Letter 6010: God, who planted in your soul the desire for good works, will Himself watch over their fulfillment.

Ennodius to Faustus. May God, who has implanted in your spirit a fondness for good works, Himself protect with a long and most happy span of life the man who is obedient to Him; for although the innocence which you cherish keeps unceasing watch on your behalf, nevertheless those who are bound by your benefits cannot suppress the prayers which they owe to God on your behalf, since even God Himself, when set in the flesh, shrank from failing to return thanks for kindnesses received. Would that I had as much power to render words in proportion to your deeds as I feel I owe! Yet to these things, in a matter that pertains to another reward of yours, I do not omit to suggest that you order the document which you drew up in the case of Laurentius, the registrar of Como, to be completed and sent to me; and that, on behalf of that blind woman whom Martinus the lessee of Monza is oppressing, you obtain letters from the count of the patrimony, by which he may be ordered to restore without delay the slave he took from her, since what he received in his instructions to do at present he scorns to carry out through rustic insolence.

X. ENNODIVS FAVSTO. Deus, qui bonorum operum animo uestro inseruit affectum, ipse obsequentem sibi longa felicissimum aetate tueatur, quia VIII. 5 obligastes B domine BTb (i add. B m. rec.) 7 adtendas L impitias L 8 mihi BL V VIIIL 18 tutellam B comis B 15 me om. Bb 18 anteBtitem B 19 uix T 20 exiget Bb 22 praegrauatis Bb quatinuB LTV . X. 28 tuaeatur L quamuis innocentia quam fouetis indesinentes pro uobis ducat excubias, obligati tamen beneficiis uestris non possunt quae pro uobis deo debent uota conprimere, quia pro inpensis gratias non referre et deus in carne constitutus exhorruit. utinam tantum ualerem pro rebus uerborum tribuere, quantum sentio me debere! his tamen, quod ad aliam mercedem uestram pertineat, suggerere non omitto, ut cartam, quam in causa Laurenti tabularii Comensis fecistis, inpletam mihi transmitti iubeatis et pro illa caeca muliere, quam Martinus conductor de Modicia obprimit, comitis patrimonii litteras tollatis, quibus iubeatur quod ei abstulit mancipium sine dilatione reformare, quia quod in praesenti in mandatis accepit facere pro rustica temeritate contemnit.