Epistola Nuncupatoria
A Father's Greeting to His Son
Alcuin opens with a warm greeting to his beloved son Wido, Count, identifying himself as a humble deacon.
To my most beloved son Wido, Count, Alcuin, a humble deacon, sends greetings.
A Promise Fulfilled in Love
Alcuin recalls Wido's urgent request and his own promise to write brief exhortations for his responsibilities, assuring him that though the style may be plain, the words flow from holy love.
I remember your request and my own promise, by which you urgently pressed me to write some brief exhortations for your responsibilities—the ones we know you carry in the midst of military affairs—so that you might continually have at hand the portable sentences of a father's admonition, in which you ought to reflect on yourself and rouse your zeal for eternal blessedness. I confess I gladly agreed to so honorable a request, hoping that the writings born of my devotion might serve your lasting salvation. And even if you see these writings as less elegantly composed, still know most certainly that they were dictated by the power of holy love.
A Mirror Shaped for a Busy Life
Alcuin explains that he has divided the work into chapters so that the teachings may more easily remain in Wido's memory amid his many worldly duties.
Indeed, I divided the sequence of this discourse into chapters, so that these writings of mine might more easily cling to the memory of your devotion, knowing as I do that you are occupied with many worldly concerns.
Reading as a Place of Comfort
Alcuin prays that Wido will turn to these letters often as a refuge of comfort, and humbly asks him to reread them just as eagerly as he requested them.
So I pray that your holy desire for salvation may turn more often to the reading of these letters, as if to a place of comfort, so that your mind, wearied by outward troubles, might turn back to itself and have something in which it can rejoice—and understand the thing it most ought to hurry toward. Just as you eagerly asked for my little letters of faithful exhortation, so I humbly beg you to be willing to reread them often.
Preparing a Dwelling in Glory
Alcuin urges Wido to prepare a heavenly home through generosity, just judgments, and mercy, and closes by invoking divine mercy to help him in this desire.
For this reason, most beloved son, I earnestly beg your love: strive to prepare for yourself, by untiring will, a dwelling in heavenly glory through many acts of generosity, through fairness toward those you judge and the judgments you render, and through diligence in mercy. In this work and desire, may divine mercy always and everywhere deign to help you, most beloved son.
Read the original Latin
Dilectissimo filio Widoni comiti, humilis levita Alcuinus salutem.
Memor sum petitionis tuae et promissionis meae, qua me obnixe flagitasti, aliqua tuae occupationi, quam te in bellicis rebus habere novimus, exhortamenta brevi sermone conscribere, ut habeas jugiter inter manus manuales paternae admonitionis sententias, in quibus teipsum considerare debuisses, atque ad aeternae beatitudinis excitare studium: cui tam honestae petitioni libenter me annuere fateor, optans meae devotionis apices tibi ad perpetuam proficere salutem. Quos etiam, quamvis minus eloquenter videas esse compositos, tamen certissime scito sanctae charitatis vigore eosdem esse dictatos. Singulis siquidem hujus sermonis seriem distinxi capitulis, quatenus facilius vestrae devotionis memoriae haec mea dicta inhaerere potuissent; sciens te in multis saecularium rerum cogitationibus occupatum. Unde precor sanctum salutis vestrae desiderium, ad harum saepius, quasi ad quoddam recurrere solatium, litterarum lectionem; ut animus exterioribus fatigatus molestiis, ad seipsum reversus habeat, in quo gaudeat; et quo maxime festinare debeat, intelligat. Sicut meas diligenter flagitasti piae exhortationis litterulas, ita te humiliter deposco, ut easdem saepius relegere digneris. Ob hoc tuam, dilectissime fili, dilectionem obnixe deprecor, ut plurima tibi ipse eleemosynarum largitione, et judicum ac judiciorum aequitate, et misericordiae sedulitate, coelestis gloriae habitationem indefessa voluntate praeparare studeas. In quo opere et desiderio te divina clementia semper ubique adjuvare dignetur dilectissime fili.
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