A letter from King Sisebut of the Visigoths (616-620)

Translated letter:

To the very eminent and venerable lords, associated with me in brotherly love, brother Adaloald, king of the Lombards, and Theodelind, queen, in the name of the Lord, Sisebut, king of the Visigoths. As charity is recognized from sincere deeds, so the inviolate rule of the faith is shown in catholic speech: pure profession gives rise to huge joys on either side when the execrable Arian pest is driven out of a noble stock and, torn out or strangled, thoroughly amputated from the body of Christ by the grace of Christ. Meanwhile just as we are lifted up by rich exultation over converts, so we are afflicted with an immense weight of sorrow for those who are disposed towards the adversary, when glorious progeny from a brilliant family, held captive by the serpent’s bite and gnawed by bloody jaws, lets itself be destroyed. It is not so much to be wondered at but greatly to be deplored that instead of grasping salutary precepts one is carried to the steep gate of death, pursuing the transitory and rejecting eternal remedies. We grieve not undeservedly at the huge weight, we produce streams of tears, knowing that the connection of our blood is polluted by the Arian infection and disjoined from fraternal knowledge by the virulent profusion of the cancer. We see wild men less capable of reason daily fighting for mother church in heavenly armies. Why should a glorious family and nature, great virtue and natural prudence, elegance of customs and judgment of good life, exceptional worthiness and uncommon glory submit ignominiously to dead and buried heresies and, if I may ever speak more truly to the living, unhappily submit their necks? Let him be ashamed to pursue the blasphemies of the abominable sect, ashamed to take the intolerable journey of smoke-filled paths, ashamed to attain the punishment of eternal death. Let him remove what is sung about their heresy daily now through the whole world, those who assigned his soul to eternal fires, with all the stinking innards removed: I think they consent to receive this horrific penalty eternally unless they believe rightly. There was, once there was this disease diffused with a most bitter plague, which covertly joined souls of the unhappy to infernal seats and gave them to drink goblets with deadly antidotes spread with sweetness. Then it oppressed this very insolent people with immense calamities and different very harsh needs, frequent wars and daily miseries, lack of fruits and noxious wounds with time turned back; afterwards a starry brilliance struck the hearts of the faithful and orthodox faith sprang out of blind minds, the catholic faith was increased, with the Lord favoring, and the empire of the Goths thrives. Whoever flourished among the Veneti formerly torn by the sickled sharpness of briars, wounded by the hooked stings of scorpions, through the three-part mouths of the serpent, the catholic church cares for the expiated with maternal affections, the declaration of heart and tongue cares without wrinkle, offering itself, immutable, indivisible, the uncreated creator of all things, the sempiternal trinity cares. Whence we pray your mercy with words, we pray with vows, we pray with pure minds, that your people will be a participant in such rewards and a consort joined in the body of Christ at the same time with you. It would be too intolerable and detestable, not to be born, that a head raised high with so many virtues, however small, should follow the sluggish members. Doing that in those things unhesitatingly gave confidence to us that born from catholic viscera you will be perceived to be reborn in the catholic fountain: I think your glory is lifted from your more splendid titles with divine gift if you preserve the path of your glorious mother and the option, a gift conferred on you, by which you can reach for others with all effort. How much glory, most merciful king, awaits you, heir of the future kingdom, how many gifts the divine power of bestowing may confer on you, how many notable rewards of happiness, if you wish to take them, that author greatly desires, I would say, but it is not given to mortals to know which is prepared for immortals; nor can the human mind or sense reach what the lord rightly offers to give to believers. For the rest, if the mind perhaps, what is abominable to say, should totter in any way to heretics to be converted, until he cut off the putrid errors with the knife of experience, restraining less – we speak among those who know -- what damage he may feel in himself and his people, or what reason he may reveal to the shepherd of shepherds, we have committed these things to your senses to be discussed; of which if the learned prefers to collect opinions in nourishing talks, with words, it is time, I think, rather than examples that is lacking. Therefore, lest you doubt that all mortal things yield to Christ finally, you have there a mother to be cherished with all veneration, a very strong teacher of the faith, brilliant in her works, sincere in humility, remorseful in prayer, devoted to nourishing studies, bound by a chain of charity, provident in counsel, opulent in mercy, distinguished in rank, filled with all virtues, sweet in eloquence, sharp in wit, abundant in gift, just in judgment, clement in word, most loving of Christ, friend of the catholic flock, always hostile to the devil and most hostile to his heretic body, whose virtues justice elevates that she may persevere more deliberately, prudence completes that she may apply the power of reason; not undeservedly is she ennobled by such a name which fortified by so many advantages is known under heavenly authority. Therefore if we wish to consider the power of this name, with the liquid Argive sounds of Theodelind, they must be struck by the promise by which they desire, some subtly for the circumstances, where they burn: the mild threat of the rule should subject some, a stricter rebuke bend others; for the one desirous of an offered gift is easily drawn and the stubborn one cut off from evil is repelled by the severity of constraint. These indeed should be done equally for the place, the time, the person, until the ardor of faith reinforced with catholic vigor, with a shining torch, restores the firm light-beaming hearts of believers and burning in the risen flame conducts the putrid remains of heretics from the smoking matter. Lest perhaps by this simple narration, which charity drew out of the austerity of our sense and other – but unpolished – confidence dispatched with driving love, should confer presumption on the hearers, because speech draws all things to the worship of religion less by flourishing words, let him hear, who will say these things sensibly, that the kingdom of God consists not only in words but in virtue, since strong things please the prudent more than ornaments, and healthy things are better for the sick than sweets. We have not assumed the mode of teaching, but we show fraternal affection and as we share in the source of relationship [by marriage] so we share the quality of holy faith. Therefore because the splendor of the measured art of grammar, the eloquence of rhetorical declaiming, less because the argumentation of the dialectic discipline is lacking, the need did not deny the abundance of speech, but divine preaching caused eloquence to spread to believers with such mention, when he might be hateful who spoke sophistically through Solomon: and again said through the apostle: “where is the wise man, where the scribe, where the investigator? Does God not make foolish the wisdom of this world?” [1Cor.1:20]. It is enough to assert the documents of faith with simple words, to show orthodox declaration with accustomed eloquence; thence it was for the secular to remove the studies of letters, in no way to preserve the declarations of the gentiles in their errors. But we culled the splendid examples of the heavenly library and we noted the connected institutions and tables of the faithful fathers, so that the unimpaired authority of the words may bring about faith, and the apostolic rule drawn from the fathers may come through to you without darkening shadows. “Who will have acknowledged me” says the lord “before men, I shall acknowledge him before my father who is in heaven; and who will have denied me before men I shall deny him before my father who is in heaven” [Luke12:8, Matth.10:32]; but confession ought to be such that makes you and your people followers of the apostles. Build the foundation of faith on the rock which from the caves of heretics impelled by the blowing of winds sees through and rejects/scorns the misting cloudy moisture of the infidels with the fullest plenitude of its fortitude. “You are,” says the lord, “Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church and I give you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens and the gates of hell will not prevail against you; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” [Matth.16:18-19]. It is shown openly enough that no one can be absolved of a crime from the past, present and future, unless he holds apostolic profession without a crease: the supernal entry will be closed and hardened to him whose heart remains obdurate in defending error. The quality of faith is compared to a grain of mustard seed, as it is spoken by the lord: “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: Move and it will move” [Matth.17:19]. As the grain of mustard seed is never cut but in bearing fruit, stretching itself with the growth of the branches it accomplishes thick tree-planting on high, so the purity of the indivisible catholic faith, multiplies with such nobility of fruits and such height, supporting, raises whomever the cleansing from error takes hold of, so they come to heaven and enjoy the heavenly gifts, deserving Christ who is never lacking. He shows death here, [for] the enemy of the faith, the cultivator of heretics, who frightened by the banner of the cross and disturbed by orthodox profession, since he can not bring the most miserable harm on catholics, uprooted he is always drawn headlong into destruction. The lord spoke to his disciples saying: “Go baptize people in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit”[Matth.28:19] – he says not in the names but in the name so the distinction of the trinity appears in the three persons and the ineffable deity of one substance is evident. Whence the doctor of the gentiles, moving in the tracks of the master, declares in these words: “One God, one faith, one baptism” [Ephes.4:5]. Clearly and lucidly he admonished that there is one confession for the worship of veneration of believers, which the follower receives handed down from the Roman church by the apostles, and rightly, with the corn-crop of heretics rooted out, gives out to those seeking with maternal affection. Other witnesses bearing flowers copiously appear through the fields of divine law, which illuminate obscurities like keys or lights and draw open the bars. Among those, what Arian presumption cries out barking in the perversity of its dogma, how it turns the examples of the divine volumes with impious words with evil intent, we have selected opinions to unravel their execrable incantations, connecting the most sacred things of the inviolate faith under eloquence, by which more easily the condition of each can be investigated, with heretical temerity frustrated, and one may learn to teach good things and correct bad more perfectly. Wishing then to exclude the son from the paternal substance with reckless audacity, they bring out those things which correspond to human nature in the subjection of our redeemer: “The father,” they say, “is greater than I” [John 14:28] and: “He who sent me gave me a command” [John 12:49] and: ”I did not come on my own but he sent me” [John 8:42] and again “I did not come to do my will” [John 6:38] and again: “As my father said to me, so I speak” [John 12:50] and: “What he gave me, I have kept and everything he gave me no one takes from me”; after which they throw in: “I shall ask my father” [John 14:16] and “he will show me more than twelve thousand legions of angels” [Matth.26:53] and: “If this cup can pass away, unless I drink it, and if it can be let this cup pass from me: not as I wish but as you wish” [Matth.26:42, 39] and they add: And what is pleasing to him I always do and “To sit at my right or left, it is not for me to give you” [Matth.20:23]; senselessly they add: “And he gave him the name which is above every name and he exalted his boy” [Philipp.2:9] and the lord your God blessed you and roused him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand and many similar things which the most correct faith takes in such a way that it knows what is suitable to deity what to humanity. By these arguments the unhappy are convinced by faithful examples. Indeed we confess that there are certainly two natures in the son, one of deity, the other we acknowledge of humanity; Christ therefore according to the form of the servant, which he assumed from the virgin, is said to be subject to the father, as the doctor of the gentiles, the apostle, confirms: “When the fullness of time came, God sent his son, born of woman, made under the law” [Gal.4:4] – in that nature he is said to be subject in which he was born from a woman under the law, generated, indeed clearly there are found in divine speech what make the person of Christ more subject to the father: not that he puts aside the nature of deity, but he affirms that true man is subject to the deity. Therefore where god the son is shown equal to god the father, we have collected select pieces of flowers from the treasures of holy law and we have offered the collected gifts of the eternal king drawing them under one. For the son says to the father: All my things are yours; and again the evangelist: “making himself equal to God” [John 5:18] with all power and “I and the father are one” [John 10:30] and in the following: “that they may be one in us as I and you are one” [John 17:21] and: “Did you not believe that I am in the father and the father in me?” [John 14:10] and “My father works and I work” [John 5:17] and “As the father raises the dead and gives them life, so the son gives life to those he wishes” [John 5:21] and: “Who saw me saw the father” [John 14:9] and: “Who hates me, hates my father” [John 15:23] and “Glorify your son so your son may glorify you” [John 17:1] and “I shall glorify on earth and manifest your name to men” [John 17:4,6]. Let all intention of sophistry be at rest, let them accept this previous statement of John and defend it, retelling the most sacred words in this manner: “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and God was the word” [John 1:1]. Let them cease, therefore, to make the statement of the mad with the tongue of powerful speech, gasping which they try to separate the son, substance of the father, from the holy spirit which lives and reigns equal in unity of power with the father and the son. Blinded in their senses they imagine to bark out such unhappy opinion to be wept for with every fountain of tears, how wounded by impious madness with fatal pursuit they dissociate it from father and son, and sound out with criminal words that it is not god, which is wicked to say, but a creature. Yet sacred authority rich in divine eloquence showed that the holy spirit is god and creator with the father and the son in these very clear addresses: “By the word of God,” he says “the heavens are made and from the spirit of his mouth is all their power” [Ps.32:6] again who announced above through beautiful eloquence: “You send out your spirit and they will be created and you will renew the face of the earth” [Ps.103:30]. The king, wiser than others, and the prophet says: He created them through the holy spirit. Job, most patient beyond almost all men says: The divine spirit which created me [Job 33:4] and the warrior Judith says “Let every creature serve you, for you spoke and they were made; you sent your spirit and they were created” [Judith 16:17].

Original letter:

Dominis eminentissimis ac venerantissimis et germana caritate mihi consotiis, fratri Adualualdo regi gentis Langobardorum et Theodolindae reginae in nomine Domini Sisebutus rex Wisegotorum. Tunc enim caritas ex opere sincero cognoscitur, cum intemerata fidei regula ore catholico demonstratur; parturit alternae parti ingentia mera professio gaudia, quando execranda Arriana pernicies de generosa prosapie pellitur et effosa vel suffocata radicitus e Christi corpore Christi gratia amputatur. Interea sicut de conversis opulenta exultatione substolimur, instar de adversis adclines immenso onere meroris afficimur, cum inclita progenies orta de stimate claro anguifero tenetur morsu captiva et depasta cruentis faucibus se ipsam perire permittat ultroneam. Non tantum miranda, sed magis gemenda res est, praecepta salutaria [non] capere et ad mortis ianuam se quemquam praecipitem ferre, consequi pereuntia, aeterna derogare remedia! Dolemus nec immerito ingenti pondere ribos lacrimarum producimus, cognoscentes affinitatem sanguinis nostri Arriana contagione nunc pollui et virulenta profusione canceris fraterna cognatione disiungi. Homines agrestes scilicet minus ratione capaces quotidie cernimus aethereis militare per matrem ecclesiam castris: cur genus inclitum et inclita forma, ingenita virtus et naturalis prudentia, elegantia morum et bonae vitae censure praespicua dignitas et gloria dignitatis eximia mortuis sepultisque haeresibus ignominiose subsedeat et, ut verius numquam ipsis viventibus loquar, infaeliciter colla submittat? Pudeat vel tandem huius sectae blasfemias sectare nefarie, pudeat fumosi tramitis intolerandum iter peragere, pudeat denique aeternae mortis ad paenam pertingere! Tales illud vel moveat, quod de eorum quotidie haeresiarcha omne iam pene mundo cantatur, qui, fetentibus evisceratis visceribus, aeternis ignibus animam adsignavit: horrificam opinor hanc consentaneos eius aeternum, nisi recte crediderint, excipere paenam. Fuit, fuit hic olim morbus acerbissima peste diffusus, qui latenter infernalibus animas sedibus infaelitium miscuit et inlinita dulcedine pocula anthidotia mortifera propinavit. Immensas tunc calamitates et diversa penuria acerbissima, crebrius bella et quotidiana miseria, indigentia fruguum et pestifera vulnera hanc insolentius gentem retroacto tempore praessit; postquam sidereus fulgor corda fidelium corruscavit et orthodoxa fides mentibus cecatis emicuit, aucta pace catholicorum, Domino commodante, Gotorum viget imperium. Quique dudum per falcatas lacerati senticum acies, per scorpionum vulnerati uncatis aculeis, per trivida venetio vernabant ora serpentis, hos maternis expiatos affectibus ecclesia catholica curat, cordis ac linguae sine ruga professio curat, se prestante, indemutabilis, indivisibilis, increata creatrix omnium, sempiterna trinitas curat. Unde praecamur vestram clementiam verbis, praecamur votis, precamur et mentibus puris, tantorum praemiorum vestram fore gentem participem et adunatam in Christi corpore simul vobis esse consortem. Intolerandum nimis ac detestabile nec ferendum est, tot copiosis caput virtutibus sublimatum, quamlibet exiguum, membra torpentia consequantur. Illud magis in rebus ipsis agentes incunctanter nobis fidutiam fecit, quod catholica viscera natus et catholico fonte cerneris esse renatus: de vestrisque vestram opinor gloriam titulis lautioribus divino munere sublimari, si gloriose tramitem genetricis servaveris et optionis quod tibi donum conlatum est omni quo vales caeteris nisu porrexeris. Quanta te, rex clementissime, haeredem futuri regni gloria praestolat, quanta largitionis munera conferri virtus tibi divina substineat, quantaque faelicitatis insignia praemia, si velis capere, idem auctor exoptat, dicerem, sed non est datum scire mortalibus, quod immortalibus praeparatur; nec possunt sensus vel mens humana attingere, qua dominus est recte credentibus pollicitus elargire. Caeterum si mens forsitam, quod fari nefarium est, haereticos ad convertendum in quippiam titubaverit, quatenus errores putridos cultro experientiae minus resecando absciderit — apud agnoscentes loquimur — quam in se suosque iacturam sentiat, vel quam pastori rationem pastorum exhibeat, ista vestris sensibus discutienda commissimus; quarum si doctus malit almis eloquiis sententias colligere, verbis, reor, prius tempus quam exempla deficere. Ergo ne dubites, fautore denique Christo cuncta mortalia cedunt, habes illic omni matrem veneratione colendam, doctricem fidei firmissimam, operibus claram, humilitate sinceram, oratione compunctam, almis studiis deditam, vinculo caritatis adstrictam, consilio providam, misericordiis opulentam, honestate praecipuam, virtutibus cunctis onustam, suavem eloquio, acrem ingenio, dapsilem dono, iustam iuditio, clementem in verbo, amicissimam Christo, amicam gregi catholico, semper infestam diabulo, infestissimam et eius corpori semper haeretico: cuius virtutes erigit iusticia, ut perseveret libratior, efficit prudentia, ut vim rationis attendat, impellit; nec immerito tanti nominis nobilitatur vocabulo, quae vallata tot praemiis cognoscitur sub auctore sidereo. Ergo si vim huius nominis attendere velimus, liquidis vocibus argivis Theodolindae plectendi sunt pollicitatione, qua cupiunt, nonnulli subtiliter pro tempore, ubi inardescunt: quosdam lenis debet comminatio regulae subdere, quosdam asperior increpatio flectere; nam facile cupidus porrecto munere trahitur, et contumax districtionis severitate de prava secta repellitur. Haec quidem aequanimiter pro loco, pro tempore, pro persona gerenda sunt, donec ardor fidei combalescens vigore catholico, lampade corruscante, fundata corda credentium luciflua reddat et putridas hereticorum reliquias de fumosis orta materiis exurens in favilla reducat. Hac ne forte narratione mera, quam caritas austeritate nostri de sensus extorsit et cetera — sed impolita — fiducia amore pellente praemissit, praesumptionem audientibus conferat, quod ad cultum religionis oratio minus vernantibus verbis universa praestringat, audiat, qui haec sane dicturi sunt, regnum Dei non in verbis tantum, sed in virtute consistere, cum et prudentibus magis fortia quam falerata complaceant, et salubria potius quam suavia aegrotis expediant. Non docendi formam sumpsimus, sed affectionem fraternam ostendimus; et sicut participamur affinitatis origine, instar participamur sanctae fidei qualitate. Ergo quod splendor artis mensurate grammaticae, quod facundia adclamationis rethoricae, minus quod argumentatio defuerit dialecticae disciplinae, non dicendi copiam indigentia denegavit, sed tali prosecutione credentibus eloquia pandere divinus sermo subduxit, cum is odibilis sit, qui loquitur, per Salomonem, sophisticae; et rursus idem per apostolum inquit: “Ubi sapiens, ubi scriba, ubi conquisitor? Nonne stultam fecit Deus sapientiam huius saeculi?” Satis ostendit, fidei documenta simplicibus verbis asserere, orthodoxam eloquio usitato professionem monstrare: inde fuit saeculari, studia literarum amovere adclamationesque gentilium nequaquam in suis erroribus conservare. Sed caelesti bibliothecae resplendentia quadam exempla libavimus institutionesque fidelium paternorum conexas tabella notavimus, ut dictorum fides auctoritas inlibata efficiat, et apostolica regula a patribus tradita nullis fuscata tenebris ad vos usque perveniat. “Qui confessus,” ait dominus, “me fuerit coram hominibus, confitebor et ego illum coram patre meo, qui est in caelis; et qui negaverit me coram hominibus, negabo et ego eum coram patre meo, qui est in caelis”; sed talis debet esse confessio, qui te gentemque tuam apostolorum sequipedam faciat. Fidei fundamentum supra petram edifica, quae de cavernis haereticorum flamine ventorum impulsa dispiciat et rorantes perfidorum stillicidia turbulerita fortitudinis tutissima plenitudine spernat. “Tu es,” inquit dominus, “Petrus, et super hanc petram edificabo ecclesiam meam tibique trado claves regni caelorum, et portae inferni non praevalebunt adversum te; quodcumque ligaveris in terra, ligatum erit in caelo et, quodcumque solveris in terra, erit solutum in caelo.” Aperte satis ostenditur, neminem posse de praeterito, presens atque futuro resolvi a crimine, nisi apostolicam tenuerit sine ruga professionem: clausum obduratumque erit illi supernum introitum, cuius in defendendis erroris cor manserit obduratum. Ad comparationem granum synapis fidei qualitas comparatur, cum taliter a domino dicitur: “Si habueritis fidem tamquam granum synapis, dixeritis huic monti: Transfer te, et transfert se”: sicut granum sinapis nequaquam recipit sectionem, sed fructicando se porrigens ramorum incrementis densatum sublimem arbustam efficiet, instar indesecabilis fidei catholicae puritas, quousque detersor erroribus ceperit, tanta frugum nobilitate multiplicat tantaque celsitudine suffragando sublimat, ut usque ad caelum perveniant et caelestia dona merentes Christum, defficientem nullo tempore, perfruantur. Mortem hic inimicum fidei, cultorem haereticorum ostendet, qui vexillo crucis perterritus atque orthodoxa professione turbatus, cum nequeat catholicis inferre nequissimum damnum, in suum preceps fertur extirpatus semper interitum. Loquutus est dominus discipulis suis dicens: “Euntes baptizate gentes in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti” — non in nominibus ait, sed in nomine, ut distinctio trinitatis in tribus personis appareat et unius substantiae deitas ineffabilis clareat. Unde et doctor gentium, currens per magistri vestigia, his verbis enuntiat: “Unus Deus, una fides, unum baptismum.” Clare lucideque permonuit, unam ad cultum venerationis esse confessionem credentium, quam sequax ecclesia ab apostolis traditam Romana suscepit et recte petentibus, haereticorum segitibus extirpatis, maternis effectibus tradidit. Patent et alia per campos divinae legis testimonia copiose florigera, quae sicut claves vel luminaria obscura delucidant et patefacient obserata. Inter ea, quae ad perversitatem sui dogmatis oblatrando praesumptio Ariana vociferat, quomodo vel divinorum exempla voluminum impiis vocibus prave sentiendo convertat, elegimus sententias, ut eorum execrabiles retexere nenias, connectens intemeratae fidei sacratissima subter eloquia, quo facilius de utriusque conditio indagata, haeretica temeritate frustrata, et bona docere et mala perfectius sciat dedocere. Volentes denique filium de paterna substantia ausu temeritatis excludere, ea qua competunt humanae naturae in subiectionem nostri redemptoris afferre: “Pater,” inquiunt, “maior me est,” et illud: “Qui me missit; ipse mihi mandatum dedit,” et: “Non ego veni, sed ille me missit,” et rursus: “Non veni facere voluntatem meam,” iterumque: “Sicut michi pater dixit, sic loquor” et: Quod dedit michi, servavi, et omnia, quae michi dedit, nemo aufert a me; post talia ingerunt: “Rogabo patrem meum,” “et exibebit michi plus quam duodecim milla legiones angelorum,” atque: “Si hic calix potest transire, nisi bibam illum, et, si fieri potest, transeat a me calix iste: non sicut ego volo, sed sicut tu”; adiungunt etiam: Et quae sunt placita ei, ego facio semper, et: “Sedere ad dexteram meam vel ad sinistram, non est meum dare vobis”; insanientes connectunt: “Et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen, et exaltavit puerum suum,” et benedixit te dominus Deus tuus et excitavit eum a mortuis et sedere fecit eum ad dexteram suam, multaque similia, quae rectissima fides taliter recepit, ut sciat, quae deitati, quae humanitati conveniunt. His quidem rationibus et fidelibus infelices convincuntur exemplis. In Dei quidem filio duas confitemur certissime esse naturas, unam deitatis et alteram fatemur humanitatis; Christus igitur secundum formam servi, quam sumpsit ex virgine, patri dicitur esse subiectus, doctorem gentium, apostolum, confirmantem: “Ubi venit,” inquit, “plenitudo temporis, missit Deus filium suum, natum ex muliere, factum sub lege” — in ea natura dicitur else subiectus, in qua sub lege ex muliere nascitur, generatus, siquidem sane illam divinis reperiantur eloquiis, quia Christi personam patri subiectiorem efficiant; non naturam deitatis evacuat, sed verum hominem deitati subiectum affirmet. Igitur ubi deo patri deus filius aequalis ostenditur, de thesauris sacrae legis velut florum capita delecta collegimus et sub uno congesta exhaurientes aeterni regis dona porreximus. Dicit enim filius patri: Omnia mea tua sunt; et rursus evangelista: “Equalem se,” inquit, “faciens Deo” omni virtute, et: “Ego et pater unum sumus,” et in consequentibus: “Ut sint in nobis unum, sicut et ego et tu unum sumus,” et: “Non credidisti, quia ego in patre et pater in me?” et: “Pater meus operatur et ego operor,” atque: “Sicut pater suscitat mortuos et vivificat, ita et filius quos vult vivificat,” et: “Qui me vidit, vidit et patrem,” et: “Qui me odit, odit et patrem meum,” et: “Clarifica filium tuum, ut et filius tuus clarificet te,” et: “Ego clarificavi super terram et manifestavi nomen tuum hominibus.” Iam ut omnis conquiescat cabilationis intentio, hanc sententiam Ioannis previssam accipiant et defendant, in isto modo sacratissima verba narrantem: “In principio erat verbum, et verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat verbum.” Conticescant ergo dementium potentiosi sermonis lingua sententiam ferre, quae anhelantes connantur filium a patris substantiam separare, de spiritu sancto, qui cum patre et filio in unitate virtutis aequalis vivit et regnat. Talem infelicem et omni fonte lacrimarum plangendi opinantur sensibus opinionem oblatrare cecati, quatenus prosecutione funera impia sauciati dementia a patre filioque dissociant et non deum, quod dici nefas eat, sed creaturam sceleratis vocibus personant. Sacra tamen auctoritas eloquiis opulenta divinis spiritum sanctum esse deum et creatorem cum patre et filio clarissimis his affatibus demonstravit: “Verbo,” inquit, “Domini caeli firmati sunt, et spiritu oris eius omnis virtus eorum,” rursus qui supra pulchra per eloquia intimavit: “Emittes spiritum tuum, et creabuntur, et innobavis faciem terrae.” Rex ille cunctis prudentior et propheta ipse inquit: Creavit ea per spiritum sanctum. Patientissimus penae ultra omnes homines Iob: Divinus, ait, spiritus, qui creavit me; bellatrix namque Iudith: “Tibi,” inquit, “servit omnis creatura, quia dixisti, et facta sunt; missisti spiritum tuum, et creata sunt.”

Historical context:

While Theodelind was regent for her son, Adaloald, (after the death of her husband Agilulf in 616), Sisebut, the learned and religious king of the Visigoths, wrote them a long letter about the cancer of the Arian heresy to which Adaloald was apparently inclined, the miseries of people who live under it, and religious teachings against it. The Latin text is rather dense.

Printed source:

MGH Epistolae Wisigoticae, ep.9, p.671-75; also in PL80 c372-78.

Date:

616-620