LETTER X
Sidonius to his lord Bishop Aprunculus, greetings.
1. The man who should have delivered your letters to me instead delivered mine to you. For our brother Caelestius, recently returning to you from Beziers, extracted from me a certain document of cession regarding the affairs of our friend Iniuriosus -- a document I wrote no less from the compulsion of your modesty than from my own will. For it was fitting that I should advance, as it were on the feet of deference, to meet your sense of propriety.
2. Therefore, since I too am willing, take possession of what has been granted -- but generously, for I do not suspect that you yourself sought any greater consolation of this kind. Through this letter, which serves as much for commendation as for transfer, I now present to you, with my goodwill restored, the man in question. On this condition, however: that he attend you, obey you, and follow you, so that if he remains with you, he shall be judged the servant of neither of us, and if he should happen to depart, he shall be sought as a fugitive by both. Deign to remember me, my lord bishop.
EPISTULA X
Sidonius domino papae Aprunculo salutem.
1. Reddidit tibi epistulas meas quem mihi tuas offerre par fuerat; nam frater noster Caelestius nuper ad te reversus de Biterrensi quoddam mihi super statu Iniuriosi nostri vinculum cessionis elicuit. quod quidem scripsi non minus tua verecundia fractus quam voluntate: namque nos ultro vestro pudori quasi quibusdam pedibus obsequii decuit occurrere.
2. quocirca me quoque volente posside indultum, sed liberaliter (nec enim, ut suspicor, plus aliquid hoc genere solacii vel ipse quaesisti), quem litteris istis non commendatoriis minus quam refusoriis iam placatus insinuo; sic tamen, ut tibi assistat, tibi pareat, te sequatur atque ut, si permanserit tecum, neutri nostrum iudicetur famulus, si forte discesserit, quaeratur utrique fugitivus. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.
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LETTER X
Sidonius to his lord Bishop Aprunculus, greetings.
1. The man who should have delivered your letters to me instead delivered mine to you. For our brother Caelestius, recently returning to you from Beziers, extracted from me a certain document of cession regarding the affairs of our friend Iniuriosus -- a document I wrote no less from the compulsion of your modesty than from my own will. For it was fitting that I should advance, as it were on the feet of deference, to meet your sense of propriety.
2. Therefore, since I too am willing, take possession of what has been granted -- but generously, for I do not suspect that you yourself sought any greater consolation of this kind. Through this letter, which serves as much for commendation as for transfer, I now present to you, with my goodwill restored, the man in question. On this condition, however: that he attend you, obey you, and follow you, so that if he remains with you, he shall be judged the servant of neither of us, and if he should happen to depart, he shall be sought as a fugitive by both. Deign to remember me, my lord bishop.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.