Letter 2017: No one should condemn competence simply because it arrives without ornamental packaging.

No one condemns skill with a pompous elocution, nor does one hold in contempt with modesty what one follows: whoever proclaims with elaborate speeches that the cultivation of the tongue should be forsworn is his own antagonist. Yet I in the letters of Your Greatness have always weighed the diligence, not the words, nor have I judged eloquence — the handmaid of malice — to be of greater value than simplicity, which with an unpainted face declares the secret of the mind. This I have always both loved and honored in holy men. Now I both give and hold thanks, because you visit my smallness with the address of literary speech, and amid the occupations and watches by which Ravenna constrains everyone, care for me is not set aside. Therefore I return the duties of most effusive greeting, hoping that you will make my presence welcome before my lords who love you, by the condescension with which you cherish one who trusts in you.

XVII. ENNODIVS CONSTANTIO. Nemo peritiam pomposa elocutione condemnat nec spernendum cum pudore ducit esse quod sequitur: sui inpugnator est quisquis elucubratis sermonibus linguae cultum praedicat abiurari. ego tamen in epistulis magnitudinis uestrae diligentiam semper, non uerba pensaui nec adiutricem malitiae facundiam maius pretium habere censui quam simplicitatem, quae infucata fronte secretum mentis enuntiat. hoc in sanctis hominibus et amaui semper et colui. ago nunc atque habeo gratias, quod 1 eius T 8. I. m. 2 2 licit Bl 4 prolatoris B\' praestis B iouamenis B 5 merewtar (re? eras.) L 6 benificium B iouat B 7 occSsione L\' ut uidetur miminisse L\' 8 nihil Sirm . ita om. Sirm . 9 uos om. T 10 pe- culiriter L\' expectentem B eius///// (eius ? eras.) L 11 quidquid B precipit T sed s. I. m. 2 t presnmit 19 leuandum B 14 meroris BLTV XVII. 19 dicit Pb 20 quisque Pb elocubratia B, elucabrantis L 23 magis T cens.ui (i eras.) L 24 odiibus T 25 adque B paruitatem meam litterarii sermonis uisitatis affatu et inter occupationes et excubias, quibus uniuersos Rauenna distringit, mei cura non ponitur. reddo ergo effusissimae salutationis officia sperans, ut praesentiam meam apud domnos meos amantes uestri pro dignatione, qua credentem fouetis, faciatis optabilem.