Letter 9016: I should have replied to your letter long ago, and the delay weighs on me.

XVI. Ennodius to Adeodatus. I would long ago have replied to your Blessedness's letter, had it been easy to catch the journeys of those traveling to Rome. Ecclesiastical lowliness is passed over by the powerful of this world as though it were some foreign thing. Yet as soon as the lord Dioscorus, having discharged his pious labor, returned from Rome by the duty of his office, I took heart and aspired, looking up to your Reverence, toward the repayment of my debt. You desire that your sons, the lord Faustus and his holy offspring, return to Rome; we desire that they remain: a differing opinion comes back without error to a single path of affection. Yet may God, the best dispenser, arrange whatever He knows to suit his welfare. The prosperity of the lord Faustus and his people charms me in place of their presence. My lord, discharging the homage of greeting with full love, I send across the volume which you gave to your son the lord prefect on his return: send me my own, or that one which you promised, if it please you, conferring this one thing especially, that you never strip me of the defense of your prayers, since no wall can be stronger for me against the battering-ram of sin than if the protection of those prayers defends me.

XVI. ENNODIVS ADEODATO. Olim ad beatitudinis tuae scripta responderam, si facile fuisset Romam pergentium itinera deprehendi. ecclesiastica humilitas a mundi potentibus quasi res peregrina transitur. ut primum tamen domnus Dioscorus Romam perfunctus pii laboris remeauit officio, ad restitutionem debiti reuerentiam uestram suspiciens adspiraui. uos filios uestros, domnum Faustum uel sanctam progeniem ipsius redire Romam cupitis, nos manere: dispar sententia ad unum affectionis callem sine errore reuertitur. deus tamen optimus dispensator quod felicitati eius scit conuenire disponat. mihi domni Fausti suorumque prosperitas praesentiae uice blanditur. domine mi, salutationis cultum pleno amore dissoluens codicem quem dedistis filio uestro domno praefecto remeante transmitto: uos meum aut illum quem promisistis, si placuerit, destinate, illud tamen specialiter conferentes, ut orationum uestrarum numquam me propugnatione nudetis, quia nullus mihi murus potior esse aduersus peccati arietem poterit, quam si illarum me tutela defenderit.