Complete Works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Volume 3

if only my speech could bloom and overflow. But if I feel clearly overwhelmed by the multitude of subjects, I will hold to the course I can, and I will recommend that one thing alone, from which the divine power of your virtue will be illuminated much more brilliantly than by the monuments of all literature. What else shall I say, but that when BENEDICT XIII had long ago examined your prudence, liberality, wisdom, and faith, he declared you first Bishop of Brescia, and soon after, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, which is to say, he opened a greater arena and theater, as it were, in which your virtue could run more freely and shine more clearly.

Why should I not think so, when so many, so illustrious, and so ample testimonies of religion and beneficence occur in Brescia, so that it is evident in the light of day that nothing was added to you by the new breadth of dignity, except that you showed yourself much more generous, beneficent, and liberal than before? This is the true praise of a Prince; this is the most illustrious method of administering the Church. Therefore, that most magnificent Temple of all, completed and adorned with the greatest splendor, as well as the Convent of Nuns, which they call the Salesians, erected from the foundations and most liberally dedicated to the security and increase of modesty and innocence, and finally the whole Diocese, where no Altar, no Temple, no private house fails to preserve some clear trace of your piety and clemency, will celebrate the glory of your name among the Brescian people forever. What of the fact that you have also shared this singular greatness with the Eternal City meaning Rome? For Roman Majesty, which sees nothing common, does not diminish any splendor from the Altar in the Caelian Hill erected from most exquisite marbles in Saint Gregory's, nor from the buildings and the Basilica of Saint Mark, your Title, illustrated by elegance and truly great expense, nor from the Temple of Saint Alexius, toward whose restoration your thoughts began to watch as soon as, at the command of BENEDICT XIV, you undertook the patronage of the Monks living there. But these things are common to you with others, although not with very many. But that, as soon as you were declared Chief Librarian of the Roman Church by CLEMENT XII, you immediately made the treasure most acceptable and dearest to you of all into public law, and desired that your Library, singular in the variety and abundance of copies, be joined with the Vatican; this, I ask, with what others will you share this, if not with the most famous Pontiffs in all memory, to whose praises no age will ever bring an end?

This place would require me to admire your very many and greatest monuments of genius. But since, as he referring to the Roman author says of Carthage, it is better to be silent about their magnitude than to say too little, for that reason, my mind was numbed by fear while desiring to commend them in some part, lest, while I might strive to be most grateful and dutiful, I might be led into the crime of ambition and pride. What then? Should I refrain from every kind of duty in this place? Truly, neither my respect for you, nor my duty, nor reason allowed that. I preferred, therefore, to impose a proud burden upon myself by commemorating the offspring of your genius, rather than to appear either too little grateful or unmindful. Let that illustrious Dissertation on the Composition of the Monastic History of Italy first come into the middle, which, dedicated to CLEMENT XI, is a wonder for its candor of elocution, force of sentiments, and harmony of numbers, worthy of that Pontiff who excelled others in letters just as he did in dignity. Truly, how prudently, how learnedly, how aptly, and how eruditely you discuss the studies of the Monks, the libraries of the Benedictines, the miserable and fatal fate of Letters, and Mabillon, Ruinart, Massuet, and Vvorth, those writers of Monastic History! That matter, moreover, which pertained most to calming the envy of the Monks, whose name had long been disparaged because of corrupted Diplomas, that you so sharply cleared up with Mabillon, can hardly be said, if at all. Therefore, enjoy your virtue, and as often as you remember this labor, contemplate in your mind what you cannot with your eyes: that the whole Order of Monks in the entire Christian World professes that it owes everything to you.