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 …
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 …
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. 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
epistulae_langobardorum · c. 655 · score 0.01
To those who will read this after us. We write at a moment when the Lombard kingdom has existed for nearly a century, and when the church in Italy has adapted to circumstances that our predecessors could not have imagined. The Roman world that the Lombards entered was one where the distinction between Roman and barbari …
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 …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.01
Book I, Letter 17 To all the Bishops of Italy. Gregory to all. The detestable Authari [king of the Lombards, the Germanic people who had invaded and occupied much of Italy] during this recently completed Easter season forbade the children of Lombards from being baptized in the Catholic faith. For this sin, God struck h …
epistulae_wisigothicae · c. 636 · score 0.01
A letter from a Visigothic council [636] addressed to the Visigothic ecclesiastical establishment on questions of church-state relations following the turbulent reigns of Swinthila and Sisenand [r.631-636]. The letter addresses proper procedures for royal succession, the church's role in legitimizing kingship, and epis …
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 …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
We delight in living by Roman law among those we seek to defend by arms, and our concern for moral order is no less than our concern for war. What good does it do to drive out the barbarian threat if we do not live under law? Therefore, since our army has entered Gaul with God's favor, if any slaves who had fled their …
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 …