Letter 3004: Ad Felicem episcopum Namneticum

IV To Felix, Bishop of Nantes Fortunatus to the holy lord, most worthy of the apostolic see, the lord and father Felix the bishop [pope, here a bishop's honorific]. While I was yawning near the borders of the sea, lured by the enticement of a natural torpor and lying for a long while along the margin of the shore, suddenly the waves of your eloquence broke over me, and as if upon dashing rocks the splash of brine sprinkled and bedewed me; yet at the first goads of waking I could be drenched, but not roused: still drowsing heavily in my accustomed manner, I at last with difficulty rose amid the crackling thunders of your words. (2) Therefore, when I considered the several sayings uttered after the manner of trumpets in a clanging discourse and steeped, as it were, in a starry splendor, you seemed to have dazzled my eyes as with the piercing light of flashing rays, and the sleepy eyes which you had opened to me by thunder you closed by lightning: for so great a radiance of your tongue shone forth from the brilliance of your practiced converse, so great a light of glittering eloquence flickered, that, with the order reversed, it seemed to me that, with you speaking in radiant words, the sun was being born from the western quarter. (3) For I believed, as though framed by a Pindaric wise man into a four-stanza form and stitched together with prose glue, and as if your fertile oration, teeming with enthymemes, had flowed as a chained bond interwoven in coils, by some foreign sophistry. In short, as far as concerns the depth of your diction, you had made me, in my ignorance, wander among the crossroads of your discourse as among the Echinades reefs, had not a torch from you yourselves come to light the way ahead of my journey. (4) But as for what you inserted into your letters, that my voice, not surpassed even by the acclamation of praises, had resounded in the furthest corner of the world, these very things, while I reread them, I began to marvel that I had suddenly grown great by your converse, I who did not deserve favor by my own adornment, rejoicing to be raised up by the affection of so great a patron, I who recognized myself to be laid low by the quality of my talent. (5) O how much love prevails, when the tongue of the one praising adds what the vein of the one praised withdraws! For surely it is to be wished that concerning me, most humble, belief be given rather to such a witness than to its author. For the abundance of his leaping vein would not have commended Polydeuces, had he not been touched by the prophetic stream of the Smyrnaean fountain [a reference to Homeric inspiration]. (6) And so that which you said, that in the furthest corner of the world I dwell as it were in your presence, it is quite just that this be so: that you believe me concerning yourselves, you who more flatteringly persuade me to be believed concerning myself; since places, however last in their region, are first when you are their citizen, for if cities claim primacy for themselves by the merit of a person, no place is inferior because of you, where whatever is required of praise Felix the bishop is the champion by his deeds. In short, it breathes neither of the scorched zone [Cecaumene] raging nor of the seat of the Bear interwoven with frosts, but through you, with its seats changed, it grows green with the constant whistle of the Favonius [west wind] making its music. (7) This too, of which your holiness complains, that, when I was found at Tours, it possessed converse with me of but slight length (whereas I, on the contrary, am ashamed to have betrayed my ignorance in a brief span, yet that the favor acquired from so great a bishop should lie hidden): nevertheless, if you should be willing to consider the inclinations of my mind, however much I enjoyed your sight over a prolonged span, I could be excited, not satisfied. (8) For who, once breathed upon by the fragrance of sweet roses, would either ever judge himself sated or endure to render himself disdainful? Since, if we had been close at hand for a longer time, I would be kindled with affection all the more, the more I came to know him whom I loved. (9) For as for what you put forward, 'If I had ascended the Loire with you, with favorable currents I would have reached Nantes,' I know indeed that, with you as my Canobus and the Cherusci summoning a swift skiff, I would, skilled by harmonious art, have come safely out among the Symplegades biting at each other, and, if the matter required it, with a noise-making applause I would have struck Tirynthian Oeta while Pindus breathed again. (10) But with what eagerness you believe me to have read through that (which pure love commanded you to weave in) which you said, 'not even if the Volsci had come to my aid could they have been able to snatch me away from you'? Believe me, as far as my mind perceives, scarcely Rome itself could give me as much aid as you furnished me in words; nor is there for me anything more than to expend deeds, than to offer the vows of my goodwill: for, with the sweetness of your address flowing back, there is no need to lack anything more. (11) And as for what you added in pleasantries, 'unless solicited by praises, the rustic reed-pen would not have turned out anything,' though such a cultivator, a worshipper of Christ, has more than once plowed most fruitful acres, nevertheless I confess that lately that one, that is, you, made the ithyphallic songs resound on Amphion's lyre. (12) This also, which you delightfully added, that I am enclosed within the wall of charity of my lady Radegund, I know indeed that it is not from my own merits. But, from her custom, which she knows how to expend toward all, you have gathered it, and as much as in my person you touch the panegyric poetically, so much you have referred to the history of her praise. Nevertheless in your words I have deserved to reread that which I have already perceived in her favor. But you who paint great things about me, who am small, I beg, proclaim the greatest things about the great. (13) Wherefore, commending myself to your lordship and holiness with humble supplication, I beseech you through the Lord, the redeemer of our souls, who will make you, predestined, his partners in the light, that you deign to remember me in your holy prayers out of regard for piety. For it will be a great support to my hope to obtain from you what I ask. Though the tongues of Greek and Latin alike should come, they cannot for your merits discharge all that is due. Beset with praises, venerable for prayers you are held, Felix, who in the light of perennial understanding will be.

IV Ad Felicem episcopum Namneticum DOMINO SANCTO ET APOSTOLICA SEDE DIGNISSIMO DOMNO ET PATRI FELICI PAPAE FORTVNATVS. Oscitantem me prope finitima pelagi, blandimento naturalis torporis in- lectum et litorali diutius in margine decubantem subito per undifragos vestri fluctus elo- quii quasi scopulis incurrentibus elisa salis spargine me contigit inrorari; sed ad pri- mos evigilandi stimulos infundi poteram, non tamen excitari: qui adhuc more solito graviter obdormitans tandem aliquando inter crepitantia verborum vestrorum tonitrua vix surrexi. (2) Igitur cum considerarem dicta singula de more tubarum clangente sermone prolata et sidereo quodammodo splendore perfusa, velut coruscantium radio- rum perspicabili lumine mea visi estis lumina perstrinxisse et soporantes oculos, quos mihi aperuistis tonitruo, clausistis corusco: tantus enim exercitati claritate conloquii vestrae linguae iubar effulsit, tanta se renidentis eloquentiae lux vibravit, ut converso ordine mihi videretur verbis radiantibus ab occidentali parte te loquente sol nasci. (3) Credebam enim, quasi sofo Pindarico conpactus tetrastrophos pedestri glutine suggil- latus et ac si enthymematum parturiens catenatum vinculum fecunda fluxisset oratio spiris intertexta, sofismate peregrino. denique quantum ad profunditatem vestrae dic- tionis adtinet, feceratis ignorantem per sermonum conpitos velut inter cautes Echinadas oberrare, nisi a vobis ipsis lampas praeviatrix itineris occurrisset. (4) Quod vero vestris inseruistis epistulis vocem meam nec adclamatione laudum superatam in Ultimo orbis angulo personasse, haec ipsa dum relego, coepi me mirari vestro subito crevisse conloquio qui favorem proprio non mererer ornatu, gavisus usque adeo affectu fautoris erigi qui me recognoscerem ingenii qualitate substerni. (5) O quantum caritas prae- valet, cum illud lingua laudantis adicit quod laudati vena subducit! optandum est si- quidem, ut de me humillimo tali credatur testi potius quam auctori. non enim Poly- deucen suae commendasset venae salientis ubertas, nisi Smyrnaei fontis fatidico latice fuisset adtactus. (6) Illud itaque quod dixistis, in ultimo orbis angulo quasi vestram habitare praesentiam, satis hoc fieri iustum est: ut de vobis mihi credatis qui de me vobis credi blandius suadetis; quoniam loca, quamvis regione ultima, te cive sunt prima, nam si personae merito urbes sibi vindicant principatum, nulli per vos est ille locus inferior, ubi quidquid de laude requiritur Felix actibus pontifex est adsertor. denique non Cecaumene rabida nec ursae situs frigoribus intertextus respirat, sed per vos mutatis sedibus assiduo Favoni sibilo modulante vernatur. (7) Hoc etiam, quod sanctitas vestra conqueritur, me invento Turonis parva prolixitate potitam se fuisse con- loquiis (cum me e contra pudeat in brevi spatio prodidisse inscitiam, sed latere tanti gratiam pontificis adquisitam) : tamen, si nostri animi partes considerare velitis, quam- vis protracto spatio aspectu vestro fruerer, incitari poteram, non expleri. (8) Quis enim semel odore suavium rosarum adflatus vel satiatum quandoque se iudicet vel patiatur reddere fastidentem? cum, si diuturnius fuissemus incomminus, tanto magis dilectione succenderer quanto plus agnoscerem quem amarem. (9) Quod enim in- tulistis: 'si Ligerem vobiscum ascendissem, secundis fluctibus Namnetas occurrissem', novi quidem, te mihi Canobo, Cherucis adcersientibus myoparonem praepetem, catus arte armoniaca tutus inter Symplegadas se mordentes exissem, et si res exigeret plausu creperegico Oetam Tirynthiacum Pindo respirante pulsassem. (10) Qua vero avidi- tate illud me creditis perlegisse (quod vos intexere mera caritas imperavit) quod dixi- stis: 'nec si vulsci venissent in solacio, me vobis abripere valuissent'? credite, quan- tum meus animus inspicit, ipsa vix Roma tantum mihi dare ad auxilia poterat quan- tum praestitistis in verba; nec apud me plus aliquid est factis inpendere, quam vota voluntatis offerre : nam alloquii refluente dulcedine nihil opus est plus egere. (11) Quod vero facetiis addidistis: 'nisi sollicitatus laudibus rusticus calamus non turnasset', licet talis cultor Christicola feracissima iugera saepius exaravit, attamen nuper illum, id est vos, confiteor ludos ithyfallicos Amphioneo barbito reboasse. (12) Hoc quoque quod delectabiliter adiecistis me domnae meae Radegundae muro caritatis inclusum, scio quidem quia non ex meis meritis. sed, ex illius consuetudine, quam circa cunctos novit inpendere, conlegistis et quantum in mea persona panegyricum poetice tan- gitis, tantum in eius laudis historiam retulistis. tamen in verbis vestris illud rele- gere merui quod in eius gratia iam percepi. sed qui de me parvo magna depingitis, quaeso de magnis maxima praedicetis. (13) Quapropter dominationi et sanctitati vestrae me humili supplicatione commendans deprecor per dominum redemptorem ani- marum nostrarum, qui vos praedestinatos sua facturus est in luce consortes, ut me in sanctis orationibus pietatis intuitu dignemini memorare. magnum enim erit spei meae auxilium a vobis obtinere quod posco. Si veniant linguae pariter Graeca atque Latina, pro meritis nequeunt solvere cuncta tuis. laudibus obsessus, votis venerandus haberis, Felix, qui sensus luce perennis eris.