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longer hears.
My very pen is rusty as though it felt his loss, my wax tablet looks dull and is covered over with mould.
Whenever I try to give vent to speech and to scatter the flowers 1 of this funeral panegyric on his tomb, my eyes fill with tears, my pain begins again to rankle, and I can think of nothing but his death.
It was the ancient custom for children over the dead bodies of their parents to recite their praises on the platform of a public meeting, and as though by the singing of dirges to stir their audience to sobs and lamentations.
Behold, with us the order of things is changed, and nature has lost her rights in bringing this disaster upon us.
What the young man should have done for his elders, we his elders are doing now for him.
What shall I do then?
Shall I join my tears to yours ?
The apostle forbids, for he calls dead Christians 'them which are asleep,'
2 and the Lord in the Gospel says :
' The damsel is not dead but sleepeth.' 3
Lazarus also, inasmuch as he had but fallen asleep, was raised back to life.
Shall I rather rejoice and be glad, that ' speedily he was taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding ,' 4 for his soul was pleasing to the Lord ? Nay, though I struggle and try to fight against them, the tears still run down my cheeks, and in spite of virtue's teaching and our hope of the resurrection a passion of regret is breaking my fond heart.
O death that partest brothers and dost unknit the close bonds of love, how cruel art thou and how stern !
' The Lord hath fetched a burning wind that cometh up from the wilderness : which hath dried thy veins and hath made thy fountain desolate .' 5
Thou didst swallow our Jonah, O death, but even in thy belly He
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sed et in utero tuo vivus fuit.
Portasti quasi mortuum, ut tempestas mundi conquiesceret et Nineve nostra illius praeconio salvaretur.
Ille, ille te vicit, ille iugulavit fugitivus propheta, qui reliquit domum suam, dimisit hereditatem suam, dedit dilectam animam suam in manus quaerentium earn.
Qui per Osee quondam tibi rigidus minabatur :
' Ero mors tua, o mors; ero morsus tuus, inferne,' illius morte tu mortua es, illius morte nos vivimus.
Devorasti et devorata es, dumque adsumpti corporis sollicitaris inlecebra et avidis faucibus praedam putas, interiora tua adunco dente confossa sunt.
Gratias tibi, Christe salvator, tua agimus creatura, quod tam potentem adversarium nostrum, dum occideris, occidisti.
Quis ante miserior homine, qui aeterno mortis terrore prostratus vivendi sensum ad hoc tantum acceperat, ut periret?
' Regnavit,' enim, ' mors ab Adam usque ad Moysen etiam super eos, qui non peccaverunt in similitudinem praevaricationis Adam.'
Si Abraham, Isaac et Iacob in inferno, quis in caelorum regno ?
Si amici tui sub poena offendentis Adam et, qui non peccaverant, alienis peccatis tenebantur obnoxii, quid de his credendum est, qui dixerunt in cordibus suis
' non * corrupti et abominabiles facti sunt in .voluntatibus suis,' qui est Deus,' qui ' deelinaverunt, simul inutiles facti sunt; non est, qui faciat bonum, non est usque ad unum ' ?
Quodsi Lazarus videtur in sinu Abraham locoque refrigerii, quid simile infernus et regna 2 Romans, v.
14.
1 Hosea, xiii. 14.
4 Psalm xiv.
3 Psalm xjv.
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lived.
Thou didst carry Him as one dead, that the storms of this world might be appeased and our Nineveh saved by His preaching.
He, He was thy conqueror, He it was who slew thee, the fugitive prophet who left His home, gave up His inheritance, and surrendered His dear life into the hands of those that sought it.
He it was who once by the mouth of Hosea uttered against thee the stern threat ' O death, I will be thy death ; O grave, I will be thy destruction .' 1
By His death thou art dead; by His death we live.
Thou hast swallowed and thou art swallowed up, and while thou wert tempted by the lure of the body they had seized and thought it a prey for thy greedy jaws, lo ! thy inward parts are pierced with the hook's carved teeth.
We Thy creatures render thanks to Thee, O Saviour Christ, for that whilst Thou wert slain Thou didst slay our so mighty adversary.
Before Thy coming was there anything more miserable than man, who cowering in eternal fear of death had but received the sense of life that he might perish ?
' Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.'
If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be in the tomb, who can be in the kingdom of heaven?
If thy friends who had not sinned were for the sins of another held liable to the punishment of offending
Adam, what must be believed of those who said ' There is no God,' 3 men ' corrupt and abominable in their self-will, who are gone out of the way, they are become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one in their hearts :
? 4
Even if Lazarus is seen in Abraham's bosom and in a place of refreshment, what likeness can there be between the lower
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caelorum ?
Ante Christum Abraham apud inferos ; post Christum latro in paradiso.
Et idcirco in resurrectione eius multa dormientium corpora surrexerunt et visa sunt in caelesti Hierusalem.
Tuncque conpletum est iilud eloauium :
' Surge, qui dormis, et elevare et inluminabit te Christus.' lohannes Baptista in heremo personat :
' Paenitentiam agite ; adpropinquavit enim regnum caelorum.'
A diebus enim lohannis Baptistae regnum caelorum vim passum est et violenti diripuerunt iilud.
Flamma ilia rumphea, custos paradisi, et praesidentia foribus cherubin Christi restincta et reserata sunt sanguine.
Nee mirum hoc nobis in resurrectione promitti, cum omnes, qui in carne non secundum carnem vivimus, municipatum habeamus
' Regnum Dei intra vos est.' in caelo et hie adhuc positis dicatur in terra :
4. Adde quod ante resurrectionem Christi ' notus '
' in ludaea Deus, in Israhel magnum nomen eius,' et ipsi, qui noverant eum, tamen ad tantum erat inferos trahebantur.
Ubi tunc totius orbis homines ab India usque ad Britanniam, a rigida septentrionis plaga usque ad fervores Atlantici oceani, tarn innumera biles populi et tantarum gentium multitudines
' quam variae linguis, habitu tarn vestis et armis ' ?
Piscium ritu ac lucustarum et velut muscae et culices conterebantur ; absque notitia enim creatoris sui omnis homo pecus est.
Nunc vero passionem Christi et resurrectionem eius cunctarum gentium 1 Ephesians, v.
14.
St. Matthew, iii. 2.
St. Luke, xvii. 21.
4 Psalm lxxvi.
Virgil, Aeneid, VIII. 723.
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regions and the kingdom of heaven ?
Before Christ Abraham was in the ground beneath ; after Christ the robber is in Paradise.
And therefore at His resurrection many bodies of those that slept arose and were seen in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Then was ' Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee fulfilled the saying :
' Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
light .' 1
John the Baptist cries in the desert:
For from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven sufFered violence and the violent took it by force.
The flaming sword that guarded Paradise, and the cherubim that kept its doors, were alike quenched and unloosed by the blood of Christ.
Nor is it surprising that this is promised us at the resurrection, seeing that all of us, who now in the flesh live not after the manner of the flesh, have our citizenship in heaven, and while we are still here on earth we are told ' the kingdom of heaven is within you.' 3
Moreover, before the resurrection of Christ God was only ' known in Judah and his name was great in Israel ,' 4 and even those who knew Him were still dragged down to the nether world.
Where at that time were the inhabitants of the whole world from India to Britain, from the ice-bound northern zone to the burning heat of the Atlantic Ocean ?
Where were its countless peoples, its thronging tribes ' In dress and arms as varied as in speech
' ? 6
They were but packed together like fishes and locusts, flies and gnats ; for without knowledge of his Creator every man is but a brute.
But to-day the voices and the writings of all nations proclaim
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voces et litterae sonant.
Taceo de Hebraeis, Graecis et Latinis, quas nationes fidei suae in crucis titulo dominus dedicavit.
Immortalem animam et post dissolutionem corporis subsistentem, quod Pythagoras somniavit, Democritus non credidit, in consolationem damnationis suae Socrates disputavit in carcere, Indus, Persa, Gothus, Aegyptius philosophantur.
Bessorum feritas et pellitorum turba populorum, qui mortuorum quondam inferiis homines immolabant, stridorem suum in dulce crucis fregerunt melos et totius mundi una vox Christus est.
5. Quid agimus, anima ?
Quo nos vertimus ?
Quid primum adsumimus ?
Quid tacemus ?
Exciderunt tibi praecepta rhetorum et occupata iuctu, oppressa lacrimis*, praepedita singultibus dicendi ordinem non tenes !
Ubi illud ab infantia studium litterarum et Anaxagorae ac Telamonis semper ' Sciebam me genuisse mortalem laudata sententia :
' ?
Legimus Crantorem, cuius volumen ad confovendum dolorem suum secutus est Cicero, Platonis, Diogenis, Clitomachi, Carneadis, Posidonii ad sedandos luctus opuscula percurrimus, qui diversis aetatibus diversorum lamenta vel libris vel epistulis minuere sunt conati, ut, etiamsi nostrum areret ingenium, de illorum posset fontibus inrigari
: proponunt innumerabiles viros et maxime Periclen et Xenophontem Socraticum, quorum alter amissis 1 A Thracian tribe.
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the passion and the resurrection of Christ.
I say nothing of the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Latins, peoples whom the Lord dedicated to His faith by the inscription on His cross.
That immortality of the soul, and its existence after the dissolution of the body, which Pythagoras dreamed, Democritus would not believe, and Socrates discussed in prison to console himself for his conviction, that is now the common philosophy of Indian and Persian, Egyptian and Goth.
The savage Bessians 1 and their host of skin-clad tribes, who used to offer human sacrifice to the dead, have now dissolved their rough discord into the sweet music of the Cross, and the whole world with one voice cries out, ' Christ.'
What shall we do, O my soul?
Whither shall we turn ?
What theme shall we choose first ?
What shall we omit ?
Have you forgotten the precepts of the rhetoricians, and are you so preoccupied with grief, oppressed with tears, and hindered by sobs that you cannot keep to any ordered narrative ?
Where now is that love of literature which you have cherished from childhood ?
Where is the saying of Anaxagoras and Telamon which you always used ' I knew that I was born a mortal ' ?
I have read Crantor, whose treatise written to comto praise : fort his own grief Cicero imitated.
I have perused those works of Plato, Diogenes, Clitomachus, Carneades, and Posidonius, in which by book or letter they have tried at different times to lessen the sorrow of various persons and to console their grief.
Therefore, even if my own wits were dry, I could water them from these fountains.
They set before us men without number as examples, and particularly Pericles and Socrates' pupil Xeno2 73 K
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duobus filiis coronatus in contione disseruit, alter, cum sacrificans filium in bello audisset occisum, deposuisse coronam dicitur et eandem capiti reposuisse, postquam fortiter in acie dimicantem repperit concidisse.
Quid memorem Romanos duces, quorum virtutibus quasi quibusdam stellis Latinae micant historiae ?
Pulvillus Capitolium dedicans mortuum, ut nuntiabatur, subito filium se iussit absente sepeliri ; Lucius Paulus septem diebus inter duorum exequias filiorum triumphans urbem ingressus est.
Praetermitto Maximos, Catones, Gallos, Pisones, Brutos, Scaevolas, Metellos, Scauros, Marios, Crassos,
Marcellos atque Aufidios, quorum non minor in luctu quam in bellis virtus fuit et quorum orbitates in Consolationis libro Tullius explicavit, ne videar ; quamquam et aliena potius quam nostra quaesisse haec in suggilationem nostri breviter dicta sint, si non praestet fides, quod exhibuit infidelitas.
Igitur ad nostra veniamus.
Non plangam cum lacob et David filios in lege morientes, sed cum Christo in evangelio suscipiam resurgentes. ludaeorum luctus Christianorum gaudium est.
' Ad vesperum demorabitur fletus et ad matutinum 4 Nox praecessit, dies autem adpropinlaetitia.' quavit.'
Unde et Moyses moriens plangitur, Iesus absque funere et lacrimis in monte sepelitur.
Quidquid de scripturis super lamentatione dici potest, in 1 Psalm xxx. 5.
2 Romans, xiii. 12.
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phon.
The first, after the loss of his two sons, put on a garland and addressed a public meeting.
The second was offering sacrifice when news came that his son had been killed in battle ; thereupon, we are told, he took off his sacrificial garland, but replaced it when he heard that he had fallen fighting bravely.
Why should I speak of those Roman leaders whose virtues glitter like stars in the pages of Latin history ?
Pulvillus was dedicating the Capitol when he was ' Bury him,' he said, told that his son had suddenly died.
' without me.'
Lucius Paulus in the week that intervened between the funerals of his two sons entered Rome in triumphal procession.
I pass over the Maximi, the Catos, the Galli, the Pisos, the Bruti, the Scaevolas, the Metelli, the Scauri, the Marii, the Crassi, the Marcelli and the Aufidii, men whose courage was as conspicuous in their sorrows as in their wars.
Cicero has dealt with their bereavements in his book On Consolation , and of them I will say no more, lest I should seem to seek examples from strangers rather than from our own community.
Not but what even this brief reference might serve as a mortification to us, if faith were not to give us what unbelief afforded them.
Let us come then to our people.
I will not weep with Jacob and David for sons who died under the Law, but with Christ I will welcome those who rise again under the Gospel dispensation.
The Jew's mourning is the Christian's joy.
' Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning .' 1
' The night is far spent, the day is at hand.' 2
Wherefore even Moses is lamented when he dies Joshua is buried on a mountain-top without funeral or tears.
All that can be drawn from the Scriptures
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eo libro, quo Paulam Romae consolati sumus, breviter explicavimus.
Nunc nobis per aliam semitam ad eundem locum perveniendum est, ne videamur praeterita et obsoleta quondam calcare vestigia.
7. Scimus quidem Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo et sanctorum mixtum choris, quod nobiscum eminus rimabatur in terris et aestimatione quaerebat,
' Sicut audivimus, ibi videntem comminus dicere : ita et vidimus in civitate domini virtutum, in civitate
Dei nostri,' sed desiderium absentiae eius ferre non possumus, non illius, sed nostram vicem dolentes.
Quanto ille felicior, tanto nos amplius in dolore, quod
tali caremus bono.
Flebant et sorores Lazarum, quern resurrecturum noverant, et, ut veros hominis exprimeret affectus, ipse salvator ploravit, quem suscitaturus erat.
Apostolus quoque eius, qui ' Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo dixerat :
' et ' Mihi vivere Christus est et mori lucrum,' alibi : gratias agit, quod Epaphras de mortis sibi vicinia redditus sit, ne haberet tristitiam super tristitiam, non incredulitatis metu, sed desiderio caritatis.
Quanto magis tu, et avunculus et episcopus, hoc est in carne et in spiritu pater, aves viscera tua et quasi a te divulsa suspiras !
Sed obsecro, ut modum adhibeas in dolore memor illius sententiae :
Ne quid ' obligatoque parumper vulnere audias laudes nimis eius, cuius semper virtute laetatus es, nec doleas, 1 Psalm xlviii. 8.
Pliilippians, i. 23.
3 Philippians, i. 21.
4 The Greek proverb /z^Sev ayav
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on the subject of lamentation I have briefly set out in the letter of consolation which I wrote to Paula at Rome.
Now I must traverse another path to arrive at the same goal, for I would not have people see me treading again an old and used-up track.
We know, indeed, that our dear Nepotian is with Christ, and that he has joined the choirs of the saints.
We know that what here with us on earth he groped after at a distance and sought by guess-work, there he sees face to face and can say :
' As we have heard so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God .' 1
But we cannot bear our regret at his absence, and we grieve not on his account but for ourselves.
The greater his happiness, the deeper our pain in lacking the blessings that he enjoys.
The sisters of Lazarus wept for their brother, although they knew that he would rise again, and the Saviour Himself, to show that He possessed true human feelings, mourned for the man He was going to raise.
His apostle also who said :
' I desire to depart and be with Christ,' 2
' To me to live in Christ and and in another place : to die is gain,' 3 thanks God that Epaphras has been given back to him when he was nigh to death, that he might not have sorrow upon sorrow.
His words were spoken not in unbelieving fear but in loving regret, and how much more keenly must you who were both uncle and bishop, a father both in the flesh and the spirit, deplore a death that meant the rending asunder of your own body.
I beg you, however, to set a limit to your grief and to remember the saying:
' Nothing too much .' 4
Bind up your wound for a little while, and listen to the praises of him in whose virtue you always delighted.
Do not
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quod talem amiseris, sed gaudeas, quod talem habueris, et sicut hi, qui in brevi tabella terrarum situs pingunt, ita in parvo isto volumine cernas adumbrata, non expressa signa virtutum, suscipiasque a nobis non vires, sed voluntatem.
8. Praeeepta sunt rhetorum, ut maiores eius, qui laudandus est, et eorum altius gesta repetantur sicque ad ipsum per gradus sermo perveniat, quo videlicet avitis paternisque virtutibus inlustrior fiat et aut non degenerasse a bonis aut mediocres ipse ornasse videatur.
Ego carnis bona, quae semper et ipse contempsit, in animae laudibus non requiram nee me iactabo de genere, id est de alienis bonis, cum et Abraham et Isaac, sancti viri, Ismahelem et Esau peccatores genuerint et a regione lephte in catalogo iustorum apostoli voce numeratus de meretrice sit ' Anima,' inquit, * quae peccaverit, ipsa natus.
; ergo et, quae non peccaverit, ipsa vivet.
Nee virtutes nee vitia parentum liberis inputantur; morietur ' ab eo tempore censemur, ex quo in Christo renascimur.
Paulus, persecutor ecclesiae et mane lupus rapax Beniamin, ad vesperam dedit escam Ananiae ovi submittens caput.
Igitur et Nepotianus noster quasi infantulus vagiens et rudis puer subito nobis de Iordane nascatur.
1 Ezekiel, xviii. 4.
Cf. p. 158, note 4.
3 Who baptized Paul, cf. Acts, ix. 10 ff.
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grieve that you have lost such a paragon, but rather rejoice that he once was yours.
As men draw a map of the world on one small tablet, so in this little scroll of mine you may see his virtues, not indeed fully delineated but sketched in outline, and will recognize that my will is good even if my strength be lacking.
The rhetoricians' rule is that you should go back to the ancestors of the man you have to praise, and first recount their glorious deeds.
Then gradually you will come to your hero, making him the more illustrious by the virtues of his forefathers, and showing either that he has not degenerated from a worthy stock or that he has brought honour to mediocrity.
I for my part in praising Nepotian's soul shall not trouble about the fleshly advantages which he himself always despised, nor shall I boast of his family, that is, of other people's merits.
Even such holy men as Abraham and Isaac were the fathers of sinners like Ishmael and Esau, while Jephthah, on the other hand, who is reckoned by the apostle in the roll of the righteous, was the son of a harlot.
The Scripture says :
' The soul that sinneth, it shall die .' 1
Therefore, also, the soul that hath not sinned shall live.
Neither the virtues nor the vices of parents are set to the children's account.
That reckoning begins with the hour when we are born again in Christ.
Paul, the persecutor of the Church, who in the morning was Benjamin , 2 a ravening wolf, in the evening bowed his head and gave food to the sheep Ananias . 3
We then also should think of our dear Nepotian as a crying babe or as an innocent child fresh born to us from the waters of Jordan.
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Alius forsitan scriberet, quod ob salutem illius orientem heremumque dimiseris et me, carissimum sodalem tuum, redeundi spe lactaveris, ut primum, si fieri posset, sororem cum parvulo viduam, dein, si consilium ilia respueret, saltern nepotem dulcissimum conservares.
Hie est enim ille, de quo tibi quondam ' Licet parvulus ex collo pendeat vaticinatus sum : nepos.'
Referret, inquam, alius, quod in palatii militia sub chlamyde et candenti lino corpus eius cilicio tritum sit, quod stans ante saeculi potestates lurida ieiuniis ora portaverit, quod adhuc sub alterius indumentis alteri militant et ad hoc habuerit cingulum, ut viduis, pupillis, oppressis, miseris subveniret mihi non placent dilationes istae inperfectae servitutis
Dei et centurionem Cornelium, ut lego iustum, statim audio baptizatum.
10. Verumtamen velut incunabula quaedam nascentis fidei conprobemus, ut, qui sub alienis signis devotus miles fuit, donandus laurea sit, postquam suo regi coeperit militare.
Balteo posito habituque mutato, quidquid castrensis peculii fuit, in pauperes erogavit.
Legerat enim :
' Qui vult perfectus esse, vendat omnia, quae habet, et det pauperibus et sequatur me,' et iterum :
' Non potestis duobus dominis servire, Deo et mammonae.'
Excepta vili tunica et operimento pari, quod tecto tantum corpore frigus excluderet, nihil sibi amplius reservavit.
Cultus ipse provinciae morem sequens nec munditiis
Of. Letter XIV, p. 31.
St. Matthew, xix. 21.
St. Matthew, vi. 24.
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Another might perhaps describe how for his salvation you left the East and the desert, and how you fed me, your dearest comrade, with hopes of your return ; desiring in the first place, if it were possible, to save your widowed sister and her little son, or, if she rejected your counsels, at least to preserve your dear little nephew.
He is the child of whom I once used the prophetic words, ' though your little nephew cling to your neck .' 1
Another, I repeat, might tell how, while he was a soldier at court, beneath his military cloak and white linen tunic his skin was chafed by sackcloth ; how, while he stood before the powers of this world, his lips were pale with fasting ; how, while he wore one master's uniform, he served another ; and how he only wore a sword-belt that he might succour the widow and the fatherless, the wretched and the oppressed.
For my own part I do not like an incomplete or a deferred dedication to God's service, and when I read of the centurion Cornelius that he was a just man I immediately hear of him as being baptized.
Still, we may approve of all this as being the cradlings of a new-born faith.
He who has been a loyal soldier under a foreign banner is sure to deserve the laurel when he begins to serve his own king.
When Nepotian laid aside his soldier's belt and changed his dress, he gave all his army savings ' If thou to the poor.
For he had read the words : wilt be perfect, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor and follow me,' 2 and again:
4 Ye cannot serve two masters, God and Mammon.' 3
He kept nothing for himself except a coarse tunic and cloak to protect him from the cold.
His dress was of provincial cut,
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nec sordibus notabilis erat.
Cumque arderet cotidie aut ad Aegypti monasteria pergere aut Mesopotamiae invisere choros vel certe insularum Dalmatiae, quae
Altino tantum freto distant, solitudines occupare, avunculum pontificem deserere non audebat tota in illo cernens exempla virtutum domique habens, unde disceret.
In uno atque eodem et imitabatur monachum et episcopum venerabatur.
Non, ut in plerisque accidere solet, adsiduitas familiaritatem, familiaritas contemptum illius fecerat, sed ita eum colebat, quasi parentem, ita admirabatur, quasi cotidie novum cerneret.
Quid multa?
Fit clericus et per solitos gradus presbyter ordinatur.
Iesu bone, qui gemitus, qui heiulatus, quae eibi interdictio, quae fuga oculorum omnium !
Turn primum et solum avunculo iratus est.
Querebatur se ferre non posse, et iuvenalem aetatem incongruam sacerdotio causabatur.
Sed quanto plus repugnabat, tanto magis omnium in se studia concitabat et merebatur negando, quod esse nolebat, eoque dignior erat, quod se clamabat indignum.
Vidimus Timotheum nostri temporis et canos in Sapientia electumque a Moysi presbyterum, quern ipse sciret esse presbyterum.
Igitur clericatum non honorem intellegens sed onus primam curam habuit, ut humilitate superaret invidiam, deinde, ut nullam obsceni in se rumoris fabulam daret,
1 Altinum, in Venetia, on the border of the lagoons, and opposite Torcello island, to which the episcopal see was transferred in a.d. 635.
Cf. p. 412, note 1.
3 Wisdom, iv. 9.
* But wisdom is the grey hair unto man, and an unspotted life is old age.'
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not noticeable either for elegance or for shabbiness.
Every day he burned either to go to the monasteries of Egypt, or to visit the saintly companies of Mesopotamia, or at least to take up his dwelling in the lonely spaces of the Dalmatian islands, separated from Altinum only by a strait . 1
But he could not bring himself to desert his episcopal uncle, in whom he saw a pattern of every virtue and from whose lessons he could profit at home.
In one and the same person he had a monk to imitate and a bishop to revere.
With him it was not as so often with many ; intimacy did not breed familiarity, nor familiarity contempt.
He honoured his bishop as though he had been his father; he admired him as though every day he saw in him a new man.
To be brief, Nepotian became a clergyman, and passing through the usual stages was ordained as presbyter . 2 Good Jesus! howhesobbedandgroaned
! how he forbade himself food and fled from the eyes of all !
For the first and only time he was angry with his uncle, complaining that he could not bear his burden and alleging that his youth unfitted him for the priesthood.
But the more he resisted, the more he drew to himself the love of all ; his refusal showed him worthy of the rank he did not wish to take ; all the more worthy indeed because he proclaimed his unworthiness.
We too in our day have had a Timothy before our eyes ; we too have seen the grey hairs of which the Book of Wisdom speaks
our Moses has chosen a presbyter whom he knew to be a presbyter indeed.
Nepotian regarded the clerical office not as an honour but as a burden.
He made it his first care to silence envy by humility, his second to give no ground for scandal against him
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ut, qui mordebantur ad aetatem eius, stuperent ad continentiam.
Subvenire pauperibus, visitare languentes, provocare hospitio, lenire blanditiis, 4 gaudere cum gaudentibus, flere cum flentibus ' caecorum baculus, esurientium cibus, spes miserorum, solamen lugentium fuit.
Ita in singulis virtutibus eminebat, quasi ceteras non haberet.
Inter presbyteros et coaequales primus in opere, extremus in ordine.
Quidquid boni fecerat, ad avunculum referebat ; si quid forte aliter evenerat, quam putarat, ilium nescire, se errasse dicebat.
In publico episcopum, domi patrem noverat.
Gravitatem morum hilaritate frontis temperabat.
Gaudium risu, non cachinno, intellegeres.
Viduas et virgines Christi honorare ut matres, hortari ut sorores cum omni castitate.
Iam vero, postquam domum se contulerat et relicto foris clerico duritiae se tradiderat monachorum, creber in orationibus, vigilans in precando lacrimas Deo, non hominibus, offerebat ; ieiunia in aurigae modum pro lassitudine et viribus corporis moderabatur.
Mensae avunculi intererat et sic adposita quaeque libabat, ut et superstitionem fugeret et continentiam reservaret.
Sermo eius et omne convivium de scripturis aliquid proponere, libenter audire, respondere verecunde, recta suscipere, prava non acriter confutare, dispu1 Rom. xii.
15.
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and by continence to dumbfound those who railed against his youth.
He helped the poor, visited the sick, challenged others to acts of hospitality, soothed men's anger with soft words, ' rejoiced with those who rejoiced and wept with those who wept .' 1
He was a staff to the blind, food to the hungry, hope to the wretched, a consolation to the sorrowful.
Each single virtue was as conspicuous in him as if he possessed no others.
Among his fellow-presbyters and equals in age, he was first in industry, last in rank.
Any good that he did he ascribed to his uncle ; if the result was different from what he had expected, he would say that his uncle knew nothing of the matter and that it was his own mistake.
In public he recognized him as a bishop, at home he treated him as a father.
The gravity of his character was tempered by the cheerfulness of his looks.
A smile, not a guffaw, was the sign that he felt glad.
Widows and Christ's virgins he honoured as mothers, and exhorted as sisters, with all chastity.
On his return home he left the clergyman outside, and submitted himself to the hard rule of a monk.
Frequent in supplication, wakeful in prayer, he offered his tears not to men but to God.
His fasts he regulated, as a charioteer does his pace, by the weariness or the vigour of his body.
He would sit at his uncle's table and just taste the dishes set before him, thus both avoiding superstition and yet keeping to his rule of self-restraint.
His chief topic of conversation and his favourite form of entertainment was to bring forward some passage from the Scriptures for discussion ; then he would listen modestly, answer diffidently, support the right, and mildly refute the wrong, instructing his opponent
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tantem contra se magis docere quam vincere et ingenuo pudore, qui ornabat aetatem, quid cuius esset, simpliciter confiteri ; atque in hunc modum eruditionis gloriam declinando eruditissimus habe- * Tertulliani, istud Cypriani, ' Illud, ' aiebat, batur. hoc Lactantii, illud Hilarii est.
Sic Minucius Felix, ita Victorinus, in hunc modum est locutus Arnobius.'
* Me quoque, quia pro sodalitate avunculi diligebat, interdum proferebat in medium.
Lectione quoque adsidua et meditatione diuturna pectus suum bibliothecam fecerat Christi.
11. Quotiens ille transmarinis epistulis deprecatus est, ut aliquid ad se scriberem !
Quotiens nocturnum de evangelio petitorem et interpellatricem duri iudicis mihi viduam exhibuit !
Cumque ego silentio magis quam litteris denegarem et pudore reticentis pudorem suffunderem postulantis, avunculum mihi opposuit precatorem, qui et liberius pro alio peteret et pro reverentia sacerdotii facilius inpetraret.
Feci ergo, quod voluit, et brevi libello amicitias nostras aeternae memoriae consecravi ; quo suscepto Croesi opes et Darii divitias se vicisse iactabat.
Ilium oculis, ilium sinu, ilium manibus, ilium ore retinebat cumque in strato frequenter evolveret, super pectus soporati dulcis pagina decidebat.
Si vero peregri1 Letter LII.
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rather than vanquishing him.
With the ingenuous modesty which was one of his youthful charms he would frankly confess the source of each argument he used, and in this way by disclaiming any reputation for learning he gradually came to be considered the most learned of us all.
' This,' he would say, ' is Tertullian's view and this is Cyprian's ; this is the opinion of Lactantius and this of Hilary
; such is the doctrine of Minucius Felix, so Victorinus teaches, in this fashion Arnobius speaks.'
Myself too he sometimes quoted, for he loved me because of my association with his uncle.
Indeed, by constant reading and long meditation he had made his mind a library of Christ.
How often did he beg me in his letters from across the sea to write something for him !
How often did he remind me of the man in the Gospel who sought help by night, and of the widow who importuned the harsh judge!
When he found that I did not write and saw himself checked by my silence, the modesty of his request being matched by the modesty of my refusal, he made another move.
He got his uncle to ask on his behalf, knowing that a request for another could be more freely made and that my respect for a bishop would ensure him an easier success.
Accordingly I did what he wished, and in a short treatise 1 dedicated our friendships to eternal remembrance, while he on receiving it boasted that he surpassed the wealth of Croesus and the treasures of Darius.
He would always hold my book in his hands, devour it with his eyes, fondle it in his breast, and repeat it with his lips.
In bed he would frequently undo the roll and fall asleep with the dear page upon his heart.
If a stranger or a friend came
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norum, si amicorum qi ispiam venerat, laetabatur super se nostro testimonio et, quidquid minus in opusculo erat, distinctione moderata et pronuntiationis varietate pensabat, ut in recitando illo ipse 1 vel placere vel displicere cotidie videretur.
Unde his fervor, nisi ex amore Dei ?
Unde legis Christi indefessa meditatio, nisi ex desiderio eius, qui legem dedit?
Alii nummum addant nummo et marsuppium suftbcantes matronarum opes venentur obsequiis, sint ditiores monachi, quam fuerant saeculares, possideant opes sub Christo paupere, quas sub locuplete diabolo non habuerant, et suspiret eos ecclesia divites, quos tenuit mundus ante mendicos
Nepotianus noster aurum calcans scedulas consectatur, sed, sicut sui in carne contemptor est et paupertate incedit ornatior, ita totum ecclesiae investigat ornatum.
12. Ad conparationem quidem superiorum modica sunt, quae dicturi sumus, sed et in parvis idem animus ostenditur.
Ut enim creatorem non in caelo tantum miramur et terra, sole et oceano, elefantis, camelis, equis, bubus, pardis, ursis, leonibus, sed et in minutis quoque animalibus, formica, culice, muscis, vermiculis et istius modi genere, quorum magis corpora scimus quam nomina, eandemque in cunctis veneramur sollertiam, ita mens Christo dedita aeque et in maioribus et in minoribus intenta est sciens etiam pro otioso verbo reddendam esse rationem.
Erat ergo sollicitus, si niteret altare, si parietes absque
ipso : Hilberg.
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in, he rejoiced to show him the evidence of my regard ; and anything lacking in my poor work was compensated for by careful modulation and varied emphasis, so that, when it was read aloud, it was he, not I, who seemed to please or to displease.
Whence could this fervour come save from love of God ?
Whence this tireless meditation on the law of Christ save from longing for Him who gave that law ?
Let others add shilling to shilling, fastening their claws on married ladies' purses and hunting wealth by flattering attentions ; let them be richer as monks than they were as men of the world ; let them possess wealth in the service of a poor Christ such as they never had in the service of a rich devil ; let the Church sigh over the opulence of men who in the world were beggars.
Our dear Nepotian tramples gold underfoot, books are the only things he desires.
But while he despises himself in the flesh and walks abroad in splendid poverty, he yet seeks out everything that may adorn his church.
In comparison with what I have already said the following details are trivial ; but even in small things the same spirit is revealed.
We admire the Creator, not only as the framer of heaven and earth, of sun and ocean, of elephants, camels, horses, oxen, leopards, bears and lions, but also as the maker of tiny creatures, ants, gnats, flies, worms, and the like, things whose shapes we know better than their names.
And as in all creation we reverence His skill, so the mind that is given to Christ is equally earnest in small things as in great, knowing that an account must be given even for an idle word.
Nepotian therefore took anxious pains to keep the altar bright, to have the walls free from soot and the
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fuligine, si pavimenta tersa, si ianitor creber in porta, vela semper in ostiis, si sacrarium mundum, si vasa lucentia ; et in omnes caerimonias pia sollicitudo disposita non minus, non maius neglegebat officium.
Ubicumque eum in ecclesia quaereres, invenires.
Nobilem virum Quintum Fabium miratur antiquitas, qui etiam Romanae scriptor historiae est, sed magis ex pictura quam litteris nomen invenit ; et Beselehel nostrum plenum sapientia et spiritu Dei scriptura testatur, Hiram quoque, filium mulieris Tyriae, quod alter tabernaculi, alter templi supellectilem fabricati sunt.
Quomodo enim laetae segetes et uberes agri interdum culmis aristisque luxuriant, ita praeclara ingenia et mens plena virtutibus in variarum artium redundat elegantiam.
Unde apud Graecos philosophus ille laudatur, qui omne, quod uteretur, usque ad pallium et anulum manu sua factum gloriatus est.
Hoc idem possumus et de isto dicere, qui basilicas ecclesiae et martyrum conciliabula diversis floribus et arborum comis vitiumque pampinis adumbraret, ut, quidquid placebat in ecclesia tarn dispositione quam visu, laborem presbyteri et studium testaretur.
13. Macte virtute.
Cuius talia principia, qualis finis erit?
O miserabilis humana condicio et sine Christo vanum omne, quod vivimus.
Quid te sub1 Jerome here confuses C. Fabius Pictor the painter (fl. 300) with his grandson Quintus the historian.
2 Exodus, xxxi. 2, 3 ; 1 Kings, vii. 14.
3 Hippias of Elis.
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pavement duly swept.
He saw to it that the doorkeeper was constantly at his post, that the curtains were hanging at the entrance, that the sanctuary was neat, and the church-vessels brightly polished.
His careful reverence extended to every form of ceremonial, and no duty , small or great, was neglected.
Whenever you looked for him in his church, there you found him.
In Quintus Fabius 1 antiquity admired a man of rank, who not only wrote a history of Rome but won even greater fame from his paintings than from his books.
Our own Bezaleel also and Hiram ,
the son of a Tyrian woman, are spoken of in Scripture as men filled with wisdom and the spirit of God, because one made the furniture of the tabernacle, the other that of the temple.
As rich crops and fertile fields are at times one great luxuriance of stalk and ear, so great talents and minds that are filled with virtue overflow into a variety of elegant accomplishments.
So among the Greeks the great philosopher 3 was praised, who boasted that he had made with his own hands everything which he used, including his cloak and his finger-ring.
We can say the same about Nepotian, for he adorned the church-buildings and the halls of the martyrs with different kinds of flowers and with the foliage of trees and clusters of vine leaves.
Indeed, everything in his church that pleased by its arrangement or its appearance bore witness to the labour and the zeal of its presbyter.
A blessing on such virtue !
After such a beginning what sort of ending should we expect ?
How miserable is the condition of man, how vain is all our life without Christ !
Why do you shrink, O my words,
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trahis, quid tergiversaris, oratio?
Quasi enim mortem illius differe possimus et vitam facere longiorem, sic timemus ad ultimum pervenire.
' Omnis caro faenum et omnis gloria eius quasi flos faeni.'
Ubi nunc decora ilia facies, ubi totius corporis dignitas, quo veluti pulchro indumento pulchritudo animae vestiebatur ?
Marcescebat, pro dolor, flante austro lilium et purpura violae in pallorem sensim migrabat.
Cumque aestuaret febribus et venarum fontes hauriret calor, lasso anhelitu tristem avunculum consolabatur.
Laetus erat vultus et universis circa plorantibus solus ipse ridebat.
Proicere pallium, manus extendere, videre, quod alii non videbant, et quasi in occursum se erigens salutare venientes intellegeres ilium non emori, sed migrare, et mutare amicos, non relinquere.
Volvuntur per ora lacrimae et obfirmato animo non queo dolorem dissimulare, quern patior.
Quis crederet in tali ilium tempore nostrae necessitudinis recordari et luctante anima studiorum scire dulcedinem ?
Adprehensa avunculi manu :
' Hanc,' inquit, ' tunicam, qua utebar in ministerio Christi, mitte dilectissimo mihi, aetate patri, fratri collegio, et, quidquid a te nepoti debebatur affectus, in ilium transfer, quern mecum pariter diligebas.'
Atque in talia verba defecit avunculum manu, me recordatione contrectans.
14.
Scio, quod nolueris amorem in te civium sic probare, et affectum patriae magis quaesisse in
1 Peter, i. 24.
Cf. p. 464, note 3.
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why do you hesitate ?
I fear to come to the end, as though I could put off his death and make his ' All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass .' 1
Where now is that comely face, where is that dignified figure, which clothed his fair soul as with a fair garment ?
O life longer. grief! the lily withered when the south wind blew, and the violet's purple slowly faded into paleness.
He burned with fever, and all the moisture in his veins was dried up with heat, but gasping and weary he still tried to comfort his uncle's grief.
His face was bright, and while all around him wept, he alone smiled . 2
Suddenly he flung off his cloak and stretched out his hands, seeing something that was not revealed to others' eyes, and raising himself up as though to meet them he greeted those that were coming to him.
You would have thought that he was starting on a journey, not dying, and that he was exchanging friends, not leaving friends behind.
The tears roll down my face, and though I steel my courage I cannot hide the pain which I suffer.
Who would believe that in such an hour he still remembered our friendship, and that while he was struggling for life he still recalled the delights of study ?
Grasping ' Send this tunic which I wore in the service of Christ to my beloved friend, my father in age and my brother in office, and any his uncle's hand he said : affection due to your nephew transfer to him, who is as dear to you as he is to me.'
With these words he passed away, his uncle's hand in his, and thoughts of me in his heart.
I know that you were reluctant to prove your people's love at such a cost, and that you would have preferred to win your country's affection under
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prosperis.
Sed huiusce modi officium in bonis iucundius est, in malis gratius.
Tota hunc civitas, tota planxit Italia.
Corpus terra suscepit, anima Christo reddita est.
Tu nepotem quaerebas, ecclesia sacerdotem.
Praecessit te successor tuus.
Quod tu eras, ille post te iudicio omnium merebatur.
Atque ita ex una domo duplex pontificatus egressa est dignitas : dum in altero gratulatio est, quod tenuerit, in altero maeror, quod raptus sit, ne teneret.
Platonis sententia est omnem sapienti vitam meditationem esse mortis.
Laudant hoc philosophi et in caelum ferunt, sed multo fortius apostolus :
' Cotidie,'
' morior per vestram gloriam.'
Aliud est inquit, conari, aliud agere ; aliud vivere rnoriturum, aliud mori victurum.
Ille moriturus ex gloria est ; iste moritur semper ad gloriam.
Debemus igitur et nos animo praemeditari, quod aliquando futuri sumus et quod—velimus nolimus— abesse longius non potest.
Nam si nongentos vitae excederemus annos, ut ante diluvium vivebat humanum genus, et Mathusalae nobis tempora donarentur, tamen nihil esset praeterita longitudo, quae esse desisset.
Etenim inter eum, qui decern vixit annos, et ilium, qui mille, postquam idem vitae finis advenerit et inrecusabilis mortis necessitas,
Plato, Phaedo, 81 a, says of the philosophic life : r/ ov tout' dv elrj fieXeTr} davarou
1 Corinthians, xv.
: yrj ttjv v/xerepav Kav^-qoiv rjv e\co iv
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happier circumstances.
But such dutiful attentions as were shown you then, while more pleasant in prosperity, are especially grateful in times of grief.
All Altinum, all Italy wept for your nephew.
The earth received his body, his soul was given back to Christ.
You lost a nephew, the Church a priest.
He who should have followed you went before you.
What you were, he in all men's judgment deserved to be.
One household has had the honour of producing two bishops, the first congratulated on having held office, the second lamented on being taken away before he could hold it.
There is a saying of Plato that a wise man's whole life should be a preparation for death . 1
Philosophers praise the sentiment and laud it to the skies, but the apostle speaks with a higher courage when he says :
' By my glory in you I die daily.' 2
It is one thing to attempt, another to do ; one thing to live so as to die, another to die so as to live.
The sage passes from glory when death comes, the Christian proceeds to glory when he dies.
Therefore we too ought to meditate beforehand, and to consider the fate which must one day come upon us, a fate which, whether we wish it or not, cannot be very far distant.
Even if we lived for nine hundred years and more, as men did before the flood, even if the age of Methuselah were granted to us, that length of time once passed would be nothing when it had ceased to be.
Between the man who has lived for ten years and the man who has lived for a thousand, there is no difference when once the end of life has come to both alike and death's inexorable necessity.
The only point is that vfi.Lv.
But Jerome takes advantage of the Vulgate version to play on the phrases per gloriam, ex gloria, ad gloriam.
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transactum omne tantundem est, nisi quod magis senex onustus peccatorum fasce proficiscitur.
' Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit, subeunt morbi tristisque senectus Et labor et durae rapit inclementia mortis.'
' necesse est multa mortalem mala.'
Unde et Niobam, qui multum ' Pati,' inquit, Naevius poeta fleverit in lapidem et in diversas bestias {conversas alias et Hecubam in canem) commutatam finxit antiquitas, et.Hesiodus natales hominum plangens gaudet in funere, prudenterque Ennius :
' Plebes,' ait, ' in hoc regio antistat loco : licet Lacrimare plebi, regi honeste non licet.'
Ut regi, sic episcopo, immo minus regi quam episcopo.
Ule enim nolentibus praeest, hie volentibus ; ille terrore subicit, hie servitute dominatur
; ille corpora custodit ad mortem, hie animas servat ad vitam.
In te omnium oculi diriguntur, domus tua et conversatio quasi in specula constitute magistra est publicae disciplinae.
Quidquid feceris, id sibi omnes faciendum putant.
Cave ne committas, quod aut, qui reprehendere volunt, digne lacerasse videantur aut, qui imitari, cogantur delinquere.
Vince quantum potes, immo plus quam potes, mollitiem animi tui et ubertim fluentes lacrimas reprime, ne grandis pietas in nepotem apud incredulas mentes desperatio putetur in Deum.
Desiderandus tibi est quasi 1 The best reading is regi.
VirgiJ, Georgies , III. 66.
2 Ennius, Iphigenia, fr. 7.
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the older a man is, the heavier is the load of sin he takes with him on his journey.
* O hapless men ! the brightest years are first To fly : disease and age come on us soon And trouble and the ruthlessness of death .' 1
' Mortals perforce must many ills endure.'
Therefore antiquity feigned that Niobe, because of her long weeping, was turned So the poet Naevius says : into stone, and that other women were changed into various kinds of animals, Hecuba, for example, into a dog.
Hesiod too bewails men's birthdays and rejoices at their death, and Ennius wisely says
' The mob in this outvies the kingly state, For they may weep ; tears to a king are shame.' 2
As with a king, so with a bishop : or rather a bishop has less licence than a king.
The king rules over the unwilling, the bishop over the willing.
The king subdues by inspiring fear, the bishop is master because he is servant.
The king guards bodies for future death, the bishop saves souls for eternal life.
The eyes of all men are turned upon you, your house is set as it were upon a watch-tower, and your life gives to all a lesson of public discipline.
Whatever you do, everyone thinks that he may do also.
Take care not to commit any act which those who wish to blame you may seem right in censuring, or which would force those who wish to imitate you to do wrong.
Use all your strength, and even more, to overcome the softness of your heart, and check the copious flood of your tears lest your great love for your nephew be taken by unbelievers as showing despair of God.
You must regret him not as one
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absens, non quasi mortuus, ut ilium expectare, non amisisse videaris.
15. Verum quid ago medens dolori, quem iam reor et tempore et ratione sedatum, ac non potius replico tibi vicinas regum miserias et nostri temporis calamitates, ut non tarn plangendus sit, qui hac luce caruerit, quam congratulandum ei, quod de tantis malis evaserit ?
Constantius, Arrianae fautor hereseos, dum contra inimicum paratur et concitus fertur ad pugnam, in Mopsi viculo moriens magno dolore hosti reliquit imperium.
Iulianus, perditor animae suae et Christiani iugulator exercitus, Christum sensit in Media, quem primum in Gallia denegarat ; dumque Romanos propagare vult fines, perdidit propagates, lovianus gustatis tantum regalibus bonis fetore prunarum suffocatus interiit ostendens omnibus, quid sit humana potentia.
Valentinianus vastato genitali solo et inultam patriam dereliquens vomitu sanguinis extinctus est.
Huius germanus Valens Gothico bello victus in Thracia eundem locum et mortis habuit et sepulchri.
Gratianus ab exercitu suo proditus et ab obviis urbibus non receptus ludibrio hosti fuit cruentaeque manus vestigia parietes tui, Lugdune, testantur.
Adulescens Valentinianus et paene puer post fugam, post exilia, post recuperatum multo sanguine imperium haut procul ab urbe
1 The Emperors here mentioned followed one another in quick succession.
Constantius died in 361 while marching to Constantinople to resist Julian.
Julian was killed fighting the Persians in 363, and was succeeded by Jovian who only reigned a few months.
His place was taken in the West by Valentinian (364-375), and in the East by Valens (364-378), while Gratian, who came next, was murdered at Lyons in 383.
Procopius, Maximus and Eugenius were usurpers of short duration, overthrown by Theodosius the Great (379-395).
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who is dead, but as one who has gone away.
Let men see that you have not lost him, but are waiting to see him again.
But what am I doing in thus seeking to heal a pain which I imagine has already been assuaged by time and philosophy ? Why do I not rather unfold to you the miseries of kings 1 in our near neighbourhood and the disasters that have come upon our age ?
He who has escaped from this world's light is not so much to be lamented as he is to be congratulated on having been saved from such great evils.
Constantius, the patron of the Arian heresy, was making preparations against his enemy and advancing in haste to give him battle, when he died at the village of Mopsus, and to his great grief left the empire to the foe.
Julian, the betrayer of his own soul, the assassin of a Christian army, felt in Media the power of that Christ whom in Gaul he had denied, and while he was trying to extend the territories of Rome he lost the annexations which had already been made.
Jovian had but just tasted the sweets of kingship when he was suffocated by a coal fire, revealing to all men the true nature of human power.
Valentinian died of a broken blood-vessel, leaving his country unavenged and his native soil devastated.
His brother Valens was defeated in the Gothic war, and in Thrace was buried where he fell.
Gratian, betrayed by his own army and refused admittance by all the cities which he approached, became the laughing-stock of the enemy : your walls, O Lyons, still bear the mark of that bloody hand.
Valentinian was but a youth, hardly more than a boy, when, after flight and exile and the recovery of his throne amid streams of blood, he was murdered not far
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fraternae mortis conscia necatus est et cadaver exanimis infamatum suspendio.
Quid loquar de Procopio, Maximo, Eugenio, qui utique, dum rerum potirentur, terrori gentibus erant ?
Omnes capti steterunt ante ora victorum et, quod potentissimis quondam miserrimum est, prius ignominia servitutis quam hostili mucrone confossi sunt.
' Regum talis condicio est, " feriuntque summos fulgura montes."
16.
Dicat aiiquis :
Ad privatas veniam dignitates nec de his loquar, qui excedunt biennium ; atque, ut ceteros praetermittam, sufficit nobis trium nuper consularium diversos exitus scribere.
Abundantius egens Pityunte exulat Rufini caput pilo Constantinopolin gestatum est et abscissa manus dextera ad dedecus insatiabilis avaritiae ostiatim stipes mendicavit ; Timasius praecipitatus repente de altissimo dignitatis gradu vivit inglorius.
Non calamitates miserorum, sed fragilem humanae condievasisse se putat, quod Assae cionis narro statum—horret animus temporum nostrorum ruinas prosequi—viginti et eo amplius anni sunt, quod inter Constantinopolin et Alpes Iulias cotidie Romanus sanguis effunditur.
Scythiam, Thraciam, Macedoniam, Thessaliam, Dardaniam, Daciam, Epiros, Dalmatiam, cunctasque Pannonias
Gothus, Sarmata, Quadus, Alanus, Huni, Vandali, Marcomanni vastant, trahunt, rapiunt.
Quot ma-
in Oase :
Hilberg.
1 Horace, Odes, II. x. 11.
2 Banished c. 396 to Pityus on the Black Sea by Eutropius, whom he had helped to raise to power.
3 Prime Minister of Theodosius I, assassinated by Gainas in the reign of Arcadius.
4 A general of Theodosius banished by Eutropius.
3°o
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from the city which had witnessed his brother's death, and suffered the shame of having his corpse hung from a gibbet.
Why speak of Procopius, Maximus, and Eugenius, who, while they ruled at any rate, were a terror to the nations ?
They all stood as prisoners in the presence of their conquerors, and—fate most wretched for those who had once been supreme !—felt their hearts stabbed by the shame of slavery before they perished by the enemy's sword.
* Such is the lot of kings, " the lightnings strike the mountain tops."
Some one may say :
' 1
I will come, then, to persons of private rank, and even in their case I will not go back for more than two years.
Omitting any others, it is sufficient for me to record the diverse ends of three men recently of consular position.
Abundantius 2 is now a beggar and lives in exile at Pityus.
The head of Rufinus 3 was carried on a pike to Constantinople, and to shame his insatiable greed his severed hand begged for pence from door to door.
Timasius 4 was hurled down suddenly from a post of the highest dignity, and thinks it an escape that he now lives in obscurity at Assa.
I will say no more of the calamities of individuals ; I come now to the frail fortunes of human life, and my soul shudders to recount the downfall of our age.
For twenty years and more the blood of Romans has every day been shed between Constantinople and the Julian Alps.
Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Dardania, Dacia, Epirus, Dalmatia, and all the provinces of Pannonia, have been sacked, pillaged and plundered by Goths and Sarmatians,
Quadians and Alans, Huns and Vandals and Mar3 01
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tronae, quot virgines Dei et ingenua nobiliaque corpora his beluis fuere ludibrio !
Capti episcopi, interfecti presbyteri et diversorum officia clericorum, subversae ecclesiae, ad altaria Christi stabulati equi, martyrum effossae reliquae : ubique luctus, 4 et plurima mortis imago.'
Romanus ubique gemitus orbis ruit et tamen cervix nostra erecta non flectitur.
Quid putas nunc animi habere Corinthios, Athenienses, Lacedaemonios, Arcadas cunctamque Graeciam, quibus imperant barbari ?
Et certe paucas urbes nominavi, in quibus olim fuere regna non modica.
Inmunis ab his malis videbatur oriens et tantum nuntiis consternatus : ecce tibi anno praeterito ex ultimis Caucasi rupibus inmissi in nos non
Arabiae, sed septentrionis lupi tantas brevi provincias percucurrerunt.
Quot monasteria capta, quantae fluviorum aquae humano cruore mutatae sunt !
Obsessa Antiochia et urbes reliquae, quas Halys, Cydnus, Orontes Eufratesque praeterfluunt.
Tracti greges captivorum ; Arabia, Phoenix, Palaestina, Aegyptus timore captivae.
* Non mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum, Ferrea vox, Omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possim.'
Virgil, Aeneid, II. 369.
a.d. 395.
Virgil, Aeneid, VI. 625.
LETTER LX
comanni.
How many matrons, how many of God's virgins, ladies of gentle birth and high position, have been made the sport of these beasts
Bishops have been taken prisoners, presbyters and other clergymen of different orders murdered.
Churches have been overthrown, horses stabled at Christ's altar, the relics of martyrs dug up.
' Sorrow and grief on every side we see And death in many a shape.' 1
The Roman world is falling, and yet we hold our heads erect instead of bowing our necks.
What, think you, are the feelings of the Corinthians, the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians, the Arcadians, and all the other Greeks over whom barbarians now are ruling ?
I have only mentioned a few cities certainly, but they were once the -seats of no small powers.
The East seemed to be immune from these dangers and was only dismayed by the news that reached her.
But lo ! last year 2 the wolves—not of Arabia, but from the far north—were let loose upon us from the distant crags of Caucasus, and in a short time overran whole provinces.
How many monasteries did they capture, how many rivers were reddened with men's blood!
They besieged Antioch and all the other cities on the Halys, Cydnus, Orontes, and Euphrates.
They carried off troops of captives.
Arabia, Phoenicia, Palestine and Egypt in their terror felt themselves already enslaved.
* Had I a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, A voice of brass, I could not tell the names
Of all those punishments.' 3
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Neque enim historiam proposui scribere, sed nostras breviter flere miserias.
Alioquin ad haec merito explicanda et Thucydides et Sallustius muti sunt.
17.
Felix Nepotianus, qui haec non videt; felix, qui ista non audit.
Nos miseri, qui aut patimur aut patientes fratres nostros tanta perspicimus ; et tamen vivere volumus eosque, qui his carent, flendos potius quam beandos putamus.
Olim offensum sentimus nec placamus Deum.
Nostris peccatis barbari fortes sunt, nostris vitiis Rornanus superatur exercitus ; et quasi non hoc sufficeret cladibus plus paene bella civilia quam hostilis mucro consumpsit.
Miseri Israhelitae, ad quorum conparationem Nabuchodonosor servus Dei scribitur ; infelices nos, qui tantum displicemus Deo, ut per rabiem barbarorum illius in nos ira desaeviat.
Ezechias egit paenitentiam, et centum octoginta quinque milia Assyriorum ab uno angelo una nocte deleta sunt ; Iosaphat laudes domino concinebat, et dominus pro laudante superabat ; Moyses contra Amalech non gladio sed oratione pugnavit.
Si erigi volumus, prosternamur.
Pro pudor et stolida usque ad incredulitatem mens !
Rornanus exercitus, victor orbis et dominus, ab his vincitur, hos pavet, horum terretur aspectu, qui ingredi non valent, qui, si terram tetigerint, se mortuos arbitrantur, et non intellegimus prophetarum ' nec ampu- ' fugient mille uno persequente voces :
1 Jeremiah, xxvii. 6.
3 2 Chron., xx. 5 ff.
l.e. the Huns.
2 2 Kings, xix. 35.
4 Exodus, xvii, 11.
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But I did not propose to write a history :
I only wished briefly to lament our miseries.
In any case, if it came to telling this tale adequately, even Thucydides and Sallust would have no voice.
Happy is Nepotian, for he does not see these sights nor hear those cries.
We are the unhappy, who either suffer ourselves or see our brothers suffer so much.
And yet we wish to go on living, and think that those who have escaped from these evils are to be lamented rather than counted happy.
For a long time now we have felt that God is offended with us, but we do not try to appease Him.
It is by reason of our sins that the barbarians are strong, it is our vices that bring defeat to the armies of Rome; and as if this were not enough of carnage, civil wars have spilt almost more blood than the enemy's sword.
Miserable were the Israelites, in comparison with whom Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God :
1 unhappy are we, who have so displeased God that His anger vents its fury on us by the barbarians' mad attacks.
Hezekiah repented, and one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians were destroyed by one angel in a night . 2
Jehosaphat sang the praises of the Lord, and the Lord gave his worshipper the victory . 3
Moses fought against Amalek, not with the sword, but with prayer . 4
If we wish to be lifted up, let us first prostrate ourselves.
Shame on us who are too stupid for belief!
The soldiers of Rome, who once subdued and ruled the world, now are conquered by these men, tremble and shrink in fear from these who cannot walk on foot and think themselves as good as dead if once they are unhorsed . 5
We do not understand the prophet's words :
' One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of 3°5 L
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tamus causas morbi, ut morbus pariter auferatur, statimque cernamus sagittas pilis, tiaras galeis, caballos equis cedere ?
18. Excessimus consolandi modum, et, dum unius mortem Here prohibemus, totius orbis mortuos planximus.
Xerxes, ille rex potentissimus, qui subvertit montes, maria constravit, cum de sublimi loco infinitam hominum multitudinem et innumerabilem vidisset exercitum, flesse dicitur, quod post centum annos nullus eorum, quos tunc cernebat, superfuturus esset.
O si possemus in talem ascendere speculam, de qua universam terram sub nostris pedibus cerneremus !
Iam tibi ostenderem totius mundi ruinas, gentes gentibus et regnis regna conlisa ; alios torqueri, alios necari, alios obrui fluctibus, alios ad servitutem trahi ; hie nuptias, ibi planctum ; illos nasci, istos mori ; alios affluere divitiis, alios mendicare ; et non Xerxis tantum exercitum, sed totius mundi homines, qui nunc vivunt, in brevi spatio defuturos.
Vincitur sermo rei magnitudine et minus est omne quod dicimus.
19. Redeamus igitur ad nos et quasi e caelo descendentes paulisper nostra videamus.
Sentisne, obsecro te, quando infans, quando puer, quando iuvenis, quando robustae aetatis, quando senex factus sis ?
Cotidie morimur, cotidie commutamur et tamen aeternos esse nos credimus.
Hoc ipsum, quod dicto, quod scribitur, quod relego, quod emendo, 1 cernimus : Hilberg.
Isaiah, xxx. 17.
2 That is to say, the enemy weapons would give way to the Roman.
3 Herodotus, VII. 45.
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one .' 1
We do not cut away the causes of our malady, and thereby remove the malady itself.
Then we should see arrows give way to javelins, caps to helmets, and nags to chargers . 2
I have passed beyond the limits of consolation, and in forbidding you to weep for one man's death
I have mourned for the dead of the whole world.
That mighty king Xerxes, who overthrew mountains and turned the sea into solid ground, when from his high place he looked upon his infinite multitudes and his countless host of men, is said to have wept at the thought that not one of those whom he saw would in a hundred years be alive . 3
Oh, if we could ascend into such a watch-tower as would give us a view of the whole world spread beneath our feet
Then I would show you a universe in ruins, peoples warring against peoples, and kingdoms shattered on kingdoms.
You would see some men being tortured, some killed, others drowned at sea, others dragged off to slavery ; here a wedding, there lamentation ; some being born, others dying ; some living in affluence, others begging their bread
; not merely Xerxes' army, but the inhabitants of the whole world now alive destined soon to pass away.
Words fail ; for language is inadequate to the greatness of this theme.
Let us return then to ourselves, and coming down from the skies consider for a moment our own position.
Are you conscious now, pray, of the time when you were an infant, or of the stages you have passed from boyhood to manhood, from maturity to old age ?
Every day we die, every day we are changed, and yet we believe ourselves to be eternal.
This very act of dictation, writing, revising and 3 ° 7
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de vita mea trahitur.
Quot puncta notarii, tot meorum damna sunt temporum.
Scribimus atque rescribimus, transeunt maria epistulae et fidente sulcos carina per singulos fluctus aetatis nostrae momenta minuuntur.
Solum habemus lucri, quod ' Caritas patiens est, benigna est ; caritas non zelatur, non agit perperam, non inflatur, omnia sustinet, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia patitur ; caritas numquam excidit.'
Haec semper vivit in pectore ; ob hanc Nepotianus noster absens praesens est et per tanta terrarum spatia divisos utraque conplectitur manu.
Habemus mutuae obsidem caritatis.
Iungamur spiritu, stringamur affectu et fortitudinem mentis, quam beatus papa Chromatius ostendit in dormitione germani, nos imitemur in filio.
Ilium nostra pagella decantet, ilium cunctae litterae sonent.
Quern corpore non valemus, recordatione teneamus et, cum quo loqui non possumus, de eo numquam loqui desinamus.
Christi nobis amore sociamur.
LXXVII Ad Oceanum de Morte Fabiolae 1. Plures anni sunt, quod super dormitione Blesillae Paulam, venerabilem feminam, recenti
1 Corinthians, xiii. 4, 7.
2 Bishop of Aquileia, d. c. 407
: his brother Eusebius was also a bishop.
Cf. Letter VII.
The title "Pope," at first applied to the " spiritual father," who was the means of a man's conversion, later became restricted first to bishops and abbots, then to the Bishop of Rome and the patriarchs of Alexandria,
Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople, and finally after 1073 was claimed exclusively for the Bishop of Rome.
3 This letter, addressed to Oceanus, and written in a.d. 399, gives an account of the life of Fabiola, one of the rich Roman matrons who took Jerome as their spiritual guide.
She 3°8
LETTER LX AND LETTER LXXVII
correction is something taken from my span.
Every stroke of my secretary's pen is so much loss of life for me.
We write letters and send replies, our messages cross the seas, and as the ship cleaves a furrow through the waves the moments that we have to live grow less.
We have but one profit : we are joined together by the love of Christ.
' Charity suffereth long and is kind ; charity envieth not charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up
; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth .' 1
It lives ever in the heart, and by it our Nepotian is present though absent, and grasps us each by a hand, severed as we are in distant lands.
We have in him a pledge of our mutual love.
Let us join in spirit, let us bind ourselves together in affection's chains, and let us who have lost a son take pattern by the courage that the blessed Pope Chromatius 2 showed when his brother fell asleep.
Let our pages chant his praise, let every letter echo his name.
We cannot have him in the body, but let us hold him fast in remembrance.
We cannot speak with him, but let u« never cease to speak of him.
LETTER LXXVII
To OCEANUS 3 ON THE DEATH OF FaBIOLA
Many years have passed since I consoled the venerated Paula, while her wound was still fresh, divorced her first husband and then married again, but did penance for this error and visited the Holy Land, where she was staying with Jerome when the Huns invaded Palestine. She then returned to Rome, and in conjunction with Pammachius, the widowed husband of the rich Paulina, established a hostel for travellers at Ostia just before her death.
Cf. App., p. 486.
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adhuc vulnere consolatus sum.
Quartae aestatis circulus volvitur, ex quo ad Heliodorum episcopum Nepotiani scribens epitaphium, quidquid habere virium potui, in ilk* tunc dolore consumpsi.
Ante hoc ferme biennium Pammachio meo pro subita peregrinatione Paulinae brevem epistulam dedi erubescens ad disertissimum virum plura loqui et ei sua ingerere, ne non tam consolari amicum viderer, quam stulta iactantia docere perfectum.
Nunc mihi, fili Oceane, volenti et ultro adpetenti debitum munus inponis, quod pro novitate virtutum veterem materiam novam faciam.
In illis enim vel parentis affectus vel maeror avunculi vel desiderium mariti temperandum fuit et pro diversitate personarum diversa de scripturis adhibenda medicina.
2. In praesentiarum tradis mihi Fabiolam, laudem Christianorum, miraculum gentilium, luctum pauperum, solacium monachorum.
Quidquid primum adripuero, sequentium conparatione vilescit.
Ieiunium praedicem ?
Praevertunt elemosynae. Humilitatem laudem ?
Maior est ardor fidei.
Dicam adpetitas sordes et in condemnationem vestium sericarum plebeium cultum et servilia indumenta quaesita ?
Plus est animum deposuisse quam cultum.
DifRcilius adrogantia quam auro caremus et gemmis.
His enim abiectis interdum gloriosis tumemus sordibus et vendibilem paupertatem populari aurae
1 Letter XXXIX.
2 Letter LX.
3 Letter LXVI.
3 IQ