Letter 3024: ---

Ennodius to Mascator [or Marcator]. The attentive care of your heart has adorned me with a new talent: drawn out, I now make use of the witness of my pen, I who, among the learned, give offense by my chattering that surpasses my ignorance. Speech compelled to action obtains its price, the price which it does not possess of its own eloquence; it has snatched it from the necessity imposed upon it: an insult that one has displayed by command was never worthy of vengeance; no one justly condemns the obedient man; he who provokes an unskilled person to a rustic style of speech has earned for himself the injuries inflicted upon him. It is arrogance not to obey those set higher above us, and a greater arrogance if you should despise as worthless what you know has come down from one who is complying. The assertion of a wicked desire is reckoned to be the not loving of what you demand; he passes judgment by his own verdict who suspends his censure upon one who is obeying; it is a wickedly stubborn severity that weighs the merit in one who is complying; he has not driven shame from its post who owes to the command the very thing he speaks. And so, in our case, that eloquence which is base is commended by its acts of obedience. You yourselves shall see of what sort is the thing you have ordered to be offered; for my part I judge that you, without any loss to my brow [without my blushing], have deserved to receive what you desired. I pass over, among these matters which ought to have been related in the foremost place, that ecclesiastical humility has forsworn what was able to please, that one who loves prayer has not pursued the pomp of orations, that, in consideration of my purpose, this too escapes me: namely, to shun whatever leads to glory as though it were a vice, to reckon as a fault whatever lifts up or exalts, to lose the merit of just praise through fondness for favor. I will not, painted over with cosmetic, hold out before you an excuse colored as if it were truth, while I rehearse this: that whatever the care of liberal studies had once given, I have now left behind, that from the channel of a once abundant river only a scarcely-flowing drop of eloquence is now poured forth. I pass over this: that a second use has dulled the tongue which use had once made nimble, that silence stands in the place of fluency, and that lowliness is loved by us in place of the tragic buskin. I return to this: that, since it was not permitted me to lie hidden within the modest inner chamber, nor to cover the feebleness of my talent with the garment of silence, I shall reckon to my full defense the very fact that I set it forth. But, provoked by love, I have overstepped the bounds proper to a letter through inconsiderate talkativeness. Farewell, my lord, to whom, in paying honor, I, who greet you, shall prove what you think of my letter, whether by silence or by manifold writing.

XXIIII. ENNODIVS MASCATORI. Noao me genio infncata pectoris uestri ornauit diligentia: eliciti utor stili testimonio qui doctis supra inscitiam garrulitate displiceo. coaotus sermo pretium, quod non habet ex 2 nihil Bb iubisse B 3 reuerentiam B ezibeas L post ras. ut saepissime presehtium B 4 onestas LV 6 ia- ditium LV . XXIII. 9 benefitiorum F effectas B, effectus b 10 prumptu B, promtu LTV ullae coni. Schottus, illa Sirm . prestandi B .11 depreciat BLBT «onestate B 14 uos T in mg . add. m. 2 15 peccatbre LV, pcatorie P in ras. m. 2 ab eo] habco L 16 instructam Fb, atructam BL\'TV predieti B 17 domini LP1FV, domine BP2b; of. Wisner Studien B pi 229 sq . ealutandi b et Sirm; cf. Wiener Studien II g, 253 :. XXIIII. 21 marcatori L1, Mersatori Sirm. 22 ao. quo ft 23 eliceti B insitiam T 24 precium BLTV eloquentia, ab inpacta necessitate subripuit: nunquam fuit digna ultione contumelia, quam iussus exhibuit: nemo oboedientem iuste condemnat; sibi debet inlatas iniurias de eloquio rusticante qui prouocat imperitum). supercilium est celsioribus non parere, maius si quae noueris descendisse ab obsequente despicias. inprobi desiderii putatur adsertio non amare quod exigis: adstipulatur iudicio suo qui censuram de obtemperante suspendit: male pertinax districtio est, quae meritum in parente considerat: pudorem ab statione non expulit qui quod loquitur debet imperio. itaque in nobis quod sordet eloquentia commendatur obsequiis. uos uideritis quale sit quod iussistis offerri: ego uos sine frontis meae dispendio meruisse aestimo quod desiderastis accipere. taceo inter ista, quae principe fuerant loco narranda, ecclesiasticam humilitatem quod placere poterat abiurasse, orationum pompam qui orationem diligit non secutum, propositi consideratione et illud me fugere quod ducit ad gloriam, quasi uitium declinare quicquid attollit, culpam putare quod erigit aut sublimat, perdere iustae laudationis meritum fauoris affectu. excusationem ueritatis coloratam peniculo non praetendam, dum replico, quod illud, quicquid studiorum dederat cura liberalium, iam reliqui, quod alueo quondam copiosi fluminis uix arentis gutta fundatur eloquii. taceo, quod linguam, quam usus mobilem. fecerat, alter usus hebetauit, esse pro facundia silentium, abiectionem a nobis dilligi pro coturno. ad illud redeo; quia mihi non licuit intra uerecundum penetrale delitescere nec debilitatem ingenii tegere 2, iosas B obedientem BLT 3 condempnat LPTV 4 imperium 2 5 discendisae B dispicias Bb, despitias LV, despicicias T 6 putetur B 7 erigit Pb inditio LV censuram suam T 8 destrictio PV 9 ab Btationi LT\' Y (sed ti ex ci eorr . m. 1 V), a statione Pb, obstatione B 10 uobis T 11 obsequiis] eloquiis T 12 inferri T estimo B 14 narrandam F* 16 propositi∗∗∗∗ (onia fort. eras.) L 17 uicimn F 18 iute B, et iute T 20 pretendam BV 21 aI-lneo L n eras . in avitu, add. in imtio lincue provimae m, 2 22 faniitur fort. M hebitanit B, habitauit L 24 a* (b erus.) L 25 ad illud ex aliud L m. 2 26 delitiscere BV \' taciturnitatis indumento, hoc ad defensionem integram quod praetuli conputabo. sed amore prouocatus epistulares terminos inconsiderata loquacitate transcendi. uale, mi domine, cui honorem exhibens salutantis probabo quid de epistula mea sentias aut taciturnitate aut scriptione multiplici.