Letter 2019: I overflow with joy, and happiness does not limp.

Ennodius to Constantius. I overflow with joy, and my confidence in happiness does not limp. Some struggles arise by diabolical inspiration precisely so that you — who have raised yourself above the correction of all — may rejoice in the honor of triumph. As I see it, Liguria is not exhausted: she has not laid aside the nobility of her offspring even at the extremity of the times. She still nourishes amid ashes a fire hostile to vices, in whose embers the flame that avenges crimes does not die, nor is the fire that is the enemy of errors hidden. How I feared that she might halt as though depleted, when I anxiously weighed the surface of your letter, clouded as it was by alien deceits — like a stunned parent who, when he sends his beloved child off to war, cannot allow himself to feel secure even about proven valor. To the increase of his anxieties he counts his son's triumphs rather than his rest. He fears more for tested good fortune, to whom affection supplies dread, because a mind trained by victories is heedless of caution, and in the battle line the love of glory is the forgetting of safety. The taste of a trophy commands one to renounce the desire for life; the savor of living possesses only those who have never learned the goods that come from conflicts. Whatever is subtracted from one's own care for survival is always joined to glory. But for the moment I must refrain from writing in this vein. The battles of our soldier are to be supported more than praised. Where javelins are needed, words avail nothing. Although to have proclaimed my judgment was already done when I praised your response — and to commend the answers is itself to answer — nevertheless, having prayed for the help of God, I append words that will follow in faith, turning the cultivation of my pen to Him who, whenever the unfortunate earth must be written upon with curved plowshares, promises to bestow upon His servants the seeds they sow, saying: Do not consider what you shall speak, for it is your Father who speaks in you. Let Him therefore come to confirm the truth of His promise, and let Him strengthen the faltering infancy of my speech, so that the composition of our stammering may not appear inhuman. But why do I circle about at length with things that must be repeated? I ask one thing: that the replies be measured to my capacity, and that what I do not know be thought no deficiency in either reading or defense. So then, as you testify in your writing, a man has been found who, as the Lord Himself promised would happen, would sift the servants of Christ under this pretext — asserting that the freedom of choice given to man allows him a license to choose in only one direction, the worse one. O schismatic proposition, which, as in the Apocalypse, has blasphemies written on its forehead! What kind of freedom is this — let him explain it, if he can — where only the will to sin is granted? Or why does he call it a choice, where he claims that only one side was conceded? If this stood on truth, there would be no place for divine judgments. For what good would our God rightly seek from us, when He had removed the desire for it from our will? But according to the apostle: Is God unjust? By no means! If among men it is at odds with the principle of right for one to demand from his subjects what he has not placed in their power, consider with what conscience this might be thought of God. Where is the cry of the apostle, testifying on behalf of the freedom of the will: To will is present with me, but to accomplish I do not find? What else is this but to say: I know how to choose the right path, but unless heavenly grace assists me as I walk, I shall grow weary? No one doubts, no one condemns, that by the witness of grace the path of fairness is opened to men. For grace is the guide and forerunner of good things, when from heaven we are invited to rest by manifold exhortation, when it is said to us: Come, children, listen to me; Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you; Where I am, there shall my servant be also. But unless our will, which is free, and our labor give obedience to such counsels, we fall into danger and Gehenna not by any compulsion but of our own accord. And so either devotion produces the reward, or contempt produces the punishment. Otherwise there would be no just retribution, which either returns punishments to those sinning by necessity, or offers a good wage for work to which they are drawn unwilling. Therefore we owe to grace that we are called; we owe to grace that by hidden pathways, unless we resist, the savor of life is poured into us. Yet it is a matter of our own choice that we pursue the benefits shown to us. For the way of wickedness is not read as our commander but as our servant, since of sins it is said: Their desire shall be subject to you. What also does the prophet's eloquence, wreathed as it were with garlands, mean when it says: Do not be zealous among the wicked; Do not trust in princes; Do not become like the horse and mule? And the apostle: Do not become servants of men. How many times does 'do not' in heavenly admonition point, if it was not permitted to will otherwise? Again, although in the person of Christ, yet for the freedom of the will the same prophet bears witness for us: I willed to do your will, O my God; and elsewhere: Voluntarily I will sacrifice to you; and: My vows to the Lord I will repay; and again: Vow and repay. But that example of the blessed apostle by which the opponent believes himself fortified actually works in our favor, if he notices what follows: when the enemy of arrogance said, By the grace of God I am what I am, immediately — lest this fugitive from glory be thought to wander so far from the truth — the wise architect added: I labored more abundantly than all, and the grace of God in me was not barren — which is to say: Christ found in me one whom He might worthily and abundantly reward. For the divine grace is not poor, but it is thought to be thinned by a certain leanness and meagerness of our merits. Grace is then judged not to flow in its own channels, when from its courses the vein of our dryness receives nothing. O if the narrowness of a letter would permit the secrets of the sacred volumes to be unlocked! But I fear that he who by God's inspiration can find no ground for calumny against our faith will take issue with the length of the page. What of this — with what mind does he receive: Behold water and fire; stretch out your hand to whichever you choose? What of the other passages which you, an abundant champion, yourself reviewed? I believe he passed them by, as they say, with the ear of an asp closed. I see where the poisons of the Libyan pestilence extend. The serpent of the sand does not have only these harmful things which he reveals: for an estimate of his hidden crimes, we must endure what he confesses. For he wishes to arrive at this conclusion: that no one perishes by his own vice or negligence, if man is deprived of the power of election conceded to him for both good and evil. He boasts that only those could be saved without any labor, without friendship with the commandments, whom heavenly favor alone snatched as they wandered far from merit — so that, to be imputed to God Himself, he would have us understand that those perished whom divine grace was unwilling to free. You, my lady, having said farewell, see to it that you are yourself, and if the slave of death cannot be healed, desist from contention — lest while you, grounded in the firm root of faith, strive, he, under cover of this controversy, should shake the fruit of the divine seed from the womb of some before the time of its birth.

XVIIII. ENNODIVS CONSTANTIO. Abundo gaudio nec clauda laetitiae meae fides est ideo aliqua per diabolicam inspirationem nasci certamina, ut tu, qui te ultra emendationem omnium protulisti, triumphi honore gratuleris. non est, ut uideo, effeta Liguria: nobilitatem pariendi nec in temporum extremitate deposuit: inimicum uitiis adhuc et in cineribus nutrit incendium, in cuius fauillis ultrix criminum flamma non moritur nec hostis errorum ignis operitur. quam timui ne uelut exhausta cessaret, dum epistulae uestrae frontem alienis fuscatuam praestigiis sollicitus trutiantor aspicerem, more parentis adtoniti, qui cum carum pignus ad bella transmittit, nec de explorata esse patitur uirtute manifestus. ad incrementa sollicitudinum triumphos filii numerat non quietis: plus expertae metuit felicitati cui formidinem ministrat affectio, quia ignara cautionis est mens instituta uictoriis et in acie amor laudis salutis obliuio. tropaei gustus abdicari imperat lucis affectum: sapor uitae illos tantum possidet, qui de conflictibus uenientia bona nulla didicerunt: semper ad gloriam iungitur quod de incolumitatis propriae cura decesserit. sed mihi in praesentiarum supersedendum est huiusmodi scriptione. non sunt militis nostri plus praedicanda quam adserenda certamina. ubi iaculis opus est, uerba nil conferunt. licet promulgasse sententiam meam fuerit, dum uestram praedico, et hoc sit respondere quod responsa laudare: dei tamen opem precatus obsecutura fidei uerba subiungo, ad XVIIII. 2 ennodius om. T 3 habundo PT letitiae TV fidis B 6 effe∗ta (c eras.) V, affecta b leguria T1 7 uiciis LTV 8 nutrit] mittit T in ras. m. 2 9 hostilia fort . operitnr ignis T 10 ex.austa L 11 frontem ure T trncinator LiP, troeinator B 12 parentis (p in ras.) V 18 manifestas B, securus LPTVb 14 triomphns B fili B 15 ezpertae Bb, experta LPT, exparte V (a a. I. add. et pa in pe mutauit m. I) 17 tropei B, trophei LPTV 18 possedit B 21 dicesierit T\' 23 iacnlis ex iacutu L 24 meam sententiam Sirm . 26 praecatns B illum conuertens stili mei cultum, qui, quotiens scribenda est infelix curuis terra uomeribus, se famulis suis germina conlaturum promittit esse, quae iaciant, dicendo: non cogitetis quid loquamini: pater enim uester est qui loquitur in uobis. ipse ergo ad sanciendam promissi ueritatem ueniat et ipse oris mei labantem confirmet infantiam, ut alucinationis nostrae concinnatio non inhumana uideatur. sed quid diu replicanda circumloquor ? unum rogo, ut pro modulo meo rescripta taxentur nec putetur aut legi aut defensioni deesse quod nescio. ergo, ut scriptione testamini, inuentus est homo, qui seruos Christi, quemadmodum ipse promisit esse faciendum, sub hac occasione cribraret, adserens de arbitrii libertate homini in una tantum parte, quae deterior est, eligendi datam esse licentiam? o scismaticam propositionem, quae iuxta apocalypsin scriptas habet in fronte blasphemias! quae ista libertas est, si ualet, edisserat, ubi hoc datur solum uelle quod puniat, aut quare electionem nominet, ubi unam tantum partem adserit fuisse concessam? quod si ueritate subsisteret, locum diuina iudicia non haberent. quid enim boni a nobis deus noster recte quaereret, qui adpetentiam eius de uoluntate subtraxerat? sed iuxta apostolum: numquid iniquus deus? absit. si inter homines a recti discordat affectu qui a subiectis exigit quod in potestate non tribuit, hoc de deo qua conscientia sentiatur aduertite. ubi est illud apostoli clamantis et pro arbitrii libertate testantis: uelle adiacet mihi, perficere autem non inuenio? quid est aliud 3 Matth. 10, 20 15 cf. Apoc. 17, 5 21 Gal. 2, 17 25 Rom. 7, 18 1 qui Bb, quo LPTV 2 infelii] infiezis fort. seribendum et curais delendum est 3 eaee promittit fort . non] ne Sirm . 5 promisi Tx 6 et om. Sirm . 8 unum∗∗∗∗ B 9 defen- I r aione Y 11 seruus B 12 cibaret Y 18 q ex quod T 15 apocalipsim T, apud calypsem B blaifemias BP 17 unam V in ras . 19 subsisterit B 22 si addidi, om. BLPTYb hominis ex humanis B 23 exiget B potestatem T 24 conscientiam L sentiantur T 25 adiacit B 26 proficere PT1 nisi dicere: noui dextrum iter eligere, sed nisi ingredientem iuuerit gratia superna, lassabo? nemo dubitat, nemo condemnat, quod auctore gratia protestante et ipso aequitatis hominibus callis aperitur. dux enim bonorum et praecessor est gratia, quando caelitus multiplici ad requiem inuitamur hortatu, quando nobis dicitur: uenite, filii, audite me. uenite, benedicti, patris mei, possidete paratum uobis regnum. ubi ego sum, ibi erit et minister meus. sed nisi talibus monitis et uoluntas nostra quae libera est et labor praestet obsequium, ad periculum et gehennam non imperio aliquo, sed sponte deuoluimur. itaque aut praemium deuotio aut poenam contemptus operatur. alioquin non erit iusta retributio, quae aut per supplicia refertur necessitate peccantibus aut bonam mercedem offert operi ad quod adtrahuntur inuiti. ergo debemus gratiae quod uocamur, debemus gratiae, quod occultis itineribus, nisi resistamus, sapor nobis uitalis infunditur: nostrae tamen electionis est quod beneficia demonstrata sectamur. uia enim scelerum non imperatrix nostra legitur esse, sed famula, cum de peccatis dicitur: sub te erit adpetitus eorum. quid etiam sibi uult uniuersa prophetae quasi sertis redimita elocutio: nolite aemulari inter malignantes. nolite confidere in principibus. nolite fieri sicut equus et mulus, etapostolus: nolite fieri serui hominum? totiens \'noli in superna admonitione quo respicit, si aliud uelle non licuit? deinde quamuis in persona Christi tamen pro arbitrii adstipulatur eiusdem prophetae nobis 6 Ps. 33, 11 6 Matth. 25, 81 sq. 8 Io. 12, 26 19 Gen. 4, 7 21 Ps. 36, 1; 145, 3; 31, 9 23 I Cor. 7, 23 2 lassabor PTb 3 autore B, actore T gratiae Pb protestante B, prestante LV, praestante PTb ipso BLTVb, ipse P et Sirm . 4 predecessor T1 6 fili B 7 patrea B V1 uobis ratum T 10 inperio L 11 diuoloimar BLTV 14 operi Bb,, om. LPTV; cf. Wiener Studien II p. 242 trahuntur Sirm . 15 gratiae om. B t* exitu lineae, uncis inclusit Schottus 18 in. peratrix L 19 esse legitur Sirm . 20 etiam] enim Sirm . pro- fetae BY 23 equus ita eius corr. L apostoli T 26 profetae BL Y nobis 1. t. ut facerem ita tcxtu om . in mg. inf. add. L libertate testimonium: ut facerem em uoluutatem tuam, . deus meus, uolui, et alibi: uoluntarie sacrificabo tibi, et: uota mea domino reddam, et iterum: uouete et reddite. illud autem beati apostoli quo se muniri credit exemplum nobiscum facit, si quae sequuntur aduertat, cum inimicus adrogantiae dixit: gratia dei sum quod sum. mox enim, ne sic fugax gloriae crederetur, ut longo interuallo a ueritate descisceret, sapiens architectus adiunxit: abundantius omnibus laboraui et gratia dei in me egena non fu i t, quod dixisse est: Christus in me quem digne aut abundanter muneraretur inueuit. non enim pauper est diuina gratia, sed meritorum nostrorum putatur quadam macie aut exilitate tenuari. quae tunc non suis aestimatur meatibus fluere, quando de eius cursibus ariditatis nostrae uena nil recipit. o si epistularis pateretur angustia sacrorum uoluminum arcana reserari! sed timeo ne qui nullam poterit deo inspirante in fide nostra inuenire calumniam de paginae prolixitate causetur. quid illud, qua mente suscipit: ecce aquam et ignem, ad quoduis porrige manum? quid alia, quae copiosus adsertor ipse replicasti? credo more aspidis clausa, ut aiunt, aure transiuit. uideo quo se toxica Libycae pestis extendant. arenosus coluber non haec sola habet perniciosa quae reserat: ad aestimationem occultorum facinorum ferenda sunt quae fatetur. uult enim ad illud pertingere, neminem suo uitio aut neglegentia perire, si homo utriusque rei boni et mali per potestatem concessa electione priuatur. hos tantum iactat potuisse saluari sine labore ullo, sine mandatorum amicitia, quos 1 Ps. 39, 9; 53, 8; 115, 15.18; 75, 23 6 I Cor. 15, 10I 18 Eecl. 15, 17 20 of. Ps. 57, 5 2 uoluntariae BL 3 uouite B 5 si (i in raa.) T secuntur PT 8 descisieret T\' habundantius T et sic saepius 11 muneretur B1 12 quadam putatur T maciao B, acie T exrilitate B 14 areditatis B1 15 arcbana PT 18 eruscepit B 21 lybicQspitia V1 sed corr. m. 1; lybicę L, lybice BP, libice T 23 Multorum B 25 negligentia BT 26 potuisse ex potestate T m. 2 peregrinantes a merito fauor tantum caelestis eripuit: perinde, quod in ipsum referatur, illos perisse intellegit quos gratia noluit diuina liberare. tu, mi domina, salue dicto fac apud te ut sies et si sanari mancipium mortis non potest, a contentione disiste, ne cum tu fidei radice fultus ualida. niteris, ille sub occasione huius controuersiae ante editionis tempus diuini seminis ab aliquorum utero partus excutiat.