Opera Omnia; cum Scholiis S. Maximi et Paraphrasi Pachymerae

of whose greatest virtues many monuments still exist. You at last, John the Fourth, were given to Marchiennes by a kind of divine wand, so that there might exist that "square" man of the ancient sages—a man, truly, perfect in every respect—who might carry within himself the praises and honors of all his predecessors as if in a single arrival. And so, just as Pompey the Great once, after Asia was conquered, saw to it that his own image was carried in triumph, admirably fashioned from every kind of Erythraean stone and variety of gems; so God, the Maker of all things, seems to have adorned your soul with the splendor of all virtues, as if with a composition of pearls and precious stones, which clearly signifies that you, already triumphing over vice, surpass many others in that rank of honor by the abundance of your ornaments. Wherefore it is no wonder if all the Fathers of the Monastery of Marchiennes chose you with unanimous votes, or if the most Serene Archduke Albert, as soon as he saw you and learned of your erudition, approved you with a singular goodwill of mind, as if you were a work of Phidias. For no one doubted that you, educated in the bosom of piety, holily instructed, and fashioned for every excellence of character, would be the one who would promote, with a certain great happiness, first the glory and honor of God, and then the welfare of that religious house. Nor did the hope or expectation of your supreme virtue and great soul deceive anyone. For as soon as you applied your hand to the administration and the helm of affairs, a certain new splendor of religion shone forth; all the pupils of your discipline were roused by an unusual ardor; and although the observation of the most holy laws was never lacking, nevertheless all, warned by your excellent examples, began to seek and to strive with their prayers that everything which had begun to fade even slightly should be recalled anew to the most perfect standard of the ancestors, and to the primeval holiness and temperance of life. But here I restrain and check myself, lest if I enter into the field of praises, there be for me πλατεῖαι πάντοθεν, to speak with Pindar, πρόσοδοι—"broad approaches on every side"—and a vast and infinite course from which no easy exit might lie open to me. There will one day come to light—and, as I hope, come to the knowledge of men—the history of Marchiennes, which a man...