Letter 9009: You have taken up our counsel — though I am not entirely sure which particular advice you followed.
Ennodius of Pavia→Camilla|c. 500 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
education booksillnesswomen
From: Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To: Camilla [a woman of the Italian aristocracy, possibly a relative]
Date: ~500 AD
Context: A rare letter to a woman, possibly concerning a child's education or spiritual development — a glimpse into the domestic world that lay behind the public networks of late antique correspondence.
To Camilla, from Ennodius.
You have taken up our counsel — though I am not entirely sure which particular advice you followed. For the little ones, as you know, require direction that is both firm and gentle. The task of shaping young souls is the most important work any of us can do, and it is also the most delicate.
I trust your judgment in this matter. You know your children better than any letter from me could prescribe. What I offer is simply the encouragement of a friend who cares about the outcome and the assurance that God blesses the work of parents who raise their children in His light.
Send me word of how things progress. I hold you all in my prayers. Farewell.
VIIII. CAMILLAE ENNODIVS.
Intercepisti nostrum nescio quem secuta consilium. nam
paruulum tuum, quem studiorum liberalium debuit cura
suscepisse, ante iudicii conuenientis tempora religionis titulis
insignisti. ueneranda quidem ecclesiastici forma seruitii, sed
quae ad duas partes animum non relaxet: unum et difficile
iter est quo itur ad Christum nec occupatos multipliciter
aliquando uia arta suscepit. properantes ad se de disciplinis
saecularibus salutis opifex non refutat, sed ire ad illas quemquam
de suo nitore non patitur. iam si eum mundo subtraxeras,
mundi in eo schemata non requiras: erubesco ecclesiastica
profitentem ornamentis saecularibus expolire. adnueram quod
per Patricium diaconum, quantum ipse asseruit, postulasti:
quid oportuit eum aliter ad me, quam diebus ipsis inuentus
est, destinari? si iudicium meum consulis, uolo ad me pertinentes
magis merito sanctos esse quam titulo. uere animum
meum de quietis statione ad cogitationum pelagus expulisti.
suscepi tamen deo auspice sanguinis mei uernulam. nunc restat,
ut conatibus meis fauor caelestis adrideat et neglegentias
hominum piae moderationis ubertate conponat. domina, ut
supra, salutem debitam dicens precor, ut nunc geminam
sollicitudinem pro utrisque suscipias et deo nos commendare
adsiduis precibus non omittas.
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From:Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To:Camilla [a woman of the Italian aristocracy, possibly a relative]
Date:~500 AD
Context:A rare letter to a woman, possibly concerning a child's education or spiritual development — a glimpse into the domestic world that lay behind the public networks of late antique correspondence.
To Camilla, from Ennodius.
You have taken up our counsel — though I am not entirely sure which particular advice you followed. For the little ones, as you know, require direction that is both firm and gentle. The task of shaping young souls is the most important work any of us can do, and it is also the most delicate.
I trust your judgment in this matter. You know your children better than any letter from me could prescribe. What I offer is simply the encouragement of a friend who cares about the outcome and the assurance that God blesses the work of parents who raise their children in His light.
Send me word of how things progress. I hold you all in my prayers. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.