Letter 6003: [Euprepia was likely Ennodius's sister or a close kinswoman.

Ennodius to Euprepia. The course of all things consists in the service of the body and the governance of souls: kinship with heaven ennobles the one, earthly baseness presses down the other. Nor is it free for us, that wherever the mind, conferred by God its parent, has turned aside, that which is taken up from the lowest things should not follow, nor is a soldier permitted to bring his hand against the decrees of his commander. Hence Crispus [Sallust] asserted that we have one thing in common with the gods, another with the beasts. By reason of this hidden bond we journey abroad with those who are absent, and, our limbs being in sound health, we burn with the fevers of those who love; through these chains we are divided by no interposition of journeys, and though set apart in our dwellings we come together in one through our pursuits. You know, venerable sister, you who have surpassed in my eyes every sweetness, what occasion had demanded this preface. Now I shall meet with you openly and with a brow prodigal of shame. I scarcely sustained the flatteries you had earlier sent: after my admonition you poured out a double honey in your letters, which would shake all the secrets of my breast and, leaving behind the seat of the body, would carry over my captive soul to longing for you. How I fear that affection may again be sent back to uncertainty, and that, when the whole mind has loosened the sails of its devotion, it may, its station withdrawn, suffer peril! You have come to know that my spirit is ignorant of pretense, and that it cannot take up unsteady courtesy among those who love. Your sex and nature in turn promise the opposite, as the most wise Solomon says: a soul that is in satiety tramples upon honeycombs. He who is witness and judge of my words knows that I have resolved — unless perhaps I am deceived by some treacherous sweetness of favor, and you withdraw the offered cups of love now tasted from one who thirsts — to fulfill not the image but the very truth of a spiritual marriage; and, so long as between us there stands one willing and one not willing, to set before the eyes and minds of all either that which may spur the good to imitation or that which may affect the wicked. Do you only, with God as mediator, promise against every assault that arises from envy that a firm and unchangeable constancy is to be preserved. Wherefore farewell, my lady, and for the present be content in place of the greatest things with this admonition, since neither does the composition of a letter allow more, nor does reason permit the matters of the inner chambers to be entrusted to pages; and if to these things which have been indicated you respond with vow and faith, give your promise by the testimony of your own writing.

III. EVPREPIAE ENNODIVB. Rerum omnium cursus obsequiis corporis, animarum constat imperio: aliud nobilitat caelestis adfinitas, aliud abiectio terrena summittit. nec liberum est, ut quo mens parente deo 28 cf. Salluat. Cat. c. 1 1 perualebis T 8 -exegis B paroedi L desidẽ/// T 4 pwbennitate T 6 dedisti] finit add. B iL 9 oportanitM BLTV U boneetat L peregrinus BPb, peregrinum LTV 18 nxa L* 14 «omeanta JJV 16 nirium (jalt. i corr.) L posdsaima T 1$ debationis B supplicantes expectes ; sed cf. Wiener Studien II p. 883 19 mearum Bb, me- tram LTV, metfl P mere*r] finit add. B m. Epistulas 3 — VIII 2 om. P 21 eupraepiae B 84 summittet B, gommitet b deo parente LTV conlata deflexerit quod de ultimis adsumptum est non sequatur, nec licet militem obuiam manum decretis imperatoris adferre. hinc Crispus adseruit aliud nobis cum dis, aliud cum beluis esse commune. huius secreti ratione cum absentibus peregrinamur et salua membrorum ualitudine amantum febribus aestuamus: per haec uincula nulla itinerum interiectione diuidimur et segregati habitaculis in unum studiis conuenimus. nosti, soror uenerabilis et omnem apud me transgressa dulcedinem, quae praefationem exegisset occasio. nunc aperta tecum et prodiga pudoris fronte congrediar. uix quae ante direxeras blandimenta sustinui: post admonitionem meam duplicia in litteris mella fudisti, quae tota pectoris secreta concuterent et ad desiderium tui captiuam animam relicta corporis sede. transferrent. quam timeo ne rursus ad incertum remittatur affectio et cum tota mens diligentiae uela laxauerit, subducta periculum statione patiatur! animus meus quia fuci sit nescius. cognouisti nec destabilem inter amantes urbanitatem possit adsumere. tua rursus diuersum sexus et natura . pollicetur, ut dicit sapientissimus Salomon: anima, quae in saturitate est,. fauis inludit. scit uerborum meorum testis et iudex disposuisse me, nisi forte subdolo gratiae sapore decipiar et degustatae caritatis sitienti pocula oblata submoueris, spiritalis coniugii non simulacrum sed ipsam implere ueritatem et dum inter nos unum uelle et unum nolle constiterit, uel quod bonos ad imitationem stimulet uel quod 3 SaUust. Cat. c. 1 19 Prou. 27, 7 24 cf. Sallust. Cat. c. 20 1 adsumptus B 3 diis Tb beHuis b 4 ratio L 6 et B add. in mg . ualiditudine B 6 uinc.la L itenerum B diuidemux B 7 saegregati B conueniemus L 9 eiigiBaet Bl 10 prodigia L pudoris Bb, furoris LIT, uel pudoris T m. 2 - mg . 11 dbpplicia T 12 concurrerent T 14 et transferrent B 16 peric.lum L patiatur (aU . t in rtu.) o B anim L quia] quam fort . 17 orbanitatem Bb, orbitatem coni. Schottus 18 et natura T in ras. tn. 2 20 eorum Tl 22 sitigenti B 28 simulachnun T 24 et scripsi, ut B LTVb, nisi forte ut pro scilicet dixit; ef. Wiener Studien II p- 249 et ufi Tl 25 bonus B, beatos T imittationem T malos adficiat omnium oculis et mentibus exhibere. tu tantum deo medio aduersus omnem quae ex inuidia nascitur inpugnationem firmam promitte et indemutabilem seruandam esse constantiam. quocirca uale, mi domina, at breui pro maximis admonitione contenta, quia nec epistolaris concinnatio plura patitur nec ratio penetralium paginis debere committi, si ad haec quae indicata sunt uoto et fide respondes, propriae scriptionis testimonio pollicere.