'His literis, promissi mei veluti arrham aliquam repraesentare volui: hunc aureum nummum intelligo, quem animo quidem grato, omine vero faustissimo, tibi offero. Atera (sic) parte insculpta est, optima post hominum memoriam femina HELENA AUGUSTA; altera parte, dulcissima felicissimae principis, et felicissimorum temporum vox, Securitas Reipublicae. O feminam orbis imperio dignam! Cui nihil tam fuit cordi, nihil tam alte insederet animo, quam securitas reipublicae. Haec est illa Helena, quae maximam gloriam ex investigatione crucis, majorem ex sedatione calamitatum crucis, quibus Christianum nomen, nimis tam saeve et crudeliter exercebatur, reportavit. Accipe igitur, doctissime praesul, et grato animo et fausto omine, hunc nummum non tam illorum temporum insigne monumentum, quam tuarum rerum, tuorumque et studiorum et consiliorum in republica praesens atque expressum iudicium. Hoc monumentum mihi propter materiam, opus, personam, tempus, καὶ τὸ ἔτυμον diu fuit gratum; carum etiam, quum propter locum ubi inventum est, tum propter amicum, a quo datum est: et nunc quoque jucundum mihi, et peropportunum propter te, ad quem missum est. Neque hoc munus, credo quia exiguum est aspernaberis; sed iliius divini potius poetae judicium et amplecteris propter humanitatem, et probabis propter doctrinam, qui in omni benevolentiae ratione, toties laudat et inculcat ὀλίγον τε φίλον τε.
Superiori anno, Treverim veni; incidi in secretarium reverendissimi electoris, quicum mihi antea Augustae in aula Caesaris multus usus et intima familiaritas fuit, multa ab eo tum percontatus sum de Treveri, celebri olim academia, et nunc ruinosa urbe, quam cognoveram divi HiERONYMI testimonio, qui eo se studendi gratia receperat, nobilitatam esse: multa etiam de HELENA et CONSTANTINO Magno, quorum in ea urbe et corpora condi et vestigia apparere, et monumenta multa et culta et conservata esse intellexi. Quum singula meis, non auribus solum, sed oculis etiam exposuisset, ecce, hunc nummum aureum promit, mihique dat: quem illius urbis, illorum principum, ejus erga me studii atque benevolentiae gratum μνημόσυνον esse voluit, quare si gratias mihi quicquam suppeteret, tibi, cui gratissimus esse debeo, oblaturus essem. Quum viderem hunc nummum esse feminae et reginae, et illius, quae non solum crucem Christianis in lucem revexit, sed securitatem etiam reipublicae restituit, illustrissimae nostrae reginae MARIAE cum brevissima epistola offerre in animo habui; quia eadem utriusque patria, consimilis imperii dignitas, par in vita sanctimonia, et aequalis in republica constituenda voluntas fuit. At hoc consilium, quum verebar ne videretur esse hominis non satis prudentis, sed nimis sese ingerentis, libenter mutavi; et te mihi proposui, cui propter idem studium, eandem in rempublicam voluntatem, aptissimum munus esse judicavi; ut in hoc nummmulo, dum alterius tandem admiraris, tuam interim recognoscas, quam natura, doctrina, bonitate, et humanitate, omnium bonorum judicio consequutus es.'
[In this letter I want to make some kind of downpayment, as it were, on my promise. I am speaking of this gold coin, which I offer to you with a grateful heart, to be sure, but also as a very auspicious token. Stamped on one side is the best woman in the memory of mankind, Helena Augusta; on the other side is the sweetest motto of the happiest of princes from the happiest of times: Securitas Republicae. Oh woman worthy of a world empire, whose heart and soul were fixed on nothing but the security of the state! This is the Helena who gained very great glory from her search for the Cross, a glory made even greater by her calming of the disasters by which the name of Christian has been too often and so cruelly and savagely attacked. Therefore, most learned Bishop, with a grateful heart and as an auspicious token take this coin not so much as a remarkable monument of those times, but as a tangible and visible comment on your efforts and on your devotion to and counsel for the state. I have enjoyed this memento for a long while because of its material, workmanship, age, and its lifelikeness. I have also treasured it because of the place where it was found and because of the friend who gave it to me. And now I delight in it and find it very appropriate because of you, the person to whom I give it. You will not spurn this gift, I think, just because it is small, but will rather embrace the judgment of that divine poet [Homer] because of his humanity and approve it because of his learning who so often praises and recommends small things but precious ones as the general rule of benevolence.
Last year when I was at Trier. I happened to meet the most reverend Elector’s secretary, who had been my very good friend and associate at the Emperor’s court in Augsburg [Hubert-Thomas Leodius]. I asked him a great many questions about Trier, once a celebrated academy, now a ruined city, which I knew to be a noble city from the testimony of St. Jerome, who went there to study. I asked many questions about Helena and Constantine the Great, who are buried in that city and of whose presence there are still traces. I understand that many monuments are honoured and preserved there. After he had told me and shown me each of these things one by one, he suddenly pulled out this coin and gave it to me; he wanted it to be a remembrance of that city, those rulers, and his own good will and affection for me. If I had anything in hand which I cherish more, I would have given it to you, to whom I owe the greatest debt of gratitude.
When I saw that this coin portrayed a woman and a queen, one who not only brought the cross of Christ back to light but also restored the state to security, I had in mind to offer it to our most illustrious Queen Mary in a short letter, for in their respective countries they occupy a similar rank in the kingdom, and they are equal in holiness of life and in their determination to establish justice. But I readily changed my mind, fearing that I would seem too impudent and too forward, and have thought of you, for whom, I think, this coin is a very suitable gift, seeing our interests and our desire to work for the good of the state are the same. Thus as you admire another’s glory in this little coin, you will also recognise your own, which you have achieved according to the judgment of all good men by virtue of your nature, learning, goodness, and kindness. But I had rather you enjoy it in the quiet contemplation of these matters rather than through my overt proclamation.]
(Giles 1865-1866, vol. I.2, pp. 400-2; Burnett 2020b, p. 1358-9)
