Epistola Ad Arbogastem Comitem Trevirorum

In the year of the Lord 470. Saint Auspicius, Bishop of Toul. Letter of Auspicius, Bishop of the Church of Toul, to Arbogastes, Count of the Treveri. To the most exalted and esteemed Arbogastes, count, Auspicius, who loves you, sends very many greetings. I render great thanks in my heart to the heavenly Lord, because we recently saw you, great one, in the city of Toul. With many kindnesses you gladdened me before, but now you have made me exult with the greatest joy. For you alone have appeared greater than all, surpassing the order of power with an illustrious mind, to whom the due honor, though not yet conferred by name, is already conferred by merits. For it is more praiseworthy for a man to shine by his deeds than to brandish a lamp without the light of a spark. But you, who in every degree are more than you are said to be, I believe that your merits will more quickly render what is due. For you are illustrious in lineage, illustrious also in the customs of your life; just, chaste, sober, you are rendered wholly illustrious. Your father Arigius was noble in all things; you either renew or surpass his noble reputation. But your honor is his, and his remains with you, and with doubled light you thus outshine all. Let no one doubt that it was granted to your good fortune that your mother, praiseworthy to all, survived you, who fills and adorns you with all resources equally, so that you are abundant in necessities and seemly in deeds. Congratulations to you, O city of the Treveri, which is ruled by such a man, comparable to the ancients.

From a great seed the origin of your name descends: certainly it is of that virtue, as Arbogastes is read. Let these triumphs alike be written in the annals, just as those of the one we mentioned above were written. But let us add this merit to this man, who is truly greater: that he invokes the name of Christ, devoted to religion. That ancient one was swift in arms, it is true: but he dies an unbeliever, and lost everything in death. This man of ours, however, is vigorous, warlike, renowned, and—greater than all these—a cultivator of the divine name. Now, wise son, I ask that you kindly receive the page of your admirer, which I offer out of love. First I beg that you desire to keep the great graces conferred upon you intact, and that you abound in many good things. Repel one vice, lest it pollute your pure heart, which is written in the sacred texts as the root of all evils: namely, cupidity, which rages against its pupils, nor does it spare its fierce madness toward those by whose love it is fed. This, I say, always devours, bearing a hunger to be fed, and like fire, it grows, kindled by added fuel. But I have not said this as though I condemn you for this crime. Yet I earnestly beg that not even a spark wound you. If by chance you should ever unwarily be caught by it, the fire will quickly grow too great, an increasing conflagration. Cast your eyes through the world, behold the foremost men of the age: either the greedy perish, or they live in perils. They scrape together, they seek, they gape, like greedy dogs: and they themselves neither possess these things, nor do they leave them to their descendants.

Yet I have not said these things generally about all: but so that the disgrace of a few may be an outflow for many. But you, outstanding man, a judge provident over many, look into the secrets of your own heart as a judge. If you sense any small drop of poison there, pour sweet oil over it, lest it creep through your vitals. Nor are you ignorant of this oil, in your wisdom, which is the market of all the poor, purchased by alms. Exercise yourself in these pursuits, accomplish all these good things, so that my joys may remain and persist for you: for know that it is too little if someone seizes nothing, and with a hardened heart shuts off his own from the wretched. He does not consult well for himself who thus avoids the madness of cupidity only to fall into avarice. For these two crimes, as if related in kind and doubled in appearance, remain exceedingly joined; those wretched ones who pursue them differ in this one vice, that one of them is bad, and the other is worst. Hence, my dear dignity, I beg you, only son, abstain from the goods of others in such a way that you give your own to all, and above all keep this in your heart, that I already hold you prefigured for the priesthood. Preserve this grace, I beg, and grow in those merits, so that the voice of the people, spoken beforehand, may come as a sacred thing to heaven. Honor with your heart, love the holy and first of all, our Pope Jamlychus, so that you may be loved afterward. Whatever you give to him, you recover for yourself in Christ, about to receive later what you yourself have sown.