Yet in the name of the town of Clermont I give exceedingly abundant thanks; for which, that you should take thought to succour it, neither community of province, nor nearness of city, nor opportuneness of river, nor offer of price drew you. And so through me they render immense thanks, to whom it fell, through the abundance of your bread, to arrive at their own sufficiency. Therefore, if I seem sufficiently to have fulfilled the duties of the office committed to me, from a delegate I shall become a messenger. Straightway I wish you to know, throughout all Aquitaine your glory is borne: you are loved, praised, longed for, cherishing, in the breasts of all, in the vows of all. Amid these evils of the times, you are a good priest, a good father, a good year:
for whom it was worth the pains to make their famine into a peril, if in no other way your bounty could be proved by experience. Deign to be mindful of us, lord pope. LETTER I. Sidonius to the lord pope Mamertus, greeting. Rumour has it that the Goths have moved their camp onto Roman soil. To this incursion we wretched Arvernians are ever the gate. For we furnish from hence peculiar fomentations to the hatreds of our enemies, since—because they have not yet bounded their territories from the Ocean to the Rhône by the channel of the Loire—they suffer this sole delay, held back by our resistance alone, under the help of Christ. But the spaces of the surrounding tracts and stretches of regions the importunate onset of the menacing kingdom has long since devoured.
But of our spirit, so rash and so perilous, it is not either the scorched face of our walls, or the rotten hurdle of our stakes, or the battlements worn by the breasts of the watchmen, that we trust will bring us aid: we are soothed only by the help of the Rogations brought in at your bidding; in the beginning and establishing of which the Arvernian people, though not with equal effect, yet with a zeal certainly not unequal, began to be initiated, and on this account does not yet turn its back to the terrors poured about it. For it does not escape our inquiry, in the first times of these instituted supplications, by what manner of prodigies' terrors the city divinely committed to you was being emptied. For now the stages of the public walls were shaken by frequent earthquakes;
now fires, often kindled, buried the falling crests of the roofs beneath a mountain of imperfect ashes; now stupendous lairs placed themselves in the forum—the fearful tameness of bold, quaking deer: while you, amid these things, the city emptied by the departure of its chief men and the standing of the commons, ran swiftly to the new examples of the ancient Ninevites, lest your very despair should reproach the divine admonition. And indeed you could by no means already distrust of God without sin, after the proofs of His powers. For when on a certain occasion the city had begun to blaze, your faith glowed hotter in that burning:
and when, in the sight of the fearful populace, by the mere interposition of your body the fire was thrust back and, with fugitive windings, bent upon its own rear, by a miracle terrible, new, unwonted, the flame yielded through reverence to one whom it lacked power to perceive by nature. First, therefore, and to those few men of our order you proclaim fasts, you interdict outrages, you preach chastisements, you promise remedies: you set forth to all that neither the penalty is far off, nor the pardon; you teach that the threats of the announced desolation are to be warded off by the frequency of prayers; you warn that the persistence of the raging conflagration can be quenched rather by the water of the eyes than of rivers; you warn that the menacing conflict of earthquakes is to be made firm by the stability of faith.
And forthwith the humble throng, following that counsel, became an incitement even to their own betters, whom, since it had not irked to flee, it did not shame to return. Placated by which devotion, the Beholder of hearts, God, made your obsecration to be for salvation to you, for imitation to the rest, for a safeguard to both. Finally, thereafter there were neither losses for calamity, nor portents for dread. All which this people, knowing to have both befallen your men of Vienne before, and not to have come upon them after, embraces the footsteps of so sacrosanct an instruction, earnestly asking that the beatitude of your conscience send the suffrages of its prayers to those to whom it has transmitted the examples.
And because to you alone has been granted, since the memory of our forefathers—next after Ambrose the confessor, the finder of two martyrs—in the parts of the western world the entire translation of the martyr Ferreolus, with the addition of the head of our Julian, which the bloody hand of the executioner once brought back thence to a turbulent persecutor: it is not unjust, what we demand by way of compensation, that from thence there should come to us a part of the patronage, because to you from here returned a part of the patron. Deign to be mindful of us, lord pope. LETTER II. Sidonius to the lord pope Graecus, greeting. You burden my modesty, most consummate of pontiffs, by heaping manifold praise, if I shall have ploughed out anything with a rustic pen:
and would that it were free from guilt, that in the first encounter of my letters, though circumvented, I nevertheless connected together things resisting and diverse from the truth. For a crafty traveller imposed upon my ignorance. For while he pretended the office of a merchant only, he drew forth my letters in the stead of a letter of commendation—that is, as a reader—but such as it would have befitted to contain some giving of thanks. For, as I afterward learned, he set forth rather by the benignity of the men of Marseilles than as the state of his condition, whether by census or by household, would lie open. Which things, however, as they were done, if any worthy relater should unfold them, would become pleasant in the telling. But since you yourself bid that some page bring you something glad and copious from me;
grant pardon, if this very hospitality of our letter-carrier—to be compared with comic salt—I touch upon lightly, saving the severity of your ears; lest, having been introduced a second time, I should seem now for the first time to know him. And at the same time, if it is the manner of the rules that from the whole subject-matter the beginnings of speaking be borrowed, why here too should the matter be sought and awaited for me, about to discourse of anything at greater length, unless that he himself should be for a cause to our discourse, to whom our discourse shall be for a burden? Clermont is this man's fatherland; his parents of a birth not proud, but complete, and, as boasting nothing illustrious, so fearing nothing servile; content with a modest estate, but one either sufficient or free:
their soldiery run its course in a clerical rather than in a palatine retinue. His father exceedingly frugal, and to his children too little liberal; who through excessive parsimony preferred to profit his youthful son more than to please him. Whom being thus left behind, the boy then sought you out, exceedingly light-equipped—which was the greatest hindrance to his first attempts: for nothing is heavier for a traveller than a light purse. Yet his first entrance into your walls was quite auspicious. Of the holy Eustachius, who succeeded to you, straightway in word and deed there was a twofold blessing: lodging shortly sought, now by the care of Eustachius easily found, quickly approached, courteously assigned.
First then, by frequent visits to cultivate his neighbours, again and again himself not disdainfully to be greeted back by them. To deal with each as the reckoning of age might permit; to bind the aged with observances, his equals with good offices; to pursue modesty and sobriety before all others: which is as praiseworthy in youth as it is rare. Next to be recognized, made known, made familiar to the chief men, and then to the count of the city, by watches no less opportune than frequent; and thus his assiduity to be advanced day by day among the fellowships of the greater men: all the good men in rivalry to cherish him, all with their good wishes, very many with their counsels, private persons with gifts, all to aid him with benefits; and through these the hopes and resources of this man to be heaped up rapidly and by leaps.
It happened by chance that in the lodging into which he himself had moved, a certain woman was living as a neighbour, no less well-off in fortune than in character; her daughter, having now passed beyond the years of infancy, was nevertheless not yet drawing near to a marriageable age. To her this young man was ingratiating (for indeed the little girl's age was such that thus far it was seemly), and would give her now some trifles, now odds and ends for girlish play; and by these causes, small though they were, the mind of the little maiden became greatly bound to him. Meanwhile the years grew ripe for the marriage-chamber. Why do I linger over many words?
A young man alone, of slender means, a foreigner, a son still under his father's authority, departing from his fatherland while his father not only did not consent but was even unaware of it, sought, obtained, and led home as his wife a girl not his inferior in birth and his superior in wealth: with the bishop as intermediary (since he was a lector), with the comfort of the count (since he was his client), while the mother-in-law did not scrutinize his estate, and the bride did not despise his person. The marriage-contracts were drawn up; and whatever suburban property of our little township there was, inserted there among the matrimonial documents, was recited with mimic generosity. When the legal circumvention and the solemn fraud had been carried through, the beloved pauper lifted up his rich spouse:
and having carefully rummaged through and packed up whatever belonged to his father-in-law, and wringing out, by no small further gratuity, the easiness and credulity of his mother-in-law's munificence, this unconquered trickster sounded the retreat back to his own country. When he had gone off, the girl's mother, on account of these exaggerated deeds, began to wish to bring an action for the recovery of goods; and then at last she grieved over the fewness of the slaves given in the nuptial settlement, at the very time when she was already rejoicing over the great number of grandchildren. To pacify her our Hippolytus had set out, when he first presented my letter. You have the story of an excellent young man: a tale fit for a Milesian or Attic mother. And at the same time forgive one who extends the epistolary form beyond what is fair:
which I have drawn out for this reason with a lingering pen, that you might not receive as a stranger one whom you have restored to citizenship by your benefactions. And it is likewise ordained by nature that upon those on whom we spend our zeal, we bestow our affection. But you will show that Bishop Eustachius departed as one leaving behind a wholly worthy heir, if you pay to his clients the legacies of patronage just as you would to his kinsfolk the legacies of his testament. Behold, I have obeyed, and have fulfilled the duty of one who complies, even to garrulity, although he who lays a business upon an unlearned man on account of his prolixity ought not to take it ill if he receive letters not so much eloquent as talkative. Deign to be mindful of me, my lord bishop. LETTER III. Sidonius to his lord bishop Megethius, greeting.
Long and much did I deliberate, although my mind was stirred by affection and by a zeal to obey, whether I should send, as you enjoin, the little pleadings which I myself composed. In the end the opinion prevailed which determined that you must be obeyed: therefore I have forwarded what was requested. And what shall we now say? Is this obedience great? I think it is great: yet the impudence is greater still. For with such a brow we might convey waters to the rivers, timber to the forests: with such rashness we might present Apelles with a paintbrush, Phidias with a chisel, Polyclitus with a hammer. You will grant pardon, then, to my presumption, holy, eloquent, venerable bishop, which with its natural garrulity babbles before your most learned scrutiny.
Our custom holds it for a rite that, even if it publishes little, it should write much: just as it is inborn in dogs that, even if they do not bark, they nevertheless snarl. Deign to be mindful of me, my lord bishop. LETTER IV. Sidonius to his lord bishop Fonteius, greeting. I am now afraid to recommend anyone at all, because to those you commend we give words, you gifts: as though it were not to be reckoned the chief part of a benefit, that a portion of holy communion lies open to those who have parted from me, a sinner. Witness of these things is our friend Vindicius, who returned home more slowly for the burden of your munificence; wherever he is, he steadfastly affirms that, though you are great in repute and greatest in rank, you are nevertheless to be praised no more for your dignity than for your graciousness.
He proclaims the holy, honeyed, and blooming courtesies that proceed from your temperate communion; and yet that nothing thereby is lost to your pontifical person, in that you do not break the height of the priesthood by your affability, but bend it. On learning these things I am so enkindled that I shall then judge myself most happy, when, being placed face to face with you, it shall befall me, under God's help, to cherish in close (though presumptuous) embraces a breast so secure concerning its own God. Receive one who confesses: I do indeed regard the over-severe with distrust, and, conscious of my own weakness, I bear those who are harsh to me with equanimity; but, as it must be confessed, by such manners we are more easily brought low by humility than joined by familiarity.
In sum, let him see with what endowment of conscience he swells, who makes himself unbending toward those who court him: I, however, would rather choose to be an emulator of that man's character, who strives to stir up in himself the affection even of those set far off. This too is greatly at heart among my chief concerns, that I have learned that the abundant patronage of your apostolate is conferred by unending intercession upon the most true lords of my soul, Simplicius and Apollinaris. If it is true, I ask that your charity may have no end; if it is false, I beg that it may not delay to have a beginning. Besides, I commend the bearer of my letter, for whom, in that place—that is, in the town of Vaison—a certain need that has arisen can be healed by the weight of the reverence due to your authority.
Deign to be mindful of me, my lord bishop. LETTER V. Sidonius to his lord bishop Agroecius, greeting. I have arrived at Bourges, sought by the decree of the citizens: the cause of the summons was the tottering state of the Church, which, lately widowed of its highest pontiff, has sounded a kind of trumpet-call for canvassing the priesthood among the ranks of both professions. The people rage, divided by their partisanships: a few offer up others, many not only offer but thrust forward themselves. If, according to your ability and portion, you take counsel according to God and truth, all things run to what is trivial, fickle, painted over; and what shall I say? there alone dwells naked impudence.
And unless you should judge me to complain without cause, I would dare to say that very many are of so headlong and so dangerous a spirit, that they do not shrink from aspiring to the most sacred see and dignity with a price offered: and that the matter could long since have been put up for market and auction, if, as a buyer is found ready, so a seller could be found so desperate. Therefore I beg that you may honour the newness, the modesty, the necessity of my office with the fellowship of your most looked-for arrival, and protect it with your aid. Nor, though you are the head of Sens, should you withdraw yourself amid these uncertainties from healing the disputes of the Aquitanians: because it matters very little that the province is divided from us in dwelling, when in religion the cause is joined together.
To this is added that, of the cities of First Aquitaine, the wars have left the town of Auvergne alone remaining to the Roman side. Wherefore in appointing the bishop of the aforesaid city, we are lacking in the number of provincial colleagues, unless we be replenished by the assent of the metropolitans. For the rest, as regards the prerogative of your honour, no one has hitherto been named by me, no one brought forward, no one elected: all things are kept whole, unimpaired, and entire for your judgement. This alone do I take to myself: to invite your persons, to await your wishes, to praise your decisions; and when anyone is appointed into the place and station of a pontiff, that, as the initiative comes from you, so from me may come compliance.
But if (which however I judge will least of all come to pass) some ill-advising interpreter should oppose my prayers before you, you will be able to excuse your absence rather than your fault: just as, on the contrary, if you come, you show that a boundary could indeed be set to your region, but could not be set to your charity. Deign to be mindful of me, my lord bishop. LETTER VI. Sidonius to his lord bishop Basilius, greeting. There are between us, by God's gift, and as a new example of our times, the ancient rights of friendships: and it is long that we have loved one another on equal terms. Moreover, as regards our common conscience, you are the patron—although I speak this very thing presumptuously and arrogantly.
For my iniquity is so great that even the efficacy of your supplication can scarcely heal it, given the constancy of its lapses. Therefore, since to me you are twice a lord, as much by patronage as by love, and likewise because I well remember with what fire of understanding and fountain of words you prevail—I who have seen Modaharius, a Gothic citizen, brandishing the darts of the Arian heresy, transfixed by the sword of your spiritual testimonies (the reverence and peace of the other bishops being preserved)—I do not without cause bewail to you how a wolf of this age, who is fattened on the sins of perishing souls, gnaws away by the secret bite of a tooth not yet perceived at the vigilant Churches.
For the ancient enemy, that he may the more easily leap upon the bleatings of the abandoned sheep, first begins to loom over the necks of the drowsing shepherds. Nor am I so unmindful of myself as not by any means to remember that I am the very man whom a conscience, still to be washed with long weeping, oppresses; whose filth, nevertheless, under Christ's help, will one day be scraped away by the mystic hoes of your prayers. But since the public welfare surmounts the shame of my private guilt, I shall not fear—even though a sinister interpreter should carp at the zeal of faith in me—to bring forth, under the odium of vanity, the cause of truth.
That Euric, king of the Goths, either defends by the right of arms or advances the boundary of his kingdom, the ancient treaty being broken and dissolved, is not permitted to us sinners here to accuse, nor to you holy men here to discuss. Rather, if you inquire, it is a matter of order that here the rich man be clothed in purple and fine linen, and here Lazarus be smitten with sores and poverty. It is a matter of order that, while we are engaged in this allegorical Egypt, Pharaoh should march with the diadem, and the Israelite with the basket. It is a matter of order that, while we are baked in the furnace of this figurative Babylon, we should, with Jeremiah, bewail the spiritual Jerusalem with sighing wailings, while Assur, thundering with royal pride, tramples down the holy things of the saints.
Contemplating these vicissitudes of present and future blessednesses, I bear the common inconveniences more patiently. First, because to me, looking inward at what I deserve, whatever adversities come will be reckoned lighter; then, because I know for certain that it is the greatest remedy of the inner man, if in this threshing-floor of the world the outer man be thrashed by the various scourges of sufferings. But, as must be confessed, I dread that the aforesaid king of the Goths, though he be terrible on account of the strength of his forces, will lie in ambush not so much against Roman walls as against Christian laws. So much, they say, is the mention of the catholic name upon his mouth and in his breast, that you might doubt whether he holds the primacy more of his own nation or of his own sect.
Besides, mighty in arms, keen in spirit, brisk in years, he suffers this one error alone: that he thinks the success of his negotiations and counsels is granted him on account of his lawful religion, whereas he rather attains it on account of earthly prosperity. Wherefore learn quickly the hidden sickness of the catholic estate, so that you may hasten to apply an open remedy. Bordeaux, Périgueux, Rodez, Limoges, Javols, Eauze, Bazas, Comminges, Auch, and by now a far greater number of cities, their highest priests cut off by their own death, and no bishops thereafter appointed into the offices of the deceased (through whom, at any rate, the ministries of the lesser orders used to be supplied), have traced a broad boundary of spiritual ruin.
This ruin, it is well established, so advances day by day through the loss of dying fathers, that it has been able to bend not only any heretics of the present time, but even the heresiarchs of former ages: so does a sad, cut-off despair of the faith oppress peoples orphaned by the passing of their pontiffs. There is no care in the desolate dioceses and parishes. You may see in the churches either the rotten collapse of the roofs, or, the hinges of the doors having been torn off, the entrances of the basilicas blocked by the thickets of shaggy brambles. The very herds, alas for the grief! you may see not only lying down in the half-open vestibules, but even grazing on the grassy sides of the verdant altars. And now the solitude is no longer only through the rural parishes:
the very congregations of the city churches also grow thin. For what comfort remains to the faithful, when not only the discipline but even the memory of the clergy perishes? Indeed, when any cleric dies, if by succeeding benediction he does not receive an heir of his dignity, in that church the priesthood dies, not the priest. And thus what hope would you declare to be left, where the end of the man makes the end of religion? Look more deeply into the losses of the spiritual members; you will assuredly understand that, however many bishops are snatched away, the faith of just so many peoples is set at hazard for you. I say nothing of your colleagues Crocus and Simplicius, whom, expelled from the sees delivered to them, a like penalty of unlike exile torments.
For one of them grieves that he does not see whither he may return; the other grieves that he sees whither he does not return. You, of the most sacred pontiffs Leontius, Faustus, and Graecus, are found the middle one in city, in order, in charity: through you the evils of the treaties pass, through you the pacts and conditions of both kingdoms are carried. Act, therefore, so far that this may be the friendship, the princely concord, that, episcopal ordination being permitted, we may hold by faith the peoples of the Gauls whom the frontier of the Gothic lot has enclosed, even if we do not hold them by treaty. Deign to be mindful of me, my lord bishop. LETTER VII. Sidonius to his lord bishop Graecus, greeting. Behold, again our trifle-bearer Amantius seeks again
his own Marseilles again, meaning, as is his custom, to carry home something from the spoils of the city, if however the arriving ship should smile upon him: through whom I would jestingly prattle much, if one and the same spirit were equally able to practise glad things and to endure sad ones. For such is now the state of our unhappy corner; whose condition, as report confirms, was better under war than under peace. Our servitude has been made the price of another's security. The servitude, alas for the grief! of the Auvergnats: who, if ancient things were unrolled, once dared to call themselves brothers of Latium, and to reckon their peoples from Trojan blood. If recent things be recalled, these are they who by their own strength delayed the arms of the public enemies:
to which people the Goth, shut up within their walls, was often no cause of terror, since in turn he himself became a terror to the besiegers set within their camps. These are they who were to themselves, against the battle-line of their neighbours, both leaders and soldiers. Yet of the lot of their contests, if anything prosperous fell out, favourable events consoled you; if anything contrary, adverse events broke them. Out of love of the commonwealth, they did not fear to hand over to the laws Seronatus, who was betraying the provinces to the barbarians and drawing them near; whom, once convicted, the commonwealth scarcely presumed to put to death. Did famine, fire, sword, pestilence, swords fat with slaughter, and warriors lean with fastings, deserve this?
Yet in expectation of this renowned peace, we have dragged into our food the grasses torn from the crevices of the walls; often infected through ignorance by poisonous herbs, which, green in their indistinct leaves and juices, a hand pale with hunger often gathered. For all these so many and so great proofs of devotion, a jettison (so far as I hear) has been made of us: be ashamed, we pray, of this treaty, neither useful nor honourable. Through you the embassies pass. To you first, though the prince is absent, not only are things already treated unlocked, but even things to be treated are committed. May the harshness of truth be pardonable, we beseech, before your ears, whose reproach's odium grief snatches away. Too little do you take counsel for the common good:
and when you come together into council, it is not so much your care to heal the public dangers as to attend to your private fortunes: which, doing indeed often and long, you have now begun to be, not the first of your fellow-provincials, but the last. But how long will these deceptions be able to last? For our elders will not much longer glory in this name, who are beginning to have no juniors. Wherefore by the counsel by which you can, cut short the state of so shameful a concord. As yet, if it is necessary to be besieged, as yet to fight, as yet to hunger, it is a delight. But if we are handed over, we who could not be won by force, it is certain that you cowards have found out what barbarous thing you might counsel. But why do we loosen the reins to excessive grief?
Rather, forgive the afflicted, and do not impute it to the mourning. For another region handed over awaits servitude, but Auvergne awaits punishment. Truly, if you are not able to heal our extremities, at least accomplish this by diligent prayer, that the blood of those whose liberty is doomed to die may yet live: prepare land for the exiles, redemption for those to be taken captive, provision for those about to travel. If our wall is opened to enemies, let not yours be closed to guests. Deign to be mindful of me, my lord bishop. LETTER VIII. Sidonius to his lord bishop Euphronius, greeting. Since the bonds of the clerical office bind me, I would pronounce the state of my mediocrity most happy, if we had, as near territories, so also near walls.
In the smallest matters, of course, and in the greatest, I would consult your excellency: and the course of my actions would be, as it were, the most placid and unhindered flow of some river, if it flowed from your treatise as from a most wholesome fountain. Without doubt it would then be neither foaming through boastfulness, nor turbid through pride, nor muddy through conscience, nor headlong through youth. Rather, if anything in it were sordid, squalid and putrid, the admixed vein of your counsel would dilute the whole of it. But since long stretches lie interposed as a hindrance to wishes of this kind, I diligently pray that you may extricate me, as I consult you, from the scruple of an ambiguity that has befallen me: