 poene B esae credidi rem B, eese crediderim LTV, crediderim esse Pb, credidi rem esse coni. Sirm. 14 sibylo LV 15 illudit T et sie plerumque 11 pro 01 formidine Pb .16 manus om. B magistra manus T I conponet B vl7 capists T 19 nobis om. B impugnantibus LTV 20 epistola LTV 21 uenustus scr. Sirm., uetustus BLPTVb . militare flagitio, cum nemo de se confesso iuste credere possit crimen alienum ? sed credo iuris et legum expertem fuisse personam et sola calliditate conpositam, cui etiam imitandi in scriptione aliena imaginem ueritatis usus indulgeat et proprietatis simulacrum lenocinia pudenda concilient.\' nolo cuiusquam nomen incessere nec contra conscientiam accusantis subire personam: sufficit pudorem meum in statione constitui: alios iactent incerta uentorum. ego tamen, etsi imperare talia calcaribus amatae lectionis adigerer, patriarcharum me imitatione defenderem. furto Iacob primogeniti fratris uicit aetatem, cuius beneficio principatum obtinuit, quem natura non dederat. Dauid dum lustraret deuia studio fugae et angusta terrarum, propositionis panibus famem depulit et contra legis uetita, quae minores habet aculeos, esuriem corporis effugauit. ego inediam, quam de diuinis libris anima inpastus conceperam, marcentibus diu debui tolerare uisceribus, donec concepta lues ad\' uitalia secreta percurreret. Daniel propheta, diuina dogmata regiis subduxit penetralibus, quae ad instructionem suam pudicus et imitandus raptor adiunxit. quid iuuat ire per singula, cum ad munimen inpugnatae una sufficiat de commemoratis persona conscientiae P quae tamen uerecundiae suae et naturali ut ita dixerim debilitati ante necessaria petitione prospexit. nam et si sum post negationem, qui me reum fecerim, aestimate. doctorem Libycum adseritis sublata a se pyri poma fleuisse. merito lamentis expiandum est quod cum pudoris dispendio uenter adquirit. uilia fuerint forte quae sustulit aut neglegentia aut usu aut tempestate peritura, non fuit culpa uacuus tamen iuxta apostolum raptor: carnem quam animam plus amauit. 2 fuisse∗. L 3 compositam LTV qui b 4 seribtione B alienam T usus B, om. LPTVb 5 simulachrum T I • 1 " - f u : " c eq t corr. tn, Jipocinia B M i 7 peraouam] pan T 8 iacent Pb , iixperaret alia BT 9 amataeaJB to, amate LPT, armatae ser. Sirm 12anguetia T 15 inaediam V 17 danihel BL V 18 pedicai B ,20 inpagnantae L\', impugnate T . compemoratis] numeratis Sirm . 23 sestimatae B 24 lybicum L, libicuin T pjri Sirm., peri BLPTYh; puero Schot . 26 acquirit Vb negligentia LTV 28 amabit BLPTVb Tobias propheta huiusmodi commissoribus occurrit et diuina uoce testatur dicens: non licet nobis aliquid manducare furtiuum. cum dixisset manducare, non dixit: non licet nobis aliquid lectitare furtiuum. Iosiam, ut narrat historia, subrepta papyrus instruxit. ego homuncio hoc non facerem, quem uos contra ingenii uires ad scientiam diligendam uerborum stimulis foditis ? sed reuertor ad uirum optimum, praefati, quantum scribitis, sceleris admissorem, qui in utraque parte fidem uiolans nec uos securitate nec me facti, si scripsi, perfectione donauit. contingat mihi salua magnitudine uestra coram posito secundum mandata dei tanti uiri, prout habet animus meus, terga mulcare.