Epistolae

The letter of Taius, Bishop of Caesaraugusta, to Eugenius, Bishop of Toledo. (From Flores, España Sagrada, from Baluze, volume IV of the Miscellanies.) To my most holy and venerable lord Eugenius, bishop of the city of Toledo, Taius, the last servant of the servants of God, bishop of Caesaraugusta. By a sufficiently fitting and very necessary arrangement, the flower seeks the solace of one who lacks the office of its own virtue, and the body’s step is more easily extended the more it is drawn by the right hand of a stronger, so that it may at least complete the desired course with the help of a more powerful one, rather than remain sluggish in the midst of its own journey. Thus I, my venerable lord, although weak, yet aided by your prayers, have preferred to approach the beginnings of a difficult work, as if of some very great mountain, which, like some great thing, on its surface displays a paradise overgrown with the tallness of groves, whitening with flowers, also honey-making with fruits, greening with leaves, gleaming with the beauty of lilies, glowing with the redness of roses, shining with the blossoms of purpling violets, and many things glittering with saffron colors, never withering at any time, but flourishing in perpetual greenness, arranged with marvelous art, and set in place fitted to straight lines of rows, supplying such great grace to those who love them that by their sweetness they pervade not only the outer senses of bodies, but also the inner secrets of hearts with their satiety.

And when I perceived such things with attentive gaze, and saw many being sated with these manifold feasts, I was inflamed with an inestimable desire, and as if one of the company of hungry boys driven by need, I approached the gate of paradise step by step, and like a rash intruder I entered as an explorer, while I gazed with excessive wonder at the most beautiful and manifold things throughout those spaces, I gathered certain little flowers of twigs, playing like little children, and plucked them with a greedy hand, hastily sending ahead these particular things with a certain curiosity by way of some comparisons in simple words, as if I were opening the way of a blocked mouth, except that I might place before, at the very beginning of the speech, the incomparable excellence of the man, namely the holy Pope Gregory, by certain parables, and to some extent reveal his greatness of wisdom, by which clear light he illuminated the holy Church, not to those who know, but to those who do not know.

I had indeed wished that you were now present, so that, as it is written: Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will tell you, I might take the pattern from the prudence of your mouth, when at the beginning of this work, like the weaving of some web, I would set forth a texture of words, or else, from the skillful hand of your heart, as in the construction of some great building, I might carry polished and squared stones of words on my own shoulders, since brother helping brother will be exalted, like a fortified city. For the order of reason demands that subsequent things be bound to preceding ones by some bond of tenacity, so that in each direction the equity of the utterance may unfold its rectitude and, along the guiding path of truth, may joyfully approach its appointed end. Therefore, let us now set forth in plainer words what we have just presented by way of comparisons. For the following discourse, most dutiful in its brief narration, introduces itself concerning the works of that same most holy man, and I thought it fitting first to recount a few of his works. We have seen, we have seen our Gregory placed in Rome, not with the eyes of the body, but with the gaze of the mind. For we have seen him, not only in his notaries, but also in his familiars, who with bodily service rendered him faithful obedience in attendance, and learning many things about his virtues from their report, I shall very briefly recount a few.

Finally, by the grace of Christ, he was composed in all integrity of character, serene in mind and countenance, kind in heart, pure in conscience, discreet in conduct, shining in virginity, filled with charity, outstanding in piety, remarkable in patience, incomparable in modesty, singular in abstinence, a follower of hospitality, a guardian of pilgrims, a giver of alms, an excellent steward of ecclesiastical property, devoted to friends, a reliever of the oppressed, a comforter of the afflicted, of keen intellect, prudent in counsel, polished in speech, eloquent in expression, gifted in wisdom, manifold in learning, a manifold interpreter of the divine Scriptures, a most acute investigator of hidden mysteries, a magnificent defender of the Catholic faith, a strong assertor against heretics, raised in authority over the proud, and subject with ready devotion to the humble. For he was so adorned with the four virtues of the soul—namely, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice—that he was thought to be not a man, but an angel among men. For who in our time can extol the holy Gregory with fitting praises, eloquent in speech, gifted in prudence, profound in wisdom? Not even the foremost philosophers of Greek and Roman eloquence, namely Socrates or Plato, Cicero and Varro, if they were present in our times, would have produced fitting words.

But lest I be thought to employ panegyric speech, I pass over many things known by hearing concerning his virtues, and turn the duties of my tongue to his little works, which are utterances of beauty. Therefore, when I was in Rome, diligently searching for the volumes that were lacking in Spain, and transcribing with my own hand those I found, such sweetness of words soothed my mind with inestimable delight that I perceived something singular in him, preeminent beyond any comparison. Finally, while he undertook to discuss the history of blessed Job under a threefold investigation—that is, historical, typological, or moral explanation—and to traverse the first and last parts of the prophet Ezekiel with no unequal exposition, and to reveal the profound mysteries of such great matters, having repelled the cloud of ignorance with serene clarity, he laid bare nearly all the secrets of the New and Old Testaments. And it came about that, by this opportunity, that bread which descended from heaven satisfied with the sufficiently sweet faithfulness of this most faithful man. But since in the prolixity of those volumes, when the testimony of each is required, the explanation of nearly the whole work was in doubt—no small scrutiny, and the intention of the burning mind often grew cold—I preferred to undertake a single great labor rather than always endure a suspect difficulty.

I therefore ran through all the monuments of his books, and nearly all the testimonies of sacred Scripture which, employed in his little works for the proof or explanation of each matter, were contained written in various places, with Christ Jesus helping—who perfects praise from the mouths of infants and sucklings, and looses the tongues of the mute from the bond of silence. Any diligent person, when he seeks the explanation of any sacred testimony in those same volumes, so that, wearied by manifold reading, he may not quickly find what he wanted, by recurring to those things I have excerpted, will suddenly discover what he desired with the discretion of free satisfaction. Indeed, I consider the reader of this work should be warned to foresee with vigilant attention that most of the chapters of testimonies, situated in those same volumes in various places as we recalled above, are known to have been collected by me in order, just as they were found expounded. Therefore, other things which he seemed to have expounded already in earlier or later parts, and which he wove again and again, albeit in other words yet with the same sense, recapitulated by exposition in various places, I have taken care to insert some among the preceding testimonies, as the order of matters to be expounded demanded, and to leave the rest behind; so that what follows might depend on what precedes, and what follows might more usefully cohere with what precedes.

If everything were placed in the series of this work in a discrete order, without doubt the magnitude of the volumes would exceed the measure of brevity, and by its recapitulation, offending the reader’s mind, the repetitions would nonetheless produce disgust. The quantity of this matter I have taken care to fulfill in six Codices—namely, four of the Old Instrument, and two also of the New Testament—with their connected orders, omitting the Scriptures which that most holy man treated in sequence, aided by your prayers. I have also culled the little prefaces consonant with those same Codices, which I have placed at the heads of the books, so that he himself may be set before himself in his own words, he who, by the grace of Christ abundantly bestowed, stood forth for us in manifold services. I have chosen to entrust those same Codices, collected with exceedingly laborious attention, to your prudence for examination; in which, if your most sagacious investigation finds some things arranged out of order, let it ascribe the fault not so much to negligence as to necessity: because, as a solitary sailor about to navigate a quasi-boundless sea on the vehicle of a small skiff, I have crossed the spaces of this very broad expanse with the greatest difficulties, and at last, with Christ steering, I have arrived at the longed-for rest of the shore. Behold, most prudent of men, in compressing the orders of causes one by one, I have exceeded the measure of brevity, and, as a certain most learned man says, while the potter’s wheel running with a notch strives to make a jug, the hand has fashioned an amphora.

But I, since I preferred to write a brief page, have composed a little book with an unskilled hand. Therefore I beseech you, most holy of men, and all those to whom the reading of this work has not been displeasing, that you deign to place these little books like two small coins in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord, and that you not disdain to beseech His mercy with vigilant intention for the washing away of my sins, so that, snatched from eternal fires, I may be worthy to be warmed by everlasting comforts. Farewell, my venerable and most holy lord.