---
**From:** Ennodius, bishop of Pavia
**To:** Passivus (identity uncertain; a trusted friend)
**Date:** ~510 AD
**Context:** A paradox elegantly sustained: Ennodius defends his infrequent letters by arguing that genuine friendship is too vast to be adequately expressed in words — and that to write too much would be to diminish the very thing one attempts to honor.
---
If words were truly sufficient to give voice to love, if even the most halting tongue could lay bare the whole depth of feeling, to whom more than to you would I pour out the abundance of written pages? And if speech did not, by its very nature, constrain and diminish what the heart holds, no one would be more deserving of that eloquence's faithful service.
There are those who profess in words an affection they do not feel in their minds — who paint and ornament the moments of correspondence with seductive exchanges, because their inner chambers lie vacant and idle: in such men, love lives entirely on the tongue, and nothing reaches the interior of the soul except what is deposited in writing. Their letters are lavish because their hearts are empty.
But my spirit toward you — pressed down by the poverty of eloquence, and silenced by the very richness of our friendship — has grown still. I fear, you see, that impoverished chatter might place a boundary on grace; I fear that the measure of my words might be taken for the measure of our bond. It is better to leave more to your estimation through silence than to reveal, through a torrent of letters, how badly language fails devotion. I have laid out, then, the reasons for my more infrequent correspondence — trusting that in your eyes, genuine sincerity is held higher than mere fluency.
As for the rest: farewell, my lords, and may you, drawing upon the divine gifts with which you have been blessed, fulfill the heavenly commandments throughout the long procession of your life. For kindness, when it begins from abundance, finds yet further increase in you.
Farewell.
XXXII. ENNODIVS PASSIVO.
Si ad eloquendam sufficeret sermo caritatem, si totum infantia
explanaret affectum, cui magis quam uobis paginarum
frequentiam praestaremus ? et nisi artaret meritum pectoris,
nulli dignius sermonis militaret officium. alii affectum, quem
mente nesciunt, ore testantur et pingunt inlecebrosis epistularum
momenta commerciis, quando feriatis penetralibus amor
totus in lingua est nec aliud ad interiora perducitur, nisi
quantum in scriptione confertur. at meus erga uos animus
eloquii pressus macie et amicitiae ubertate conticuit: metuo
enim, ne gratiae terminum ponat mendica confabulatio, ne
idem modus putetur esse sermonis et foederis. melius est plus
aestimationi per silentium dimittere quam monstrare diligentiae
damna per litteras. ecce rarioris conloquii causas adserui,
credens apud uos a sinceritate debita facundiam posthaberi.
2 inaenit Tl 3 ergo] ego b 4 occasione (se om.) L fallendi
Bb, falli P, felli LTV 5 causa B accedere b 6 noto
BT2b, uotis LPT1V satisfaciam BT2b, faciam LPT1V pudorS
(or corr.) V uestram V onerem PT1, honerem LTlV, honorem
Bb 7 reddantur Pb mi om. LPTV 8 uale om. B
XXXII. 11 eloquendam BT, eoquendam LV, exequendam P et
Sirm., exequendum b 18 prestaremus B astaret V 14 militaret
sermonis Sirm . 16 momenta] commenta fort . penetrat
bilibus B 18 ad B 19 maciq L et om. Sirm . motus
T 23 damna B 8. l . m. ant.l, dampna LV
quod superest, saluete, mi domini, et diuinis usi beneficiis
procedente uita in longum caelestia mandata conplete. inuenit
enim apud uos, cum a cumulo coeperit benignitas, incrementum.
uale.
◆
---
**From:** Ennodius, bishop of Pavia **To:** Passivus (identity uncertain; a trusted friend) **Date:** ~510 AD **Context:** A paradox elegantly sustained: Ennodius defends his infrequent letters by arguing that genuine friendship is too vast to be adequately expressed in words — and that to write too much would be to diminish the very thing one attempts to honor.
---
If words were truly sufficient to give voice to love, if even the most halting tongue could lay bare the whole depth of feeling, to whom more than to you would I pour out the abundance of written pages? And if speech did not, by its very nature, constrain and diminish what the heart holds, no one would be more deserving of that eloquence's faithful service.
There are those who profess in words an affection they do not feel in their minds — who paint and ornament the moments of correspondence with seductive exchanges, because their inner chambers lie vacant and idle: in such men, love lives entirely on the tongue, and nothing reaches the interior of the soul except what is deposited in writing. Their letters are lavish because their hearts are empty.
But my spirit toward you — pressed down by the poverty of eloquence, and silenced by the very richness of our friendship — has grown still. I fear, you see, that impoverished chatter might place a boundary on grace; I fear that the measure of my words might be taken for the measure of our bond. It is better to leave more to your estimation through silence than to reveal, through a torrent of letters, how badly language fails devotion. I have laid out, then, the reasons for my more infrequent correspondence — trusting that in your eyes, genuine sincerity is held higher than mere fluency.
As for the rest: farewell, my lords, and may you, drawing upon the divine gifts with which you have been blessed, fulfill the heavenly commandments throughout the long procession of your life. For kindness, when it begins from abundance, finds yet further increase in you.
Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.