Gents Mag 1853 part 2 p.371

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1853 part 2 p.371
poem   The Ancient Mariner
	The Ancient Mariner THE ORIGINAL ANCIENT MARINER. HOW many readers have been delighted, and we trust improved, by the Lay of the Ancient Mariner, we pause not to enquire; but we will venture to say that few indeed of those many are aware they are indebted not exclusively for their enjoyment to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but in part also to Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, the secretary of that great Ambrose, who, in the latter half of the fourth century wore, so proudly and manfully, the archepiscopal mitre of Milan. In an epistle of the said Paulinus, addressed to Macarius the vice-president of Rome, will be found the origin of that immortal song. The epistle takes its origin in the following circumstances. A vessel laden with corn, the property of one Secundinianus, was driven by stress of weather into harbour on the coast of Lucania: the land adjoining to which belonged to Postumianus - a Christian senator. The factor of Postumianus, looking on the vessel as a wreck, had seized upon the cargo, and being summoned before the provincial judge had repelled by force the summoning officers and fled to Rome. The letter of Paulinus entreats the vice-prefect to represent the matter in such a light to Postumianus as would induce him to surrender the cargo without further litigation: the ground for claiming this indulgence being the miraculous preservation of the vessel from the perils of the ocean - a story probably trumped up by Secundinianus and the survivor of the crew. It is a story good enough indeed for Secundinianus to relate to Paulinus, Paulinus to Macarius, and Macarius to
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