Letter 9018: A letter would be sufficient proof of the care I bear you — and so I send one.

XVIII. Ennodius to Stephania. The merit of the bearer would indeed suffice in place of an epistolary exchange, since both his own natural talent supplies what must be spoken and his pure affection toward me provides it. But my spirit hastens toward a doubled act of service, and, not content with the simple humility which your reverence demands, it joins to this a letter to the lord Avienus, him whom both his life and his speech reveal to be sprung from your stock. I take it hard, however, that you relate rustic utterances in a style too urbane and too refined. The heavenly grace has not so made itself known in regard to your family that any one within it might be allowed to be unlike his forebears either in tongue or in conduct, unless perhaps in that the radiance of holy widowhood beams forth in you above the renown of your elders. For surely you are the sister of that lord Faustus, in whose prefecture it is found that he trains up monks, a man who is venerable more by his conduct than by his title. I ask you, the service of greeting having been rendered, that you never mix the unlearned compositions of the scholastics into holy dictations: it suffices for me that I admire, and, if I deserve to follow, that I should find what I ought in your sentiments.

XVIII. ENNODIVS STEPHANIAE. Sufficeret equidem pro epistolari commercio meritum portitoris, cui et uena sua quod loquendum est et pura circa me ministrat affectio. sed animus meus ad duplicatum festinat obsequium, nec simplici quam reuerentia uestra exigit humilitate contentus, domno Auieno scripta coniungit, illi quem de stirpe uestra procreatum et uita prodit et oratio. grauiter tamen fero, quod rusticas uoces nimis urbana et subtili elocutione narratis. non ita circa familiam uestram gratia caelestis innotuit, ut aliquem in ea liceat maioribus suis aut lingua esse aut actione dissimilem, nisi forte quod uos supra. claritatem seniorum sanctae uiduitatis in uobis fulgor inradiat. nempe illius domni Fausti germana es, in cuius praefectura quod monachos instituat inuenitur, quem plus est actione uenerabilem esse quam titulo. rogo uos seruitio salutationis exhibito, ut numquam scholasticorum indociles conpositiones 1 offerendo desiderantis fort . 2 cocullun B 3 diregere B ante sanctissima distingunt b et Sirm. hora T 4 noon B 5 perficiant (perf in ras.) V mihi BLV, mea P2 (m mg.) b 6 me om. b reaerandis T reneletis Tb .7 lena metra canas T robei B 8 oeritate B 1 XVin. 10 stephane L 11 aequidem B 14 eziget B 15 conte ̃ ///tus T conionget B 16 styrpe B 17 orhana B snptili B 19 in ta] inae B 23 monachns libri, em. Sirm . 24 esse] ∻ T s. I . 25 indociles Pb, indocilis BLTV VI. 16 sanctis dictationibus misceatis: sufficit mihi quod admirer, quod si mereor sequi debeam, in uestris sensibus inuenire.