Letter 24: How fittingly the words of the Mantuan poet apply to your name and your situation:

Sidonius to his friend Turnus, greetings. 1. That line of the Mantuan [Virgil] suits your name well, and well it suits your affair: "Turnus, what no one of the gods would have dared to promise to your prayer, behold, the rolling day has brought of its own accord." Your father Turpio, a man of tribunician rank, some time ago, if you recall, asked and obtained a loan from Maximus the Palatine, setting aside or pledging nothing whatever by way of security or pawn, neither silver nor any of his estates; but, as is shown by the bond that was drawn up, an interest of one per cent [per month] was guaranteed to the lender, which, drawn out over a span of ten years, brought the amount up to double the principal. 2. But when your father, with disease pressing upon him, was sinking toward a death close at hand, and when on this very account the public authority was the more violently constraining the ailing head of the household to make good the debt, and the shamelessness of the collectors could not be borne, he, now despaired of, charged me by letter, as I was setting out for Toulouse, that at my request your creditor should grant at least a modest reprieve. I quickly assented to his entreating prayers, since with Maximus I had ancient ties not only of acquaintance but also of hospitality. So I gladly went out of my way on my journey to my friend, although his country house was no few miles distant from the public highway. 3. When I arrived, the man himself came out to meet me, whom I had formerly known erect in body, brisk in step, free in voice, gracious in face, but now much unlike his former bearing. His dress was modest, his gait modest, his color and his speech devout; then his hair was short, his beard long, his chairs were three-legged, hangings of Cilician cloth were draped over the doorways, his couch had nothing of down, his table nothing of purple, his very courtesy so kindly that it was frugal, and not so abounding in meats as in vegetables; certainly if there was anything richer among the dishes, he indulged in it not for himself but for his guests. 4. When we rose, I quietly inquired of the bystanders which manner of life he had taken up from among the three orders, whether he was living as a monk, or a cleric, or a penitent. They said that he was lately discharging a priesthood thrust upon him, to which the love of his fellow citizens had bound him by a contrivance while he refused it. When the light returned [the next day], while the servants and clients were occupied in catching the animals, I sought the opportunity for a private conversation. He grants it: I embrace him as he suspects nothing, and I first assure him of my congratulations on the high dignity of his station, then I mingle in the petitions that followed. 5. I set forth the requests of our Turpio, I plead his necessities, I lament his extremity, the things which here seemed the harder to his grieving friends, namely that, bound by the loan, he was being released from the body: let him therefore remember his new profession and his old fellowship, and for so long restrain the barbarous insistence of the collectors baying around by the grant of a reprieve; and, if the sick man should die, let him grant to the heirs a year of mourning free from exaction; if, as I would wish, Turpio should recover his former health, let him allow the exhausted man the means of convalescing at his ease. 6. I was still entreating, when suddenly the man of charity began to weep abundantly, not over the delay of the debt but over the peril of the debtor; and, checking his sob, he said: "Far be it from me, as a cleric, to demand back from a sick man these things which I would scarcely have asked, as a soldier, from one in health. But I love his children too in such a way that, even if anything should turn out adversely for my friend, I shall demand nothing further from them than the reckoning of my duty allows. Therefore write, so that the anxious ones too may give the more credit to your letter, and I will add mine: whatever shall be the outcome of this sickness, which nevertheless I wish prosperous for our brother, I will both prolong the term for payment by a year and forgive the additional half that has accrued under the name of interest, content with the mere repayment of the principal alone." 7. At this I gave the greatest thanks to God, and great thanks to my host, who so loved both his good name and his conscience, declaring that the friend was sending ahead of himself that which he was remitting to you, and was thereby purchasing the kingdoms above in that he did not sell his earthly benefactions. Therefore strive for what remains, that on your authority at least the sum lent may be repaid at once, in such a way that you give nonetheless boundless thanks even in the name of those who, joined to you by brotherhood, perhaps by reason of their age cannot understand what a gift they obtain. 8. There is no reason for you to begin to say: "I have co-heirs and the division has not yet been carried out; it is established that I have been dealt with more grudgingly than my co-heirs; my brother and sister are still passing their years under guardianship; no husband has yet been found for my sister, no curator for my brother, no surety for the curator." All of which indeed is well said to creditors, but to bad ones; yet when such a person has a contract, one who is willing to relax the half when he could exact the whole, if he suffers delay, whatever he had piously conceded out of mercy he justly demands back on account of the wrong. Farewell.

EPISTULA XXIV Sidonius Turno suo salutem. 1. Bene nomini, bene negotio tuo congruit Mantuani illud: Turne, quod optanti divum promittere nemo auderet, volvenda dies en attulit ultro. pecuniam pater tuus Turpio, vir tribunicius, mutuam pridem, si recordaris, a Maximo Palatino postulavit impetravitque, nil quidem loco fiduciae pignorisque vel argenti sequestrans vel obligans praediorum; sed, ut chirographo facto docetur, cauta centesima est faeneratori, quae per bilustre producta tempus modum sortis ad duplum adduxit. 2. sed cum pater tuus morti propinquae morbo incumbente succumberet atque ob hoc ipsum publica auctoritas male valentem patremfamilias violentius ad reformandum debitum artaret nec sustineri valeret improbitas executorum, proficiscenti mihi Tolosam iam desperatus litteris imperavit, ut me rogante creditor vester modicas saltim largiretur indutias. precibus orantis citus annui, quia cum Maximo mihi non notitiae solum verum et hospitii vetera iura. igitur ad amicum libens ex itinere perrexi, quamquam villa non paucis aggere a publico milibus abesset. 3. ut veni, occurrit mihi ipse, quem noveram anterius corpore erectum gressu expeditum, voce liberum facie liberalem, multum ab antiquo dissimilis incessu. habitus viro, gradus pudor, color sermo religiosus, tum coma brevis barba prolixa, tripodes sellae, Cilicum vela foribus appensa, lectus nil habens plumae, mensa nil purpurae, humanitas ipsa sic benigna quod frugi, nec ita carnibus abundans ut leguminibus; certe si quid in cibis unctius, non sibi sed hospitibus indulgens. 4. cum surgeremus, clam percontor adstantes, quod genus vitae de tribus arripuisset ordinibus, monachum ageret an clericum paenitentemve. dixerunt nuper impacto sacerdotio fungi, quo recusantem factiose ligasset civicus amor. luce revoluta, dum pueri clientesque capiendis animalibus occuparentur, secretae conlocutionis peto copiam. praestat: amplector nil opinantem gratularique me primum pro sui status apice confirmo, tum consequentes misceo preces. 5. Turpionis nostri rogata profero, allego necessitates, extrema deploro, quae duriora maerentibus amicis hinc viderentur, quod faenore ligatus corpore solveretur: meminisset ergo professionis novae, sodalitatis antiquae, exactorumque circumlatrantum barbaram instantiam indultis tantisper indutiis moderaretur; et, si decessisset aeger, tribueret heredibus annui luctus tempus immune; si, quod optarem, pristinam Turpio salutem recuperasset, indulgeret exhausto per otium facultatem convalescendi. 6. adhuc rogabam, cum repente vir caritatis flere granditer coepit non moram debiti sed periculum debitoris; frenatoque singultu: 'absit a me', inquit, 'ut haec reposcam clericus ab aegro, quae vix petissem miles a sospite. sed et liberos eius ita diligo, ut etiam, si quid adversum cesserit amico, nil sim ab his amplius postulaturus quam mei officii ratio permittit. quapropter scribe sollicitis quoque plus credant litteris tuis, meas iunge, quisquis ille fuerit languoris eventus, quem tamen fratri prosperum optamus, quod et annuum solutioni spatium prorogabo et superpositam medietatem, quae per usurae nomen accrevit, indulgeam, sola simpli restitutione contentus.' 7. egi ad haec gratias deo maximas, hospiti magnas, qui sic amaret tam suam famam quam conscientiam, confirmans amicum praemittere sibi quod dimitteret vobis, atque hinc superna regna mercari, quod beneficia terrena non venderet. ergo quod restat enitere, ut auctore te protinus saltim commodata summa solvatur, sic ut ingentes nihilominus gratias agas etiam nomine illorum, qui tibi germanitate coniuncti fors per aetatem sapere non possunt, quid muneris consequantur. 8. non est cur dicere incipias: 'habeo consortes necdum celebrata divisio est; avarius me constat esse tractatum quam coheredes; frater ac soror sub annis adhuc tutelaribus agunt; sorori necdum maritus, fratri necdum curator, curatori necdum satisdator inventus est.' quod quidem totum creditoribus bene, sed malis dicitur; at cum habet talis persona contractum, quae velit medium relaxare, cum totum possit exigere, si moram patitur, quicquid propter misericordiam concesserat pie, iuste reposcit propter iniuriam. vale.