Letter 18: There are several young men from good families who are currently in Rome pursuing the studies that the city still...

Ennodius to the most holy Pope Symmachus. There are several young men from good families who are currently in Rome pursuing the studies that the city still makes possible — the rhetorical education, the legal training, the encounter with what remains of the classical tradition — and I want to commend them to your pastoral attention. These are not men who require material assistance; their families have provided adequately for their studies. What they need — or what I believe they need, and what I am asking you to provide if you find them worthy of your time — is the encounter with someone who combines genuine learning with genuine faith. The best scholars in Rome right now are mostly pagan in their sympathies, or at best nominal Christians who treat the faith as a social custom rather than a serious intellectual commitment. Young men who come to Rome for learning and encounter only that tend to return with learning and without faith. The bishop of Rome is in a unique position to demonstrate the compatibility of serious scholarship with serious faith. Your willingness to receive these young men, to speak with them, to direct their reading, would be a genuine pastoral act. I ask this knowing that your time is enormously limited. I would not ask if I did not believe it was important. Ennodius

Ennodii ad Symmachum papam. 2. Pontificis liberalitatem viuUum laudans^ haeredes Marii cujnsdam defuncti commendat. Ennodius Symmacho papae. Usque ad temeritatem nie apostoliea dignatione promovistis: 18 *) Nescio, an eadera Laurentii Mediolanensis legatio hic notetiir, quae in Symmaclii epist. 7 et 19 meraoratnr. 19 1) Sane eadem est legatio, quae supra epist. 7 notata. X flducia concessa exstitit mater audaciae. Sed qui me hnmilitatis putiit iguarum, obedieutem probabit, si jussa consideret. Praesum- ptio est; si domiuorum beneficia famuli non sequautur: obsequium aostiniaudum puto, quod pariturus impendo. Ecce causam scriptionis assenii, quia veritus sum, ne post imperatam styli curam tacens praecepta respuerem: Huc accessit, quod in causa venerabilis me- nioriae Marii, dum apud Urbem essem, spem meis precibus vos de- distis. Cujus negotium cum sancta ecclesia vestra legitima pactione decisum est; aed haeredes ejus per annos plurimos debito^ sibi fru- ctus deflent fuisse subtractos. Pro quibus vestri conscius precator accedo; quia cui mos est pia jugiter facere, justa non despiciet, et qui largitur proprium, aliena non subtrahet. Errat, qui Deo proxi- mam conscientiam credit coimnodis invitari: detrimentum est sanctae voluntati, non exhibere beneficiimi. Sola putatis lucra, quae Yobis de liberalitate nascuntur; qui divitias dum tribuitis, accipiiis. Avara est dispensatio sanctorum, quae nil reservando, universa proprima reducit ad meritum. NuUa simt potiora, quam quae vobis evenimit de largitate compendia. Ergo securus comprehensi superius, haere- dibus laboris promisi vestra contemplatione jacturam: vos poQici- tationem meam benigna dispositione complete, et illos effecta, me relevate coUoquio.