Letter 6037: So it turns out that the friendship we professed was false — or at least, your silence suggests as much.

37. Ennodius to Johannes. Is it then falsely believed that love is repaid by diligence, and that minds question one another through silent conversations, that the perception of the heart vouches for fidelity, so that what we expend should be owed back to us by a reciprocal report? Hidden places give back the voice of the mountains, and in service to humanity dumb things hold converse: but it has fallen to your greatness, in contempt of me, to return silence in place of writing, and, by tempering the genius of the craftsman in your favor, to suppress upon the page the persistence of your talkativeness, trampling underfoot the law of nature. Let it be far from my own character to follow that which I grieve to have been committed, and to relieve faults by imitating them. Behold, once again [...] I call to the holidays of the tongue, cherishing it, and I pursue you in longer addresses, holding the memory of the charity you promised. My lord, as above, offering you a most lavish greeting, I beg that the debt of grace may even now be exacted by my importunity, while it is provided for, so that you may satisfy the ardor of my longing with copious words.

XXXVII. ENNODIVS IOHANNI. Ergo falso creditur amorem reddi diligentiae et tacitis animas se interrogare colloquiis, fidem mentium sensus adserere, ut quod inpendimus uicaria nobis relatione debeatur? uocem montium secreta restituunt et in obsequio humanitatis muta fabulantur: sed magnitudinem tuam in contemptu mei contigit silentium pro scriptione redhibere et in astipulatione artificis genii temperando a paginis pertinaciam garrulitatis obprimere naturae lege calcata. facessat a moribus meis sequi quod admissum doleo et subleuare culpas imitando. ecce iterum 8 Iac. 5, 16 XXXVI. 2 presbitero B 3 religionis b 5 postolare B 9 qaod drb B (um s. I. m. rec.), quoddam b obtinere T 10 dudum mihi T 12 sanctum] secundum b dominum di B (dominum 8. I . m. rec.), dominum b 14 postolanda B 15 domine B b XXXVII. 19 amatorem B \'20 adsereret b 21 debetur T1 23 famulantur LTV 24 redibere BLTV, reddere b et B m. rec. 8. l . 26 nature B 27 imittando T, emittendo B, euitando b et B s. I. tn. rec . appello linguae ferias fouentem et in longioribus persequor, habens promissae caritatis memoriam. domine, ut supra salutationem largissimam offerens quaeso, ut debitum gratiae uel nunc exigat inportunitas, dum prouidetur, quatenus ardorem desiderii prolixis satietis alloquiis.