E05621: Exchange of letters between Bishop Aunacharius/Aunarius of Auxerre and the presbyter Stephanus in which Aunacharius commissions Stephanus to write a prose life of *Amator (bishop and confessor of Auxerre, ob. c. 418, S01980), and a verse life *Germanus (bishop of Auxerre, ob. c. 448, S00455). Written in Latin at Auxerre (central Gaul), c. 570-590.

Letters of Bishop Aunarius of Auxerre and Stephanus the presbyter

DILECTISSIMO ATQUE AMANTISSIMO ET INTERNE MICHI VINCULO CARITATIS CONEXO FRATRI, STEPHANO PRESBITERO, AUNARIUS GRATIA DEI EPISCOPUS IN DOMINO AETERNAM SALUTEM
Tuę, nobis doctrine multis iam experimentis adprobata prudentia compulit nos quandam tuis humeris imperiosam superponere sarcinulam, sed eam quę, tibi non sit oneris, sed honoris, nec que deorsum iniquo pondere premat, sed quę potius cęlum usque sustollat. Cognitum tibi est, karissimę frater, quę sit humanarum mentium diversitas, et quemadmodum studia in contraria non solum inane vulgus, verum etiam universa scindatur nobilitas; et quidam quidem prosaico oblectantur stilo, quidam autem numeris se rithmisve ac cantibus versuum delectari fatentur : ergo ut omnium votis occurrerem, et nullus suo desiderio fraudaretur, placuit michi, ut vitas beatissimorum confessorum quasdam pede libero describerem, quasdam vero lege metrica impeditas digererem; ob quam rem obsecro unitam michi tuę dilectionis amicitiam, ut beatissimi Germani episcopi vitam in versuum qualitatem commutare non desistas, sancti vero Amatoris prosaica modulatione describas, ut sectatores apostolice, praedicationis effecti, omnibus omnia efficiamur et nulli quicquam debeamus, nisi ut invicem diligamus.
Individuam michi caritatem vestram divina custodiat pietas, venerabilis frater.

DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET APOSTOLICIS INFULIS DECORATO, PATRI SPIRITALI, AUNARIO EPISCOPO, STEPHANUS OMNIUM SERVORUM CHRISTI FAMULUS
Decursis litteris apostolatus vestri, quo sancti desiderii ardor summa alacritate pertendat, luce clarius approbavi : est igitur devotionis vestrae propositum, virorum opinatissimorum Germani et Amatoris floride vitę nobiles actus describere; sed ad eos lepidissimi callis vestri dirigatur intentio, qui possunt virtutum lumina aequiperis affatibus inspicare. Verum ego, cuius iners ingenium genuino rigore torpescit et lingua balbutiens faucium inter raucidulos cursus squalido situ impedita non loquitur, potius sed stridet, quomodo potero divinitus inspirata virorum sanctissimorum munera polito expedire sermone, qui nec privata possum humano casu congesta negotia explicare? Ridiculo, ni fallor, inexplicabili ac ludibrio semet impendit, quisquis ultra virium suarum possibilitatem onus assumit. Nonne ferarum sectatores, si minus captiosa industria formaverit, audax temeritas pessumdabit? Numquam tyro victorię monumenta parma depicta gestabit, si eum docta veterani exempla non instruxerint. Numquam etiam aeris sibi concessum patulum iter ales tutus resecabit, cui praevia dux penniger mater non fuerit : iacebit profecto fluctuum elisione truncatus, quisquis suae procacitatis fisus auctoramento indocilem ratis dexteram ingerit clavo; sic unusquisque in diversum imperitię hamo inscinditur, si doctorum favoribus minime adiuvetur. Ego, beatissime vir, quęso, ut illa michi culmen apicis tui imponat, quę facile me posse perficere non dubitat; si tamen et in hoc opere quicquid inlępidae aut infacete rustica garrulitas digesserit, aequanimiter feras : adgrediar, ut faciam, quę paterna imperat ac iubet auctoritas.
Vale longum in tempus, domine semper meus et apostolicae papa.


'Eternal salvation in the Lord to my brother Stephanus the presbyter, dearest and most beloved and bound to me by the chain of inner love, from Aunarius, bishop by the grace of God.
Prudence, justified to us by many experiences of your learning, compels us to impose a certain imperious load on your shoulders; but one that should not be a burden to you but an honour. Not one that presses downwards with unpleasant weight, but one that raises you up towards heaven. It is known to you, dearest brother, what diversity there is among human minds and how not only the foolish herd but even all of the nobility are divided by contrary interests. Some enjoy the prose style, while others are said to enjoy the metres or rhythms and poetry of verses. Therefore, so that I meet the wishes of all and no one is deprived of what they long for, it has pleased me that I should represent some lives of the most blessed confessors with a free foot [in prose] and send out others restricted by the law of metre. Because of which I beseech the friendship, united with me, of your kindness, that you do not refuse to transform the Life of the most blessed bishop Germanus into the quality of verse, while you describe that of the holy Amator in the rhythm of prose, so that, made followers of apostolic preaching, we may be all things to all men [1 Cor. 9:22] and owe no one anything but to love one another [Rom. 13:8].
May divine care guard your particular love for me, venerable brother.

Stephanus, servant of all the servants of Christ, to his most blessed lord and spiritual father, Aunarius, decorated with the insignia of the apostles.
After skimming through the letter of Your Apostleship, in which the ardour of holy desire pushed forward with the greatest keenness, I approved more clearly than daylight. It is therefore the decision of Your Devotion to describe the noble acts of the ornamented life of the most memorable men Germanus and Amator. But your intention is directed to those most charming paths, which can sharpen the lights of virtue with appropriate utterances. But I, whose inert talent grows torpid with real stiffness and whose tongue, stammering among the hoarse movements of its jaws, impeded by the roughness of its site, does not speak, but rasps: how will I be able to put forward the divinely inspired gifts of those most holy men in polished speech, who cannot, through human weakness, explain my own private business? He threatens to be, if I am not deceived, an incomprehensible joke and a laughing-stock, whoever assumes a burden beyond the capacity of his strength. Will not bold temerity destroy hunters of wild beasts if diligence in catching has not sufficiently shaped them? Never will a painted shield bring the monuments of victory to a raw recruit, if the teaching and examples of a veteran have not instructed him. Never will a bird safely cut an open way through the air if its wing-bearing mother has not gone before as a leader. He will lie completely cut down by the violence of the waves, whoever, relying on the authority of his own rashness, lays an untaught right hand on the rudder of a ship. So each is caught on a different hook of inexperience, if he is not helped by the favour of the learned. I, most blessed man, ask that the summit of your loftiness imposes on me things which it has no doubt I can easily achieve. If however, even in this work, whatever rustic garrulity ineptly and boorishly brings forth, you may bear with equanimity, I will start out, so that I do what paternal authority requires and orders.
Farewell for a long time, my perpetual lord and apostolic bishop.'

Text: Gundlach 1892, 447-448. Translation: David Lambert.