Letter 5023: If it were permitted to engage Your Greatness on equal terms, I would speak more freely.

If it were permitted to contend with Your Greatness on equal terms, if honors, age, and merit — which held the torch before you — did not drive us into shadow, I would rather justly blame your eminence for its abstinence from letters, since after you departed for the city of Rome you have relieved me with no fruit of remembrance. But see how cautious is the administration of elders through the providence of affairs, and how full of crafted speeches: innocence is forestalled by complaints, and lest it bring its grief into the light, it is accused; it is made the defendant lest it become the plaintiff. Was this then the promise you conferred upon me at your departure? Did you raise me with a farewell embrace on this understanding — that I should believe you would be forgetful of me? Or were pages assigned to any other purpose than that they should manifest the secrets of hearts with the key of the mouth? But I refrain from the prolixity of the page, lest an extended conversation generate a greater resentment. I bring myself back to the duties of greeting, asking that you pour out prayers for me before the apostles of God, so that by their benefits the obscenity of mortal distress may be overcome and the serene mind may rejoice upon the pure path of heavenly commandments.

XXIII. CONSTANTIO ENNODIVS. Si liceret cum magnitudine uestra aequa sorte contendi, si honores aetas meritum quod uobis facem praetulit nos non in 1 que B, q ex q; L 4 inimica T in ras . subrepat fort., nisi antea testimonii mei praeferendum est qua opinionem exuifitis fort . 1 5 meritis meis LPTVb 6 extetiBset B 7 domine B, domine LIPTb meum u.] uotorum meorum T 8 dampna LPTV XXII. 12 gestio me] gestionem L 18 resereBse X1 14 ex- Bpectatione LV opperior V 16 acoidere B habes Sirm. 17 conditio L 19 epistnlares B 20 actorem T XXIII. 27 honoris aestas L non om. T umbram cogeret: ego potius culmen uestrum de tabellarum abstinentia iure culparem, qui, postquam ad urbem Romam profecti estis, nulla me recordationis fruge subleuauit. sed uide, per rerum prouidentiam quam cauta est seniorum dispensatio et fabricatis plena sermonibus: praeuenitur querelis innocentia et, ne dolorem suum in lucem producat, arguitur: fit rea, ne faciat. ergo haec mihi digrediens promissa contuleras? hac deosculatum fiducia subleuasti, ut crederem mei inmemores uos futuros? an ad aliud adtributae sunt paginae, nisi at secreta pectorum oris claue manifestent ? sed abstineo prolixitate paginali, ne grandiorem generet confabulatio producta rancorem. ad salutationis obsequia me reduco rogans, at pro me apud apostolos dei preces effundas, ut eorum beneficiis mortalis angustiae superetur obscenitas et de puro mandatorum caelestium tramite mens serena gratuletur.