ergone cum sis procul ambiguo primus omnium toto, qua patet, orbe pontificum, cum praerogativae subiciatur, cum censurae tuae adtremat etiam turba collegii, cum in gravitatis vestrae comparationem ipsa etiam grandaevorum corda puerascant, cum post desudatas militiae Lirinensis excubias et in apostolica sede novem iam decursa quinquennia utriusque sanctorum ordinis quendam te conclamatissimum primipilarem spiritalia castra venerentur, tu nihilominus hastatorum antesignanorumque paulisper contubernio sequestratus ultimos calones tuos lixasque non despicis et ad extimos trahariorum, qui per insipientiam suam adhuc ad carnis sarcinas sedent, crucis diu portatae vexilla circumfers ac manum linguae porrigis in conscientia vulneratis? .
You are, beyond all doubt, the first of all bishops everywhere in the world; members even of your provincial college bow to your pre-eminence and tremble before your censure; and your commanding prestige makes the minds even of the old seem childish by comparison. After keeping the laborious watches in the holy warfare at Lerins and after serving forty-five years in an apostolic see, you are venerated by the spiritual camps of both saintly orders as, so to speak, their most famous captain. Is it possible, then, in spite of all this greatness, that you separate yourself for a while from the company of the front-rank fighters and standard-bearers and do not scorn your lowliest batmen and sutlers? Is it possible that to the meanest of the sledge-men, who in their foolishness still sit attached to the burdens of the flesh, is it possible that to these you carry the flag of the Cross you have borne for so long, and that to those wounded in their conscience you extend by your words a hand of help?
final_alignments\Sidonius_Letters_Book6.json