You have recalled to me those ancient interpreters of the Scriptures and expounders of the divine volumes—names to be venerated by me: Cyprian, Augustine, Hilary, Ambrose—some flourishing with the bloom of eloquence, some spiritual in revealing more hidden things, some flattering to soothe the senses of the unlearned, some battling in the assertion of the faith. We bring a charge against the bygone age, that these times have not produced those men most worthy of admiration. Surely younger men had sought after the doctrine of those who taught before.
But I recognize my own age not from the whitening blossom of hoary hairs, nor, as your Blessedness has borrowed from a secular author, from the color of a graying beard; since, even if there were an error in the reckoning, I would feel the years of one growing old from the numbness of my limbs through the increase of disease.
But with all humility of prayer I beseech that you may supplicate in your holy prayers for the correction of my morals, for the desire of repenting to be inspired in me, for the propitiation of our Lord; so that you who show the steep path of that way that inclines toward destruction, to be avoided, and the upright road that must be walked with toil, may also obtain the entrance upon good work and the effect of pious amendment—not by the lash of discipline, but by the medicine of indulgence and the gentleness of mercy. Confer upon yourselves also this reward; for you owe interest to the Lord from the treasure that was handed over to your faith and received by you at His commendation.
Win over the despairing, reprove the negligent, rouse those given over to the sleep of slothful security, awaken the slack. It befits the good shepherd to carry back the lost sheep on his own shoulders and to shut them, against whom the wolf lies in wait, within stronger folds. The holy Augustine, as you had ordered, I have found, whom I believed to be with our common son, the priest Rusticus. It is worth the effort that you admire my zeal, because until now I did not know what little works it contained; though indeed I have already, chapter by chapter, inspected the book about to hand it over. It is a paper book and too weak to bear injury, because paper, as you know, is more quickly consumed by age. Read it, if you bid, and transcribe it.
And I hope that, after it has become well known to you, it may be returned to me, to whom it is unknown, because by frequent reading of that very parchment I purpose to correct my own negligence. Pray for me. IIII. TO THE HOLY AND MOST BLESSED LORD, TO BE LOOKED UP TO WITH APOSTOLIC REVERENCE, POPE RURICIUS, FROM SEDATUS. I firmly believed and—however laborious it might be for you—I vehemently wished that you would come to this necessity which has displayed us here, even if only by chance, and that I might merit your blessing and that our common longing might be sated by mutual sight.
And truly, after the hope of your presence was frustrated, as if cast down from the summit of my wishes, both the toil which pressed upon me, and the absence from home, and all the things by which the grief of disappointed hope and anxiety are heaped up, gathered together alike into my mind. And the Lord knows that, if strength were sufficient, or if the infirmity of my age allowed me to obey the desires, or if there were beasts of burden by which at such a time the journey could be accomplished, I would not return from Toulouse before I merited the most longed-for blessing of your Blessedness and of that singular charity.
But because these things which have been said above stand in the way of my desires, I ask and adjure you through Christ that your piety may always represent me to you, and that you may not allow charity to be diminished by the slowness of my offices, nor forgetfulness to obscure it; but that you may pray for me unceasingly, as I am sure you do, and, as often as it shall be opportune, deign to visit your servant through the converse of letters. V. TO THE HOLY AND MOST BLESSED LORD, TO BE LOOKED UP TO WITH APOSTOLIC REVERENCE, POPE RURICIUS, AND MY SPECIAL PATRON BEFORE THE LORD, FROM SEDATUS. Our son refreshed me, announcing your well-being and your greeting, through whom I sent the letters I did not deserve, satisfying this my longing, if only a page of duty should reach you.
And so I greet you most warmly and ask, through that charity which announces to me your affection and condescension, that it may not weary you, as often as it is opportune, to visit your servant with the gift of letters; because I call God to witness that, after your presence, nothing is sweeter to me than if I should merit the converse of your most longed-for piety, or at least the favor of your letters. I ask also and with all prayer beg that you would deign, on my behalf, as I am sure you do, to intercede and pray without ceasing. I greet our sons, both venerating and longing for them. VI. TO THE HOLY LORD, MOST BLESSED IN MERITS, POPE TO BE LOOKED UP TO WITH THE HOMAGE OF HONOR, AND APOSTOLIC FATHER, THE LORD BISHOP RURICIUS, FROM EUFRASIUS.
I have learned by a faint rumor that your piety is wearied; but I have sent the bearer of these letters so that you may quickly relieve my anxiety over the bitterness of the report, because the divine piety knows that I share both in your sorrow and in your infirmity—not with the grief of one merely sympathizing, but of one who bears it through to the end. So may divine mercy grant that it indulge me, for many years, with the vigor of your outer self and the eagerness of unbroken health; because truly I feel myself then restored, if I learn sooner the wished-for news of your well-being. VII. TO THE HOLY LORD, MOST WORTHY IN MERITS, TO BE PREFERRED AMONG THE LUMINARIES IN CHRIST, AND MOST GREATLY TO BE LONGED FOR IN CHRIST, THE MOST PIOUS LORD BISHOP RURICIUS, FROM BISHOP CAESARIUS.
While my soul was exceedingly troubled, because we were not granted to obtain your presence at your synod, my holy lord, Bishop Verus, deigned to tell me that he had sent your letter to me at Agde by his deacon, which I do not know by what mischance or by whose negligence I do not retain having received. Nevertheless I most certainly believe my holy lord, your brother, and I prefer to impute this to the bearer's negligence. But although you sent your holy and desirable lines, yet, as you yourselves know full well, it would have been most fitting that you direct a person who might subscribe in your stead, and that what your holy brothers decreed might be confirmed in your person.
But because I knew with how holy and frequent and pious a longing you wished to be present, I set forth your wish and holy will to all your brothers; on which account we neither could nor ought impute anything to your piety. But although we did not have your desirable presence, yet we perceived that we merited the support of your prayers.
And therefore, with these letters dispatched, I greet you most warmly with the affection and honor that is fitting, and I ask that you commend me to the Lord by your holy and illustrious prayers together with your merits; and at the same time I make known to your piety that, since your son Eudomius desires, if he can, to bring this about, in the coming year, by Christ's favor, we may hold a synod at Toulouse, where also, if he can, he wishes the Spanish bishops to assemble. And therefore pray that the Lord may deign to grant the effect to so holy a desire of his.
And my holy and most sweet brother, the priest Capillutus, your lover and proclaimer, I commend to your holiness with as great an introduction as I am able, and on his behalf I render to you immense and abundant thanks; because, as he himself has asserted, your pious and sincere benevolence so expended itself upon him that no man could set it forth. Now therefore, because, burning with longing for you, he has sought out your piety, I judged it fitting to send through him the letters of my humility, so that, when he returns, if Christ shall grant it, I may long to merit your lines as a heavenly gift. Pray for me. VIII.
TO THE HOLY AND MOST BLESSED LORD, TO BE LOOKED UP TO WITH APOSTOLIC REVERENCE, MY LORD AND POPE, BISHOP RURICIUS, FROM BISHOP SEDATUS. The horse which you sent through our brother the priest, I received, loaded with the magnificent trappings of your words: cheap in life, precious in the letter; moving itself when it is pricked with spurs or urged with blows, yet making absolutely no progress; most wretched in form, vilest in color, softer than feathers, more sluggish than statues, terrified of solid bodies, fearing—as I believe—only shadows, out of habit; a runaway when let go, immovable when ridden, standing on the flats, collapsing on the rough—one that knows not how to be held and cannot walk.
Before I saw it, while I reread your letters, I believed it to be of that breed which Daedalian Circe, having stolen it, bred as bastards from a substituted dam. I thought it hot in spirit, keen in its courses, that it would breathe out fire when brought forth, with nostrils raised, that it would shake the plains with solid hoof, that it would outrun the winds and the rivers in speed. For such had the most splendid discourse of your letter promised me. I believed also that, as it chewed the bit and ground the iron with its bites, two stronger men would hold it back, lest it escape. Nor did it deceive me—for several were dragging it, others were shoving, and more were beating it.
When I saw it thus brought forth, I wished that you would always send to your dear ones such gifts as they really were, not such as my letter describes. Yet I, because you have left me nothing to say in praise of the gift sent, lest entirely .....