Letter 9002: Item ad Chilpericum et Fredegundem reginam

II Likewise, to King Chilperic and Queen Fredegund Harsh is the condition and irrevocable the lot of our hour! That sad origin which gave grief to the human race, when the persuading serpent cast forth poison from its mouth, and by the serpent's bite guilty Eve became our death: from that time forth the earth received sorrow from our very father Adam, and the world, groaning from its mother, takes up bitterness. By their transgression the two are condemned to a bitter disgrace: he suffers in toil, she groans in childbearing. Thence came devouring death, passed on to their very descendants, and that guilty origin carries off its own heirs. Behold, this sad crime our first parents begot for us: from the point where it first began, from there the whole race rushes to ruin. First Abel fell, slain by a pitiable wound, and a brother's hoes dug into his limbs. Afterward Seth too died, given back in Abel's stead, and although he returned, he was not without an end. Why should I recall Noah, praised by the voice of the Thunderer? Him a light ark bore up; now the heavy soil presses him down. So too Shem and Japheth, and at last the most just offspring, the holy progeny, ran the same road. What of the patriarch Abraham, or Isaac, and Jacob also worthy, when no one stands released from the law of death? Melchizedek too, by the Lord's mouth a holy priest, and Job, and likewise their own children, so they departed. The lawgiver himself lies dead, Moses, and Aaron the priest, and that friend worthy of God's discourse perishes. And his successor too, Joshua [Iesus, Joshua son of Nun], the renowned leader of the people, and the fathers whom you read of in the books have fallen. What of Gideon, Samson, or whoever in his turn was a judge? Under the Lord as judge no one escapes death. The mighty Israelite David, king and prophet, is laid in the tomb together with his Solomon. Isaiah, Daniel, Samuel, and blessed Jonah, who lived beneath the sea, now stands pressed down by the earth. Peter, chief by the keys, and Paul, first also in doctrine, although their souls are exalted, the earth covers their bodies. He than whom none greater is held from human seed, the mighty man John the Baptist himself, perishes. Enoch and Elijah, both of these, still look toward this: he who is begotten of man shall also be destined to die. The Creator himself, Christ, exulting, swiftly rising from the shades, since here he was born a man, was buried in flesh in the soil. Who, I ask, does not die, when Salvation himself tastes death? Since here, for my sake, my Life willed to die. Tell me, what shall the heights of an Augustus or of kings avail, when the Creator's limbs have lain upon the rocks? Strong men do not hold back their arms, nor kings their purple; whatever man has come from dust, dust he shall be. We are born equal, and we all die equally: from Adam is one death, and Christ is the one salvation. The reward is diverse, yet the death is one for all: infants, young men, so shall you die as old men. Therefore what do we accomplish here, I now ask you, lofty power, when we can be of no help to the matter? We weep, we groan, but we are not able to profit: mourning is present to our eyes, yet there is no fruit of aid. The inward parts are wrung, our hearts are torn with tumult; our dear ones are dead, and our eyes fail with weeping. Behold, love is called for, yet the beloved is now not called back, nor does he whom the sunken stone covers now seek us again. Although one cries out, deaf death flees and does not hear, nor does its hardness know how to return to pious affection. But, whether I will it or will it not, I shall journey there with all; we shall all go hence, and no one returns from there: until at the Lord's coming the dead flesh may live, and man may rise again from his own dust, when the moist skin begins to cover the parched ashes and the living ashes leap up from the tombs. We shall go, then, all of us, to be placed in another region; we shall go to the homeland, we whom foreign lands hold. Do not be tormented, therefore, pious king, most valiant prince, because your children proceed where every man seeks to go. Whatever earthen vessel pleases the potter, such is fashioned; when it pleases the potter, the vessels are broken and fall. What the Almighty commands, we cannot be rebels against, at whose gaze the stars and the earth tremble. He himself creates man: what can we say? The same one who gave also takes back: he bears no guilt. Behold, we are his molding, and our spirit is from him: when he commands, we go hence, we who are his work. If it please him, in an hour he changes the mountains, the seas, the stars, for his own deeds favor him: what does man, who is smoke, do? Therefore I pray, mighty king, do what may profit you, greatest one, what profits the soul together with the help of the Godhead: be a manly glory, patiently overcome your sorrows: what is not avoided, let the burden at least be borne. What we drag along in being born, without this no one passes through life: what no one changes, let him at least bear with reason. Take counsel for your lady the queen, the loving and beloved, who receives all good things in your fellowship with her; bid the grieving maternal affection be calmed, and neither weep yourself at the same time nor allow her to shed tears. With you the man reigning, it does not befit her to be sad, but rather let her, exalted, rejoice in your marriage bed. This too I beg, wishing your wife an ample life: take counsel for her who bore them, take counsel for your homeland. Such will the people be as everyone shall see you to be, and from your countenance your common folk reap their own prayers. Job, at last, losing his seven sons under one sad blow, gave back praises to God with his mouth. David the psalmist, when he lost his begotten beloved, soon laid him in the tomb and gave a festive meal. The twice happy woman, the pious mother of the Maccabees, joyfully bore her seven sons in a single funeral, readily saying to the Lord: 'Always glory be to you, ruler; when you will it, highest Father, the mother holds her pledges,' wherefore rather let thanks be rendered to our God, who makes go to heaven from your seed, and chooses beautiful gems from the dung of the world and leads them from the midst of the mire to the stars, to his throne. Your harvest has pleased God, which he stores in his granaries, while from the tender ears he reaps the sweet grains. You do not generate chaff, but you beget whole wheat, not to be burned in the fire, but to be re-created in the heavens: especially those who, thus pure by holy baptism, have here deserved to be snatched away, made new by the washing font. Standing before God like golden vessels of beauty, or like a lovely lamp shining on candlesticks, the unstained souls, ever radiant with honor, keep their place in the region of the living, and planted in the house of the Lord they flourish in light, like white lilies mingled with red roses. And when the Lord shall have bidden the buried limbs to return, he will then clothe your begotten sons in a lovely robe, or a palm-embroidered cloak woven beneath red gold, and the brow will wear a diadem with varied gems; wearing a snow-white mantle over their shining breasts, and a gleaming girdle binds the purple toga. Then father and mother, you will rejoice in their midst, when you behold them to be among the starry men. Yet the Almighty, who increased the seed of Abraham, exists, and will give to you what he gave to Job out of love, restoring the number of sons with worthy offspring, and bringing back progeny by ennobling faith. He who conferred upon David's throne the birth of Solomon, when he himself returns to the father in place of the brother, that one will be able to render back to you a son from your wife, with whom the father may play, and whom the mother may nourish at the breast, who, creeping in the midst of you, climbing along the necks of his parents, may prepare long joys for the kings and for the homeland.

II Item ad Chilpericum et Fredegundem reginam Aspera condicio et sors inrevocabilis horae! quod generi humano tristis origo dedit, cum suadens coluber proiecit ab ore venenum, morsu et serpentis mors fuit Eva nocens: sumpsit ab ipso ex tunc Adam patre terra dolorem, et de matre gemens mundus amara capit. praevaricando duo probro damnantur acerbo: ille labore dolet, haec generando gemit. mors venit inde vorax, transmissa nepotibus ipsis, heredesque suos tollit origo nocens. ecce hoc triste nefas nobis genuere parentes: coeperat unde prius, hinc ruit omne genus. primus Abel cecidit miserando vulnere caesus, ac fraterna sibi sarcula membra fodent. post quoque Seth obiit, sub Abel vice redditus isdem, et quamvis rediit, non sine fine fuit. quid Noe memorem, laudatum voce Tonantis? quem levis arca tulit, nunc gravis arva premit. sic quoque Sem et Iafeth, iustissima denique proles sancta et progenies tale cucurrit iter. quid patriarcha Abraham vel Isac, Iacob quoque dignus, cum de lege necis nemo solutus adest? Melchisedech etiam, domini sacer ore sacerdos, Iob quoque seu geniti sic abiere sui. legifer ipse iacet Moyses Aaronque sacerdos, alloquiisque dei dignus amicus obit. successorque suus, populi dux inclitus Iesus, quos legitis libris occubuere patres, quid Gedeon, Samson vel quisquis in ordine iudex? morti sub domino iudice nemo fugit. Israhelita potens David rex atque propheta est situs in tumulo cum Salomone suo. Esaias Danihel Samuel Ionasque beatus, vivens sub pelago, stat modo pressus humo. princeps clave Petrus, primus quoque dogmate Paulus, quamvis celsae animae, corpora terra tegit. semine ab humano cui nullus maior habetur, vir baptista potens ipse Iohannes obit. Enoch Heliasque hoc adhuc spectat uterque: qui satus ex homine est et moriturus erit. ipse creator ovans surgens cito Christus ab umbris, hic quia natus homo est, carne sepultus humo. quis, rogo, non moritur, mortem gustante salute? dum pro me voluit hic mea vita mori? dic mihi, quid poterunt Augusti aut culmina regum, membra creatoris cum iacuere petris? brachia non retrahunt fortes neque purpura reges, vir quicumque venit pulvere, pulvis erit. nascimur aequales morimurque aequaliter omnes: una ex Adam est mors, Christus et una salus. diversa est merces, funus tamen omnibus unum: infantes, iuvenes, sic moriere senes. ergo quid hinc facimus nunc te rogo, celsa potestas, cum nihil auxilii possumus esse rei? ploramus, gemimus, sed nec prodesse valemus: luctus adest oculis, est neque fructus opis. viscera torquentur, lacerantur corda tumultu; sunt cari extincti, flendo cadunt oculi. ecce vocatur amor neque iam revocatur amator, . nos neque iam repetit quem petra mersa tegit. quamvis clamantem refugit mors surda nec audit, nec seit in affectum dura redire pium. sed, nolo atque volo, migrabo cum omnibus illuc; ibimus hinc omnes, nemo nec inde redit: donec [ad] adventum domini caro mortua vivat, surgat et ex proprio pulvere rursus homo, coeperit ut tegere arentes cutis uda favillas et vivi cineres de tumulis salient. ibimus ergo omnes alia regione locandi, ibimus ad patriam quos peregrina tenent. ne cruciere igitur, pie rex, fortissime princeps, quod geniti pergunt quo petit omnis homo. quale placet figulo vas fictile, tale paratur; quando placet figulo, vasa soluta ruunt. quod iubet omnipotens, non possumus esse rebelies, cuius ad intuitum sidera terra tremunt. ipse creat hominem: quid dicere possumus? idem qui dedit et recipit: crimina nulla gerit. illius ecce sumus figmentum et spiritus inde est: cum iubet, hinc imus qui sumus eius opus. si libet, in hora montes freta sidera mutat cui sua facta favent: quid homo fumus agit? rex precor ergo potens, age quod tibi, maxime, prosit, quod prodest animae cum deitatis ope: esto virile decus, patienter vince dolores: quod non vitatur, vel toleretur onus. quod trahimus nascendo, sine hoc non transigit ullus: quod nemo inmutat, vel ratione ferat. consuleas dominae reginae et amantis amatae, quae bona cuncta capit te sociante sibi; maternum affectum placare iubeto dolentem, nec simul ipse fleas nec lacrimare sinas. te regnante viro tristem illam non decet esse, sed magis ex vestro gaudeat alta toro. deprecor hoc etiam, vitam amplam coniugis optans, consuleas genitae, consuleas patriae. talis erit populus qualem te viderit omnis, deque tua facie plebs sua vota metet. denique Iob natos septem uno triste sub ictu amittens laudes rettulit ore deo. David psalmographus genitum cum amisit amatum, mox tumulo posuit, prandia festa dedit. femina bis felix pia mater Machabeorum natos septem uno funerc laeta tulit, prompta aiens domino: 'semper tibi gloria, rector, cum vis, summe pater, pignora mater habet', unde deo potius referatur gratia nostro, germine de vestro qui facit ire polo, eligit et gemmas de mundi stercore pulchras de medioque luto ducit ad astra throno. messis vestra deo placuit, quam in horrea condit dum spicis teneris dulcia grana metat. non paleas generas, frumenta sed integra gignis, nec recremanda focis, sed recreanda polis: praesertim qui sic sancto baptismate puri hinc meruere rapi, fonte lavante novi. stantes ante deum velut aurea vasa decoris aut quasi candelabris pulchra lucerna nitens, inmaculatae animae, radiantes semper honore, vivorum retinent in regione locum inque domo domini plantati lumine vernant, candida ceu rubeis lilia mixta rosis. iusserit et dominus cum membra redire sepulta, vestibit genitos tunc stola pulchra tuos aut palmata chlamys rutilo contexta sub auro, et variis gemmis frons diadema geret; utentes niveam per candida pectora pallam, purpureamque togam fulgida zona ligat. tunc pater et genetrix mediis gaudebitis illis, cum inter sidereos cernitis esse viros. est tamen omnipotens, Abrahae qui semen adauxit, vobis atque dabit Iob quod amore dedit, restituens numerum natorum germine digno, progeniemque refert nobilitante fide. qui in solium David Salomonis contulit ortum, pro vice germani cum redit ipse patri, ille tibi potent de coniuge reddere natum, cui pater adludat, ubere mater alat, qui medius vestri reptans per colla parentum regibus et patriae gaudia longa paret.