Letter 6005: My confidence has not been stripped bare by the outcomes I have already come to know.

My confidence has not been stripped bare by outcomes already known. Strong in affection is one whom I have promised myself by just estimation to be mindful of diligence. Thanks to you, heavenly dispensation, who bestow upon human affairs the fruit of prosperity from the occasion of adversity and do not allow sorrows to remain in their order. I know not what the malice of the enemy has plucked from Your Greatness's patrimony: yet under this heading you have acquired the exceedingly rich grace of our most invincible lord. Good is the loss of substance if the acquaintance of an illustrious prince is found through losses: the departure of wealth is not to be feared if through it the love of the supreme lord, which surpasses all riches, is acquired. To this is added that not even that diminution, while it became the mother of profit and the way of honors, could retain the substance of the humility imposed upon you. So have the things the enemy snatched been restored that you may still look forward to a heap of joys. There remain things to be held in hope, since it has already befallen your eminence to hold the greatest. With these benefits, bestowed by heaven's authorship, let us join the good things of our acquaintance and communion. When would I have come to know so great a man except through the circumstances I have described? But may the powers above augment what they bestow, and may divine care lead us to the things toward which our desires reach. For the rest, be well, my lord, and cherish one who loves you with frequent conversations, because if epistolary composition did not hold to its prescribed limit, my joys would pour me into many words.

V. AVRELIANO ENNODIVS. Non est fiducia mea praecognitis nudata successibus. ualidus in affectione est quem animo meo diligentiae memorem iusta sum aestimatione pollicitus. gratias tibi, superna dispensatio, quae humanis rebus prosperorum fructum de aduersitatis occasione largiris nec pateris in ordine suo tristia permanere. 1 malua B 5 epistolaris (o in ras.) B 6 penitralium B 7 gtmt (nt in ras.) B respondeas LTYJ IIII. 11 incommeQdatio L 12 quateaas Bb, qaatinas LTV insistat Bb, instat LTV 15 sat est-JLF, sat fi ut T, satis B, satis sit b et B nu rec . in mg . 18 mihi BL 19 delectit B V. 26 largiree B tristitia B nescio quid magnitudini uestrae hostilis malitia de patrimonii ubertate decerpserit : tamen sub hoc titulo inuictissimi domini multum locupletem gratiam conparauit. bona est iactura substantiae, si incliti notitia principis dispendiis inuenitur : non est facultatum formidanda decessio, si per eam, qui omnes uincat diuitias, summi domini amor adquiritur. huc accedit quod nec illa inminutio, dum facta est lucri «ater et honorum uia, inpactae humilitatis potuit tenere substantiam. sic reparata sunt quae inimicus eripuit, ut adhuc gaudiorum cumulum praestoleris. supersunt quae in spe habeantur, cum culmini tuo contigerit maxima iam tenere. his beneficiis caelo auctore conlatis notitiae et communionis nostrae bona iungamus. quando mihi tantum uirum nisi per illa quae praefatus sum contigisset agnoscere? sed augeant superna quae tribuunt et ad quae desideria porriguntur diuina nos cura perducat. quod restat, uale, mi domine, et amantem tui crebris foue conloquiis, quia nisi epistularis concinnatio teneret terminum lege praescriptum, gaudia me in multa uerba diffunderent.