Letter 2001: [Magnus Felix Ennodius (473/4-521) was a Gallo-Roman aristocrat who became Bishop of Pavia in 514.

I. ENNODIUS TO ARMENIUS, A CONSOLATION. For a long time, dearest brother, though my prayerful wish was hastening me on, I did not send you a page of consolation, lest I should seem either to withhold my tears from myself while I compose words, and amid the squandering of lamentation to make elegant speeches out of my groans and to dissipate the debt of mourning through the figures of rhetoric, since on the contrary the secret of an unfriendly conscience lies exposed against the religion of friendships and the bonds of kinship, if, when you are able to weep for one twice dead, you do not do so, that is, if you in no way join the office of the mouth to the service of the eyes. For where, while the eyes driven by the goads of grief shed tears, are the words of the mourner to take their holiday? But I, most sincere of men, who owe a dutiful service to your sorrow in every part wherein I have strength, wished to attest by writing my own grief, in which I am your companion, lest in a single lifetime the memory of the tears that were poured out should be cut short, or posterity should reckon that, at the death of your son, I owed only what I have paid -- having on this path the examples of venerable bishops, by whose imitation those are ennobled whom their merits have shut away into shadow. Our Ambrose [Ambrose of Milan] accompanied his departing brother with a little book that bears witness to his affliction. And when his offspring that followed reads it over, he both remembers the writer well and joins his laments to the death of his brother Satyrus, because by his [Ambrose's] foresight it has come about that he displays a fresh grief while he speaks, and shows before the eyes of readers the limbs of one long since dead still ever breathing out their spirit, and never suffers to grow old through the faithfulness of the narrative a death which the passing years had power to bury. Since these things are so, restrain your eyes, your eyes, and turn your mind, if it please you, to the words of him who comes to you weeping as a consoler. That you have lost a son almost your only one and of good natural endowment -- a thing which a father's affection no less requires -- the wailing of the province makes plain, since, joining its own to the solace of your groans, the whole community attests what it has felt concerning him. You, however, amid these things, as though pressed by the death belonging to a special, private evil, shut yourself in, not knowing that what is common, dispersed through the hearts of many, ought to be tempered. Why therefore should you reckon as your own a distress which very many have made their own through their affection for you? Together with you -- to say nothing of your kindred people -- the Goth is afflicted, and do you still bow down as though alone, subject to your own seething griefs? Let the ornaments of the ancients, of your forefathers, instruct you, I beg, and restore you from mourning to good health by your firm intent. Abraham, like a dutiful father, presented his only son to death -- and, what is greater, did so gladly -- and as a merciful begetter the father made ready the sword for the slaying of his son. You inquire after one transferred by a heavenly judgment as though you were bereaved, and one whom it would have been sacrilege not to have offered up, this one, summoned away, you burden with your tears. In this matter let the example of David occur to you, who, exulting and giving thanks to God, walked before the bier of his son, because the favor of heaven had summoned, that he might be rewarded with him perhaps, one from the seed of the venerable prophet. If you, his emulator, do not burst forth into joy, at least temper your sadness under some imitation of the aforesaid man. You will perhaps reply that such things can scarcely be urged upon a sick mind, and that counsels have no place in heavy tribulation, that the bereaved man does not regard whatever exhorts him to life, that the desolate have their only relief in summoning death. To these you may add that you have lost a worthy offspring, one whose modesty of character surpassed his tender age, alleging that your young man closed in a glorious end the immature years that are the friends of sins, and that in the shipwreck of his youth he was drawn by him into the harbor of the soul. Against these poultices for your griefs, sad though I am, let me set this: he sinned the less because he was cut off immature; he joined to eternal life, to a better age, what he preserved in this one; the penance which you say he performed, even if it had not found in him anything to wash away, had found something to adorn, since penance, as often as it is granted to the innocent, wins a crown in reward for the disposition of humility. To this you may answer: where shall I turn, brother, who in the present light have nothing but tears? Let me add: a man can find the nearness of God who takes no joy in the things of men; in the place of a son there can succeed a conscience which finds the saints his heirs. I shall therefore show you not one road, if you deign to listen, to a better life -- although your perfection has no need of an admonisher, nor is a teacher needful to one whom the amendments and adornments of his own deeds have made conspicuous, save only that you should diligently weigh the trustworthiness of the exhortation which you owe to your own counsel and prudence, and recall yourself to a desire for the heavenly gifts, whence we both receive and love the breath of life, and the benefit becomes pleasing to us, whose author we cherish and venerate. These are the things which, grieving, I have woven together in a brief discourse, directing in place of a richness of style a protestation broken by sobs, while I make my laments by silent conversations.

I. ENNODIVS ARMENIO CONSOLATORIAM. Diu, frater carissime, festinante uoto consolatoriam ad te paginam non emisi, ne putarer uel mihi subducere fletus, dum uerba conpono, et in lamentationis dispendiis facere de gemitibus decora sermonum et debitum planctum per loquelae schemata dissipare, cum contra amicitiarum religionem et consanguinitatis uincula secretum conscientiae patescat hostilis, si, cum possis dupliciter defunctum flere, non facias, id est, si oculorum ministerio nequaquam iungas oris officium. ubi, dum lumina stimulis acta doloris inlacrimant, feriata sint uerba plangentis? sed ego, hominum sincerissime, qui tristitiae tuae obsequium in omni debeo parte qua ualeo, maerorem meum, in quo tibi comes sum, uolui scriptione testari, ne in una aetate effusarum interciperetur memoria lacrimarum uel aestimaret posteritas me in filii tui morte hoc solum debuisse quod solui, habens in hac uia uenerandorum exempla pontificum, quorum imitatione nobilitantur quos in umbram merita concluserunt. Ambrosius noster decedentem germanum teste afflictionis suae libello prosecutus est. quem cum recenset secuta proles, et scriptoris bene meminit et in Satyri fratris I. 3 ff kae T rkm in ras . 4 misi b putaret T flemtas Bx 6 loquellae B 7 scemata PT 8 uinc*la L u eras . patiscat B 9 si-facias om. B\' add. corr . 8. I . deflere T 10 officicm V cm in um corr. m. 1 11 stimolis B, studijs P sunt Sirm . 12 sincirissime B 13 qua B, quod LPTV (0 in V in ras . tn. 1) merorem BLPTV 14 comis B scribtione B, subscriptione T 16 fili B 17 habes T 18 nobilietantur B 20 cum-bene om. B\' quem cum-bene meminit add. corr. 8. I. et quem meminit exp . recensit B 21 saturi T eius obitu lamenta coniungit, quia eius prouisione contigit recentem dolorem ostentare, dum loquitur, et ante legentum oculos semper exalantia spiritum iam diu defuncti membra monstrare nec umquam pati ueterescere relationis fide funus, quod anni potuerunt sepelire transacti. his ita se habentibus oculorum oculorum refrena et animum, si placet, ad eius uerba conuerte, qui tibi flens consolator occurrit. amisisse te filium pene unicum et bonae indolis, quod patria non minus requirit affectio, prouinciae ululatus ostendit, cum ad solacium gemitunm tuorum suos iungens quid de eo senserit testatur uniuersitas. tu tamen inter ista quasi specialis mali pressus nece concluderis, nesciens temperandum quod per multorum dispersum corda commune est. quare ergo propriam aestimes anxietatem quam suam per affectum tuum fecere quam plurimi? tecum, ut de cognata gente taceam, Gothus adfligitur, et tu adhuc quasi solus propriis aestibus subiacens inclinaris ? instruant te, quaeso, ueterum ornamenta maiorum et a maeroris ad bonam ualitudinem intentione restituant. Abraham unicum filium morti quasi pius pater, quod maius est, laetus exhibuit et ad necem filii mucronem genitor misericors praeparauit. tu translatum caelesti iudicio quasi orbatus inquiris et quem non obtulisse sacrilegium fuit hunc oneras fletibus euocatum. in qua causa Dauidicum tibi occurrat exemplum, qui feretrum filii ouans et deo referens gratias antecessit, quod dignatio superna de uenerandi prophetae semine quem forte 1 opitulalmenta B coniunget B 2 recentem contigit T legentium P et Sirm . 4 unquam T ueteriscere B funiis T\' 7 qui] quia B amissiase V 8 indoles B non non nimis minus Sinn., non nimis BIT, nominis L, nominis P (is corr.) b requiret B 9 prouintiae V 10 senserit B, censent b, censeret LPTV nece] onere fort . 12 corda dispersum T 13 aestimis B 14 facere B 15 gotus BLPTV affligitur LPV, afficitur T .16 aestibus] hostibus T instruante (te om.) BlL 17 maiorum susp. uidetur meroris PT, moeroris LV(?) 19 quasi] quamuis fort . exibuit BL V 21 inquires B 22 obtullisse Bx euocat T τ̃ in ras . 23 dauiticum BLPTV 24 fili B de*o L e fort. eras . quid B\' 25 profetae L, profete B muneraretur acciuerat. tu si eius aemulator non prorumpis in gaudium, certe tempera sub aliqua praedicti imitatione maestitiam. replicabis forsitan uix ista aegris animo posse suaderi et in graui tribulatione locum non habere consilia, orbatum non respicere quicquid hortatur ad uitam, unicum desolatos habere in euocanda morte subsidium. his addas, quod frugi sobolem et quae teneram aetatem uinceret morum modestia perdidisti, allegans iuuenem tuum inmaturos annos, qui peccatis amici sunt, glorioso fine clausisse et in aetatis naufragio ab eo de portu animae fuisse tractatum. quibus ego dolorum tuorum fomentis licet maestus opponam: minus peccauit, quod inmaturus abruptus est: iunxit ad uitam perpetuam melioris saeculi quod in ista seruauit: paenitentia, quam eum egisse loqueris, etsi in ipso non inuenisset quod dilueret, inuenerat quod ornaret, quae quotiens innocentibus datur, coronam pro humilitatis affectione conciliat. ad haec respondeas: quo me uertam, frater, qui praeter lacrimas in praesenti luce nil habeo ? adiciam, dei proximitatem inuenire posse hominem, qui de hominum non laetatur: in loco filii succedere posse conscientiam, quae sanctos eius heredes inueniat. non unam ergo uiam, si audire digneris, uitae melioris ostendam, licet tua non egeat monitore perfectio nec magistro opus sit ei, quem fecerunt actuum suorum emendationes et honestamenta conspicuum, nisi tantum ut adhortationis, quam consilio tuo et prudentiae debes, fidem diligenter expendas et ad caelestium munerum affectum te reuoces, unde uitales auras et accipimus et amamus et gratum nobis fit beneficium, cuius colimus et ueneramur auctorem. ista sunt, 1 acciaerat T in ras . m. 2 2 tpa T in ras. m. 2 replicaei is B 4 consilium Bx 5 quidquid B in] et in r T 6 quae BLPTV, qua b 7 alligans B 10 tractum L 13 penitentia PlT et si] si Pb, etiam si Sirm . 16 conciliet BT 17 nihil b, om. L 18 de homine Pb 20 ergo unam T 21 aegeat B 22 magistrorum T act∗um L 24 debis B 25 mune celestium T mune ce w ras . te inclusit Schot . reuocis B 26 uitalia B fit BLV, sit PT b 27 colemus B actorem T et sic saepe ita L quae breui sermone dolens magna contexui, ruptam singultibus contestationem pro stili ubertate dirigens, dum muto lamenta conloquiis.