Letter 4034: **From:** Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia

**From:** Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia **To:** Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome (Pope Hormisdas, r. 514–523 AD) **Date:** ~514–521 AD **Context:** A letter of elegant complaint — now that Hormisdas is traveling near Liguria and almost within arm's reach, he has paradoxically gone silent; Ennodius protests with ornate irony that distance once inspired rich correspondence, while proximity has produced nothing, and he calls for the unvarnished sincerity that true friendship demands. --- Now that the longed-for necessity of mine — desired so ardently, felt so keenly — began, through the grace of your nearness, to promise the fulfillment of that desire, you have migrated in spirit to some more distant country: even as you almost touch Liguria with your hand, you have given your tongue a holiday. When the long stretches of road held Your Holiness far away, absence was permitted far less. Conversation used to make good what we lost in face-to-face encounter; the exchange of letters was furnished as a remedy by the careful forethought of devotion, and through these offices nothing of affection perished between those separated by the accident of dwelling-place. But I believe you choose to deal more harshly with your friends, not counting it any gift if I should be nourished by conversation when you are so close at hand. As for me, I sigh over my lot with a reckoning turned quite on its head — fearing that Your Blessedness may have transferred to the ledger of calculation what it once offered freely in warmth, and is now ascribing what came before to the convenience of the moment rather than to love. Let the painted face [the mask of calculated social performance] be far from our policy in friendship. No file of studied effort has polished us into craftsmen of that particular construction. We know how to bring naked, unadorned sincerity to the bond of union. Among those we hold dear, we reject the artifice of social refinement as we would reject poison. Therefore, my lord: receive this greeting, and follow one who loves you rather along this course — that you bestow the cultivation of faithful friendship through the frequency of your words, and grant to one who waits for them the unvarnished speech that rises from the hidden depths of your heart. Farewell.

XXXIIII. ENNODIVS HORMISDAE. Postquam uotiua mihi necessitas uestra beneficio proximitatis desiderii spondere coepit effectum, animo ad longiora transistis et cum Liguriam paene manu contingitis, linguam feriis deputastis. minus licuit absentiae, dum sanctitatem uestram prolixa uiarum interualla tenuerunt: pensabat confabulatio dispendia uisionis et in remediis prouisa diligentiae litterarum commercia praestabantur, per quae officia inter habitatione discretos nil peribat affectui. sed credo eligitis ( 1 quodlibet BT1 uelanime Z* 2 posei B sine] ai B 4 aput B orbanitas B 5 quaerillis B, qugrelis L, , querulis T* 6 occopatis B 7 diacendere B 8 adherentes B 9 recipi BPb necessitatis B 13 utrimque scripsi, utrique BLPTVb et suauit B 14 eius om. Pb 15 tagnis BLV, regnis PTb XXXIIII. 17 hormisde LT 18 uotiuum T nra T beniflcio B 19 caepit epondere Sirm . longior L 20 contigitia L linguax T 21 deputatis T absente T1 scanctitatem B 23 remidiis B 24 prestabautur B 25 nihil B amicis difficiliora tribuere, non putantes beneficium, si pascar in tanta uicinitate conloquiis. at ego casum meum uersa aestimatione suspiro, ne beatitudo tua retulerit ad iudicium quod exhibuit blandimentis, dum quod praecessit adscribit tempori non amori. facessat a nostro in amicitiis frons picta proposito: nos ad hanc fabricam nulla praecedentium studiorum lima conposuit: nudam scimus ad coniunctionem adferre conconcordiam : urbanitatem inter caros ut uenena respuimus. ergo, mi domine, salutationem accipiens amantem tui in hac potius parte sectare, ut et culturam fidei per frequentiam sermonis inpendas et ex secreto pectoris infucata expectanti uerba concedas. uale.