Letter 9033: What I had hoped for on the basis of your reputation, I now confirm through the evidence of your letters.

Ennodius to Bishop Caesarius. What I had anticipated in hope, you have made known to me by your letter. For by your report of the venerable conversation I have learned what the heavenly Emperor [God] had compelled the lord king [Theodoric] to do on your behalf: I am the one to whom, after your merit became plain, the good fortune of the affair by no means concealed itself. Who could fail to know that earthly dominions are subject to the bishop most noble among men in the service of Christ, and that the threatening power of a king is overcome by the interposing of innocence? When has the imperial purple ever despised either the haircloth or the pallium? When has that most powerful liberty believed that, in preference to Christian humility, what it willed was permitted to it? Or when was it permitted to it to will what would do harm? But if among these matters the examples of an earlier age be recalled, and you bring forward into the open the tyrannical savagery toward the worshippers of God, we know that by those men the followers of our doctrine were slain in order that they might never die. Then that everlasting Leader, with the sword serving him, bestowed life and eternity upon his soldiers: those men, by the agency of their enemies, lost their original worthlessness. You, my lord, the divine law brought forth in a world already Christian and nourished with the milk of the apostolic breast: you surpass the rest as the magnitude of the sun compared to lesser stars: whoever has gazed upon you with the eyes of the inner man has been instructed. For while by your very face you foster purity, you chastise the offenders with a mouth at rest. The good find in your manner of life, wherever you go forth, things to be imitated: to the wicked things to be fled are shown. Blessed are you, to whom it has been granted by God that you should both teach by admonitions and by examples, you who, ever existing as a forerunner upon the straight path of the pious journey, have issued the invitation. Who would not wish, while you are speaking, to know more rather than to read? While you reconcile genius to books by your discourse, you also instruct the masters: to you is indebted whoever is that greatest of writers, in that you amplify him with the gift of eloquence. In you the light of speech and of deed converge. Whence this prerogative to the men beyond the Alps? Whence to my own parents this unlucky elevation, that they should have sent forth such a man? But why is a heavenly thing sought among earthly things? Could then any haughtiness of the palace, before you, not lie prostrate? Could it withdraw from you what was desired, you whom errors alone make gentler than sheep yet ready to fight? Both your merit and my own diligence summon me further, but the law of the letter shuts in my loquacity. For what remains, accept the kindly service of my devotion, and commend me to our God by the support of your prayers, informing me frequently of those things which are being transacted with you or have been done. I beg also that you make plain to me, by the service of a letter, what the supplication of Rusticus has achieved among you -- who, so far as I hear, clothes his fornications with the name of wives and thinks that by the term of law a matter of crime can be excused.

XXXIII. ENNODIVS CAESARIO EPISCOPO. Quod spe praeceperam litteris indicastis. nam uenerandi promulgatione conloquii, quid caelestis imperator domnum regem circa uos facere conpulisset, agnoui: ego sum, cui postquam meritum uestrum patuit, nequaquam se felicitas actionis abscondit. qui hominum nobilissimo in Christi seruitute pontifici terrenas dominationes nesciat esse subiectas et minacem regis potentiam innocentiae obiectione superari? quando principalis purpura aut cilicia despexit aut pallium? quando libertas illa potissima credidit sibi ante Christianam humilitatem licere quod uoluit? aut quando ei licuit uelle quod laederet? quod si inter haec canae aetatis exempla recolantur et saeuitiam circa cultores dei tyrannicam reducas in medium, scimus quia ab illis nostri dogmatis sectatores, ne umquam morerentur, occisi sunt. tunc militibus suis uitam et aeternitatem obsequente gladio perpetuus ille dux contulit: illi inimicorum suorum ministerio perdiderunt originariam uilitatem. te, mi domine, in orbe iam Christiano diua lex peperit et apostolici uberis lacte nutriuit: tu ceteros uelut solis magnitudo astris minoribus conparata transgrederis: te qui interioris hominis oculis inspexit instructus est. nam cum et facie ipsa foueas puritatem, delinquentes feriato ore castigas. boni de conuersatione tua, quocumque processeris, imitanda. inueniunt: malis fugienda demonstrantur. beatus tu, cui a deo tributum est, ut et monitis XXXIII. 2 ceeario T, cessare L episcopo] arelatensi add. B m. rec . 8 quo L praeciperam LV, preciperam B indicastes B nam] non L 5 ciroa] cir B 6 abscondi L 7 in om. B 8 menacem B, miracem L 9 regiB B, reis LTV, rei Pb obiectionS L principalea BV1 10 purpora B cilitis B, silicia L despexi L, dispexit B 11 cristianam B, christianum L 12 ei om. L lederet B 13 cane B Reuiciam B, seuitium L 15 morirentdT L 16 et om. LPb 17 perpetnos B 19 Cristiano B diuina b 20 lactae B 21 trangrederia B 22 et cum Sirm . YI. 17 doceas et exemplis, qui ad pii itineris directum semper existens praeuius inuitasti. quis non optet te loquente, ut sciat plura, non legere? tu dum libris genium relatione concilias, et magistros informas: tibi debet quicumque ille scriptorum maximus, quod eum dote elocutionis amplificas. in te lux conuenit sermonis et operis. unde haec praerogatiua Transalpinis? unde parentibus meis inauspicata sublimitas, ut talem uirum miserint? sed cur inter terrena quaeritur res caelestis? potuit ergo ante te quodlibet palatii supercilium non iacere? potuit tibi cupita subtrahere quem mitiorem ouibus sola faciunt errata pugnacem? latius me et meritum uestrum uocat et diligentia, sed loquacitatem meam lex epistolaris includit. quod superest, benigni seruitutis meae munus accipite et me deo nostro orationum suffragiis intimate, frequenter de his, quae uobiscum aguntur uel acta sunt, informantes. deprecor etiam ut quid apud uos promouerit Rustici subplicatio, qui, quantum audio, fornicationes suas nomine uestit uxorum et uocabulo legis putat excusari posse rem criminis, mihi manifestes ministerio litterarum.