Letter 28: To my holy brother and fellow soldier Severus,

Paulinus to Severus, his holy brother and like-minded fellow-soldier. Victor returns from me to you, so that he may return from you to me, Victor, the shared pledge and faithful companionship and customary consolation to us, Victor who is mine in you and yours in me, Victor the courier of our letters, a runner on foot or a two-footed post-horse, victor over the longest roads, rightly to be called at one and the same time both victor and vanquished, since he is conquered by the love by which he conquers hard roads and great toils, he who in the sweat of his brow eats his bread, that he may refresh us by his yearly journeys between the two of us, tirelessly carrying and carrying back the exchanges of letters, by which we render to each other a mutual visitation in our minds and our inmost hearts, as though it were a tribute of due service. Blessed be the boy Victor unto the Lord, and may his soil not bring forth for him thorns and thistles, since he is not slothful; for the ways of the slothful are strewn with thorns. But our Victor does not say, "There is a lion in the ways," because he is so guileless that he walks confident, faithful, and chaste, so that he fears not the terror by night nor the arrow that flies by day. Therefore the Lord guards him in all his ways and commits him to the watches of angels, lest anywhere he dash his foot against a stone, nor let the serpent lurking in the way bite his heel, which serpent he, his feet shod for the running of the Gospel, will tread upon and crush without harm. I will therefore praise and bless in the Lord the feet of our Victor, and of these feet too I will dare to say: how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim to me peace concerning you, when they announce your safety and the peace within you, together with your faith, through which Christ our peace abides in you, who also makes both things one of us or in us, whether insofar as we are two in one heart, or insofar as we make both substances, of soul and of body, one, since Christ fuses us together through the fire of his Spirit, of which he says: "I came to send fire upon the earth"; and what does the good Lord will, except that it be kindled in us and illuminate our darkness and consume our sins, since the Lord our God is a consuming fire? May the Lord grant me here, that he also become in me, on my behalf, a consuming fire. May my heart burn with this fire into eternal light for me, lest my soul should burn with the same fire into perennial punishment. For on this fire shall the day of the Lord be revealed, and the fire shall test of what sort the work of each one of us is. Let us pray to this Lord, that he may teach us to do his will, and that his good Spirit may lead us into the right way, lest our labor be found to be wood, hay, stubble, but rather silver, gold, precious stones, and that we may be found alive within the walls of that Jerusalem, the heavenly and free Jerusalem, which is built as a city whose participation is in itself. For the inhabitant of this city is shown to be one in three, whence it is called the city of the great King, the city of our God, the city of the Lord of hosts, which the Lord himself, as it is written, founded for eternity; of which city indeed Christ has been made not only the foundation but also the tower and the gate. For, he says, no one can lay another foundation than him who is to us a tower of strength before the face of the enemy, who says: "I am the door of the sheep; no one can come to the Father except through me." If, therefore, in this our house and mind be founded, and a work worthy of so great a foundation be built upon it, he himself will be for us, as the gate into his own city, the one who will rule us for ages, and will set us in a place of pasture, us whom he has already begotten for himself through the water of refreshment and nourishes with saving feasts at that table which he has prepared for us against those who afflict us. Of which he says: "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God," since Christ is himself both the kingdom and the bread, by which we are fattened and the serpent wastes away, whose hunger and punishment is the food of our life, Christ Jesus, who has been made food for us, so that, living on that bread and walking according to him, we may be able to say with the Apostle: "But our conversation is in heaven." For when we savor and seek the things that are above, we cease to be of the earth, so that we may no longer be food for the serpent, who in turn has been given as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians, that he may be eaten by those whom he eats. Which for us, on the contrary, is salutary, we who eat Christ and are absorbed by Christ, who absorbs our mortal nature, since he is life, that he may clothe us with immortality and make us conformed to his image, he who has given us power to tread without harm upon all the strength of the enemy, through the same grace by which he gave the power to become sons of God to those who believe in his name, which is above every name. In this let us dwell, since he himself is also a city which cannot be hidden, because it is set upon a mountain and whose foundations are in the holy mountains. This city the Most High himself founded, as it is written, since wisdom has built herself a house. This is that house not made with hands, in which, if we dwell with those works by which we may deserve to become citizens of the saints, our work shall not burn; and that wise fire, as we pass through its testing, shall not encompass us with severe burning to punish us, but, receiving us as ones commended to it, shall lick us with gentle touch, that we may be able to say: "We have passed through fire and water, and you have brought us into refreshment." But so that the letter may end with the same name with which it was begun, let me return to our Victor, on whose behalf I owe an excuse. As to the fact that he returns to you later than agreed, do not impute it to his feet, which lingered longer with us not through the fault of laziness but through zeal for obedience. Yet reckon the time, not from when you indicated that he had been sent off, but from when you sent him, and you will see that, regarding the agreed turn-taking of keeping Victor between us, the account stands in my favor. For he was not present with us to spend the winter, as you had written, but, as he asserted, having been sent back to you from Narbonne, where he had met our brother Postumianus, he then set out again from you, when he could have come directly to me. So now, with winter departing, having received him, I was obliged to detain him through the spring months, and because the interval seemed short, until the paschal solemnity should presently conclude it, and since I had also been most infirm during that same time, so that I was not strong enough for the business of writing back, I added delays for him from the summer days, in order to compensate matters with you, if I took only as much of your time in him as you had occupied of the winter days with that same man. Hence I will concede, if he reaches your like-mindedness in autumn, that he should spend the winter again with you, since you see it has been so arranged by the Lord's good pleasure, that the seasons of our common like-mindedness, which we had mutually granted to each other, might be exchanged, with the faith of our agreement preserved, for the greater advantage of this one; for now it has been aptly turned about, so that what you, indulgent to me and disparaging to yourself against your own merit, had written might come true more truly. For you, truly fervent in spirit, will more profitably cherish him in the time of cold with the kindled warmth of your faith; whereas I, being cold, shall be more suited to him for the summer station. But would that I were even cold rather than lukewarm, and did not cause vomiting to my Lord and ease my neighbor's heat! But as it is, I rather produce loathing from satiety with myself in those who make use of the time of my sojourning, neither necessarily for the cold nor for the hot, being one to be vomited up again, through the lukewarmness of my small faith, by those who shall have tried to taste the flavor of my fellowship in hope of spiritual sweetness. The more, therefore, do I marvel at your desire in longing for, and at your patience in enduring, the burdens of my trifles. But would that no sin from much speaking might come upon me, as great a reward is heaped up for you from such untiring love! For as though not wearied, but rather even refreshed by so many volumes, in number and abundance, sent before now through our Victor, you have again requested, through the same letter-bearer, that I should be even more burdensome to you with more writings, if I am able. Moreover, you have, too lavishly, flattering yourself concerning your poor friend, commanded that the things which escape you from the annals not of one nation but of the human race, I, forsooth, as though more learned, should expound; but let him impute the hunger to himself who knocks at the door of a poor friend and ransacks an empty pantry. For never has it been my settled pursuit to investigate and collect these things. For even in the old time, when I seemed to read even what ought not to be read, I journeyed away from the writers of history. Nevertheless, now bearing the care of your work, in which you have indicated that you are occupied, for the benefit of our faith, with examining and comparing the reckonings of past times, what I did not possess of my own I have sought from the more opulent treasure of a like-minded brother; and the very note which you had sent, inserted into my letter in the manner of a memorandum, I have forwarded to Rufinus the presbyter, the spiritual companion of holy Melania on her way, a man truly holy and piously learned, and for this reason joined to me by intimate affection. If he shall not have set forth those causes of the gaping history which rightly trouble you concerning the discrepant reckoning of years or reigns, he who is rich both in scholarly and in saving letters, in Greek as well as in Latin, I fear that we shall search in vain among any other in these regions. But if he shall have satisfied my presumption concerning him, at the first opportunity, if the Lord favors it, I will transmit to your like-mindedness whatever he shall have written back to me upon this matter. Meanwhile, that I might do something of your commands, I have sent some of those things which I fear may be testimonies rather of my sloth or imprudence than tokens of heavenly ministration, or at least documents of human wisdom; yet I have sent them to you, that is, I have entrusted to my own breast my trifles, not that my darkness may pollute your perceptions, but that it may be washed clean by your perceptions. But I have called my trifles only as regards my words and sentences; for the rest, the subject matter is holy and worthier rather of your genius and eloquence, and even if it be clothed in my speech as in dark garb, it yet keeps the appearance of the divine light, of an inner beauty, although in the cheapness of needy furnishings. You have, therefore, two little books from me: one, a birthday poem composed in verses, from my customary song to my Lord [Felix], to whom in body and spirit daily, but with my tongue yearly, I render the sweetest tribute of my voluntary servitude, offering to Christ on the festal day of his consecration a sacrifice of praise, and rendering my vows to the Most High. The other little book is one of those which I seem to have written to the blessed, that is, the Christian man, my friend Endelechius, though I cannot be convicted of having published it. For he was for me the author of this little work in the Lord, as his own letter, which is prefixed to my little book by way of a theme, shows. And I confess that I willingly undertook this labor from my friend for this reason, that in Theodosius I might proclaim not so much an emperor as a servant of Christ, powerful not through the pride of dominating but through the humility of serving, and a prince not by his kingdom but by his faith.

XXVIII. SANCTO FRATRI ET VNANIMO CONMILITONI SEVERO PAVLINVS. Redit a me tibi Victor, ut redeat a te mihi, Victor commune pignus et fidele contubernium et solemne solatium nobis, 2] (Ps. 22,5). 3] Ps. 102, 1. 9] Ps. 127, 3. 11] (Malac. 1, 6). 14] Ps. 125, 1. 19] Ps. 67, 29. 6 de v, om. 0 9 iiouellae v, nouella 0 uerent 0 10 et v, om . 0 12 fatemur gemuisse nos v, statim uriae nos 0, scaturimus fort . 13 eiusmodo 0 14 uicinum v, uicino 0 16 iniquitatis O1 18 delectum v, dilectum 0 20 quod v, quo 0 22 refrigerem\' 0 FLMOpU . — incipit octaua eiusdem F, item epia eiusdem ad eunv dem • VII. L, ad sulpitium seuerum ■ X • M, incipit ad eundem - VIH. 0, epistola sancti paulini episcopi ad seuerum monachum de laudibus Victor in te meus et in me tuus, Victor epistolarum nostrarum ueredarius pedes aut ueredus bipes, uictor longissimarum uiarum, bene idem dicendus simul et uictor et uictus, quia uincitur caritate, qua uincit uias duras et magnos labores, qui in sudore uultus sui edit panem suum, ut nos reficiat annuis inter utrumque discursibus, ferens indefessus ac referens commercia litterarum, quibus mutuam uisitationem animis ac uisceribus inuicem nostris tamquam uectigal officii debiti pensitamus. sit benedictus domino puer Victor, neque illi spinas et tribulos sua terra parturiat, quia inpiger est. uiae enim pigrorum spinis stratae sunt. Victor uero noster non dicit: leo est in uiis, quia ita simplex est, ut ambulet confidens fidelis et castus, ut non timeat a timore nocturno et iaculo uolante per diem. propterea dominus custodit illum in omnibus uiis suis et angelicis mandat excubiis, ne usquam offendat ad lapidem pedem suum, neque mordeat calcaneum eius obseruans coluber in uia, quem calciatis ad euangelii cursum pedibus inpune calcabit et conteret. laudabo igitur et benedicam in domino Victoris nostri pedes et de his quoque pedibus audebo dicere: quam speciosi pedes qui euangelizant mihi pacem de te, cum incolumitatem tuam et pacem in te, cum fidem tuam nuntiant, per quam in te manet Christus pax nostra, qui et de nobis uel in nobis facit utraque unum, siue qua duo sumus in 5] Gen. 3, 19. 10] (Gen. 3, 18). 11] Prou. 15, 19. 12] Prou. 22, 13 et 26, 13. (Prou. 10, 9). 13] Ps. 90, 6. 17] Gen. 49, 17. (Eph. 6,15). 20] Es. 52, 7; Rom. 10, 15. 24] Eph. 2, 14. uictoris: epistolarum eius fidelissimi perlatoris: ubi etiam mentionem facit de duobus libellis: quos sibi pro munere caritatis destinare curarat U i 25 ut-Victor om. Put-commune om. FU redea* M 26 pingnus 01 solacium P solatium sollepne M 1 in me tuus et in te meus M 2 pedes-ueredus om. LM uictorque M 3 uiarum pedes LM qui FPU 4 qua] quia 0 5 edet F 6 indefectus 0, indefessim Vatic. in mg . 8 inuicem om. LM 10 perturiat Fl 13 et 0, et a cet . 20 audeo F preciosi F 22 fide tua FPCI 23 xps manet M que FPU 24 utramque 01V, utrumque F quia FPU IIVWI. Paul. Nol. epiltulae. 16 corde uno siue qua utramque substantiam animae et corporis unum facimus conflante nos Christo per ignem spiritus sui, de quo ait: ignem ueni mittere in terram; et quid uult bonus dominus, nisi ut accendatur in nobis et inluminet tenebras nostras et peccata consumat, quia dominus deus noster ignis consumens est? tribuat hic mihi dominus, ut et in me pro me fiat ignis consumens. ardeat hoc igne cor meum in lumen aeternum mihi, ne eodem ardeat anima mea in poenam perennem. in hoc enim igne reuelabitur dies domini, et uniuscuiusque nostrum opus quale sit ignis probabit. Oremus hunc dominum, ut doceat nos facere uoluntates suas, et spiritus eius bonus deducat nos in uiam rectam, ne labor noster inueniatur ligna fenum stipula sed potius argentum aurum lapides pretiosi, et uiui inueniamur in muris Hierusalem illius caelestis et liberae, quae aedificatur ut ciuitas, cuius participatio eius in id ipsum. huius enim ciuitatis habitator in tribus unus ostenditur, unde dicitur ciuitas regis magni, ciuitas dei nostri, ciuitas domini uirtutum, quam ipse dominus, ut scriptum est, fundauit in aeternum, cuius quidem ciuitatis non solum fundamentum sed et turris et porta factus est Christus. fundamentum enim, inquit, nemo potest aliud ponere quam eum, qui est nobis turris fortitudinis a facie inimici, qui dicit: ego sum ianua ouium; nemo potest uenire ad patrem nisi per me. si igitur in hoc domus et mens nostra fundetur et digna tanto fundamento superaedificetur operatio, erit nobis in aditum ciuitatis suae porta ipse qui reget nos in saecula, et in loco pascuae conlocabit nos, quos iam per aquam 3] Luc. 12, 49. 5] Deut. 4, 24; Heb. 12, 9. 10] I Cor. 8,18. 13] Ps. 142, 10 et 11. 14] (I Cor. 3, 12; I Petro 2, 5). 15] (Gal. 4, 81). 16] Ps. 121, 3. 18] Ps. 47, 2 et 9. 22] I Cor. 3, 11. 24] Ps. 60, 4. 25] Ioh. 10, 7. Ioh. 14, 6. 28] Ps. 47, 15. 29] (Ps. 22, 2). 1 quia FPU in utramque FU, in utranque P 2 facinus F 8 in OM, et in cef . 10 nostrum om. FPU 14 neo FLU faenum OP 28 additum PU 29 quos - p . 243, 1 genuit et om. M refectionis sibi genuit et nutrit epulis salutaribus in eam mensam, quam praeparauit nobis aduersus eos, qui tribulant nos. de qua dicit: beatus qui manducabit panem in regno dei, quia Christus idem et regnum et panis est, quo nos saginamur et serpens tabescit, cuius fames et poena est eibus uitae nostrae Christus Iesus, qui factus est nobis in escam, ut eo pane uiuentes et secundum eum ambulantes possimus iuxta apostolum dicere: nostra autem conuersatio in caelis est. cum enim quae sursum sunt sapimus et quaerimus, terreni esse desinimus, ut iam non simus esca serpentis, qui uicissim datus est in escam populis Aethiopum, ut ab his edatur quos edit. quod nobis e contrario salutare est, qui Christum edimus et absorbemur a Christo, qui absorbet mortalem nostrum, quia uita est, ut induat nos inmortalitate et conformes imagini suae faciat, qui dedit nobis potestatem super omnem uirtutem inimici inpune calcandi per eandem gratiam, qua dedit potestatem filios dei fieri credentibus in nomine eius, quod est supra omne nomen. in hoc habitemus, quia ipse etiam ciuitas est, quae non potest abscondi, quia super montem posita et cuius fundamenta sunt in montibus sanctis. hanc ciuitatem ipse fundauit altissimus, sicut scriptum est, quia sapientia sibi aedificauit domum. haec est domus illa non manu facta, in qua si habitemus his operibus, quibus ciues sanctorum fieri mereamur, non ardebit opus nostrum; et ignis ille sapiens transeuntes nos per examen suum non seuero ardore ambiet puniendos, sed ut 3] Luc. 14, 15. 7] (Ioh. 6, 35). 8] Phil. 3, 20. 9] (Col. 3, 1). 11] Gen. 3, 14; Ps. 73, 14. 14] (I Cor. 15, 53). 15] (Rom. 8, 29). 16] (Luc. 10, 19). 17] Ioh. 1, 12. 18] Phil. 2, 9. 19] Matth. 5, 14. 21] Ps. 86, 1 et 5. 22] Prou. 9, 1. 25] (H Cor. 5, 1; Eph. 2, 19). 1 et] ut U nutrit O\'V, netrit O1, nutriet L, nutriuit FP\'U, enu- 0 trietu M, nutriti P1 2 mensuram M praeparabit OU 4 et panis et regnum LM 5 et] ut U famis FOPU 7 esca LO 8 possumus Ll dicere iuxta aphn M 12 qs aedit F 13 absorbimur U 14 mortale LMt: 16 inimici uirtntem FPU inpune calcandi om. M 20 supra F 24 iis v 16* commendatos suscipiens blando lambet adtactu, ut possimus dicere: transiuimus per ignem et aquam, et induxisti nos in refrigerium. Sed ut eodem nomine quo inchoata est epistola terminetur, ad Victorem nostrum recurram, pro quo excusationem debeo. quod ad te tardius pacto redit, ne inputes pedibus eius, qui non pigritiae uitio sed oboedientiae studio apud nos diutius restiterunt. reputa tamen tempus, non quo dimissum eum indicasti, sed quo misisti, et uidebis de placita inter nos retinendi Victoris uicissitudine stare rationem mihi. non enim ad hiemem apud nos, ut scripseras, exigendam adfuit, sed, ut adseruit, de Narbonensi, ubi fratri Postumiano occurrerat, remissus ad te, tunc a te iterum profectus est, cum ad me directus peruenire potuisset. iam igitur hieme decedente susceptum necesse habui uernis mensibus detinere, et quia breue spatium uidebatur, quoad ilico sollemnitas paschalis concluderet, cum et infirmissimus per idem tempus fuissem, ut ad rescribendi negotium non ualerem, adposui de diebus aestiuis moras eius, ut conpensarem tecum, si tantum in eo tui temporis usurparem, quantum tu in eodem occupaueras de diebus hibernis. unde concedam, si autumno peruenerit ad unanimitatem tuam, ut hiemem rursus inpendat tibi, quia uides ita placito domini procuratum, ut tempora communis unanimi, quae nobis mutua cesseramus, salua fide pacti maiori istius commodo mutarentur; nunc enim apte conuersum est, ut uerius fieret quod contra meritum indulgens mihi et tibi detrahens scripseras. tu enim uere spiritu feruens salubrius 2] Ps. 65, 12. 1 adtractu 0, actatu U 4 ut] et FPU epistola est F 5 eicusationem nostram LM 7 diutius apud nos FPU 10 uicissitutudine F mihi om. F 11 had hiemen 0 apud nos om. F 12 narbonensi portu M postumiano LM, postumio F, postumino OP* U, posthumino Pxv 18 ad] a LM a] ad LM 14 directius FPU 16 quoad 0, quod cet. v illico ex illiquod P* sollepnitas MO 17 cum] eum, cum fort . id FPU 18 de om. LM 19 tui ex fui F, om. LM 20 de om. LM 21 concedo FPU 24 maiori F, moioris cet . 25 com- J uerr modo Rosw., commoda w in maiora i. commoda fort . at melius M eum in tempore frigoris ignito fidei tuae fouebis calore; at ego frigidus ad aestiuam illi stationem aptior ero. Sed utinam uel frigidus magis quam tepidus essem nec domino meo uomitum facerem et proximi mei aestum leuarem! nunc uero fastidium potius de satietate mei facio utentibus tempore incolatus mei nec algentibus nec aestuantibus necessario, modicae fidei tepore reuomendus ab his, qui saporem societatis meae spe dulcedinis spiritalis gustare temptauerint. quo magis miror uel concupiscentiam tuam in desiderandis uel patientiam in perferendis ineptiarum mearum molestiis. sed utinam mihi tam nullum de multiloquio peccatum accedat, quam tibi magna merces de tam infatigabili caritate cumulatur! tamquam enim non defatigatus, sed potius et refectus tantis antehac per Victorem nostrum numero et copia uoluminibus, iterum postulasti per eundem librigerum, ut tibi pluribus, si possim, scriptis essem molestior. Praeterea autem iussisti nimium opulenter tibi de paupere tuo blandiens, ut quae te de annalibus non unius gentis sed generis humani fugerent ego uidelicet quasi peritior edocerem; sed sibi inputet famem qui pauperis amici forem pulsat et promptuarium inane scrutatur. numquam enim in haec inuestiganda et conligenda mihi contentum studium fuit. nam etiam in tempore ueteri, quo uidebar legere nec legenda, ab historicis scriptoribus peregrinatus sum. attamen nunc operis tui curam gerens, quo te pro utilitate fidei nostrae inspiciendis et conferendis praeteritorum temporum rationibus occupatum indicasti, quod de me non habui de fratris unanimi opulentiore thesauro petiui; et ipsam adnotationem, quam commonitorii uice miseras litteris meis inditam, direxi ad 1] (Rom. 12, 11). 8] (Apoc. 8,16). 11] (Prou. 10,19). 1 foebis U 2 ergo 0 5 nunc ex hunc L mea F 7 neceswius LM tepore LMf tempore cet . remouendus FPU 8 temptauerit FOPU 10 in Ov, om. cd . 12 accedat Ov, accideret M, accederet cet . 15 postulati U eum U 16 possem LMU 17 autem Mt M 18 sed generis om. U 19 docerem M 20 famen 0 21 enim M 8. I . m. 2 22 contemptum FLO, contentu P\'U, contemptu Pl, commodum v 28 nec legenda Ov, negligenda cd . 27 iudicasti U Ruffinum presbyterum, sanctae Melani spiritali uia comitem, uere sanctum et pie doctum et ob hoc intima mihi affectione coniunctum. si ille has, quae merito te permouent de annorum siue regnorum non congruente calculo, hiantis historiae causas non ediderit, qui et scholasticis et salutaribus litteris graece iuxta ac latine diues est, uereor ne apud alium in his regionibus frustra requiramus. quod si praesumptioni de se meae satisfecerit, prima occasione, si dominus fauerit, transmittam unanimitati tuae, utcumque mihi super hac ratione rescripserit. Interim, ut aliquid de praeceptis tuis facerem, misi ex his, quae metuo ne inertiae potius uel inprudentiae meae testimonia sint quam supernae ministrationis insignia aut certe uel humanae documenta sapientiae; misi tamen tibi, id est commisi meo pectori meas nugas, non ut sensus tuos polluant tenebrae meae, sed ut tuis sensibus diluantur. nugas autem meas de uerbis ac sententiis meis dixi; ceterum materia sancta et tuo potius ingenio eloquioque dignior, etsi meis sermonibus uelut atro habitu uestiatur, speciem tamen diuini luminis, interni decoris quamquam in egenae supellectilis uilitate custodit. habes ergo libellos a me duos, unum uersibus natalicium de mea sollemni ad dominaedium meum cantilena, cui corpore ac spiritu cotidie, lingua autem quotannis pensito dulcissimum uoluntariae seruitutis tributum, in die festo consecrationis eius immolans Christo hostiam laudis et red 25J Ps. 49, 14. 1 rufinum FLMO (in mg.: laudem rutini presbyteri M) melanii M, i i melanie ex melanii L, melaniae F in uia LM 2 m itima m M, utinam mihi FPU 3 absque ex hasque P m. 2 5 reddiderit (in mg . t ediderit) M seholasticis 0, scolasticis cet . 7 de se ex des P m. 2 8 siuerit LM tufi 9 unanimitate L1 18 quam] quae F 14 docimenta 0 misi Įţм; M 15 meo] tuo LM 16 deluantur 0 17 de] et de F 18 dignior eI, digna v 20 numinis U suplectilis L utilitate FU 22 natalitium FMU dominedium LMO, domine dum FlU, dominum deum F* 24 tributorum OP1 consecrationes FPU 25 reddans L 1 dens altissimo uota mea; alius libellus ex his est, quos ad benedictum id est Christianum uirum, amicum meum Endelechium scripsisse uideor, non tamen edidisse conuincar. is enim mihi auctor huius in domino opusculi fuit, sicut ipsius epistola, quae libello meo pro themate praescribitur, docet. fateor autem idcirco me libenter hunc ab amico laborem recepisse, ut in Theodosio non tam imperatorem quam Christi seruum, non dominandi superbia sed humilitate famulandi potentem, nec regno sed fide principem praedicarem.