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 …
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. …
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 …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
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 …
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.02
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 0.02
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
chrysostom · c. 405 · score 0.01
And when day dawned all the city was migrating outside the walls under trees and groves, celebrating the festival, like scattered sheep. 4. All which happened afterwards I leave you to imagine; for as I said before it is not possible to describe each separate incident. The worst of it is that these evils, great and ser …
jerome · c. 413 · score 0.01
Like him too he had with him a Cerberus, not three headed but many headed, ready to seize and rend everything within his reach. He tore betrothed daughters from their mothers' arms and sold high-born maidens in marriage to those greediest of men, the merchants of Syria. No plea of poverty induced him to spare either wa …
augustine_hippo · c. 404 · score 0.01
We should not be so contrary to ourselves as to believe when we read and then complain when they are fulfilled. Rather, even those who were unbelieving when they read or heard these things written in the holy Books should now at least believe when they see them being fulfilled — so that from these great pressures, as i …
pelagius_ii · c. 585 · score 0.01
May God therefore command him to come swiftly to our rescue, before the army of this most wicked nation — God forbid — is able to seize the places still held by the state. For "those who act wickedly shall be cut off, and the enemies" [Psalm 36:9] of the Lord shall perish. Send the priest back to us quickly, God willin …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
I will not describe them one by one, lest the weakness of my account make the evidence of our catastrophe less convincing. Here is the sum of it: congregations have been driven from their houses of worship and are gathering in the open wilderness. It is a terrible sight -- women, children, the elderly, and the infirm e …
athanasius_alexandria · c. 339 · score 0.01
Upon this license of iniquity and disorder, their deeds were worse than in time of war, and more cruel than those of robbers. Some of them were plundering whatever fell in their way; others dividing among themselves the sums which some had laid up there ; the wine, of which there was a large quantity, they either drank …
avitus_vienne · c. 505 · score 0.01
Sigismund, king, to the most pious Emperor Anastasius. Your excellency is known to all for the truth that we are not the subjects only of our own times: the greatness of those who came before us is ours too, insofar as we have received it and maintained it. I speak as a Burgundian king who is also a Roman. The Burgundi …
augustine_hippo · c. 423 · score 0.01
Their advance is relentless. The cities that stand in their path will face siege, destruction, and massacre. The bishops in those cities will face the question you have asked me. My answer, for myself, is this: I will not flee. I cannot. My people cannot flee, and I will not leave them. If the Lord takes me, he takes m …
jerome · c. 396 · score 0.01
How was it that the soothsayer Balaam, in prophesying the mysteries of Christ [Numbers 24:15-19], spoke more plainly of Him than almost any other prophet? I answered as best I could. Then, unrolling the scroll further, she reached the list of all the halting-places by which the people traveled from Egypt to the waters …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
To the Lord Bishop Graecus [Bishop of Marseille]. Here once again our Amantius — that gossipmonger of ours — returns to his Marseille, doubtless planning to bring home some profit from the city's markets, if only a favorable cargo-ship should arrive. Through him I would chatter at length in a lighter vein, if my heart …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.01
Gregory to the Emperor Mauricius. Our most devout and God-appointed sovereign, among his many pressing cares, also watches over the preservation of peace among the clergy with genuine spiritual concern -- rightly and wisely recognizing that no one can govern earthly affairs well unless he knows how to handle the things …
epistulae_wisigothicae · c. 633 · score 0.01
An epistola from the Fourth Council of Toledo [633] addressed to the Visigothic clergy, communicating the council's... [This letter from the Epistulae Wisigothicae (Letter 24) represents official correspondence of the Visigothic clergy in Spain. The full Latin text requires further translation.]
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
It is our policy, conscript fathers, to grant rewards to upright character and to kindle men of good promise toward still better conduct by the fruit of our generosity. The examples set by rewards nourish virtue, and no one fails to strive for the highest standards of character when what conscience approves does not go …