Letter 2019: I overflow with joy, and happiness does not limp.

Ennodius to Constantius. I overflow with joy, and the assurance of my gladness is not lame, for the very reason that certain contests arise through diabolical inspiration, so that you, who have carried yourself beyond the correction of all men, may rejoice in the honor of triumph. Liguria is not, as I see, exhausted: even in the extremity of the ages it has not laid aside its nobility of bringing forth; it still nourishes, even among its ashes, a conflagration hostile to vices, in whose embers the avenging flame of crimes does not die, nor is the fire that is enemy to errors covered over. How greatly I feared that it might be at rest, as though drained dry, while anxiously and as it were weighing the matter I beheld the face of your letter darkened by another's deceptions, in the manner of a startled parent who, when he sends his dear pledge off to war, does not allow himself to feel sure even of a valor already proven. To the increase of his anxieties he counts up the triumphs of his son, not his repose: he fears all the more for a happiness already tested, since affection ministers dread to him, because a mind schooled by victories knows nothing of caution, and on the field the love of praise is forgetfulness of safety. The taste of the trophy commands that the love of life be renounced: the savor of life possesses only those who have learned no good things coming from conflicts: there is ever joined to glory whatever has departed from concern for one's own preservation. But for the present I must forbear writing in this fashion. The contests of our soldier ought to be asserted rather than proclaimed. Where there is need of javelins, words contribute nothing. Granted that it has been a matter of publishing my own opinion while I proclaim yours, and that this is to answer, namely to praise the answers given: yet, having prayed for God's help, I append words that will serve the faith, turning my pen's cultivation to him who, whenever the unhappy earth must be inscribed with curved plowshares, promises that he will bestow seeds upon his servants which they may sow, saying: "Do not consider what you shall speak: for it is your Father who speaks in you." Let him therefore come to ratify the truth of the promise, and let him himself steady the faltering infancy of my mouth, so that the framing of our rambling may not seem inhuman. But why do I circle about with things that must be repeated at length? One thing I ask, that the replies be assessed according to my poor measure, and that what I do not know be not thought to be wanting to either the reading or the defense. So then, as you attest in writing, a man has been found who, under this pretext, would sift the servants of Christ, just as he himself promised it would be done, asserting that liberty of choosing has been given to man in one part only, the worse one? O schismatic proposition, which according to the Apocalypse has blasphemies written upon its forehead! Let him explain, if he can, what this liberty is, where this alone is granted, namely to will what brings punishment; or why he names it choice, where he asserts that one part only was conceded? But if this stood firm in truth, the divine judgments would have no place. For what good would our God rightly seek from us, he who had withdrawn the desire of it from the will? But according to the Apostle: is God unjust? Far from it. If among men he departs from a right disposition who exacts from his subjects what he did not grant within their power, consider with what conscience this could be supposed of God. Where is that saying of the Apostle who cries out and bears witness on behalf of the liberty of choice: "To will is present with me, but to accomplish I find not"? What else is this but to say: I know how to choose the right road, but unless heavenly grace help me as I enter upon it, I shall grow weary? No one doubts, no one condemns, that the path of equity is opened to men with grace as author and witness and the agent itself. For grace is the leader and forerunner of good things, when we are invited from heaven to rest by manifold exhortation, when it is said to us: "Come, sons, hear me." "Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you." "Where I am, there also shall my minister be." But unless our will, which is free, and our labor render obedience to such admonitions, we are rolled down to peril and to Gehenna by no command, but of our own accord. And so either devotion works a reward or contempt a punishment. Otherwise there will be no just recompense, which is either rendered through torments to those who sin by necessity, or offers good wages to a work to which men are dragged unwilling. Therefore we owe to grace that we are called, we owe to grace that, unless we resist, the vital savor is poured into us by hidden paths: yet it is of our own choosing that we pursue the benefits shown to us. For the way of crimes is read to be not our mistress, but our handmaid, when it is said concerning sins: "Under you shall be their desire." What too does the prophet's whole utterance mean, garlanded as it were with wreaths: "Do not be envious among evildoers." "Do not put your trust in princes." "Do not become like the horse and the mule"; and the Apostle: "Do not become the servants of men"? To what does "do not" so often look in the heavenly admonition, if it was not permitted to will otherwise? Furthermore, although it be in the person of Christ, yet the same prophet furnishes us testimony on behalf of choice through his liberty: "That I might do your will, my God, I willed," and elsewhere: "Freely will I sacrifice to you," and: "My vows I will render to the Lord," and again: "Vow and render." But that example of the blessed Apostle by which he believes himself fortified makes with us, if one attend to what follows, when, an enemy to arrogance, he said: "By the grace of God I am what I am." For at once, lest he be thought so to flee glory that he departed by a long interval from the truth, the wise architect added: "I have labored more abundantly than all, and the grace of God in me has not been wanting," which is to have said: he found Christ in me, whom he might worthily and abundantly reward. For the divine grace is not poor, but it is reckoned to be thinned by a certain leanness or slenderness of our merits. It is then esteemed not to flow by its own channels, when from its courses the vein of our dryness receives nothing. O if only the narrowness of a letter would allow the secrets of the sacred volumes to be unsealed! But I fear lest one who, with God inspiring, will be able to find no calumny in our faith may complain of the length of the page. What of that, with what mind does he receive: "Behold water and fire, stretch out your hand to whichever you will"? What of the other things which you yourself, a copious advocate, have rehearsed? I believe he passed them by with closed ear, after the manner of the asp, as they say. I see whither the poisons of the Libyan pestilence extend themselves. The sandy serpent does not have only those deadly things which it lays open: the things it confesses are to be brought to the estimation of his hidden crimes. For he wishes to arrive at this, that no one perishes by his own vice or negligence, if a man is deprived, through the power granted, of the choice of either thing, good and evil. He boasts that these alone could be saved without any labor, without the friendship of the commandments, whom, wandering far from merit, heavenly favor alone snatched up: accordingly, since it is referred to God himself, he understands that those perished whom the divine grace was unwilling to free. You, my lady, bidding farewell, make it your concern with yourself to be such, and if the bondslave of death cannot be healed, desist from the contention, lest, while you, supported by a strong root of faith, strive, that man, under the occasion of this controversy, before the time of bringing forth, shake out the offspring of the divine seed from the womb of some persons.

XVIIII. ENNODIVS CONSTANTIO. Abundo gaudio nec clauda laetitiae meae fides est ideo aliqua per diabolicam inspirationem nasci certamina, ut tu, qui te ultra emendationem omnium protulisti, triumphi honore gratuleris. non est, ut uideo, effeta Liguria: nobilitatem pariendi nec in temporum extremitate deposuit: inimicum uitiis adhuc et in cineribus nutrit incendium, in cuius fauillis ultrix criminum flamma non moritur nec hostis errorum ignis operitur. quam timui ne uelut exhausta cessaret, dum epistulae uestrae frontem alienis fuscatuam praestigiis sollicitus trutiantor aspicerem, more parentis adtoniti, qui cum carum pignus ad bella transmittit, nec de explorata esse patitur uirtute manifestus. ad incrementa sollicitudinum triumphos filii numerat non quietis: plus expertae metuit felicitati cui formidinem ministrat affectio, quia ignara cautionis est mens instituta uictoriis et in acie amor laudis salutis obliuio. tropaei gustus abdicari imperat lucis affectum: sapor uitae illos tantum possidet, qui de conflictibus uenientia bona nulla didicerunt: semper ad gloriam iungitur quod de incolumitatis propriae cura decesserit. sed mihi in praesentiarum supersedendum est huiusmodi scriptione. non sunt militis nostri plus praedicanda quam adserenda certamina. ubi iaculis opus est, uerba nil conferunt. licet promulgasse sententiam meam fuerit, dum uestram praedico, et hoc sit respondere quod responsa laudare: dei tamen opem precatus obsecutura fidei uerba subiungo, ad XVIIII. 2 ennodius om. T 3 habundo PT letitiae TV fidis B 6 effe∗ta (c eras.) V, affecta b leguria T1 7 uiciis LTV 8 nutrit] mittit T in ras. m. 2 9 hostilia fort . operitnr ignis T 10 ex.austa L 11 frontem ure T trncinator LiP, troeinator B 12 parentis (p in ras.) V 18 manifestas B, securus LPTVb 14 triomphns B fili B 15 ezpertae Bb, experta LPT, exparte V (a a. I. add. et pa in pe mutauit m. I) 17 tropei B, trophei LPTV 18 possedit B 21 dicesierit T\' 23 iacnlis ex iacutu L 24 meam sententiam Sirm . 26 praecatns B illum conuertens stili mei cultum, qui, quotiens scribenda est infelix curuis terra uomeribus, se famulis suis germina conlaturum promittit esse, quae iaciant, dicendo: non cogitetis quid loquamini: pater enim uester est qui loquitur in uobis. ipse ergo ad sanciendam promissi ueritatem ueniat et ipse oris mei labantem confirmet infantiam, ut alucinationis nostrae concinnatio non inhumana uideatur. sed quid diu replicanda circumloquor ? unum rogo, ut pro modulo meo rescripta taxentur nec putetur aut legi aut defensioni deesse quod nescio. ergo, ut scriptione testamini, inuentus est homo, qui seruos Christi, quemadmodum ipse promisit esse faciendum, sub hac occasione cribraret, adserens de arbitrii libertate homini in una tantum parte, quae deterior est, eligendi datam esse licentiam? o scismaticam propositionem, quae iuxta apocalypsin scriptas habet in fronte blasphemias! quae ista libertas est, si ualet, edisserat, ubi hoc datur solum uelle quod puniat, aut quare electionem nominet, ubi unam tantum partem adserit fuisse concessam? quod si ueritate subsisteret, locum diuina iudicia non haberent. quid enim boni a nobis deus noster recte quaereret, qui adpetentiam eius de uoluntate subtraxerat? sed iuxta apostolum: numquid iniquus deus? absit. si inter homines a recti discordat affectu qui a subiectis exigit quod in potestate non tribuit, hoc de deo qua conscientia sentiatur aduertite. ubi est illud apostoli clamantis et pro arbitrii libertate testantis: uelle adiacet mihi, perficere autem non inuenio? quid est aliud 3 Matth. 10, 20 15 cf. Apoc. 17, 5 21 Gal. 2, 17 25 Rom. 7, 18 1 qui Bb, quo LPTV 2 infelii] infiezis fort. seribendum et curais delendum est 3 eaee promittit fort . non] ne Sirm . 5 promisi Tx 6 et om. Sirm . 8 unum∗∗∗∗ B 9 defen- I r aione Y 11 seruus B 12 cibaret Y 18 q ex quod T 15 apocalipsim T, apud calypsem B blaifemias BP 17 unam V in ras . 19 subsisterit B 22 si addidi, om. BLPTYb hominis ex humanis B 23 exiget B potestatem T 24 conscientiam L sentiantur T 25 adiacit B 26 proficere PT1 nisi dicere: noui dextrum iter eligere, sed nisi ingredientem iuuerit gratia superna, lassabo? nemo dubitat, nemo condemnat, quod auctore gratia protestante et ipso aequitatis hominibus callis aperitur. dux enim bonorum et praecessor est gratia, quando caelitus multiplici ad requiem inuitamur hortatu, quando nobis dicitur: uenite, filii, audite me. uenite, benedicti, patris mei, possidete paratum uobis regnum. ubi ego sum, ibi erit et minister meus. sed nisi talibus monitis et uoluntas nostra quae libera est et labor praestet obsequium, ad periculum et gehennam non imperio aliquo, sed sponte deuoluimur. itaque aut praemium deuotio aut poenam contemptus operatur. alioquin non erit iusta retributio, quae aut per supplicia refertur necessitate peccantibus aut bonam mercedem offert operi ad quod adtrahuntur inuiti. ergo debemus gratiae quod uocamur, debemus gratiae, quod occultis itineribus, nisi resistamus, sapor nobis uitalis infunditur: nostrae tamen electionis est quod beneficia demonstrata sectamur. uia enim scelerum non imperatrix nostra legitur esse, sed famula, cum de peccatis dicitur: sub te erit adpetitus eorum. quid etiam sibi uult uniuersa prophetae quasi sertis redimita elocutio: nolite aemulari inter malignantes. nolite confidere in principibus. nolite fieri sicut equus et mulus, etapostolus: nolite fieri serui hominum? totiens \'noli in superna admonitione quo respicit, si aliud uelle non licuit? deinde quamuis in persona Christi tamen pro arbitrii adstipulatur eiusdem prophetae nobis 6 Ps. 33, 11 6 Matth. 25, 81 sq. 8 Io. 12, 26 19 Gen. 4, 7 21 Ps. 36, 1; 145, 3; 31, 9 23 I Cor. 7, 23 2 lassabor PTb 3 autore B, actore T gratiae Pb protestante B, prestante LV, praestante PTb ipso BLTVb, ipse P et Sirm . 4 predecessor T1 6 fili B 7 patrea B V1 uobis ratum T 10 inperio L 11 diuoloimar BLTV 14 operi Bb,, om. LPTV; cf. Wiener Studien II p. 242 trahuntur Sirm . 15 gratiae om. B t* exitu lineae, uncis inclusit Schottus 18 in. peratrix L 19 esse legitur Sirm . 20 etiam] enim Sirm . pro- fetae BY 23 equus ita eius corr. L apostoli T 26 profetae BL Y nobis 1. t. ut facerem ita tcxtu om . in mg. inf. add. L libertate testimonium: ut facerem em uoluutatem tuam, . deus meus, uolui, et alibi: uoluntarie sacrificabo tibi, et: uota mea domino reddam, et iterum: uouete et reddite. illud autem beati apostoli quo se muniri credit exemplum nobiscum facit, si quae sequuntur aduertat, cum inimicus adrogantiae dixit: gratia dei sum quod sum. mox enim, ne sic fugax gloriae crederetur, ut longo interuallo a ueritate descisceret, sapiens architectus adiunxit: abundantius omnibus laboraui et gratia dei in me egena non fu i t, quod dixisse est: Christus in me quem digne aut abundanter muneraretur inueuit. non enim pauper est diuina gratia, sed meritorum nostrorum putatur quadam macie aut exilitate tenuari. quae tunc non suis aestimatur meatibus fluere, quando de eius cursibus ariditatis nostrae uena nil recipit. o si epistularis pateretur angustia sacrorum uoluminum arcana reserari! sed timeo ne qui nullam poterit deo inspirante in fide nostra inuenire calumniam de paginae prolixitate causetur. quid illud, qua mente suscipit: ecce aquam et ignem, ad quoduis porrige manum? quid alia, quae copiosus adsertor ipse replicasti? credo more aspidis clausa, ut aiunt, aure transiuit. uideo quo se toxica Libycae pestis extendant. arenosus coluber non haec sola habet perniciosa quae reserat: ad aestimationem occultorum facinorum ferenda sunt quae fatetur. uult enim ad illud pertingere, neminem suo uitio aut neglegentia perire, si homo utriusque rei boni et mali per potestatem concessa electione priuatur. hos tantum iactat potuisse saluari sine labore ullo, sine mandatorum amicitia, quos 1 Ps. 39, 9; 53, 8; 115, 15.18; 75, 23 6 I Cor. 15, 10I 18 Eecl. 15, 17 20 of. Ps. 57, 5 2 uoluntariae BL 3 uouite B 5 si (i in raa.) T secuntur PT 8 descisieret T\' habundantius T et sic saepius 11 muneretur B1 12 quadam putatur T maciao B, acie T exrilitate B 14 areditatis B1 15 arcbana PT 18 eruscepit B 21 lybicQspitia V1 sed corr. m. 1; lybicę L, lybice BP, libice T 23 Multorum B 25 negligentia BT 26 potuisse ex potestate T m. 2 peregrinantes a merito fauor tantum caelestis eripuit: perinde, quod in ipsum referatur, illos perisse intellegit quos gratia noluit diuina liberare. tu, mi domina, salue dicto fac apud te ut sies et si sanari mancipium mortis non potest, a contentione disiste, ne cum tu fidei radice fultus ualida. niteris, ille sub occasione huius controuersiae ante editionis tempus diuini seminis ab aliquorum utero partus excutiat.