Letter 5024: ---

24. Ennodius to Laconius. The dispensation on high has granted fulfillment to your good wishes, and, by reviving brotherly affection through the occasion of a business conversation, it has made desirable what was thought to be necessary. Hence heavenly care has commanded that a suitor for my niece, one not at all foreign to our blood, should come forward, so that, while the opportunity for taking counsel presses, sustenance might be supplied to holy love. I confess I could scarcely endure the long endeavors of a silence I had brought upon myself, but, as a gentler interpreter, I thought that what was being withdrawn from affection ought to be ascribed to fear. Thanks be to God, who has brought your brotherhood back to the practice of the pen and to grace. Yet you should know without doubt that, by the divine laws, kinship comprised within the prescribed schedule is permitted to be joined in matrimony. But forthwith I am directing my men to the city of Rome, intending to require from the venerable pope a response on this point, so that the authority of a weightier precept may strengthen your resolve. My lord, as above, receiving my fullest greeting, you should know that the holy and common father also is of the same opinion; and if divine favor consents, I will dispatch to you, through my man, a letter from him together with documents from the apostolic see.

XXIIII. LACONIO ENNODIVS. Bene cupitis superna dispensatio dedit effectum et de negotiosi occasione conloquii fraternam refouens diligentiam quod putabatur necessarium fecit optabile. hinc caelestis cura nepti meae procum non omnino a sanguine nostro peregrinantem iussit accedere, ut, dum consulendi instat opportunitas, sancto amori pabula praestarentur. uix sustinebam fateor procurati studia longa silentii, sed interpres mitior putabam adplicandum timori quod subducebatur affectui. deo gratias, qui ad usum stili fraternitatem uestram reduxit et gratiae. diuinis tamen legibus cognationem indiculo conprehensam in matrimonio licere sociari sine dubitatione noueritis. sed continuo ad urbem Romam 1 debeUatum T 3 subleaasti b, sublenartis P et Sirm . 5 preuenitur B quaerelis B 6 do#lorem B 8 ut] ne Pb immemores T 9 futuros an ad T in raa. m. S ad om. BL V 13 praeces B XXlIlI. 19 occAsione L1 22 accidere B oportunitas BL PTVb 25 subduceretur P 26 uestram add. in mg. T m. 2 27 ulo indico V cttphensam L homines meos dirigo, exacturus a uenerabili papa super hac parte responsum, ut animum uestrum potioris praecepti firmet auctoritas. domine, ut supra salutationem plenissimam acci- ■ pientes sanctum quoque et communem patrem parilis noueritis esse sententiae, cuius ad uos per hominem meum, si diuinus fauor adnuerit, cum sedis apostolicae apicibus litteras destinabo.