Letter 5024: ---

From: Ennodius, deacon (later bishop) of Pavia To: Laconius Date: ~513 AD Context: Ennodius writes to arrange a marriage for his niece with a kinsman of their shared family, asserting the canonical permissibility of the match and promising to seek formal confirmation from the Pope in Rome. --- The heavenly dispensation has granted good effect to our desires — and in doing so has, through the occasion of a busy exchange of letters, warmed the fires of brotherly affection, turning what had seemed merely necessary into something genuinely longed for. It is from this same celestial providence that care has been taken to bring forward a suitor for my niece: a man not altogether a stranger to our common blood, so that, even as the opportunity for proper consultation presses upon us, nourishment might still be given to a holy and entirely natural affection. I confess I could scarcely endure the long studied silence that had stretched between us — and yet I, inclining toward the gentler interpretation, chose to attribute to caution what might otherwise have seemed a withdrawal of warmth. Thanks be to God, who has restored Your Brotherhood to the use of the pen and to the grace of correspondence. Know this without any doubt: under divine law, kinship falling within the degree set out in the schedule [i.e., canon law permitted marriage between certain relatives, though the precise limits were debated; Ennodius is citing an existing regulatory list] is fully lawful for union in matrimony. Nevertheless, I am sending my own men to the city of Rome without delay, there to obtain a formal reply from the venerable Pope [Pope Symmachus, who held the see at this period] on this precise point — so that the authority of a still higher ruling may settle your mind and put all uncertainty to rest. My lord, be assured that, upon receiving the fullest and most affectionate greeting I can offer, you will find that our holy and common father [the Pope] is of exactly the same opinion. His letter — together with the official documents of the apostolic see — I shall send on to you through my messenger, if divine favor consents to smile upon the undertaking.

XXIIII. LACONIO ENNODIVS. Bene cupitis superna dispensatio dedit effectum et de negotiosi occasione conloquii fraternam refouens diligentiam quod putabatur necessarium fecit optabile. hinc caelestis cura nepti meae procum non omnino a sanguine nostro peregrinantem iussit accedere, ut, dum consulendi instat opportunitas, sancto amori pabula praestarentur. uix sustinebam fateor procurati studia longa silentii, sed interpres mitior putabam adplicandum timori quod subducebatur affectui. deo gratias, qui ad usum stili fraternitatem uestram reduxit et gratiae. diuinis tamen legibus cognationem indiculo conprehensam in matrimonio licere sociari sine dubitatione noueritis. sed continuo ad urbem Romam 1 debeUatum T 3 subleaasti b, sublenartis P et Sirm . 5 preuenitur B quaerelis B 6 do#lorem B 8 ut] ne Pb immemores T 9 futuros an ad T in raa. m. S ad om. BL V 13 praeces B XXlIlI. 19 occAsione L1 22 accidere B oportunitas BL PTVb 25 subduceretur P 26 uestram add. in mg. T m. 2 27 ulo indico V cttphensam L homines meos dirigo, exacturus a uenerabili papa super hac parte responsum, ut animum uestrum potioris praecepti firmet auctoritas. domine, ut supra salutationem plenissimam acci- ■ pientes sanctum quoque et communem patrem parilis noueritis esse sententiae, cuius ad uos per hominem meum, si diuinus fauor adnuerit, cum sedis apostolicae apicibus litteras destinabo.