Laudator Temporis Acti

Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 31.2 (tr. Mary Magdeleine Mueller):

I beseech you, brethren, look at the graves of the rich, and as often as you pass them reflect and carefully see where their riches are, where their ornaments, rings, earrings, precious diadems, the vanity of honors, the pleasure of dissipation, their mad or bloody or shameful spectacles. Certainly they have all passed like a shadow, and, unless repentance came to the rescue, only endless reproaches and crimes have remained. Consider more carefully and behold the graves of the proud; realize that nothing has remained in them but only ashes and the stinking remains of worms.

Rogo vos, fratres, aspicite ad sepulchra divitum, et quotiens iuxta illa transitis, considerate et diligenter inspicite, ubi sunt illorum divitiae, ubi ornamenta, ubi anuli vel inaures, ubi diademata pretiosa, ubi honorum vanitas, ubi luxuriae voluptas, ubi spectacula vel furiosa vel cruenta vel turpia. Certe transierunt omnia tamquam umbra; et si paenitentia non subvenerit, sola in perpetuum obprobria et crimina remanserunt. Considerate diligentius et videte superborum sepulchra, et agnoscite quia nihil in eis aliud nisi soli cineres et foetidae vermium reliquiae remanserunt.