Epistolae Duae

Two Letters of the Patrician Dynamius. (Duchesne, *Histor. Franc. Script.*) Letter I. To a Friend. Just as the cool spring, when it tempers the dryness, quenches the desires of the thirsty man wearied by the burning heat of the sun or shaken by the vastness of a long journey, so the eloquence of your letters, when it brought back indications of your safety, nourished the growth of my joys. For as often as I recall, with frequent remembrance, the sweet wishes of your affection, I do not cease to reveal the desires of my heart with sighs. Because he is not deprived of the bodily sight who is not absent from the secret place of the heart. Therefore, fulfilling the duty of well-being with the fullest right of love, I hope that, as often as the diverse difficulty of the times grants an opportunity, the longed-for eloquence of your letters will always comfort my insignificance, until, with divine aid, the devotion of our souls being fulfilled, we may rejoice in mutual sights of each other, we who are never separated by undivided affections.

Letter II. To His Lord, Always His Own Special Steward, the Pope. I do indeed fear that, because of the delay of this little book, I shall be held guilty of your command. But if, with your customary judgment of mercy, you weigh the burden of my bitterness, you will immediately grant indulgence to necessity. Yet, as I was able, I have striven to fulfill what you commanded. For you do not doubt, most blessed pontiff, that the command of unique charity has already rendered me subject to you with perpetual devotion. But I do not consider this remarkable, since I trust that you are so bound in the hearts of all. For the general prerogative of diverse bounty amplifies you with proud recompense, so that whatever is precious where it shines is proven to be inborn in you. And while you are adorned with the dignity of noble birth, you render yourself more noble by humility, giving yourself wholly to freedom. Whence it happens that the splendor of charity, which shines forth within the secret places of your breast with the clarity of immense light, already shows the serenity of the body, and is so much a mirror of the heart, the grace that shines in the face. For this reason, the whole world eagerly desires to be reconciled to your affection, while a conscious love invites all. How much more do I, in turn, rejoice to send forth the rights of my servitude in words, until, with my strength and affairs restored, I may merit to respond.

Therefore, with the utmost humility, I offer the interest of your safety, and I beg that your intercession commend me, whom your condescension retains as received, ever in the divine oracles, and that you assert my need to all whom you see as necessary, and through whom it may also be conveyed to the king's ears, and obtain my swift return, so that you may support with granted patronage the one whom you cherish with bestowed affection. Concerning the gifts you have sent, I am suspended in anxious deliberation, whether I ought to express thanks or remain silent: since one who cannot fulfill a eulogy fittingly avoids affection. Yet the greatness of your crown [that is, of your priesthood, your episcopacy] does not believe it sufficient that in the city over which you preside, immense generosity does not cease to minister to all, unless you also endow with your own stipends those who dwell within foreign walls. As you do with me, whom your kindness pursues with a desired persecution; which, since I could not flee under compulsion, I seem to have received with devotion. Hence, although the dryness of my talent persists, yet a shoot of support could have been extended, had not the letter had its limit for me, and had the space of the paper not denied it.