Resultados25 letters/passages
jerome · c. 396 · score 0.02
When they came, they spared neither religion, nor rank, nor age; they had no pity even for wailing infants. Children were forced to die before they could be said to have begun living, and little ones, oblivious to their fate, could be seen smiling in the hands of their killers. It was generally believed the invaders we …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.02
The barbarian invasions that continue to afflict Illyricum have produced a particular tragedy that I must address: bishops driven from their sees, wandering without resources, without community, without the basic means of life. This is a pastoral emergency, and I write to you collectively to demand a response equal to …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.02
Book I, Letter 41 To Peter, Subdeacon [Gregory's delegate in Sicily]. Gregory to Peter. The venerable Paulinus, bishop of the city of Taurianum in Bruttium [the toe of the Italian peninsula, modern Calabria], has told us that his monks were scattered by barbarian invasions [likely Lombard raids] and are now wandering t …
salvian_marseille · c. 450 · score 0.02
To the most holy Lord Salonius, bishop of Geneva, from Salvian, greetings. The question you raise about the relationship between divine providence and human freedom in the context of the barbarian catastrophe is one I have been wrestling with in the work I am currently writing, and I want to share my current thinking. …
theodoret_cyrrhus · c. 440 · score 0.02
To Ibas, Bishop of Edessa [one of the major cities of Roman Mesopotamia, modern Urfa in southeastern Turkey], I believe it is part of God's providential care for our common salvation that he allows certain calamities to fall upon some people. For the chastened, such misfortunes become a healing remedy. For those alread …
augustine_hippo · c. 404 · score 0.02
Your letter filled our heart with great sorrow, in which you asked that I reply at some length; yet for such evils, more lengthy groaning and weeping are owed than lengthy books. For the whole world is afflicted by such calamities that almost no part of the earth exists where such things as you described are not commit …
salvian_marseille · c. 450 · score 0.01
To the most holy and blessed Lord Eucherius, bishop of Lyon, from Salvian, greetings. The theme that runs through all my thinking in these years — the collapse of the Roman world and what it means for those who believed that Rome and Christianity had been providentially united — is one that I know you have also been wr …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Under the clemency of a good ruler, nothing is left to the mercy of chance — for those who have resolved to govern most prosperously also correct misfortunes. How could a man stripped bare endure both savage barbarians and a demanding sovereign, when, robbed of his resources, he denies having the means to pay what he o …
braulio_zaragoza · c. 642 · score 0.01
To my brother bishop, News from across the straits continues to be disturbing. The speed of the Arab advance through North Africa — which seemed impossible when first reported and which has proven to be entirely real — raises questions that I do not think we have fully reckoned with. The church in North Africa was one …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
Sidonius to his lord, Bishop Mamertus [of Vienne]. The word is that the Goths have moved their forces onto Roman soil. And as always, we wretched Arverni [people of Clermont] are the gateway to this invasion. We are a particular target for their hatred, because the only thing preventing them from extending their border …
synesius_cyrene · c. 409 · score 0.01
To my Brother. How sad that we have only bad news to share when we write. The enemy has occupied Battia, attacked Aprosylis, burned the threshing floors, ravaged the fields, and sold the women into slavery. As for the men — no quarter was given. They used to take the boys alive, but now, I suppose, they do not have eno …
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.01
To Anysius. Nothing could benefit Pentapolis more than honoring the Unnigardae [a barbarian military unit], who are excellent both as men and as soldiers, above all the other troops — not just the so-called native forces, but every auxiliary unit that has ever been stationed in our region. The proof of their quality is …
gelasius_i · c. 493 · score 0.01
We had grieved until now at the barbarian raids devastating the provinces nearest to the city and the cruel tempest of wars, but as much as amid the very fervent dangers of recent calamities we have discovered, the devil has inflicted a more pernicious ruin upon the minds of Christians than hostile savagery has upon th …
synesius_cyrene · c. 409 · score 0.01
To Simplicius. When you asked Cerialis to bring me your congratulations, you did him an unintended favor — you kept me ignorant for five days of what a contemptible man he is. Our cities had some hope for anyone Simplicius deemed worth knowing. But he quickly disgraced not you — may your reputation never depend on any …
synesius_cyrene · c. 412 · score 0.01
To Theophilus. You care for Pentapolis — you truly do. You will therefore read the official correspondence. But beyond what those letters contain, the messenger will tell you that the disasters that have already occurred are greater and more numerous than those the letters threaten. He was sent to request military rein …
libanius · c. 318 · score 0.01
To Modestus. (359) I hear that the danger has reached its peak -- that bridges have been built for the Persian [Shapur II] and the crossing is imminent. Let this sharpen your vigilance, but keep panic far from your planning. For panic itself will destroy your ability to plan, since a troubled mind inevitably becomes bl …
chrysostom · c. 380 · score 0.01
For that which has never taken place has now come to pass, the barbarians leaving their own country have overrun an infinite space of our territory, and that many times over, and having set fire to the land, and captured the towns they are not minded to return home again, but after the manner of men who are keeping hol …
augustine_hippo · c. 404 · score 0.01
It was in the hidden judgment and mercy of God to provide for the salvation of those kings in that way. Against King Antiochus, who killed the Maccabees with cruel torments, God chose not to provide in the same way but punished the hard king's heart with more severe judgment through their most glorious suffering. What …
gelasius_i · c. 492 · score 0.01
We had grieved until now at the barbarian raids devastating the provinces nearest to the city and at the cruel tempest of war, but as much as we have discovered amid the very fervent dangers of recent calamities, the devil has inflicted a more pernicious ruin upon the minds of Christians than hostile savagery has upon …
theodoret_cyrrhus · c. 440 · score 0.01
To Apellion. The sufferings of the people of Carthage would demand — and in their magnitude might exceed — the full power of tragic language, even of an Aeschylus or a Sophocles. Carthage was in the old days taken by the Romans only after tremendous effort. Time and again she contended with Rome for mastery of the worl …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.01
I replied that I had never deceived anyone: the fact that I had not cooperated with his plans was exactly the point. I had been sent by a legitimate emperor, and I had acted in that emperor's interest. Then he tried a different tactic. He claimed that Bauto, the Frankish general, had invited barbarians into the empire. …
gregory_great · c. 600 · score 0.01
Gregory to Maximus, Bishop of Salona. When our mutual friend the priest Veteranus arrived in Rome, he found me so weakened by gout that I could not personally answer your Fraternity's letters. Regarding the Slavic nation [the Slavs, who were pressing into the Balkans and threatening the Dalmatian coast], from which you …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
Moreover she besought me to take refuge in her house, which had a fortress and was impregnable, that I might escape the hands of the bishop and monks. This however I could not be induced to do, but remained in the villa, knowing nothing of the plans which were devised after these things. For even then they were not con …
augustine_hippo · c. 423 · score 0.01
Augustine to Bishop Honoratus, greetings. You have asked me the most difficult practical question a bishop can face: when the barbarians approach, should the bishop flee? I have thought about this for a long time — longer than you might expect, because the question is not hypothetical for us in Africa. The barbarians a …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
But if verses devoid of ease and happiness cannot win approval, you too will find nothing pleasing on the page I append below. [The poem that follows describes the barbarian peoples gathered at the court of Euric in Bordeaux:] Why do you try to rouse the Muses now, Lampridius, glory of our poetry, and force me to compo …