Letter 5001: Ad Martinum episcopum Galliciae

I To Martin, bishop of Galicia To the holy lord, apostolic, and in the army of Christ the King a first-rank centurion [primipilus] after the leader Paul, to Bishop Martin, from Fortunatus. Driven on by a happy breath, the air of your refreshing reputation has caressed our ears, and, flattering with a soft glide, ballasting with its rustling whisper the fragrances of a paradisal garden, the herald of sweet flowers has perfumed our very nostrils with its breathing aroma, melodiously declaring that, just as Eden lay in the east from the beginning, so, with the age now run its course, God has planted another Elysium toward the west, in which a stronger Adam, that is, the martial Martin, an unconquerable dweller, lives the richer in the faith of Christ, keeping forever the commandment; whom the Lord would not so much approach to revisit in the breeze after midday, as rather this very man, made himself a paradise, amid the emerald avenues of his clear heart and the shading clusters of his blossoming work (not that a fig-tree should cover, but that fruit should adorn) would hold fast the lingering footsteps of the blessed Redeemer walking within him, fixing them by faith; whence not for a moment would the presence of the holy Creator slip away, since the creature would not be marked in fault even in a single atom, but, drawn through those beatitudes as if by the delights of a fragrant grove, the Lord would possess his home-born servant and the servant possess his Lord; inasmuch as, with the sweetness of their bond alternating between them, neither would the one be put to flight by any transgression, nor the other defrauded of an embrace. (2) Hence, with eager souls, with burning marrow, with upturned eyes, with hands outstretched, fervent more than thirsty, I was awaiting the great things of your letter, in hope that I might be moistened, drinking, even by a little cloud from its dripping fleece, conscious of my longing, anticipating prayers with prayer, in hope that some fixed letter might announce to me, even across the moving waves, something most certain about you, so that the shower meant to temper my dryness with your conversation might so water me that it should not blot out the page. (3) Yet by this counsel of divine providence, through your son, Domitius, to be venerated by me, I received your swelling letter, filled with holy charity, which, as you know, was joined together with art, and, as I felt, was finished with flower, and made me, drinking rather than reading through almost every stroke of the pen, with its painted address ready to intoxicate me; rich, it offered drink to a poor man, and, so to say, as if of noble Falernian, it filled me beforehand with its very odor as cupbearer, heaped up with the twin produce of eloquence, seasoned with salt, suffused with honey, mingling charm with vigor; and as I, the more eager for being unaccustomed to the foreign cup, while one part allures, another part deters (a rustic guest set in doubt, unable to bear great draughts as I drank), I yield to the sweetness, I who give way to the virtue. (4) By this flowing gift, then, there came to me, I confess, through the white spaces of the sea a fountain of drink; there came, best of fathers, through the salt sea that which would quench thirst; there came pure sweetness, with an Oceanic wave mingling it from the surge, whose liquor would taste not merely as far as the throat, but would soothe the inmost parts: for indeed with such a draught you cherished not the flesh, but the spirit; whence, to pursue the truth, the grape of this vine prolongs our thirst even while it offers drink. (5) With this unhoped-for produce sent down across the deep, this first fruit came to me from the waves: that ship brought to the rest perhaps alum, but to me certainly the light of your conversation. With such a transaction the bargain differs, since to others that is at a price, but to us this is unbought: there it is quenched, here it is purified; that defiles, here it makes white as snow. (6) What shall I say of the periods, the epicheiremes, the enthymemes, and the intricate syllogisms? That over which the four-square Maro [Virgil] labors, over which the well-rounded Cicero, what among them is profound, here is flowing; what there is most difficult, here is ready to hand: I have learned in a few brief points that wherever you will, you spread out the offshoots of a leafy clause-limb, but whatever you please, you cut away with the pruning-hook of a sharp comma, so that, with the studied skill of a careful vine-dresser governing, neither in this place may the shade growing rank breed weariness, nor there may the stretched shoot please without fruit. (7) Now as for what you set down in your letter, that after Stoic and Peripatetic discipline I am given over to the apprenticeship of theology and contemplation, I recognize what love does, since it adorns even those who do not deserve it. Yet why, good father, do you turn back upon me what is your own, and publicly bring forth concerning me what is private to you? Since the former things are known to you and the latter familiar in your household: for Plato, Aristotle, Chrysippus, or Pittacus are scarcely known to me even by report, nor are Hilary, Gregory, Ambrose, and Augustine known to me even as I read, or, if they should become known by a glimpse, only to one half-asleep; and I have truly perceived (because the abundances of the arts have come together among you as in a common lodging-house) that those things cling to you the more tenaciously which are nearer to heaven, since you take delight not so much in the pomp of dogmas as in the rule of virtues. Whence beyond doubt you have become, as the dependent of heavenly patrons, one of the Cleanthes-like [followers of the philosophers]. (8) But why do I affirm these things, sweetest father and true disciple of Christ, who, after the manner of the Samaritan mingling wine and oil for the sick man lying abed, have held out to me a soothing poultice, destined to receive the reward of a holy work when He shall come who promised to the innkeeper to repay the money of the debt, guarding in you, highest pontiff, what He bestowed, knowing that this most worthily pleases His own eyes, that in your case the very gracious regard surpasses the dignity itself. (9) Wherefore, prostrate, laying the soles of your most sacred, most sincere, and most merciful apostolic crown [your holy person] upon my breast, and I, the lowest, making my members subject, or a resting-place for your feet, thus commending myself with eager longing to your devotion, I beg in the Lord that, coming between the sinner and the Redeemer of the world as a kind of second mediator, with my offense lightened, you may, upright father, reconcile the reprobate after his guilt. (10) And because from your letter I have received a pledge of confidence, I devotedly commend to your devotion, together with myself and at their own desire and bidding, your daughters and handmaids Agnes and Radegund, all of us together imploring that, making words on our behalf with the lord Martin [Saint Martin of Tours], you may approach as faithful an intercessor as he himself then proved prompt before the Lord, when he would not let go the lifeless corpse before death had let go the dead man (for it is a fitting reason, that through you the hope of patronage should return to us from there, since from here a portion of the patron went forth to you); supplicating before the Lord, holy father, that, received into your grace and commended also among those who are yours, I may feel, in prayer as well as in song, that you are my teacher to guide me, my father to love me, my leader to advance me, my guardian to fortify me. (11) But the bearer of these presents, your servant, truly good to me, Bonosus, I commend as a suppliant approaching your devotion, not loosing his feet before you, sweet father, have made promise, with what prayer I am able as a suppliant: that he, when by the intercession of the saints he shall meet you safe and sound, present, discharging the vows of the absent, I may first obtain this, that whoever comes hither as soon as possible, the festive joys of your celebrated word may sprinkle me. Noble heir, with the name as with the merits of Martin, on Fortunatus' behalf, I beg, pray to God.

I Ad Martinum episcopum Galliciae DOMINO SANCTO ATQVE APOSTOLICO ET IN CHRISTI REGIS EXERCITV POST DVCEM PAVLVM PRIMIPILO MARTINO EPISCOPO FORTVNATVS. Felici propulsa flatu recreabilis opinionis vestrae nostras aures aura demulsit et molli blandita lapsu, sibilo crepitante paradisiaci horti odoramenta saburrans, suavium florum nuntia nares ipsas aromate respirante suffivit, admodulanter indicans, sicut ad orientem Eden a principio, ita decurso saeculo alterum ad occasum deus plantasset Elysium, in quo fortior Adam, id est Martius Martinus, inexpugnabilis accola, Christi fide ditior viveret perpetuo servante mandato; quem non tam ad auram dominus revisendum post meridiem per- geret, quam ipse vir factus paradisus inter perspicui cordis zmaragdinas plateas et vernantis operis inumbrantes corymbos (non quod ficus tegeret, sed fructus ornaret) inambulantis in se beati redemptoris adhaesura vestigia coherceret fide figente: unde nec ad momentum pii conditoris laberetur praesentia quia nec in atomo plasma nota- retur in culpa, sed per illas beatitudines velut odori nemoris inlectus deliciis et ver- nulam dominus et verna dominum possideret; utpote cum, alternante sibi concatenati dulcedine, nec iste fugaretur admissu nec ille fraudaretur amplexu. (2) Hinc in- hiantibus animis, medullis aestuantibus, oculis suspectis, palmis extensis, fervens magis quam sitiens praestolabar epistolae vestrae magna, si vel parva nubecula madidanti vellere bibulus umectarer, desiderii conscius, vota voto praeveniens, si quid de vobis certissime vel per undas mobiles fixa mihi littera nuntiaret, ita ut ariditatem meam conloquii vestri temperaturus imber sic inrigaret, paginam ne de- leret. (3) Quo tamen providentiae divinae consulto per filium vestrum, venerandum mihi Domitium, sancta caritate refertam suscepi crescens epistolam quae, ut vos nostis arte conpacta, ut ego sensi flore confecta, bibentem se potius quam legentem fere per singulos apices pigmentato affamine inebriatura dives pauperem propinavit et, ut ita dixerim, quasi Falerni nobilis ipso me prius odore pincernante supplevit, gemina dicendi fruge congesta, condita sale, melle perfusa, permixta blanditie cum vigore, me[que] peregrini poculi quantum desuetum plus avidum dum pars inlicet, pars deterret (in ancipiti posito conviva rusticulo nec sustinente magna bibente) consentio dulcedini qui cedo virtuti. (4) Hoc igitur fluente dono venit ad me, fateor, per cana ponti fons poculi, venit, pater optime, per salsum mare quod sitim restingueret, venit Oceanitide miscente [e] fluctu mera dulcedo, cuius liquor non fauce tenus saperet, sed arcana mulceret: quippe quod non carnem foveris tali potu, sed spiritum; unde, ut vere prosequar, huius uva palmitis nobis sitim prorogat, dum propinat. (5) Hac inopina fruge delapsa per gurgitem primus iste mihimet venit fructus e fluctibus: detulit puppis illa reliquis forsan alumen, mihi vestri conloquii certe lumen. commercio tali discrepante mercatu, quod aliis illud ad pretium, hoc nobis inemptum: illinc restinguitur, hinc purgatur; illud inficit, hinc nivescit. (6) Quid loquar de perihodis epichirematibus enthymemis syllogismisque perplexis? quo laborat quadrus Maro, quo rotundus Cicero, quod apud illos est profundum, hic profluum, quod illic difficillimum, hic in promptu: comperi paucis punctis quoniam quo volueris colae pampinosae diffundis propagines, quod vero libuerit acuti commatis falce succidis, ut cauti vini- toris studio moderante nec in hoc luxurians germinet umbra fastidium et illuc tensa placeat propago cum fructu. (7) Nam quod refertis, in litteris post Stoicam Peripateticamque censuram me theologiae ac theoriae tirocinio mancipatum, agnosco quid amor faciat, cum et non merentes exornat. cur tamen, bone pater, in me reflectis quod tuum est ac de me publice profers quod tibi privatum est? cum prima sint vobis nota et secunda domestica: nam Plato Aristoteles Chrysippus vel Pittacus cum mihi vix opinione noti sint nec legenti Hilarius Gregorius Ambrosius Augustinusque vel, si visione noti fierent, dormitanti; et ego vere senserim (eo quod copiae artium apud vos velut in commune diversorium convenerunt) ipsa vobis tenacius quae sunt caelo propinquius, quia non oblectamini tam pompa dogmatum quam norma virtutum. unde procul dubio caelestium clientela factus es Cleantharum. (8) Sed quid ego haec autumo, dulcissime pater et vere Christi discipule, qui. ad instar Samaritani vinum miscens et oleum aegroto decubanti, blandum mihi malagma porrexisti, mer- cedem pii operis relaturus cum venerit qui se stabulario aera pensare debiti repromisit, custodiens in vobis, pontifex summe, quod contulit, sciens suis oculis hoc placere dignissime, quod ipsam apud te vincit dignatio dignitatem. (9) Quapropter sacra- tissimae, sincerissimae atque clementissimae apostolicae coronae vestrae plantas supra meum pectus stratus inponens et ultimus ego membra subdita vel pedum vestrorum recubatorium faciens ita vestrae pietati avido desiderio me commendans deposco in domino, ut inter peccatorem et redemptorem mundi alter quodammodo mediator acce- dens levigato delicto, probe pater, reprobum reconcilies post reatum. (10) Et quia vestris litteris fiduciae pignus accepi, pietati vestrae filias et famulas Agnem et Rade- gundem una mecum devote earum desiderio mandato commendo, communiter suppli- cantes, ut apud domnum Martinum pro nobis verba faciens tam fidus intercessor accedas qualis apud dominum ipse tunc promptus extitit. cum cadaver exanimum non prius dimitteret quam mors mortuum dimisisset (est enim ratio consequens, ut per vos illinc nobis redeat spes patrocinii, quia ad vos hinc prodiit pars patroni) ; coram domino supplicans, pie pater, ut in gratia vestra receptus vel apud eos, qui vestri sunt, commendatus sentiam tam oratione quam carmine te doctore regi, genitore diligi, duce progredi, tutore muniri. (11) Praesentium vero portitorem famulum vestrum vere mihi bonum Bonosum pietati vestrae supplex accedens nec prius relaxans pedes. quam dulcis pater promiseris, qua valeo prece Supplex commendo: qui interventu sanctorum cum vobis sospes occurrerit absentis vota praesens exsolvens, illud prius obtineam, ut quis quam primum huc commeat, me celebris verbi vestri gaudia festiva respergant. Martini meritis cum nomine nobilis heres, pro Fortunato, quaeso, precare deum.