Letter 29: To my kindred brother Severus,

29. PAULINUS TO HIS BROTHER SEVERUS, ONE IN MIND WITH HIM. The immoderate affection - as we charged - which was overburdening us in your letters that spoke our praise, you have tempered, fittingly and moderately, to our profit by the kindness of your gifts; for of necessity, to us who are sinners and lacking both in the entreaty of lamentation and in the garb of the needy, you sent cloaks woven from the hairs of camels, that they might admonish us with useful goads as we lie prostrate in the sight of the Most High, while we are pricked by the roughness of the bristles - that we might also be pricked by horror at our own sins and inwardly bruised in spirit, while outwardly they chafe us by their texture. Many further benefits, moreover, toward the shaping of faith are derived from the use of these things, through the recollection of the saints of old. There comes to mind Elijah, who was taken up, and John, who was sent before him, of whom the one a girdle rough with bristles encircled, while the other the shaggy covering of camels' hair, as it is written, clothed. We recall also David and all his meekness, with which, sacrificing to God a contrite and humbled heart, he clothed himself in sackcloth; and he covered his soul in fasting, that he might shield it with spiritual fullness. Whence we learn that the garment of the soul is that fasting by which we abstain from all things forbidden by the divine law. For this we also know from the stripping of our first parents, who, after they had ceased to fast from the forbidden food, were laid bare. But the prophet himself too teaches us with what fasting he fortified his soul against the nakedness of confusion, when he says to the Lord: From every evil way I have restrained my foot, that I may keep your word. From this same wool of your gift there is also brought to our mind that camel of the Gospel, which more easily passes through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven. Wherefore, considering our riches, which now remain only in sins, since we cannot aspire to virtues like those divine men, we desire that there come to us at least the grace of that publican, who, in a worn heart accusing himself before God, and beating his afflicted breast with frequent hand, and not daring to lift to heaven his eyes downcast with the shame of conscience, having that iniquity of vices rivaling the camel's hump, so bound himself down to the humility he owed and directed himself by the leveling of a repentant soul, that he might insert himself into the eye of the needle - that is, into the way of the word, or of the cross, which by a narrow path leads to life - as a penetrator into the divine ears. For prayer, it says, of him who humbles himself pierces the clouds; whereas, on the contrary, that rich Pharisee, in the spirit of his own boasting, who, by the reckoning of works owed - since by the law he was a debtor to work - nevertheless as though he had done voluntarily beyond his debt, a herald of himself, an accuser of another, who rather confronted God than entreated him, could not enter, because narrow places do not admit the over-laden. Nor could that broad boastfulness be received there, where narrow humility gathered itself together and, narrower than the narrow, penetrated by the slenderness of a contrite heart. Let your prayers intervene, that my soul, torn apart by much corruption and rashly entangled with the thorns of my senses, the needle of the Lord's cross may mend, with the thread of the saving word inserted; for the faith and the word of the cross of Christ I judge to be this needle, by which the fashion of our life is renewed, our mind is pricked, and we ourselves are stitched to God through the intervention of that same Mediator. In the same needle is also that eye, since through it and in it lies that way to life, desirable to many, penetrable to few, through which humbled iniquity more easily enters than proud righteousness. Wherefore we owe you the greater thanks, as to spiritual physicians, who confer upon us even carnal gifts with spiritual usefulness, in that you have sent these cloaks to us as a goad to prayer and a garb of humility, as it were a basket of dung to that barren fig tree. In which it seems to me the eternal usefulness of pious humility is signified, which makes fruitful the barren soul, lest, through the empty appearance of arrogance, pleasing to itself like that Pharisee, it run riot like an unfruitful tree with useless foliage instead of fruits. But how good and useful for the cultivation of salvation such dung is, we are taught in blessed Job, who, after he sat in the dunghill, ceased to be tempted. For he had consumed the envy of the tempter by perfect humility, which can more easily rise than be cast down. Since, sitting in the mire, he has nowhere to fall from, he has whence to rise up through him who raises up the needy from the earth and lifts the poor man from the dunghill, and casts the proud back into the dung; for everyone, as it is written, who is proud is unclean before God; and therefore that accuser of his own iniquity is more righteous before God than that herald of his own righteousness. The one, by praising himself, accused himself; the other, by accusing, defended himself. And therefore, flattering ourselves in nothing concerning our own works, let us always commend our spirit into his hands, since with him is the fountain of life. From him let us seek understanding of our journey, since by the Lord are the steps of a man directed. But even if we shall be able, through his own help, to do his commandments, we must nevertheless even so confess our unprofitableness, because we cannot reckon as merit the service we owe, if we only do what is commanded. For he is an unprofitable and worthless servant who adds nothing by voluntary affection to the necessity of the duty owed, having nowhere from which to hope for a reward, if he only discharges the offices of his condition. Wherefore, even when fulfilling the commandments, as I often write to you, let us always fear, saying to the Lord: Enter not into judgment with your servant, for in your sight shall no living man be justified. The humility of confession will be able to commend us as modest before the Lord - us whom the usefulness of strenuous service cannot commend, as if we were idle. For the Ninevites too prove how great a remedy there is for a sinner with the divine clemency, when one does not spare himself; since indeed, reconciled to God by the suffrage of penitence, they merited to escape the destruction that had been announced, because, tormenting themselves with voluntary lamentations, they forestalled the divine sentence by their own. But we, weighing things worthy neither in words nor in deeds, yet with the one faculty of charity that is ours - in which alone we are your equals - have sent a tunic, which deign to receive from my use as a rag gathered from the worthlessness of the dunghill; for this too suits your innocence, that, woven from the soft fleece of lambs, it flatters the touch. I add, moreover, still further to its value and grace that - so that it may be proved more worthy of your use - it is to me a pledge from the blessing of Melania, that holy and illustrious woman among the saints of God. Whence she has seemed more worthy of you than I, since her faith is more akin to you than our blood. I confess, however, that I made bold, so that, although it was destined for you the moment I received it, I nevertheless wore it first by way of inaugurating it with my own clothing - knowing that I would render you a greater service by this injury than if I had honored you with its untouched newness; at the same time so that I might take beforehand for myself a blessing as though from your garment now, that I might be able to boast that I am a sharer of your clothing, I who, God being favorable, would put on the tunic of your future use as though it had already been so. The Lord, moreover, added this grace from your gifts and your letter, that brother Victor met us most opportunely on those very days when we received that holy woman herself on her return from Jerusalem after five lustra [twenty-five years]. But what a woman, at last - if it is permitted to call her a woman - so manfully Christian! What shall I do at this point? An intolerable dread of being tedious forbids me to add yet more to my volumes; but the dignity of the person, nay rather the grace of God, seems to demand that, having gone forward, I not hastily omit the commemoration of so great a soul, and that I turn aside the course of my discourse a little to narrate her to you - just as sailors, if they see some place on the shore worth gazing at, do not sail past, but, the sails being drawn in a little, or with the oar suspended, feast their eyes with the delay of looking - so that I may also seem to repay some return to that illustrious book of yours, both in its matter and in its eloquence, if I follow up a woman, though inferior in sex, doing soldier's service for Christ in the virtues of Martin, who, being noble by reason of consular ancestors, gave herself, by contempt for bodily nobility, the more noble. I suppose, moreover, that this too pertains to the fullness of the divine grace, that I begin to proclaim a sanctity to be praised from the praises of her family. But that this order is borrowed not from the rhetorical schools any more than from evangelical examples, most learned Luke is my witness, who unfolded the merit of the blessed Baptist from the brightness of his origin; and, lest you should think that he commemorated the noble parent of the Lord's forerunner only for the grace of the narrative, he connects the venerable insignia of ancient nobility and to each his own lineage, saying that Zacharias was a priest of the course of Abia - in order, I believe, that by this very thing he might show the dignity of his merit, adding the name from the priestly fillets, which beyond doubt was distinguished among the Hebrews, in whose course he, having obtained the honored priesthood by lot, was performing his service. Finally he adds: And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron. You see that the evangelist made of the commemoration of birth a foretelling of holy merits, so that for those whom he was about to proclaim from their own merits he might set forth their ancestral names; and his wife, he says, was of the daughters of Aaron. He increased the merit of the priest by the commemorated nobility of his marriage, and being about to praise the life, he first praised the lineage, so that he might stand forth the more venerable who answered to holy parents by an inborn holiness, as though by a certain inheritance of righteousness - he who would carry on that chief name among the priests, Aaron, as successor both of the honor in his office and of the lineage in his wife; and she, who, concordant on the journey, drew with her husband the yoke of truth, was to be chosen through the angel for childbearing - of whom it is written: Behold, I will send my angel before your face - so that she might stand forth more worthy to be preferred both before her husband the priest and before her son the prophet, who had made her fit for the divine gifts not only by the life of righteousness but also by the prerogative of family. But the origin too of the Lord himself - besides that which flows from the divine fount - even this by which he deigned to be the Son of Man, two evangelists begin by enumerating his ancestors from the beginning, each writer relating with equal faith and dignity a different vein of bodily blood, because it was fitting that the only-begotten of God and the firstborn of all creation and head of the whole body should hold the primacy even in the dignity of bodily lineage, so that, the one Son of God in heaven, born before the ages by an ineffable beginning, might claim for himself on earth also the summits of illustrious titles - of kings alike and of priests, as the two authors attest, an illustrious progeny. Wherefore we shall not seem to use another's rule rather than our own in proclaiming earthly nobility also in the aforesaid handmaid of God, since it is evident that this too the Lord conferred for the glory of his own work, in order that this world, which glories in such titles, might be the more confounded; so that, where the vanity of men uses such things for contempt of God, she rather might use them for contempt of the world; at the same time so that a greater authority of the saving example might be brought forth for humbling the eyes of the proud - a woman from a loftier rank cast down sublimely to the cultivation of humility for the love of Christ, that, strong in a weak sex, she might convict idle men, and, made poor though rich and humbled though noble, might confound arrogant persons of either sex. Therefore, under the consul Marcellinus her grandfather, having endured marriage while yet in tender years amid the ambition of family and the luxury of wealth, and soon a mother - but she did not long enjoy that felicity of mortals, lest she should long love earthly things. For besides the other bereavements which, with her husband still her partner, she bewailed in the fruitless labor of miscarried offspring, she so increased in tribulations that she lost two sons and her husband within the space of a year, with only a single little one left to her, rather for memory than for compensation of her affections. But even from the seeds of our evils she conceived, by the Lord's providence, the causes of heavenly goods - the divine pity, through the losses of human pity. She was made wretched, that she might be rendered blessed. She was stricken, that she might be healed, since: I will strike, and I will heal, says the Lord. For so great is the pity of the Supreme Father that even his anger is of mercy, and he chastises for this reason: that he may spare. Finally, the blessed apostle was therefore blinded, that he might be enlightened; the persecutor fell, that the apostle might rise; on the road he found the way, and in the road of impiety he recognized the way of peace. Thus, then, the good Lord, at all times and toward us also, the least, with these expenditures of his pity even until now - as he himself attested, working the works of the Father - chastening with fatherly pity this holy woman also (not because he held her unfaithful, but that he might render her perfect), in mercy scourged her with temptations, that he might crown her with patience: for he scourges every son whom he receives. And so, a companion in the mournful procession of three funerals, a widow and bereaved alike, she came to Rome with her only child, an inciter rather than a consoler of her tears - whether the infant, before any sense of his own, already perceiving evils, knew how to mourn another's death, who did not yet know how to know his own life, or whether his infancy, ignorant of evil and carelessly secure, laughed in its pitiable play amid the mother's laments. Taught by these lessons not to be bounded by the frail world and to place hope only in God, whom alone we cannot lose against our will, she put on knowledge salutary for herself and her son, so as to love her little one by neglecting him and to retain him by sending him away - destined to hold more firmly the absent one whom she had commended to the Lord than to embrace him present, had she trusted him to herself. She imitated, by the condition in which she could, the faithful vow of barren Anna; for to this woman too a ruinous fruitfulness had made her near to a barren one, and, fearing to become, after her fruitfulness was emptied, such as the other had been before deserving fruitfulness, she dedicated a different gift to God with a like affection. This woman was anxious about the pledge she had borne, the other about conceiving; the one that she might begin to be a mother, this one that she might not cease to be. But if it is judged unlike for this reason, that this woman's son is not, as the other's was, deposited in the temple to serve the Lord - one who both uses the wealth of the world and its honors - nevertheless, on the contrary, see that the compensation of piety and faith is made equal, because this woman discharged for the Lord, from her very self, the same that the glorious Anna did from her son. For to her the votive Samuel was afterward repaid in more births; to this woman her only one was the sum of her childbearings, the end of her mournings. The one, with her firstborn entrusted to his station in the temple, was consoled both by other pledges at home and by the not far-off separation of her son himself, though consecrated, and by the solemn visitation of returning to the temple; this woman, as she cut her only one from her own breast and cast him into the bosom of Christ, that the Lord himself might rear him, afterward gave him nothing of her own solicitude, judging it a sin of distrust if she should care for one whom she had entrusted to Christ. But with how great faith she did this, may be perceived from this, that, though there was at Rome a great abundance of most powerful and dear kinsfolk, she did not deign to commit her little one to anyone - by a word, as the saying goes - to be fed, instructed, protected. So certain was she that he had been taken up by Christ, and therefore she merited to obtain it, because she was unwilling to enjoy him; and now she merited to see him again through the piety of that faith by which she had not desired, in this world, the one once left in God. And so he did great things for her who is mighty to grant to believers things greater than they presume. Thus to this woman, that she might see her son even in this place, he added - as to Solomon, because he had chosen to ask for wisdom - the other riches also, which he had not asked for, for this very reason, that she had not desired them, he conferred. Having rewarded the good understanding by which she had preferred the highest to the lowest, he poured the lesser upon the greater. Thus he merited to become possessor of all wealth who had chosen to be a petitioner of the highest. By which example indeed we are all admonished to be wise, when we are taught to choose. For if we set the lesser before the greater and the highest, that is, earthly goods before heavenly ones, in punishment of our foolish desire we shall lack every good at once, both highest and lowest, and shall justly fail to receive those things which we did not desire, and shall deservedly be defrauded of those things, by whose harmful love we neglect the better. Thus father Abraham too received back his only one offered to God, because he promptly offered the one demanded. A sacrifice of piety perfected in the heart suffices for the Lord, and for this reason, the hand of an angel interposed, catching his already brandishing right hand as he was about to strike, he substituted for the victim a ram suddenly prepared, that neither might the offering be lacking to God nor the son to the father, and at the same time so that the mystery to be fulfilled in Christ might, so far as was permitted to the figure, be enacted in Isaac, prefigured in the ram - since that lamb too, to be sacrificed afterward in Egypt according to the form of the Savior, was already foreshown in an animal of its own kind, that is, in that ram which ran to be the victim in place of Isaac, that it might run before in figure in place of Christ. And so a ram was found for him to whom the fullness of the mystery was not owed, but was slain for him for whom the perfection of the sacrament was reserved. Many were her contests, even in the very rudiments of this her warfare, against the envious dragon; for the envy of the spiteful enemy did not suffer her to depart by an easy and peaceful leave-taking; but it attempted, with all the power of her noble kinsfolk armed to hold her back, to hinder her purpose and to stand in the way of her going. But she, now strengthened beyond the power of the temptations, loosed both the bonds of bodily piety and the ship - joyful, while all wept - and, having steadfastly grappled with the waves of the sea, lest only the wave of the world should overcome her, she sailed, and, changing at once both the world and the globe, she chose the city of Jerusalem by a spiritual gift, in which she might be a pilgrim from the body, made an exile from her fellow citizens and a citizen of the saints. Prudently and holily she willed to serve in that city which serves, that she might be able to reign in that which is free. Yet of God's many virtues in her I will proclaim at least one, by which all her works may be estimated. In that time of Valens, when the fury of the Arians, with the king himself a satellite of impiety, was persecuting the Church of the living God, she was leader or partaker with all who stood for the faith. She received the routed, or accompanied the seized; but when she had received into a hiding place those who, on account of their distinguished faith, were assailed with the greater hatred of the heretics also and were sheltered by the envy [drawn upon] those who concealed them, then, with a grave sedition inflamed by diabolical torches, she was, as though contumacious against the public law, ordered to be dragged off and to suffer the things that awaited those men, unless she should have preferred to betray them. She went forward undaunted, eager for suffering and exulting in the injury of being made a public spectacle, although she had not waited to be dragged, flying ahead of those who would drag her to the judge - who, confounded by reverence for the present woman, did not carry out the wrath of unbelief, while he marveled at the boldness of her faith. In the same storm, for three days, she fed five thousand monks in hiding with her own loaves, that through her hand the Lord Jesus might again feed the former number in the desert - with a clemency indeed now the more lavish, the less freely those in hiding were cherished than those of old who had voluntarily come together to the Lord in liberty and peace. But she, neither timorous when detected, securely offered the forbidden service, nor willing that the glory of the deed be recognized; yet she was betrayed by the greatness of the deed, glorious before men by as many testimonies as the loaves she fed, conscious of it before God. Let us estimate what merit she has. When in the history of the Kingdoms he is celebrated who fed a hundred men of God hidden from the wrath of an equally impious king, is it to be doubted that she, in a like work many times over, surpassing this number a thousandfold, brought forth the hundredfold fruit? Her remaining affairs and times I will now leap over, and this very thing - by which, returning, she sailed - so that I may emulate her own course, I will cross over, that I may the sooner bring my discourse to its conclusion in setting forth her coming to us, in which I was a spectator of God's great grace. She was conveyed to the city of Naples, separated by a short space from the city of Nola where we dwell, where, received by the meeting of her sons and grandsons, she soon hastened to Nola, to the lodging of our humility, where she came to us ringed about by an ambitious retinue of the wealthiest of pledges. We saw the glory of the Lord in that journey of mother and sons - the same journey, indeed, but in far unequal style: as she sat upon a lean little pony, cheaper than asses, all the pomp of this world, with which the honored and the opulent had power, escorted her about - senators, with swaying carriages, with caparisoned horses, with gilded litters and with many wagons, the Appian Way groaning and gleaming; but over the splendors of vanity the grace of Christian humility shone forth. The rich marveled at the holy poor woman; but our poverty laughed at them. We saw the confusion of this world worthy of God - purple, silken, and gilded furnishings serving old and black rags. We blessed the Lord, who makes the humble and the lofty wise, and fills the [poor] with good things and sends the rich away empty. Yet among these rich ones we were amazed, on that very day, at a spirit poor in maternal goods, who gloried more in their holy mother's poverty than in their own visible abundance. And this very thing seemed to be the working of the Lord's glory, that we beheld the riches of our poor little one in her sons, so that even from this she might already reap the fruit of her faith, when she herself looked down upon her own victory over the vanity of this world, seeing close at hand all the things she had left for the sake of Christ and persevered in despising. Those sons, clad in silk and accustomed each according to his sex to shine in toga or stola, rejoiced to touch with their hand that coarse tunic of esparto-like thread and the cheap little cloak, and longed to spread their own garments, precious with the gold and art of fleece, beneath her feet, and to wear them out against the rags, judging themselves cleansed from the contagion of their riches if they might merit to gather any soil from her most worthless garb or footprint. But our hut, which, suspended from the ground by an upper chamber, with one portico interposed among the little guest-cells, stretches out somewhat far - as though enlarged by the grace of the Lord - afforded not incapacious narrows not only to the saints, very many with her, but even to those troops of the rich; in which the heights of our lord Felix nearby resounded with the choirs of children and of virgins. Nor, on the other hand, did the guests of that same dwelling, though discordant in purpose, make a clamor; but even among them a religious modesty imitated the silence of our discipline, so that, if they dissembled joining in song, drowsy with sluggish belly, they nevertheless did not dare to be discordant with the pious voices, composed by a faithful fear, by which, the tumult of worldly crowds being repressed by the placid voices of the psalm-singers, even in silence they sang together. But, to return to the perfect dove of the Lord, know now that this so great virtue of God in a sex of weakness - for whom refreshment is in fasting, rest in prayer, bread in the word, garb in a rag, a bed in a soldier's cloak and a patchwork quilt, hard on the ground, becomes soft in the written page, by which the pleasure of reading mitigates the injury of the stiff couch, and for the holy soul to keep vigil in the Lord is to rest. This, then, the daughter of Sion has hitherto possessed and longed for; now the daughter of Babylon possesses and marvels at, since now the city itself is in many respects more the daughter of Sion than the daughter of Babylon; and therefore it marvels at her, living in the obscurity of humility and the light of truth, and ministering incitements of faith to the rich, consolations of straits to the poor - although she, yearning for her own quiet and hiding place at Jerusalem, now restless amid the Roman crowds, cries out: Woe is me! that my sojourning is prolonged. Was I therefore put off, that I should now dwell with the inhabitants of Cedar? For by this name, among the Hebrews, as I have found, obscurity is signified. Wherefore I think she is so to be congratulated on the aforesaid virtues that we should fear on account of her present seat - so that so distinguished a soul may confer more upon Rome than it draws from Rome, and may so sit above the rivers of Babylon that she remembers Sion, and, with the organ of her body hung up far from all the snares and enticements of hostile Babylon, established in the tenor of her purpose as upon willows ever living by their native moisture, may not cease to flourish, and, with the constancy of faith and the grace of virtue abiding, her leaf may not fall away, so that, just as her life is watched on the journey, so also her praise may be sung at her departure. I could not bear, brother, that she should not know these things of you. That she might more fully know the grace of God in you, I disclosed you to her by your own discourse rather than by mine. For I myself recited our Martin to her, most studious of such histories. By which kind I revealed you - not more a herald of you than boasting of myself - both to the venerable and most learned bishop Nicetas, who had come from Dacia, deservedly to be admired by the Romans, and to very many saints of God in truth. For it is glory to me to be loved by you and to be cherished, you whom a life consonant with your tongue attests to be a servant of truth. May the Lord grant us mercy from the Lord on that day, through this grace, of which he himself is the author, that, just as now we are refreshed in the bowels of your charity, so we may be refreshed from the deserved fires in the finger of your lot. For I hope we shall have - the Lord granting indulgence - the suffrage of your most loving ones from your righteousness, even if, unworthy, we dare not hope for fellowship in the crown.

XXVIIII. SEVERO FRATRI VNANIMO PAVLINVS. Inmoderatam, ut arguimus, in litteris uestris onus nostrum loquentibus caritatem apta atque moderata ad utilitatem nostram munerum gratia temperastis; necessario enim peccatoribus et precatu deplorationis et habitu indigentibus pallia camelorum pilis texta misistis, quae nos in conspectu altissimi stratos utilibus stimulis admonerent, dum asperitate setarum conpungimur, et peccatorum nostrorum horrore conpungi atque intus spiritu conteri, dum extrinsecus terunt habitu. multa praeterea in eorum usu de ueterum recordatione sanctorum conformandae fidei emolumenta referuntur. ueniunt in mentem 1 mea ex tua 0 2 amicum meum uirum U 4 osculi U 5 stemate M 7 in om. LM theodosium LM 9 praedicarem] uale add. Fp\' U explicit L, finit ad seuerum • VIllI. 0 FLMOPU . — epistola nona ad Seuerum de munere palliorum ex pilis cameli incipit F, epistola ad eundem - VIII . L, ad sulpitium seuerum •XVI- M, incipit ad eundem X de palliolis 0, ad Seuerum. De munere palliorum ex pilis cameli inscr. P m. 2, epistola sancti paulini episcopi ad seuerum monachum ubi ei gratias agit pro palliis de pilis camellorum sibi destinatis. super quibus plura scripturarum exempla adducere tropologico sensu exponit. ubi etiam sancte melanie illustris matrone copendiose intexit historiam U 11 seuero fratri om. 0 unanimo fratri FPU c Paulinus Paulinus Paulinus F Paulinus seruus x itiu seuero kiiR) fn in deo patre et xpo iliu salute LM 17 utilius F 18 et] atque F 19 habitu U, habitum cet . multum 0 21 confirmandae U translatus Elias et praemissus Iohannes, quorum alterum hispida setis zona cingebat, alium pili, ut scriptum est, camelorum hirto tegmine uestiebant. reminiscimur etiam Dauid et omnis mansuetudinis eius, qua contritum cor et humiliatum deo sacrificans induebat se cilicium; et operiebat in ieiunio animam suam, ut eam spiritali saturitate contegeret. unde discimus uestimentum animae illud esse ieiunium, quo ab omnibus lege diuina uetitis abstinemus. id enim et de primorum patrum dispoliatione cognoscimus, qui postquam ab interdicto cibo destiterant ieiunare, nudati sunt. sed et propheta ipse nos docet quali ieiunio animam suam a confusionis nuditate munierit, cum ait domino: ab omni uia mala prohibui pedem meum, ut custodiam uerbum tuum. Ex hoc eodem muneris uestri lanitio et illa nobis de euangelio camelus ingeritur, quae facilius per foramen acus transit quam diues in regnum caelorum. ex quo nostras diuitias, quae nunc in peccatis tantum manent, cogitantes, quia similes diuinis illis uiris uirtutes affectare non possumus, illius saltem nobis gratiam publicani cupimus prouenire, qui in corde detrito semet ipsum accusans deo et pectus adflictum crebra manu tundens et oculos conscientiae pudore depressos in caelum leuare non audens, iniquitate illa uitiorum dorso cameli aemula, ita se in humilitatem debitam strinxit et resipiscentis animae conplanatione direxit, ut se foramini acus hoc est uiae uerbi uel crucis, quae arto tramite ducit ad uitam, diuinarum aurium penetrator 2] (IIII Reg. 1, 8; Matth. 3, 4; Marc. 1, 6). 3] Ps. 131, 1; 50,19; 68,11; 31, 1. 10] (Gen. 3, 7). 12] Ps. 118, 101. 16] Matth. 19, 24; Marc. 10, 25. 21] (Luc. 18, 13). 26] Matth. 7, 14. 1 helias FMOP, elias U, helyas L 2 alium] alterum v 4 omnes mansuetudines 0 quia M contritum Ov, contribulatum cd . 5 cilium 0, cilicio cet . 6 in O v, om. cet . ieiunia O1 8 abstine nemus F 9 despoliatione LM 15 lanicio P ille M, illae (ae ex a?) L 16 camilus 0 quae] qui M, qui ex quae L foramem FO 19 diuinis om. LM 20 possimus P saltim L 22 tondens P1 25 respicientis FPU contemplatione FPU insereret. oratio enim, inquit, humiliantis se nubes penetrat; quo contra ille iactantiae suae spiritu diues Pharisaeus, qui inputatione operum debitorum, quia ex lege operandi debitor erat, tamen quasi uoluntaria fecisset supra debitum, praedicator sui, accusator alieni, qui conueniret magis deum quam rogaret, intrare non potuit, quia subfarcinatos arta non capiunt. nec poterat eo recipi lata iactantia, quo se humilitas angusta conlegit et angusto angustior contriti cordis exilitate penetrauit. Interueniant orationes tuae, ut animam meam multa corruptione discissam et spinis meorum sensuum temere consertam dominicae crucis acus inserto uerbi salutaris filo sarciat; fidem enim et uerbum crucis Christi hanc arbitror acum, qua uitae nostrae habitus innouatur, mens nostra conpungitur nosque ipsi deo per interuentum ipsius mediatoris adsuimur. in eodem est et foramen illud, quia per ipsum et in ipso ad uitam uia illa multis desiderabilis, paucis penetrabilis, per quam facilius ingreditur humiliata iniquitas quam superba iustitia. quo maiorem nobis ut medicis spiritalibus debemus gratiam, qui etiam carnalia nobis munera spiritali utilitate confertis, ut haec pallia nobis ad stimulum orationis et habitum humilitatis tamquam sterili illi ficulneae cophinum stercoris miseritis. in quo mihi uidetur aeterna piae humilitatis utilitas indicari, quae sterilem fecundat animam, ne per uacuam adrogantiae speciem sibi iuxta illum Pharisaeum placens uelut arbor infelix frugibus inutili fronde luxuriet. quam bonum autem et utile ad culturam salutis huiusmodi stercus sit, docemur in beato Iob, qui postquam sedit in stercore, 1] Eccli. 35, 21. 18] (Matth. 7, 14). 22] (Luc. 13, 8). 25] (Luc. 18, 11). 26] (Matth. 21, 19). 28] (Iob 2, 8). rai 2 quo] qua 0 3 computatione (com in ras.) L 5 alieni accusator M 6 subsarcinatos LM 7 que U 8 colligit 0 angusta v cordis LMv, corde cet . 10 interueniunt - d . 15 adsuimur exh. a (— Dungalus) correctione U 11 descissam JO consectam FU 13 et] ut F quo JFOU 14 mens] mors JFPU 15 ipsius om. M 16 in om. U 17 multis] paucis M 20 spuali M 22 cofinum 0, cophanum FPU 26 quam utile autem ad M temptari destitit. consumpserat enim temptatoris inuidiam humilitate perfecta, quae facilius surgere quam deici potest. quia in fimo sedens unde cadat non habet, habet unde consurgat per eum, qui suscitat de terra inopem et de stercore erigit pauperem et in stercora redigit superbos, quia omnis, ut scriptum est, superbus inmundus coram deo; et ideo iustior apud deum ille accusator iniquitatis suae quam ille iustitiae praedicator. ille laudando se accusauit, hic accusando defendit. Et ideo nihil nobis de nostris operibus blandientes semper in manus eius commendemus spiritum nostrum, quoniam apud ipsum est fons uitae. ab illo intellectum itineris nostri petamus, quoniam a domino gressus hominis diriguntur. sed et si poterimus mandata eius per ipsius opem facere, necesse habemus sic quoque inutilitatem nostram fateri, quia inputare non possumus debitam seruitutem, si tantum praecepta faciamus. inutilis enim et nequam seruus est, qui nihil ad necessitatem debiti muneris uoluntario addit affectu, non habiturus unde praemium speret, si tantum conditionis officia dependerit. quamobrem etiam mandata conplentes, ut saepe tibi scribo, timeamus semper dicentes domino: ne intres in iudicio cum seruo tuo, quia non iustificabitur in conspectu tuo omnis uiuens. poterit nos uel humilitas confessionis adserere quasi modestos apud dominum, quos commendare non poterit ut ignauos strenuae seruitutis utilitas. nam et Niniuitae probant quantum apud diuinam clementiam peccatori remedium sit, ut sibi ipse non 4] Ps. 112, 7. 5] (Iob 40, 6). 11] Ps. 30, 6. 12] Ps. 35, 10. 13] Ps. 36, 23. 15] (Luc. 17, 10). 22] Ps. 142, 2. 27] (Ion. 3, 10; Matth. 12, 41; Luc. 11,32). 2 in timo v, in femo 0, in infimo cet . 3 habet scripsi, et habet III, sed habet Rosw . 6 deo est F 8 acusando 0 12 illo] ergo add. M 14 poterimus 0, potuerimus cet . 16 quia om. L 19 condicionis P t officia conditionis ipendat e dependat in mg. m. 2) M 22 iudicio 0, iudicium cet . serto 01 24 molestos P1 25 dominum 0, bonum dominum cet. v 26 nineuitp 0 parcat, quando quidem suffragio paenitentiae reconciliati deo meruerunt denuntiatum euadere excidium, quia se spontaneis luctibus cruciando diuinam sententiam praeuenerunt sua. Nos uero neque uerbis neque rebus digna pensantes unica tamen facultate nobis caritatis, qua uobis sola pares sumus, misimus tunicam, quam ab usu meo ut de stercoris uilitate conlectum pannum dignare suscipere; nam uel hoc innocentiae tuae congruit, quod de tenero agnorum uellere contexta blanditur adtactibus. addo autem adhuc pretio eius et gratiae, quod, quo dignior probetur usu tuo, de sanctae et inlustris in sanctis dei feminae Melani benedictione mihi pignus est. unde te dignior uisa est, cuius fides illi magis quam noster sanguis propinquat. fateor tamen ausum me, ut eam quamuis ilico ut acceperam tibi destinatam meo tamen uestitu initiando praeterem, sciens magis me tibi hac iniuria praestiturum, quam si te intemerata nouitate illius honorassem, simul ut mihi benedictionem quasi de tua iam ueste praecerperem, ut iactare possim uestimenti tui me esse participem, qui propitio deo futuram usus tui tunicam, quasi fuisset, induerem. Addidit autem dominus hanc gratiam de muneribus et litteris tuis, ut ad eos potissimum dies nobis frater Victor occurreret, quibus sanctam ipsam ex Hierusalem post quinque lustra remeantem excepimus. at quam tandem feminam, si feminam dici licet, tam uiriliter Christianam am ! quid hoc loco faciam? uetat fastidii intolerabilis metus uoluminibus adhuc addere; sed personae dignitas, immo dei gratia postulare uidetur, ut commemorationem tantae animae praegressus non raptim omittam et paulisper ad eam tibi narrandam, uelut nauigantes si aliquem in litore locum spectabilem uideant, non praeteruehuntur, sed contractis paululum uelis aut remigio pendente 5 tantum F nobis om. FP\'U nobis F 6 utilitate 0 7 uel] et LM 8 contesta U 9 actattibus U, aetactibus L1 10 quod quo] quia ut M probetur dignior M 11 melaniae LMO, melanie PU 13 ut om. M 16 illius nouitate LM 17 iam om. F 18 quo 0 h 20 addidit FМ\'v, addit cd . 21 hos M, os L 23 at M, ad cet . si] si tamen M 24 dicere FPU 27 progressus F 28 et CIJ, sed Rosw. 29 preteruheuntur P 30 uelis Bosw., remis M pascunt oculos intuendi mora, ita sermonis mei cursum detorqueam, quo etiam inlustri illi materia et eloquentia libro tuo uicem aliquam uidear reddere, si feminam inferiorem sexu uirtutibus Martini Christo militantem prosequar, quae consulibus auis nobilis nobiliorem se contemptu corporeae nobilitatis dedit. Opinor autem et hoc ad cumulum diuinae gratiae pertinere, quod sanctitatem laudandam de laudibus generis praedicare ordior. sed hunc ordinem non a rhetoricis institutis magis quam de euangelicis exemplis usurpari doctissimus Lucas mihi testis est, qui baptistae beati meritum ab originis claritate detexuit et, ne tantum historiae gratia eum commemorasse existimes nobilem dominici praecursoris parentem, ueneranda priscae nobilitatis insignia et suum cuique stemma conectit, dicens sacerdotem Zachariam de uice Abia, credo, ut ex eo ipso dignitatem meriti eius ostenderet, adiciens nomen ex infulis, quod procul dubio in Hebraeis esset insigne, de cuius uice honoratum sortitus sacerdotium fungeretur. denique addit: et uxor illius de filiabus Aaron. uides euangelistam de commemoratione natalium sanctis dictionem fecisse meritorum, ut his, quos erat de propriis meritis praedicaturus, nomina auita praeferret; et uxor, inquit, illi erat de filiabus Aaron. auxit meritum sacerdotis commemorata nobilitate coniugii et laudaturus uitam genus ante laudauit, ut uenerabilior existeret qui sanctis parentibus responderet sanctitate ingenita quasi quadam iustitiae hereditate, qui illud principale in sacerdotibus nomen Aaron et honoris in munere et generis in uxore successor referret, 10] (Luc. 1, 5). 15] Luc. 1, 5. (I Par. 24, 10). 19] Luc. 1, 5. 1 detorquam U 2 illi om. LM 3 inferiore OPU 4 martyni 0 5 nobis U nobilitatis M 8. Z. m. 2, sed uoluptatis in text . 8 ad sanctitatem FU 9 rethoricis LMO institutis euangelicis add. in mg. L 11 mihi Or, om. cel . 13 domini L 14 *tema (s eras.) L, scema FMIPU 15 auia 0 16 ipsi 0 adiicens U 17 infibulis 0 19 addidit 0 20 sanctis w, sancti v, in sanctis fort . dictionem] adiectionem coni. Cauchius, auctionem coni. Ducaem 21 de propriis meritis erat M 23 ansit 0 27 aron 0 28 successor om. M atque illa, quae concors in itinere iugum ueritatis cum marito trahebat, ad pariendum eligenda per angelum, de quo scriptum est: ecce mittam angelum ante faciem tuam, dignior et uiro sacerdote et filio prophetis praeferendo existeret, quam diuinis idoneam dotibus non solum uita iustitiae sed et familiae praerogatiua fecisset. sed et ipsius domini ortum praeter illum a fonte diuino fluentem etiam istum, quo filius hominis esse dignatus est, euangelistae duo numeratis ab initio maioribus ordiuntur, diuersam utroque scriptore corporei sanguinis uenam pari fide et dignitate referente, quia dignum erat, ut unigenitus dei et primogenitus totius creaturae atque uniuersi corporis caput etiam in generis corporei dignitate primatum teneret, ut unus in caelo dei filius ante saecula ineffabili natus exordio etiam in terris inlustrium titulorum sibi apices uindicaret, regum pariter et sacerdotum, ut duo testantur auctores, clara progenies. quamobrem non uidebimur aliena potius quam nostra uti regula terrenam quoque nobilitatem in supradicta dei famula praedicantes, quia perspicuum sit id quoque ad operis sui gloriam dominum contulisse, quo magis confunderetur iste mundus, qui talibus titulis gloriatur, ut quo uanitas hominum ad contemptum dei utitur, ista potius ad contemptum mundi uteretur, simul ut maior salutaris exempli proderetur auctoritas humiliandis superborum oculis, mulier celsiore gradu ad humilitatis cultum ob amorem Christi deiecta sublimiter, ut uiros desides in infirmo sexu fortis argueret, adrogantes in sexu utroque personas pauperata diues et nobilis humiliata confunderet. Igitur Marcellino consule auo de ambitu generis et opum luxu in teneris adhuc annis nuptias passa et breui mater, sed 3] Malac. 3, 1; Matth. 11, 9; Marc. 1, 2; Luc. 7, 26. 8] (Matth. 1,1; Ioh. 1, 1). 15] (Matth. 1, 1; Luc. 3, 23). 23] (Ps. 17, 28). 1 concor U in Ov, om. cet . 3 angelum meum LM 4 proferendo U 9 ntroque] quoque F 10 referente Bosw., referentes OJ fortasse recte si reponas utrique scriptores 12 dignitatem U 16 non om. FP\'U 18 quia OJ, qua v 19 ad ex et P m. 2 confundereretur F 20 iste] hic LM 22 exemplo FPU 23 produceretur F 29 sed om. M ea felicitate mortalium non longum potita est, ne diu terrena diligeret. nam praeter alias orbitates, quas inrito in fetibus abortiuis labore adhuc marito participe defleuit, ita creuit aerumnis, ut duos filios et maritum intra anni tempus amitteret, unico tantum sibi paruulo ad memoriam potius quam ad conpensationem affectuum derelicto. sed et de malorum nostrorum seminibus causas bonorum caelestium nobis domino prouidente pietatem diuinam per humanae pietatis damna concepit. misera facta est, ut efficeretur beata. percussa est, ut sanaretur, quoniam ego percutiam, et ego sanabo, dicit dominus. tanta est enim summi patris pietas, ut etiam ira eius ex misericordia sit et ideo castiget, ut parcat. denique beatus apostolus ideo caecatus est, ut inluminaretur, cecidit persecutor, ut apostolus surgeret, in itinere iter repperit et in inpietatis uia uiam pacis agnouit. sic ergo bonus dominus in omni tempore isdem circa nos quoque minimos suae pietatis inpendiis usque adhuc, ut ipse testatus est, opera patris operans sanctam quoque istam, non quia infidelem haberet, sed ut perfectam redderet, paterna pietate corripiens, in misericordia uerberauit temptationibus, ut patientia coronaret: flagellat enim omnem filium quem recipit. itaque luctuoso ambitu trium funerum comes, uidua pariter et orbata, Romam uenit cum unico suo incentore potius quam solatore lacrimarum, siue infans ante sui sensum mala sentiens iam saperet alienam lugere mortem, qui adhuc uitam suam nosse nesciret, siue ignara male securus infantia miserabili ludo inter matris lamenta rideret. 10] Deut. 32, 39; Ps. 76, 10. 12] (Apoc. 8, 19). 13] (Act. 9, 8). 17] (Ioh. 5,17. 9,4.10,25. 12,10. 15,24). 19] (Prou. 3,12). 20] Hebr. 12,6. 1 ea Bosw., in <0 non dici M 2 fletibus FU 3 auortiuis 0 laboore F 4 annis L1 5 sibi potius v, scilicet potius coni. Sacch . 6 affectum F 15 cognouit L 16 iisdem M, hisdem cet . 18 quoque] que FPU istam] hisdem L infidelis esset M 20 patientem iam uel patientiam fort . 21 omne 0 ita FPU luctuosa 0 22 ambitu] obitu Grynaeus\' 23 solatore Ov, consolatore cet . 24 iam raperet LMP1, inciperet FplŢТ 25 nosset PU . His edocta documentis non finiri saeculo fragili et spem tantum in deo ponere, quem solum amittere inuiti non possumus, salutarem sibi filioque scientiam induit, ut paruulum suum neglegendo diligeret et dimittendo retineret, firmius habitura absentem, quem domino commendasset, quam conplexura praesentem, si sibi credidisset. imitata est conditione qua potuit Annae sterilis fidele uotum; nam et istam damnosa fecunditas sterili proximam fecerat, et talis effici post euacuatam fecunditatem timens, qualis illa fuerat ante promeritam fecunditatem, diuersum deo munus simili dedicauit affectu. ista de parto pignore, illa de concipiendo sollicita; illa ut mater esse inciperet, haec ne esse desineret. quod si ideo dissimile iudicatur, quia non huius ita ut illius filius in templo depositus seruiat domino, qui et opibus saeculi utatur et honoribus, tamen e diuerso conpensationem pietatis et fidei uide adaequari, quia haec idem de semet ipsa persoluerit domino, quod gloriosa Anna de filio. illi enim uotiuus Samuel in plures partus postea repensatus est; huic unicus suus summa partuum, finis luctuum fuit. illam mandato primogenito in statione templi et alia domi pignora et ipsius quamquam sacrati filii non longinqua tamen discretio sollemnisque ad templum recurrendi uisitatio consolabantur; ista, ut unicum suum a pectore suo abscidit et in sinum Christi iactauit, 7] (I Reg. 1, 11). 13] (I Reg. 3,1). 1 his edocta Ov, se docta P1, sed docta eel . docimentis OP1 finiri Ov, finire FLPU, fidere M, inniti coni. Saech . et om. U 2 non amittere FPU inuiti amittere M 7 qua potuit conditione (condicione P) FPU fidele] filie U 8 proximam] similem M 9 fecunditatem om. M 10 deo Ov, du5 cet . simile P1 11 concupiendo OPU 12 ne] ut LM 14 seruia U deo FPU qui Ov, quia cet . 15 compensatione Saech . 16 uide LMO, uidetur FPU, uideat p, uideatur coni. Sacch . adaequari 0, aequa FP\', equa U, adeq| M, adgqua LPl, aequari v et Sacch . qui 0 de] per U 17 ille F 18 huc U 19 illa FOPU mandato Ov, mandata cet . 19 primogenitu U, primogenita LM 22 recurrendo v consolabantur Mv, consolabatur FLPU, consulabatur 0 23 abscidit suo FPU sinu] suum 0 iactabit 0 ut eum ipse dominus enutriret, nihil postea illi suae sollicitudinis dedit, diffidentiae peccatum iudicans, si quem Christo commiserat ipsa curasset. quanta autem hoc fide fecerit, hinc perspici licet, quod in magna licet potentissimorum et carorum propinquorum Romae copia nemini paruulum suum uerbo, ut dici solet, alendum erudiendum tuendum mandare dignata est. tam certa fuit a Christo esse susceptum, et ideo meruit obtinere, quia frui noluit, et nunc reuisere meruit per eius - fidei pietatem, qua semel relictum in deo non desiderauerat in hoc saeculo. itaque fecit illi magna qui potens est maiora praesumpto donare credentibus. ita huic, ut filium et in hoc loco uideret, adiecit sicut Solomoni, quia sapientiam petere elegisset, etiam ceteras opes, quas non poposcerat, ob hoc ipsum, quia non desiderauerat, contulit. remuneratus intellectum bonum, quo infimis summa praetulerat, minora maioribus superfudit. ita ille meruit possessor omnium opum fieri, qui esse summarum petitor elegerat. quo quidem omnes exemplo admonemur sapere, cum docemur eligere. minora enim maioribus et summis infima bona id est terrena caelestibus anteponentes, in poenam stultae cupiditatis omni carebimus summo simul atque infimo bono, et illa iuste non accepturi, quae non desiderauerimus, et istis merito defraudandi, quorum amore noxio potiora neglegimus. sic et pater Abraham recepit oblatum deo unicum, quia prompte obtulit postulatum. sufficit domino sacrificium pietatis in corde perfectum et ob hoc interposita angeli manu iam uibrantem dexteram percussuri patris excipiens subiecit uictimae ouem subito 1] (Ps. 54, 23). 10] Luc. 1, 49; Eph. 3, 20. 14] (II Par. 1, 10; III Reg. 3,23; Sap. 7, 11). 23] (Gen. 22). 2 indicans FPU 3 commiseserat L 4 clarorum P 6 dici om. M 9 in] cP (sed in mg. m. rec. ł i) M desideuerat L1 11 ut filium et] et filium ut (et P1) FP\'U 12 solomoni Ov, salamoni P, salomoni cet . 13 legisset LM 14 desideuerat 0 15 quod F infirmis FU pertulerat U 19 et om. U 21 iuxte 0 23 neglegimus 0, negligimus FPU, negleiimus LM 24 ablatum U 25 suffecit LM perfectam 01 26 dextram U praeparatam, ut nec deo deforet hostia nec patri filius, simul ut mysterium in Christo conplendum, quatenus imagini licebat, in Isaac exercitum in ariete formaretur, cum et agnus ille ad formam saluatoris in Aegypto postea immolandus iam in sui generis pecore praetenderetur, hoc est in eo ariete, qui pro Isaac occurrit in uictimam, ut pro Christo in figuram praecurreret. itaque aries illi inuentus est, cui non debebatur summa mysterii, sed illi occisus est, cui reseruabatur perfectio sacramenti. Multa illi et in ipsius huius militiae rudimentis aduersus draconem inuidum fuere certamina; non enim passa est liuidi hostis inuidia facili illam et pacato abire digressu; sed tota nobilium propinquorum potentia ad retinendum armata propositum inpedire et eunti obstare conatus est. sed illa ultra uirtutem temptationum iam confortata et corporeae pietatis uincula et nauem cunctis flentibus laeta soluit constanterque congressa fluctibus maris, ne tantum saeculi fluctus uinceret, nauigauit et simul saeculum orbemque commutans urbem Hierusalem spiritali dono, in qua a corpore peregrinaretur, elegit, exul ciuium et ciuis effecta sanctorum. prudenter et sancte in ista uoluit seruire, quae seruit, ut in illa possit regnare, quae libera est. De multis tamen in illa uirtutibus dei unam saltem, de qua eius omnia aestimentur opera, praedicabo. tempore illo Valentis, quando ecclesiam dei uiui furor Arrianorum rege ipso inpietatis satellite persequebatur, haec erat princeps uel particeps cunctis pro fide stantibus. haec fugatos recipiebat 4] (EL 12, 3). 19] (Eph. 2, 19). 1 Ci 1 neque patri M 2 quatinus 0 ymigini U 3 exertum e el m. 2) M 5 eo] ipso FPU 6 occurreret M 7 illi Ov, ille cet. 8 ille Rosw . reseruabatur] debebatur M 9 ipsius Ov, ipsis cet . aduersum FLPU 10 passe 01 11 paccato P, paccatu U, peccatu ex pacatu L abire ex habere U 13 conata FU 14 corporeae MO, corporea et cet., corpore tJ, et corpore coni. Sacch . 17 conmutaris U 20 ista] uita add. FP\'U 22 saltim L 28 extimentur U operam predicabo 0, praedicabo operam FPU 24 arrianorum ex arrienorum L, arianorum FU 26 stantibus scripsi, istantibus U, instantibus cet . rapiebat F XXVlill. Paolini Nol. epistulae. 17 aut adprehensos comitabatur; sed cum eos recepisset in latebram, qui propter insignem fidem maiore et haereticorum odio infestabantur et occultantium tegebantur inuidia, graui tunc seditione diabolicis facibus inflammata quasi contra legem publicam contumax protrahi ac pati iussa est quae illos manebant, nisi prodere maluisset. processit inpauide cupida passionis et iniuria publicationis exultans, quamuis non expectasset trahi, tracturos anteuolans ad iudicem, qui confusus ueneratione praesentis non executus est infidelitatis iram, dum fidei miratur audaciam. eadem tempestate per triduum quinque milia monachorum latentium panibus suis pauit, ut per eius manum iterum dominus Iesus pristinum numerum in deserto pasceret, tanto quidem nunc inpensiore clementia, quanto minore licentia fouebantur occulti quam illi quondam, qui ad dominum uoluntarie in libertate et pace conuenerant. sed haec nec timida deprehendi interdictum secura praebebat officium, nec uolens gloria operationis agnosci, tamen operis magnitudine prodebatur, totidem apud homines testimoniis gloriosa quot pastis deo conscia. quid haec meriti habeat aestimemus. cum in historia Regnorum ille celebretur, qui absconditos ab ira aeque inpii regis centum uiros dei pauit, dubitandum est hanc in opere simili saepe milies hunc numerum supergressam fructum fecisse centesimum? Reliqua nunc eius negotia ac tempora transilibo et hoc ipsum, quo remeans nauigauit, ut cursum ipsius aemuler, transfretabo, quo citius sermonem meum in eius ad nos aduentu exponendo determinem, in quo magnae dei gratiae spectator fui. Neapolim urbem breui spatio a Nolana qua degimus ciuitate distinctam aduecta est, ubi filiorum 12] (Matth. 14, 21). 20] (III Reg. 18, 13). 22] (Matth. 13, 8). 2 et om. M 3 tegebantur LMOP1, detegebantur cd . 9 praesentes 0 est executus F 10 eandem U 11 monacharum 0 12 manus Ul 13 nunc w, tunc Rom . 14 quia P ad om. FPU 19 quod OPU pascis U conscia Ov, conscientia cet . habeant M existimemus F, extimemus PU 20 aeque ab ira M 21 dei uiros F 25 quod LM ipsius] eius M 26 aduentu L1 27 exponendo om. M magno U nepotumque occursu excepta mox Nolam ad humilitatis nostrae hospitium festinauit, quo nobis aduenit ambitioso ditissimorum pignorum uallata comitatu. uidimus gloriam domini in . illo matris et filiorum itinere, (qui) quidem in eo, sed longe dispari cultu, macro illam et uiliore asellis burico sedentem tota huius saeculi pompa qua honorati et opulenti poterant circum- M senatores prosequebantur, carrucis nutantibus, phaleratis equis, auratis pilentis et carpentis pluribus gemente Appia atque fulgente; sed splendoribus uanitatis praelucebat Christianae humilitatis gratia. admirabantur diuites pauperem sanctam; at illos nostra pauperies ridebat. uidimus dignam deo huius mundi confusionem, purpuream sericam auratamque supellectilem pannis ueteribus et nigris seruientem. benediximus dominum, qui humiles et excelsos facit sapientes et inplet bonis et diuites dimittit inanes. in istis tamen diuitibus eadem die de maternis bonis pauperem spiritum stupebamus, qui magis sancta matris inopia quam sua uisibili abundantia gloriabantur. id ipsum autem gloria domini uidebatur operari, quod egenulae nostrae diuitias in eius filiis intuebamur, ut iam hinc fructum fidei suae caperet, cum uictoriam suam de huius saeculi uanitate ipsa despectaret, comminus uidens omnia quae propter Christum reliquerat et contemnere perseuerarat. illi sericati et pro suo quisque sexu toga aut stola soliti splendere filii crassam illam uelut spartei 14] I Reg. 2, 7. 15j Luc. 1, 53. 2 quo-aduenit om. M 4 filiorum LM, filiarum cet . qui quidem in eo scripsi, quidem in eo FMOPv, in eo quidem LM, quidem uno Rosw . 6 poterunt 0 7 cerrucis U 8 pilaentis L (ae ex a) 9 atque flente (fl in ras.) L 11 ad FOP1 irridebat M 12 paupeream 0, pauper ea FPU serecam U 13 superlectilem 0 14 et Ov, otn. cet . sapientes FOPU, esurientes LM, sapientes esurientes v 15 pr . et Ov, om. cet . 16 die Rosw., dei FLOPUv, dei gratia M spu 0 18 abondantia Fl P gloria Ov, gratia cet . 20 ut iam] utinam FPU fidei suae fructum M 21 dispectaret FPU 22 cumminus 0 23 perseuerat OP\', perseueraret FP.U seritati U 24 sthola 0 spartei Pv, sparte FlLOU, sparti F*, sparte M 17* staminis tunicam et uile palliolum gaudebant manu tangere, et uestimenta sua uelleris auro et arte pretiosa pedibus eius substernere pannisque conteri gestiebant, expiari se a diuitiarum suarum contagio iudicantes, si quam de uilissimo eius habitu aut uestigio sordem conligere mererentur. Tugurium uero nostrum, quod a terra suspensum cenaculo una porticu cellulis hospitalibus interposita longius tenditur, quasi dilatatum gratia domini non solum sanctis (cum) illa plurimis, sed etiam diuitum illorum cateruis non incapaces angustias praebuit, in quo personis puerorum ac uirginum choris uicina dominaedii nostri Felicis culmina resultabant. neque e diuerso habitationis eiusdem dissoni licet proposito hospites obstrepebant; sed et in illis religiosa modestia imitabatur nostrae silentium disciplinae, ut si dissimularent concinere uigilantibus pigro uentre sopiti, tamen non auderent piis uocibus dissonare, fideli timore conpositi, quo placidis psallentium uocibus conpresso saecularium turbarum tumultu etiam taciti concinebant. uerum ut ad perfectam domini columbam recurram, scito nunc istam tantam in sexu infirmitatis uirtutem dei, cui refectio in ieiunio, requies in oratione, panis in uerbo, habitus in panno, lectus in sagulo et centone durus in terra fit mollis in littera, qua rigidi cubilis iniuriam mitigat lectionis uoluptas et sanctae animae in domino uigilare requiescere est. hanc ergo filia Sion hactenus habuit et desiderat, nunc filia Babylonis habet et admiratur, quia iam et 1 tonicam 0 et uile om. 0 2 sui P1 uelleris FOPU, uillis LM, uelleribus v et FP\'U, om. cet. v 3 conteri LM, contere O, conterere FPU, contegere v 5 ut L merentur OU 6 tugurium- 2. 11 resultabant exh. a 7 portico <4 8 cum illa scripsi, qui illam M 9 plurimis d, plurimi cet.; comitabantur add. ROBW . sed etiam Lhi, iam cet . diuitum P s. I. m. 2 non om. M, nunc a incapaces 0, capaces cet . 11 dominedii LMOP1, domini FP\' U, domnidii a 13 hospites supr . homines scr. M m. 1 in 0, om. cet . illi M molestia FPU imitabantur M, emittebatur FP, emictebatur U 14 uti FLMU 15 uigilantibus om. M 16 placitis L 19 cito FPU 20 dei om. FPU 21 habitus] requies FPU fit durus in terra M 22 fit] sit L qua littera coni. Sacch . quia LM iniuria 0 23 uoluptas M, uoluntas cet . uigilare in dno M ipsa urbs in pluribus filia Sion est quam filia Babylonis; et ideo miratur in humilitatis obscuro et ueritatis luce uiuentem et fidei incitamenta diuitibus, angustiarum solatia pauperibus ministrantem, quamquam illa quietis et latebrae suae apud Hierusalem in Romanis modo turbis aestuans clamet: heu me! quod incolatus meus prolongatus est. ideone dilata sum, ut nunc habitarem cum habitantibus Cedar? hoc enim nomine apud Hebraeos, ut conperi, significatur obscuritas. quare ita illi gratulandum de memoratis uirtutibus puto, ut de praesenti sede timeatur, ut tam insignis anima plus Romae conferat quam de Roma trahat et sic sedeat supra flumina Babylonis, ut recordetur Sion et organo corporis sui suspenso ab inimicae omnibus Babylonis insidiis et inlecebris in sui propositi tenore uelut in salicibus genuino semper umore uiuentibus constituta uirere non desinat et permanente fidei constantia uirtutisque gratia folium eius non defluat, ut sicut uita eius in itinere adspectatur, ita et laus in exitu canatur. Non tuli, frater, ut te ista nesciret. ut gratiam in te dei plenius nosceret, tuo te illi magis quam meo sermone patefeci. Martinum enim nostrum illi studiosissimae talium historiarum ipse recitaui. quo genere te et uenerabili episcopo atque doctissimo Nicetae, qui ex Dacia Romanis merito admirandus aduenerat, et plurimis dei sanctis in ueritate non magis tui praedicator quam mei iactans reuelaui. gloria enim mihi est diligi te et amari, quem famulum ueritatis consona linguae uita testatur. det nobis in illa die misericordiam 5] Ps. 119, 5. 11] Ps. 136, 1. 16] Ps. 1, 8. 17] (Ps. 113, 1). 27] n Tim. 1, 18. 5 ierusalem memor in M ut Sacch. coni . 6 quia F est 8. I. m. 2 F dilatata FPU 7 habitare FU cędar M 8 ut comperi apud (aput U) hebreos (hebrfos L) FLMPU 9 illi ita M 10 timeatur] orandumque sit nobis add. M 11 thraat L super M 15 humore FLMPU l initio w, rere LM, uertere FOPUv 17 itinere M 19 alt . ut O v, et ut cet . 21 martini enim nostri LM enim nostrum om. F 22 historiam LM 23 nictee P, nicteae FU datia LO 26 dili U amare 01 dominus a domino per hanc gratiam, cuius ipse auctor est, ut sicut nunc in uisceribus caritatis tuae refrigeramur, ita ab ignibus meritis in tuae sortis digito refrigeremur. spero enim habebimus indulgente domino ut amantissimi tui de iustitia tua suffragium, etsi indigni coronae non audeamus sperare consortium.