Roman Letters

Letter 32: The open page, with these little verses inserted into it, called my tongue and hand to fill the empty space — and...

Paulinus of Nola→Sulpicius Severus|c. 416 AD|Paulinus of Nola|AI-assisted
monasticism
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When these little verses had been inserted, the open page urged on my tongue and hand to fill up the empty space, and it came to my mind that there was something I might write. For I rejoice exceedingly that we have shown one likeness of heart and body, and of our works and our prayers as well, since at the same time we have been adding basilicas to the Lord's sheepfolds. You, however, at the same place have founded a baptistery set between two basilicas, so that in the construction of these works also, which are reared up visibly, you might surpass us. But thanks be to the Lord, who has granted to us that even in being conquered we should reckon it a victory. We conquer, indeed, by our prayer, in which we are conquered by grace by him whom in our judgment we set before us, and in love we make our equal. You are that very man of whom we speak; you, I say, are the greater and better part of us; you are our rest, you our joy; in you is the reclining of our head and the dwelling-place of our mind, which will remain ours not only in the present time but, as we hope and trust in the Lord, perpetually, by his gift and in his body and spirit. Therefore, if you do anything more through the grace of the Lord, you assuredly do it together with us, and certainly on our behalf.

But in this I fear, lest by your works, by which you straighten the crookedness of worldly roads and level the steep places, you mingle a stumbling-stone of offense out of that affection of yours toward us of which I always complain: namely, that you darken the splendid titles of your devotion in Christ with our names, and to your just labors you join this iniquity, so that you defile a holy place even with the faces of the unworthy. For it is fitting that in the place of human refreshment Martin should be painted, who bore the image of the heavenly man by his perfect imitation of Christ, so that, to those who lay aside in the laver the oldness of the earthly image, the heavenly likeness of the soul that is to be imitated may present itself. But what place is there for us, who match neither infants in innocence nor men in wisdom, and are distinguished from the spotless by our malice and from the perfect by our weakness? What fellowship, then, is there between light and darkness, between wolves and lambs, between serpents and doves -- that is, between us and Martin? Have you not mixed a cup of milk and gall? But it is well, since, unlike liquids confounded in one cup, when men are mixed in the same place, if they differ in merits, the sweetness of the good is not poisoned by the bitterness of the bad; on the contrary, it comes about that the sinner, set beside the just, appears the more foul, and the just man, compared with the sinner, shines forth the more. For this reason I am the less moved by the error of your charity, because you have done no injury to that blessed man, but rather have contributed to his glory, so that, set against a despicable figure, the venerable one might be painted, by which his splendor, by comparison with darkness, might flash forth the more brightly -- he who even amid the splendors of the saints shines forth with conspicuous brightness. And indeed, did I not know that you had designed this picture out of the lavish zeal of your too-great love toward us, I would accuse you of being malicious and crafty, who had set the dark figures of our humility, with souls dark as night, painted on the region of the opposite wall, beside the holy head, so that you might paint him alone but rather deform us, whom, by the just comparison of Martin's face beheld, you would expose as fit to be spat upon, to the reproach of a ridiculous comparison.

But lest, on our account -- for in your great love you are deceived and so make what is false -- this composition of yours, slipped from charity, should be laughed at, as in truth it can and ought to be, for this reason only did I take pains, in the little verses about such a picture of yours which I am sending to you, that the reasoning of your plan might be brought forward, by which, healthfully studying the instruction of new men, you had set forth for yourself images far different from one another, so that those emerging from the sacred font might behold alike both what is to be shunned and what is to be followed. And so you have it thus; if it please you, make use of it:

Whoever you are who wash your souls and limbs in the laver,
Behold the ways set forth toward good deeds.
Martin stands as the rule of perfect life;
Paulinus teaches you whereby you may earn pardon.
This man let sinners look upon, that man the blessed;
Let the one be a pattern for the saints, the other for the guilty.

Likewise, on the same subject:

Rich in wealth toward Christ, poor to himself, Severus
has set up fair pinnacles over the sacred founts.
And because he was building a hall for heavenly acts,
Where men might be renewed by font and by God,
He painted worthy things under a twofold image, suited to the sacraments,
So that the reborn man might learn the gifts of life.
The venerable image of the man attests Martin;
Another form recalls humble Paulinus.
The one arms faith with examples and strong words,
That untainted it may bear the palms of merit;
The other teaches one to redeem his crimes by scattering coins,
That to each man his wealth may be of less account than his salvation.

Certainly it is now proved that you are not to be laughed at, and rather to be approved, if for this reason only you seem to have painted at close quarters figures most unlike, namely that in Martin might be seen the form of justice and the height of the virtues, and in us the crushing and confession of the conscience of iniquity; so that an example might lie open both to the blessed and to the wretched -- in the one, fortitude might have its mirror; in us, cowardice its consolation; that those who were sufficient to fulfill the precept by their virtues might gaze upon him, and that those who would bring a remedy to crimes might be consoled in us; because to those destitute of the confidence of innocence and bound by the bond of iniquity, redemption alone, as to captives, can bring help. Yet I beg you, do not make my obedience a crime, if you take away, as you threatened, those verses of yours of light and applause. I beg that you threatened this rather modestly than truly; and if you think these of mine should be added, let those remain, so that these may be, as it were, little gems and may give worth to cheap things and set off black with bright. Indeed, having received license, I spoke to my tongue -- not according to the prophet, that it should remain in its rest and guard my ways, but rather that it should break the bridles of the guard set against itself, so long as it served you. So do I love you, that I would fear sin more from not complying with you than from much speaking.

For this reason I have also destined for your basilicas these little verses as titles, like votive offerings for the sacred founts. If I shall seem to have spoken aptly in these, this too is the gift of brother Victor. With his eyes and words I have seen all that you have done and are doing in Christ the Lord; and therefore the verses which I have inserted concerning the basilicas you will reckon as having him for their author, since he furnished the matter by his narration of your deeds. They will be, then, about the baptistery itself -- those of which the foregoing are only about its painting:

Here the begetting font of souls to be restored
drives a living stream with divine light.
The Holy Spirit descends from heaven into this river
and weds the sacred waters with a heavenly font;
the wave conceives God, and from an eternal seed
brings forth a holy offspring in its nourishing waters.
Marvelous is the mercy of God: the sinner is plunged into the waves,
and soon emerges justified from the same water.
Thus man, having passed through a happy setting and rising,
dies to earthly things, is born to eternal.
Guilt perishes, but life returns; the old Adam dies,
and a new one is born to eternal dominions.
Most chaste in body, mind, and faith, an inhabitant of Christ,
Severus rejoicing built these roofs for God.
And he himself, wholly the temple of God, flourishes with Christ as guest,
and bears the Lord rejoicing in a humble heart.
Behold, as he worships one mind under a threefold name,
so he has consecrated a threefold work in the holy structure.
He gave to the people ample heights with twin roofs,
so that the number might agree with the sacred laws.
For as the two Testaments, by their one lawgiver,
unite God in Christ through covenants, one faith joins them:
this man set the font between two halls of differing height,
with a towered covering,
so that mother Church, joyful, might receive in her twin bosoms
the new offspring whom the water shall bring forth.
The hall is double, like the Church with its two Testaments in roofs,
but one grace of the font is present to both.
The old Law confirms the new, the new fulfills the old;
in the old is hope, in the newness is faith.
But the grace of Christ joins old and new;
therefore the font is set in the middle space.
Thence the parent priest leads from the sacred font
infants snow-white in body, in heart, in dress,
and, surrounding the untrained lambs at the festal altars,
feeds their raw mouths with health-giving food.
Hence the elder throng rejoices together with the companion band;
the sheepfold bleats Alleluia with the new choirs.

When I had given these, made by the hands of your unanimity, for your works, I could not be silent about that grace of God in your household church, not made by hands, by which he has bestowed on you a perpetual guest in it, Clarus. And so verses for his holy memory -- not because I could say anything worthy of his divine merits, but that I might express the zeal of my very great love in his soul -- I have dared to make and to send to your unanimity. Reciting them in the presence of the Lord, before his soul that is holy and forever dwells with you in the Lord, you will excuse my boldness and commend my service.

As by the title of his name, so by the light of his mind, Clarus
the presbyter is covered here; but his perishable members are in the tomb,
while his mind, free from the prison of the body, rejoices among the stars,
pure, having obtained the seat allotted to the approved and the holy.
His sacred bones rest beneath the eternal altars,
so that, while chaste gifts are offered to holy Christ,
the fragrances of souls may be joined to the divine rites.

Likewise on the same subject, so that you may choose which you prefer; but I know that in this you ought rather to hesitate -- not as to which to choose for the title, but lest in any way you should do injury to a saint of God:

Here lies a presbyter, in merits and in name Clarus,
Martin's companion in zeal and now his partner in merit.
Worthy altars are the house for the holy man, beneath which his limbs
are laid, lifeless; for his spirit rejoices in the upper air
and joins the disciple to his master, equal, above the stars.

Bright in faith, very bright in deed, most bright in fruit,
you who match the title of your name by your merits,
chaste altars worthily veil your body,
so that the altar of God may cover the temple of Christ.
But since you are not held in this seat where your body is,
you, a spirit, who fly aloft to the heights by your merits,
whether you recline in the bosoms of the fathers or are laid beneath the Lord's altar,
or are pastured in the sacred grove,
set in whatever region of heaven or of paradise,
Clarus, in eternal peace you live blessed.
Receive these vows of sinners who entreat your goodness,
that you may be mindful of Paulinus and Therasia.
Love those commended to you, with Severus interceding,
whom you did not know in the body, yet so deserving.
Let a common love be the kindling for both of one mind,
the bond of a perpetual covenant in the most high Lord.
You cannot tear apart those bound together; if you draw one,
the one will draw with it those clinging where it is carried.
Therefore embrace alike the undivided brothers,
and as we are, so love us, sharing in us.
Thus God called us, thus Martin loved us;
so you also alike, Clarus, watch over your equals --
equals not in merits but in love. You, holy one, will be able
to plead for us as equals and to make us equal in merits also,
if with Martin you labor in shared piety,
so that your prayers may overcome our crimes,
and that we may together be led into the lot of your Severus,
and your wing may ever protect us in its bosom.

But if the Lord shall fulfill the desire of your soul according to your faith, adding to the adornment and sanctification of your works, so that you may obtain sacred ashes from the blessed relics of glorious apostles or martyrs -- for we have learned that you, in the presumption of this vow, have prepared another basilica at our Primuliacum, greater than the former -- we think it worthy of the work of your faith and of the dedication, doubtless most celebrated, of a work faithfully wrought, and fitting also for the relics of saints, that you should venerate, deposited and consecrated together, this also which we have sent from the cross. And if it so please you, these little verses, if it shall seem good, will announce your pleasure:

The venerable altars cover the divine covenant,
with the holy cross set together with the martyrs.
All the martyrdoms of health-giving Christ come together:
the cross, the body, the blood of the martyr, and God himself.
For God ever keeps his gifts for you;
and where Christ is, there are the Spirit and the Father.
So where the cross is, there too the martyr, since the cross also belongs to the martyr,
which was the holy cause of martyrdom to the saints.
The cross brought forth food of life for mortals, it brought forth crowns,
which make the servants partakers with the Lord.
On the cross the flesh is fixed, on which I feed; from the cross flows
that blood by which I drink life and wash my heart.
O Christ, may these your gifts come together for your Severus,
and may he be the bearer and witness of your cross.
May he live by your flesh, may your blood furnish him cups,
may he live and act in your word.
And where he saw Martin ascend, with Clarus for companion, to you,
may he too go, carried by your gift.

But if it should rather please you to have this blessing of the cross at hand for daily protection and medicine, lest, once stored in the altar, it should not always be ready to hand as use requires, then that grace also suffices for the consecration of the basilica, if we give it to the apostles and martyrs; whose venerable ash, if it be placed beneath the altars without the company of the cross, this hidden title will indicate:

The pledges of the saints are the glory of the divine table,
veiled, brought forth from apostolic bodies,
and the Spirit of the Lord, urgent with healing powers,
through its proofs proves the sacred ashes living.
Thus a doubled grace breathes upon pious vows,
wrought below by the martyrs, above by the holy rites.
The vows of the priest, and the goods of the living, the precious death
of the saints aids with a little dust.

You have verses indeed unworthy of your holy and magnificent works, yet fitted to the persuasion you have about me -- more than I can fit to believing it of myself. If you are not ashamed to inscribe them on the walls of your household church, to be looked upon, I shall be vindicated. For I believe that even then you will blush at my follies and will repent of your desire and exaction, when you behold the buildings -- which now shine spotless with the grace of your work -- darkened by the dirges of my foolishness, and, to use a word worthy of my verses, daubed over, confounded amid many laughing or even nauseated. Nor will you labor to deceive, so that the reader may think you the author; and, since the folly known in no one in you could instruct the reader, lest he charge upon you my song -- that is, my crime -- you, who nevertheless under the name either of betrayer or of copyist must be blamed. But lest anyone judge me injurious, by that rule which prescribes, "What you would not wish for yourself, do not to another," you will prove, by the documents present to him, that I first endured my own basilicas before you, so that in this too you may show our unanimity: namely, that whether to my favor or to my injury, comparing myself to you, I sinned with the same rashness in your buildings as in my own. But of this -- whether as the author of a favor, according to your most patient regard for me, or as the guilty cause of an injury, according to my most unworthy gift -- let our Victor be reckoned by you accountable; who, as the most holy interpreter of our love, presumed to return from us the more pleasing to you, the more depressed he returned under the unjust burden of our follies sent to you. For he wished this too to be added to his bundles: that he should carry to you at once the verses and the pictures of our basilicas. And he will do it deservedly, if he brings himself in with this complaint -- knowing it and bowed down -- so that he may cry out: "Behold, for the sake of the commandments of your lips I have walked hard ways"; and may cry out: "Upon my back sinners have built," who in so many letters have prolonged their iniquity.

I have therefore received this heap too upon my sins, in order to furnish to a brother most eager for such a burden -- by which his soul might be lightened though his body be weighed down -- the injury which he desired. For indeed this request of his seemed truly to suit our unanimity, by which he maintained that it was fitting that our buildings in the Lord should become as known to you as you had wished to make yours known to us in titles and in pictures. Persuaded therefore by this reasoning, I have taken care to join our basilicas to yours by letters, just as they are joined both in the time of building and in the kind of vow, so that in this too our union might be figured forth, which is joined in spirit and is distant in place; so that these works also, which we have constructed in the name of the Lord, labored on by the same spirit, though separated by different regions, may yet be seen, as it were, sealed together to one another in the sequence of the same letter.

That basilica, then, which is now celebrated, already dedicated in the name of the Lord Christ, God, to the lord of the house, our common patron, added to his four basilicas, is venerable not by the honor of the blessed Felix alone, since relics of apostles and martyrs are consecrated within the three-lobed apse beneath the altars. A vaulted ceiling inlaid with mosaic gives splendor to the apse, which is marbled in floor and walls; and these are the verses of its painting:

The Trinity gleams forth in its full mystery:
Christ stands with the Lamb, the voice of the Father thunders from heaven,
and through the dove the Holy Spirit flows.
A crown encircles the cross with a shining orb,
for which crown the apostles are the crown,
whose figure is in the choir of doves.
The pious unity of the Trinity comes together in Christ,
the Trinity itself also having its tokens:
the Father's voice and the Spirit reveal God;
the cross and the Lamb confess the holy victim;
the purple and the palm proclaim the kingdom and the triumph.
Upon the rock stands he who is himself the rock of the Church,
from which four sounding founts proceed,
the evangelists, the living rivers of Christ.

But on the lower band, where a ledge set between in plaster joins or divides the boundary of wall and ceiling, this title indicates the holy of holies deposited beneath the altar:

Here is piety, here nourishing faith, here the glory of Christ,
here is the cross joined with its own martyrs.
For a small splinter from the wood of the cross is a great pledge,
and in a tiny fragment is the whole power of the cross.
This, brought to Nola by the gift of holy Melania,
came from the city of Jerusalem, a supreme good.
The holy altars of God veil a twofold honor,
when they join apostolic ashes with the cross.
How well are the bones of the pious joined to the wood of the cross,
so that for those slain for the cross there may be rest in the cross!

The whole space of the basilica outside the apse is widened with a high, coffered roof, by twin porticoes on either side, through which a double row of columns is arranged by single arches. Within the porticoes are four chambers, set into the long sides of the basilica, which afford fitting places for the secret prayers of those who pray or meditate on the law of the Lord, and besides for the memorials of religious persons and households, places suited for the rest of eternal peace. Every chamber is marked above the thresholds in front with two verses, which I did not wish to insert in this letter; but those which the entrances of the basilica itself have, I have written down, because they could, if you wish to take them, suit also the doors of your basilicas -- as this one is:

Peace be to you, whoever you are who, bright and with a peaceful heart,
enter the inner shrines of God, of Christ.

Or this, concerning the sign of the Lord painted above the entrance in this manner, which the verse indicates:

Behold above the courts of the Lord, of Christ, the crowned
cross stands, promising lofty rewards for hard labor;
take up the cross, you who wish to take away the crown.

But of the other basilica, where as it were a private entrance opens from the little garden or orchard, these little verses open this more secluded door:

Enter the heavenly ways through pleasant green places,
worshippers of Christ; and fitting is the entrance hither from joyful gardens,
from which, for the deserving, is given a sacred exit into paradise.

This same doorway is marked with other verses on its inner front:

Whoever you are who go forth from the house of the Lord, the rites being performed in order,
depart in body, remain in heart.

The outlook of the basilica does not, as is the more usual custom, face the east, but pertains to the basilica of my lord, the blessed Felix, looking toward his memorial; yet, since the apse is curved and widened within its spacious circuit with two little recesses on right and left, one of them lies open to the priest offering the sacrifices of jubilation, while the other behind the priest receives those praying in its capacious bosom. And with a most joyful prospect this whole basilica is opened at once into the basilica of the said confessor, by three equal arches with a transparent screen, through which in turn the roofs and spaces of each basilica are joined to one another. For since a wall set between, blocked by the apse of a certain monument, would shut off the new from the old, it was opened on the side of the confessor by as many doorways as the new one was unbarred with the doors of its own front entrances, so that it presents, as it were, an open-work appearance to those looking from each into the other, just as is indicated by the titles set between the two doorways. And so at the very entrances of the new basilica are these little verses:

The nourishing house lies open to those entering by a triple arch,
and the threefold door attests the pious faith.

Likewise, on right and left, on crosses painted over in red lead, are these epigrams:

The lofty cross is encircled with the orb of a flowering crown
and reddens, stained with the shed blood of the Lord.
And the doves that rest above the heavenly sign
disclose that the kingdoms of God lie open to the simple.

[Likewise on the same:]

By this cross slay us to the world and the world to us,
giving life to our souls by the death of guilt.
Make us too doves pleasing to you, O Christ,
if your peace flourishes in pure breasts.

But within the screen itself, where that brief interval is continued which rather shut off the basilicas near to one another, opposite the new basilica, above the middle arch, are these verses:

As Jesus, our peace, loosed the middle of the wall
and by the cross, destroying division, made the two one,
so the new, the partition of the old roof destroyed,
we behold the summits of the gates joined in covenant.
The gleaming font washes through the holy courts for the servants with its waters,
and the basin washes the hands of those entering, with the stream as minister.
The twofold people adore Christ in the hall of Felix,
which Paul, the priest, tempers with apostolic mouth.

But these epigrams, marked with two verses each, are above the other arches on right and left:

A new light is opened to astonished eyes, and
standing at one threshold one beholds two halls at once.

On another:

By thrice-twin arches the twin halls are opened,
and they marvel at their own adornments through mutual thresholds.

Likewise on those same arches, on the front that lies open toward the basilica of the lord Felix, the middle ones, are these:

You whom devout faith, with diverse voice, urges to celebrate
blessed Felix among the thronging peoples,
pour your loose assemblies through the triple entrances;
the courts, however spacious for the countless throng, will lie open --
the courts which, joined to themselves through open arches close at hand,
Paul, the bishop, dedicates to eternal uses.

On the others, these two:

You who depart from the ancient hall of holy Felix,
pass over into the new heights of Felix.

[Likewise:]

One faith, which under a threefold name worships the One,
receives the like-minded by a threefold entrance.

But in the two sacristies, which I said above are around the apse, these verses indicate the offices of each.
On the right of the apse:

This is the place where the venerable store is kept and from which
the nourishing array of the sacred ministry is brought forth.

On its left:

If any holy will to meditate on the law holds a man,
here he may sit and attend to the sacred books.

Let us now go out from this Nolan basilica and pass over into the one at Fundi. Fundi is the name of a town which was equally familiar to me, while a possession remained which I held there, more frequented than the rest. And so, whether as a pledge, so to speak, of civic affection, or in memory of my former patrimony, it was my vow to give a basilica in that very town, since it had need of one, having a small and ruinous one. For this reason I have thought to add these little verses too, which we are preparing for the basilica there to be dedicated in that town. For it is still under construction, but, God being favorable, near to its dedication. Yet this reason chiefly persuaded me to it: that my Victor was deeply pleased with the picture designed in its apse and wished to carry it to you, in case you should perhaps choose one of the two to paint in this more recent basilica of yours, in which likewise he indicated that the apse had been made. But about this apse (absida) or apse (abside), which I ought rather to say, you will judge; for myself I confess that I do not know, since I do not recall having read this kind of word. But this little basilica too the sacred ashes from the blessed relics of apostles and martyrs will consecrate, in the name of Christ, the holy one of the saints and the martyr of the martyrs and the Lord of lords. For he himself testified that in turn he would be the confessor of his confessors. Therefore, over this, besides the picture, a doubled title is set as a grace.
On the picture:

The labor of the saints and their reward rightly cohere:
the lofty cross, and the cross's lofty price, the crown.
God himself, our prince of the cross and of the crown,
amid the heavenly grove of flowering paradise,
beneath the bloody cross stands as Christ in the snow-white Lamb,
the Lamb given as an innocent victim to unjust death,
whom the Holy Spirit, with a gentle bird, pours over as he gapes,
and the Father crowns from a ruddy cloud.
And because, as a judge, he stands aloft upon a lofty rock,
the discordant kind of twin-twin flock, of kids from lambs,
surround his throne; the shepherd turns away from the kids on the left
and with his right embraces the deserving lambs.

Behold, beneath the kindled altars, a royal crust
of purple marble covers the bones of the pious.
Here too grace presents the apostolic powers,
great pledges in a little dust.
Here is father Andrew and, of great name, Luke,
and the martyr Nazarius, illustrious in blood;
and those whom God reveals to his Ambrose after long
ages, Protasius with his peer Gervasius.
Here at once one little casket embraces the pious company
and holds names so great in its small bosom.

These meanwhile, my brother, and other visible works of this kind, out of earthly things, on earth, with labor I had wrought; but blessed be the Lord day by day, who alone does wonders, who, as he turned the rock into a pool of water, so also changes earthly things into heavenly and deigns to make with us this exchange, although it is of his own goods both here and there, so that what I had bodily wrought on earth may secretly be built in heaven through him, to be revealed to us then, when we shall see with our very gaze what we now foresee through faith. And so here we sow and there we reap; here we scatter and there we gather; here we live and there we dwell; here we are girded and there we war; here we fight and there we conquer -- or if we conquer here, there we are crowned. Thus what here we build with our hand, there we lay up by faith. And the building of these structures of ours, although earthly, if it be raised with spiritual vow and zeal, is a blessed preparation of heavenly mansions. For building these in the Lord by the acquisition of faith, we ourselves are built up by the Lord through the advancement of that same faith. For that centurion of the Gospel too is an example to us for the sure hope of an eternal reward to be received especially by the grace of this work, who, to earn the health of his son, deserved to have even the Lord himself a herald of the laws of faith; and he prevailed by this merit chiefly, that the people of the Lord -- which then was as yet only among the Jews -- supported him by the testimony of a synagogue he had built.

Why then do we wretches now rest, yawning, and, as though unhired hirelings, stand with empty hand in the tumultuous marketplace of this age? Or, if we should consider that, hired, we owe to the householder his denarius, that we should work something in his vineyard, while we render that very thing as though it were not owed and as a free gift, do we even contrive to charge it to the Lord, as though we did things that would profit him rather than us? O wretched men! We believe that we bestow something; we trade and are reckoned generous, who are convicted of being most greedy -- and indeed the greedier than the most covetous money-lenders of the earth, by how much greater it is to buy heavenly things with earthly and blessed things with wretched and needy things, than to traffic in earthly things with earthly, in things falling with things about to fall, and to lend to the Lord rather than to a man. He is condemned in the law who shall have given his money at usury and accepted gifts against the innocent. Behold, the grace of the Gospel shows us how the same crimes may be changed into innocence and holiness, and how not the requital of punishment but of reward may follow, if only they are turned to the divine precepts by the saving covetousness of faith. "Give your money at usury" -- but to Christ -- and it is a saving usury.

Likewise, in the world, judges corrupted by the gifts of the guilty are condemned; but whoever, as a man forestalled in some sin, distrusting your innocence, you bring the price of your salvation to our Judge, do not fear that you do, as it were, the injury of corruption to the justice of God. Christ gladly accepts from you the price of your salvation, since he wills mercy rather than sacrifice. But perhaps you ask where you may find him, and by what way you may corrupt him whom you do not see. "Rise," he says, "you who sleep, and lift yourself from the dead," and you will touch Christ; that is, shake off the sleep of carnal sloth, and your mind, depressed by earthly thought, lift up from the dead cares -- that is, from carnal conversation -- raising and directing your soul toward the Lord, and you will touch Christ. By working at his precepts you will see him in every poor man, you will touch him in every needy man, you will receive him in every guest, since he himself testifies that what is done in his name to the least of his is done to himself. Behold, you now know, on the contrary, how you may see the invisible and grasp the ungraspable. Therefore now let us here be made poor, that then there we may be enriched. Now let us weep, that then we may rejoice. Now let us hunger, that then we may be filled. "At every time," he says, "you have the poor with you." You see that there is no occasion for us ever to put off beneficence, since, if our will be not lacking, the poor man is at hand.

Let us therefore lend without anxiety, now to the needy and to Christ in his poor, that we may be able to share in the glory that will then abound for him in those same poor. For this reason the Lord himself forewarns, saying: "Make for yourselves friends of the unjust mammon." You see how the Almighty makes light out of night and justice out of iniquity, "so that, when you fail," he says, "they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles"; because by a certain interchange of abundance or want the human race is tempered, which the Gospel discourse made plain in that rich man below and that poor man above in the kingdom, so that we may understand the plan of the common Author, by which he prepared the rich man for the poor and the poor for the rich, that the abundant substance might be sustenance for the needy, and the lack of the wealthy man material of justice, so that there might come about, as the Apostle said, an equality; and in that age the abundance of those, to be repaid to them in eternal riches for their present want, might overflow to our need, if our abundance here shall have lent to their need. Let us therefore sow there carnal things, that we may also reap from them spiritual things. Let the hand now labor at earthly things, that then the soul may be refreshed by heavenly things. Let present hope build up the future estate. Let us make here the roofs that may there cover us. Let the poor man be fed here, where he is in need of me the rich, that he may there feed me, where I, in need, shall be filled. See the spiritual commerce, and, if you can, deny that we are greedy, who sell the earth and tribute, that we may buy together exemption from the kingdom with eternity.

We cast frail sand, that we may found an eternal house, and from cheap stones may reach the stars -- of which we do not contrive that tower of confusion and pride, to be destroyed by vain labor, but are founded upon the very cornerstone, so that we may rise through him into his fullness, who is the tower of fortitude before the face of the enemy. He himself bids us build this tower, the costs being reckoned beforehand, lest, failing by a broken-off building, we suffer the mark of improvident rashness and the deserved derision of vainly daring cowardice. But our cost is firm faith. Therefore he too, believing according to the truth of God, who has the Lord of laws for his hope and wealth and strength -- his whole building, compacted, grows and rises, and there is an ascent into the fullness of God. And so, unless the Lord shall have built the house, we who build shall sweat in vain labor. But lest, even with the building perfected though the Lord cooperate, we, fallen back, let our hands go idle in security, the divine Scripture adds that, unless God himself also guard the house when built, the care of those keeping it will keep watch in vain.

Let us therefore pray the Lord that, while we build for him outside the dwellings which are seen, he may within us build those which are not seen -- namely that house, as the master says, not made by hands, which, having entered, we shall understand at the last, seeing, that is, face to face what we now see in an enigma and know in part. But now, while still set in the tabernacle of this body, we live as though under the skins of that ancient tabernacle in the desert and in tents, with the word of God going before us through the dry land of this world, either in a pillar of cloud, to overshadow our head in the day of battle, or in a pillar of fire, that we may know on earth his heavenly way: let us pray that through these tabernacles of the Church now we may enter even to the house of God, where, as the Lord himself, the supreme one, made for us by the Lord and cut from the mountain and himself grown into a mountain, stands forth as a stone that is marvelous in our eyes. May he himself now be both foundation and summit to our building, since he himself is the beginning and the end. Upon the same rock -- for the rock too is Christ -- outside which no one can found a stable house, let our hands not heap stubble or hay and chaff, as those serving in Egypt with the basket, lest with muddy buildings of foul works we wash the brick, as they say, and, bent down under the burdens of servile labors, turn our back away from the Lord; because, as he refreshes with light those turned to him, so he afflicts with blindness those turned away.

But let us, as builders, see what out of our frail and earthly substance we can build worthily upon the divine foundation, that, given life by the chief stone itself, we may be fitted as stones into the structure of the heavenly temple. Let us melt down the gold of our understanding and the silver of our speech in Christ, that he himself, the assayer of the souls pleasing to him, may make us, purified in the furnace of this world, gold tried by fire and coin worthy of his image, and that we may bring ourselves to him as precious stones from the works of light -- neither stupid with the hardness of wood in our hearts, nor dry with hay-like aridity in our works, nor fickle and weak in faith or charity with the frailty of light chaff; but so that the work of our choice may be made not to burn, and may rise up unshaken by peaceful operation, let us pray the Most High for that peace of our building, by which that partition wall was once made into the wall of the temple, so that hammer and axe and every iron tool may not be heard in it; nor, as afterward in the rebuilding of that same temple the hostile envy of the Persians did, may any hostile assault hinder and interrupt the structure rising again. For thus shall we be perfected into a house of prayer and peace, if no care of carnal thoughts cut us down, if no tumult of the world din through our quiet. For our hammer is the care of food and the care of clothing; our axe and iron is the desire of temporal things and the nightly fear of death, and hostile spite, and the affairs of this age, in whose either evil care or good love the soul is eaten away, the mind is fettered; and the peace of good will, which is confirmed when the senses are composed in religious silence, and the intention of prayer, which is directed unhindered from a free and pure heart, is shattered by the barking of carnal cares, as if by a hammer dinning between or an axe striking. But since greater is he who is in us than he who is in this world, the Lord is able to crush Satan beneath our feet, that there may be fulfilled for us also that prophecy: "The hammer of the whole earth is broken."

But it is expedient for us that the Lord Jesus should often revisit even the built temple of our heart, coming in the scourge of his fear, to cast out from us the tables of the money-changers and the sellers of oxen or doves, lest our mind exercise any commerce of greed, nor lest sloth, good for nothing, stable itself in our senses; for where there are no oxen, the cribs are clean -- and lest we be sellers of our innocence or of divine grace, lest we make of the house of prayer a den of robbers. For when our senses are purged of all the leaven of malice, our Lord Jesus Christ will gladly walk about, and, as in those five porticoes, wisdom, the power of God, which heals all our infirmities, will range abroad. For in our soul too many lie sick and feeble, as in that portico of old that healed at the pool; and if it hear the word of God, it will drive away, by the healing precept, both the leprosy of greed and the rust of envy and the blindness of intemperance and the frenzy of wrath and the palsy of luxury, and it will bid us, restored not only to the health of innocence but also to the firmness of patience, then and there not only to rise up from the bed of infirmity but even to take up the bed itself, that we, strong, may carry that by which we, infirm, were carried. And this indeed is fulfilled also in the spiritual kind of our sickness or health, when our flesh, to which, given over as to a bed, we lay in the chains of vices and in weakness of virtues, afterward, in the word of God, through the grace of Jesus Christ, the inner man renewed to a good and incorrupt mind, we, made whole, take up, as it were, that pallet and carry it with the prevailing spirit, bearing the very flesh that follows where we will -- the flesh in which we were made infirm, awaiting another's help and ever forestalled by the swiftness of those who occupied the pool, because there was no one to stretch out a hand nor to make us whole -- until he himself, greater than legates and angels, since he is the Lord of prophets and angels, should come and, pitying, take up all our infirmity, by assuming purge it, and fill the hungering soul with good things, and bid us depart into our house, that one, as I said above, not made by hands, in which the voice of gladness and salvation, and Christ himself, will be to all his own the dwelling and the kingdom and the king -- the Apostle attesting that we shall ever be with the Lord, to whom be honor and glory and power forever.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

XXXII.

Insertis his uersiculis patens pagina sollicitauit linguam
et manum, ut occuparet uacantia, et succurrit animo esse
quod scriberem. perquam enim gratulor, quod unam cordis et
corporis nostri, operum quoque et uotorum similitudinem ostenderimus,
eodem tempore basilicas dominicis adicientes ouilibus.
tu uero eodem baptisterium basilicis duabus interpositum
condidisti, ut nos in horum quoque operum, quae uisibiliter
extruuntur, aedificatione superares. sed domino gratias, qui
dedit nobis in quo et uinci uictoriam duceremus. uincimus

5] (Luc. 24, 39; Ioh. 20, 27). 7] (Matth. 28, 19).

1 poat ut spatium in F dni LM 4 sed et M 6 uidelicet uidelicet
U qui om. Ov 9 dedicissent 01 edocerent] ualeas oro add.
FpIU . — explicit epistola decima F, explicit L, finit ad seuerum XI 0.

FLMOPU . — ite ad Seue? de basilicaram disposiciõã - XXI. L, item
ad seuerum de basilicarum dispositione XxVIIII M, incipit ad seuerum
de basilicarum dispositione 0, de basilicarum dispositione P m. 2, epistola
sancti paulini episcopi ad seuerum monacum de dispositione siue gdificatione
quarumdam basilicarum. in qua inserit uersus plurimos et ualde
peregregios ad ornatum ipsarum basilicarum sculpendos U Seuero fratri
dilectissimo Paulinus inscr. FU (epistola XXI de basilicarum dispositione
add. F), seuero fri unanimo paulinus in dno do iiiu xpo LM, Seuero
fratri dilectissimo paulinus P m. 2, om. 0 11 insertis — l . 13 enim
om. M insertis 0 v, censetis FPU, copositis (partim in ras.) L, recenaitis
ed. Schot. m mg . uersitus U 12 occurrit L 18 quod qui unam
fort . unum FILPU 15 dominicis om. 0 16 eodem 0, etiam cet .
18 aedificationes 0

18*

enim uoto, in quo uincimur gratia ab eo, quem nobis iudicio
anteponimus, dilectione conparamus. tu es iste quem loquimur,
tu inquam pars nostri maior et melior, tu requies nostra,
tu gaudium; in te reclinatio capitis nostri et mentis habitatio
est, quae non tantum in praesenti tempore sed, ut speramus
\' et confidimus in domino, perpetua nobis ab ipsius munere et
in ipsius corpore ac spiritu manebit. ideo si quid per gratiam
domini amplius agas, nobiscum profecto, certe pro nobis agis.

Sed in eo metuo, ne operibus tuis, quibus iniqua uiarum
saecularium dirigis et cliuosa conplanas, ex illo, de quo semper
conqueror affectu in nos tuo, salebram offensionis inmisceas,
quod splendidos deuotionis in Christo tuae titulos nostris
nominibus infuscas et iustis laboribus hanc iniquitatem inseris,
ut locum sanctum etiam uultibus iniquorum polluas. recte
enim in loco refectionis humanae Martinus pingitur, qui caelestis
hominis imaginem perfecta Christi imitatione portauit,
ut deponentibus in lauacro terrenae imaginis uetustatem imitanda
caelestis animae occurrat effigies. noster uero quis illic
locus est, qui nec infantibus innocentia neque uiris concurrimus
sapientia et ab inmaculatis malitia, a perfectis infirmitate
distinguimur? quae ergo societas lumini et tenebris?
lupis et agnis? serpentibus et columbis, hoc est nobis
et Martino? nonne tu lactis et fellis poculum miscuisti? sed
bene, quod non ut in liquoribus uno calice confusis ita in
hominibus eodem loco mixtis, si discrepent meritis, boni suauitas
amaritudine mali uenenatur contraque euenit, ut peccator
iusto conpositus magis sordeat et peccatore conlato magis iustus
eluceat. quo minus moueor errore caritatis tuae, quia nullam
beato illi fecisti iniuriam potiusque ad gloriam illius contulisti,

21] II Cor. 6,14.

2 iste] is FPU 5 quae] quem F ut] et F 7 manebis F
8 certo F, om. L, et M 10 dirrigis PU cliuosa add . in mg. O*
O
de quo et conqueror om. M 12 in ; deuotionis M 15 refectionis]
renouationis M 17 terrene (ren in ras.) L 18 qui FPU 19 nec FPU
etil
21 lumini et] lumine 0 24 bne L post . in om. FPU 25 si (et.ii
tn. 2) M 26 uenenantur FPU contra quae M 28 luceat FPU

ut contra despicabilem facies uenerabilis pingeretur, quo splendor
eius conparatione tenebrarum clarius emicaret, qui etiam
in splendoribus sanctorum conspicua claritate praefulget.
et quidem nisi scirem te inpenso nimii in nos amoris studio
hanc informasse picturam, malitiosum te et callidum criminarer,
qui nostrae humilitatis obscuras animorum nocte personas
ex aduersi iuxta parietis regione depictas sancto capiti contulisses,
ut illum tantum pingeres, nos uero potius deformares,
quos iure conspecta Martini facie despuendos ad probrum
ridiculae conparationis exponeres.

Sed ne nostri causa, quorum multo amore dum falleris,
falsum facies, haec commentatio tua de caritate prolapsa inrideretur,
ut reuera potest et debet, hac tantum gratia parui
tibi in uersiculis de huiusmodi tua pictura ad te mittendis, ut
consilii tui ratio proderetur, qua salubriter nouorum hominum
informationi studens diuersas longe sibi imagines proposuisses;
ut emergentes a sacro fonte et uitandum et sequendum pariter
conspicarentur. itaque sic habes; si placet, utere:

Abluitis quicumque animas et membra lauacris,
Cernite propositas ad bona facta uias.
Adstat perfectae Martinus regula uitae,
Paulinus ueniam quo mereare docet.
Hunc peccatores, illum spectate beati;
Exemplar sanctis ille sit, iste reis.

Item de eodem:

Diues opum Christo, pauper sibi pulchra Seuerus
Culmina sacratis fontibus instituit.

3] Ps. 109, 3.

1 dispicabilem FPU pingueretur L quo] ut scilicet M 2 comparationi
U 4 te om. LM in nos om. L 5 informatam esse M
7 iusta U parietes 0 depicta FOU 9 despuendos v, dispuendos CI)
11 dum] diu LM 12 falsum facies om. M facis Rosw . irridetur U
13 hanc L, ac 0 16 cPposuisti (s. I. m. 2: i proposuisses) M 17 emergente
U pariter et sequendum M 18 utere] add. M: Vers\' beati
Paulini in baptisterio 19 ablutis 0 lauacro M 23 nunc FU 25 item
de eodem] item alii uersus in eodem M 26 christus U

Et quia caelestes aulam condebat in actus,
Qua renouarentur fonte deoque homines,
Digna sacramentis gemina sub imagine pinxit,
Disceret ut uitae dona renatus homo.
Martinum ueneranda uiri testatur imago,
Altera Paulinum forma refert humilem.
Ille fidem exemplis et dictis fortibus armat,
Vt meriti palmas intemerata ferat;
Iste docet fusis redimens sua crimina nummis,
Vilior ut sit res quam sua cuique salus .

Certe probatur iam te non ridendum magisque probandum,
si hac tantum ratione longissime dissimiles comminus
pinxisse uidearis, ut in Martino forma iustitiae et summa uirtutum,
in nobis conscientiae iniquitatis obtritio et confessio
cerneretur, ut et beatis exemplum pateret et miseris, in illo
speculum fortitudo, in nobis solatium haberet ignauia, illum
intuerentur qui praeceptum sufficerent inplere uirtutibus, in
nobis consolarentur qui remedium uellent adferre criminibus,
quia innocentiae fiducia destitutis et nexu iniquitatis adstrictis
sola ut captiuis potest redemptio subuenire. quaeso te tamen,
ne oboedientiam meam crimen facias, si uersus tuos illos luminis
et fauorum, sicut denuntiasti, auferas. uerecunde quaeso
illud magis quam uere minatus sis, et si istos adscribendos
putaueris, illi permaneant, ut horum quasi gemmulae sint et
faciant uilibus pretium et claro atra distinguant. sane accepta
licentia dixi linguae meae, non iuxta prophetam, ut maneret
in requie sua et custodiret uias meas, sed potius oppositae
sibi custodiae frenos rumperet, dum seruiret tibi. ita te diligo,
ut magis de non obtemperando tibi quam de multiloquio peccatum
timerem.

26] (Ps. 38, 2). 29] (Prou. 10,19).

9 numis U 11 non om. 0 magisque Ov, magis quam cet . 12 longissimis
U conminus 0 14 in] ut F conscię M 15 in miseris F
*t
16 solacium L 18 nelint FPU, om. M ferre M 19 distitutis PU
21 meum L 22 illud queso M 25 distingant L sane OPv, sine eel .

Quam ob rem etiam basilicis tuis uersiculos quasi uotiuos
sacris fontibus titulos destinaui. si quid in his apte locutus
uidebor, haec quoque fratris Victoris gratia est. cuius oculis
et uerbis omnia, quae in Christo domino fecisti et agis,
uidi; et ideo uersus, quos et de basilicis interposui, ipso auctore
censebis, qui materiam dictauit enarratione factorum tuorum.
de baptisterio igitur ipso erunt. isti, de cuius pictura tantum
sunt illi superiores:

Hic reparandarum generator fons animarum
Viuum diuino lumine flumen agit.
Sanctus in hunc caelo descendit spiritus amnem
Caelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas;
Concipit unda deum sanctamque liquoribus almis
Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem.
Mira dei pietas: peccator mergitur undis,
Mox eadem emergit iustificatus aqua.
Sic homo et occasu felici functus et ortu
Terrenis moritur, perpetuis oritur.
Culpa perit, sed uita redit; uetus interit Adam,
Et nonus aeternis nascitur imperiis.
Corpore mente fide castissimus incola Christi
Condidit ista deo tecta Seuerus ouans.
Totus et ipse dei templum uiget hospite Christo
Gaudentemque humili corde gerit dominum.
Ecce uelut trino colit unam nomine mentem,
Sic trinum sancta mole sacrauit opus.
Ampla dedit populo geminis fastigia tectis,

2 apte ex aperte F, apte M 6 qui Ov, quia cet . et narratione FPU
8 superiores] M add.: item de baptisterio 9 generantur 0 13 unda]
una 0 sanctumque 0 14 edidit F 17 sic] hic M 19 reddit L
20 imperiis] sequentes ad (ad om. L, et FU) basilicarum (picturam add. v)
sunt add. FLPUv, item uersus de dispositione basilicarum et baptisterii
i
add. M 21 corpora 0 22 tacta L 1 24 dom 0 25 trina M, trino
P, triaio FU colet FPU 26 trinum sancta Rosw., trinum sanctum
ni
III. trina sanctum fort . 27 gemis L

Legibus ut sacris congrueret numerus.
Nam qua latorem duo testamenta per unum
Pacta, deum in Christo copulat una fides:
Iste duas inter diuersi culminis aulas
Turrito fontem tegmine constituit,
Laeta nouos geminis ut mater ecclesia partus
Excipiat sinibus quos aqua protulerit.
Aula duplex tectis ut ecclesia testamentis,
Vna sed ambobus gratia fontis adest.
Lex antiqua nouam firmat, ueterem noua conplet;
In ueteri spes est, in nouitate fides.
Sed uetus atque nouum coniungit gratia Christi;
Propterea medio fons datus est spatio.
Inde parens sacro ducit de fonte sacerdos
Infantes niueos corpore corde habitu
Circumdansque rudes festis altaribus agnos
Cruda salutiferis inbuit ora cibis.
Hinc senior sociae congaudet turba cateruae;
Alleluia nonis balat ouile choris.

Cum hos operibus unanimitatis tuae manufactis dedissem,
illam non manufactam in domestica tua ecclesia gratiam dei,
qua perpetuum tibi hospitem in ea Clarum largitus est, silere
non potui. itaque sanctae ipsius memoriae uersus, non quia
aliquid diuinis eius meritis dignum loqui possem, sed ut studium
plurimae in illius anima caritatis exprimerem, ausus
sum facere et unanimitati tuae mittere. quos tu coram domino
sanctae et cohospitanti tecum semper in domino animae eius
recitans excusabis audaciam meam et commendabis obsequium.

2 qua scnpsi., quia 01 8 aeccla 0 10 nouo U 13 datus] danis U
14 petens U, patens F 16 testis PU 17 cruda cod. Vat., cura FO
PUv, pura LM, cara Schot . 18 hinc Ov, nunc M, tunc cet . 19 ballat
FPU 20 didicissem F 21 domesticatu aecclesiam 0 23 itaque
— l . 28 obsequium exh. d 24 dignum om. FPU possem 40, possim
cet. 25 anima JLM, animae FO, anime PU, animam Rostc . 26 unanimitatis
0 28 obsequium] epitapbium sci clari discipuli bi martini
add. M

Nominis ut titulo, sic mentis lumine Clarus
Presbyter hoc tegitur; sed membra caduca sepulchro,
Libera corporeo mens carcere gaudet in astris
Pura probatorum sedem sortita piorum.
Sancta sub aeternis altaribus ossa quiescunt,
Vt dum casta pio referuntur munera Christi,
Diuinis sacris animae iungantur odores .

Item de eodem, ut quos malueris eligas; sed ego scio in
hoc te potius ambigere debere, non ut aliquos ad titulum eligere,
sed ne ullo debeas iniuriam sancto dei facere.

Presbyter hic situs est meritis et nomine Clarus,
Martino studiis comes et meriti modo consors.
Digna pio domus est altaria, sub quibus artus
Conditur, exanimo; nam spiritus aethere gaudet
Discipulumque pari sociat super astra magistro.

Clare fide, praeclare actu, clarissime fructu,
Qui meritis titulum nominis aequiperas,
Casta tuum digne uelant altaria corpus,
Vt templum Christi contegat ara dei.
Sed quia tu non hac, qua corpus, sede teneris,
Qui meritis superis spiritus inuolitas,
Siue patrum sinibus recubas dominiue sub ara
Conderis aut sacro pasceris in nemore,
Qualibet in regione poli situs aut paradisi,
Clare, sub aeterna pace beatus agis.
Haec peccatorum bonus accipe uota rogantum,

1 lumine] nomine M 6 ut] et FLU pie coni. Sacch . christi 0,
christo cd . 7 diuinae FLM, diuine U 8 item] item uersus in eodem
epitaphio M de eodem - l . 10 facere om. M eligas 0, legas cel .
10 ne ullo scripsi, ne nullo 0, de nullo cet., ne nullam v 11 praesbiter
— p . 284, 8 iuuat exh. A meritis LM 13 arcus 0 14 conditor LO
exanimos M, exanim\' v spiritus om. 0 gaudet] inserit M inscriptis-
nem: item alii uersus de sancto claro 16 fidem 0 17 aequiparas F
21 meritus LMU superis om. 0 22 recubus sinibus FPU d5if§ue M
23 aut] ut U

Vt sis Paulini Therasiaeque memor.
Dilige mandatos interueniente Seuero
Quos ignorasti corpore sic meritos.
Vnanimi communis amor sit fomes utrisque
Perpetui summo foederis in domino .
Non potes inplicitos diuellere; si trahis unum,
Vnus adhaerentes qua rapitur rapiet.
Ergo indiuiduos pariter conplectere fratres,
Vtque sumus, sic nos dilige participans.
Sic deus acciuit, sic nos Martinus amauit;
Sic et tu pariter, Clare, tuere pares,
Non meritis sed amore pares. tu, sancte, ualebis
Exorare pares et meritis fieri,
Si cum Martino socia pietate labores,
Vt uincant uestrae crimina nostra preces,
Et simul in uestri ducamur sorte Seueri
Vestraque nos semper protegat ala sinu.

Quod si dominus desiderium animae uestrae fecerit secundum
fidem uestram adiciens ornatui et sanctificationi operum
uestrorum, ut sacros cineres de benedictis gloriosorum apostolorum
aut martyrum reliquiis adipiscamini: qui huius uoti
praesumptione uos aliam apud Primuliacum nostram et priore
maiorem basilicam praeparasse cognouimus, dignum opere fidei
uestrae et operis fideliter elaborati dedicatione procul dubio
celeberrima, sanctorum quoque reliquiis decens arbitramur, ut
hoc etiam quod de cruce misimus pariter depositum sacratumque
ueneremini. quod si ita placuerit, placitum uestrum hi, si
uidebitur, uersiculi nuntiabunt:

1 terasiaeque L 3 merito LM 6 si ex sed F 7 adherentes JF
OPU, adherentem LM v qua dFLMPU, quae 0, quo v 9 participes
coni. Sacch . 10 asciuit LM 12 sancte LO 13 ezorando M
17 semper] ambos a blando protegat aula L 20 sacras LO benedictis]
sanctis v 21 adipiscar dL, adipiscam FPU qui Ov, quia cet .
22 praesumptionem dFOU aput M, aut F primiliacum FMU et]
mI
ex FPU priorem L 26 de cruce scripsimus (mI m. 2) P misimus
de oruce U 27 nostrum Fl hii MO 28 nuntiabunt] uersus in
altari add. M

Diuinum ueneranda tegunt altaria foedus
Conpositis sacra cum cruce martyribus.
Cuncta salutiferi coeunt martyria Christi,
Crux corpus sanguis martyris, ipse deus.
Namque deus semper uobis sua munera seruat;
Atque ubi Christus, ibi spiritus et pater est.
Sic ubi crux, et martyr ibi, quia martyris et crux,
Martyrii sanctis quae pia causa fuit.
Illa cibum uitae mortalibus, illa coronas,
Quae domino famulos participant, peperit.
In cruce fixa caro est, qua pascor; de cruce sanguis
Ille fluit, uitam quo bibo, corda lauo.
Christe, tuo coeant simul haec tua dona Seuero,
Portitor et testis sit crucis iste tuae.
Carne tua uiuat, tuus illi pocula sanguis
Praebeat, in uerbo uiuat agatque tuo.
Quaque tuum socio Martinum adscendere Claro
Vidit, et ipse tuo munere uectus eat.

Si uero magis placeat uobis hanc de cruce benedictionem
ad cotidianam tutelam atque medicinam in promptu habere,
ne semel condita in altario non semper ad manum, ut usus
exigit, praesto sit, sufficit et illa ad basilicae consecrationem
gratia, si demus eam apostolis et martyribus, quorum uenerandus
cinis si sine crucis consortio subiciatur altaribus, hic opertos
titulus indicabit:

foadtu
1 corpus 0 2 compositisque v sacrum dFPU S saluti fleri U
coehunt PU misteria M, insignia Col . 5 nobis M ut Sacch. coni .
7 ibi quia LM, ibi qua PI, ibi quam 0, ibique FpIU, ibi q v martyris]
martyr ibi v et] est M, om. a 10 dfiM famulis M 11 qua]
at corda luo
qui FPU 12 fuit JFLMU uita F corque lauo (J cord* Uno m. 2) M
17 quaeque 0 sotium 0 18 uectus LM, uictus cet., iunctus v
19 magis s. I. F 21 non om. FPU 23 si CII, scilicet Rosw . demus
dedieamiu
scripsi, dicemus M, dominus cet . eam 01, cum Rosw . uenerandi
(partim in ras.) M 24 cinis est L, cineres M subiciantur MO hic
— indicabit om. FPU; inscriptionem ins. M: item de loco reliquiarum

Pignora sanctorum diuinae gloria mensae
Velat apostolicis edita corporibus,
Spiritus et domini medicis uirtutibus instans
Per documenta sacros uiua probat cineres.
Sic geminata piis adspirat gratia uotis,
Infra martyribus, desuper acta sacris.
Vota sacerdotis uiuentum et commoda paruo
Puluere sanctorum mors pretiosa iuuat .

Habes uersus operibus quidem tuis sanctis et magnificis
indignos, persuasioni tamen tuae quam habes tibi de me quam
mihi credere conpetentes. quos si non erubueris spectandis
domesticae ecclesiae tuae parietibus inscribere, uindicabor. credo
enim uel tunc de meis ineptiis erubesces et poenitebit te desiderii
et exactionis tuae, cum aedificia, quae inmaculata adhuc
operis tui gratia splendent, obscurata naeniis insipientiae
meae et, ut digno meis uersibus uerbo utar, caccabata ridentibus
multis uel nauseantibus confusus adspicies. nec laborabis
fallere, ut te lector auctorem putet et, cum ineptia nemini in
te nota possit instruere lectorem, ne tibi meum carmen id est
crimen inponat, qui tamen uel proditoris uel scriptoris nomine
culpandus es. sed ne quis me iniuriosum iudicet illa regula
qua praescribitur: quod tibi nolueris, alii ne feceris,
idem a me prius basilicas meas pertulisse praesentibus illi
documentis probabis, ut hoc quoque ostendas unanimitatem

22] Tob. 4, 16.

3 medicis FPUv, medius 0, medici LM instat d 4 docimenta dO
5 si FLPUv, hic M piis] sacris M 6 acta] tecta L, aucta M
8 uiuat PU 10 qua M habes] magis M, de me habes v tibicredere
om. v 11 uis copetentes (entes eras.) M quod si FPU erubieris
L spectandos v 12 inscribere Ov, scribere cet . 15 obscurata-meae
om. M 16 et om. FPU 18 et cum] cum M 19 ne —
l. 21 sed om. M ne tibi 0, et ibi FPU, me tibi L 20 qui tamenculpandus
essem uel si quid tamen-culpandum esset coni. Sacch . proditoribus
FPU nomine uel scriptoris nomine FOPU 21 es sed 0,
esset cet. v me] me tamen M 22 perscribitur FOPUv tibi] tu F
23 illi om. LM 24 docimentis 0 ostendat LM

nostram, quod siue gratia siue iniuria me tibi conparans eadem
in tuas qua etiam in meas aedificationes temeritate peccaui.
sed huius siue gratiae iuxta patientissimum mei animum
tuum siue iuxta meum indignissimum munus iniuriae auctor
aut reus noster tibi Victor habeatur, qui sanctissimus nostrae
caritatis interpres hoc se tibi gratiorem a nobis redire praesumpsit,
quo depressior sub iniusto ineptiarum ad te nostrarum
onere reuertisset. nam hoc etiam adcrescere fascibus suis
uoluit, ut nostrarum tibi basilicarum uersus simul picturasque
portaret. meritoque faciet, si cum hac se tibi querimonia de-
Sciens et curuus intulerit, ut clamet: ecce propter mandata
labiorum tuorum ego ambulaui uias duras, et
clamet: super dorsum meum fabricati sunt peccatores,
qui in tot epistolas prolongauerunt iniquitatem suam.

Recepi igitur et hunc ad peccata mea cumulum, ut
fratri cupidissimo talis sarcinae, qua eius anima grauato corpore
leuaretur, praestarem quam desiderabat iniuriam. nam
et uere ad unanimitatem nostram congruere haec illius postulatio
uidebatur, qua adserebat, et oportere tibi nostras in
domino aedificationes ita notescere, ut nobis tuas in titulis et
in picturis indicare uoluisses. hac igitur ratione persuasus
basilicas nostras tuis, sicut et operis tempore et uoti genere
coniunctae sunt, ita etiam litteris conpaginare curaui, ut in
hoc quoque nostra coniunctio figuraretur, quae iungitur animis
et distat locis; sic et ista, quae in nomine domini eodem spiritu
laborata construximus, diuersis abiuncta regionibus, eiusdem
tamen epistolae serie sibi tamquam consignata uisentur.

11] Ps. 16, 4. 13] Ps. 128, 3.

1 comparas M, conparas L 2 quam FOPU 4 iniuriae iuxta meum
indignissimum munus auctor M 6 in hoc LM se tibi LM, te sibi
cet . 7 quod FLPU ad] a FPU 8 et hoc FPU facibus F
9 uoluit ut] uoluitur 0 nram 0 11 popter U 12 laborum FlU
14 epistolis LMv iniquitates suas FPU 15 recipi L1 et om. FPU
16 tales 0 19 et scripsi, ut cet. sed exp. M m. 2 oportere M, oporteret
cet . asserebat oportere uel ut asserebat oportere coni. Sacch .
20 notificationes U innotescere LM tua sit FPU, tuas et LM 24 iniungitur
F 25 sic] si fort . 26 elaborata Rosw . 27 epistulae 0
series FOPU, serie L contignata Bosw., contiguata coni. Sacch .

basilica igitur illa, quae ad dominaedium nostrum communem
patronum in nomine domini Christi dei iam dedicata celebratur,
quattuor eius basilicis addita, reliquiis apostolorum et
martyrum intra absidem trichora sub altaria sacratis non solo
beati Felicis honore uenerabilis est. absidem solo et parietibus
marmoratam camera musiuo inlusa clarificat, cuius picturae hi
uersus sunt:

Pleno coruscat trinitas mysterio:
Stat Christus agno, uox patris caelo tonat
Et per columbam spiritus sanctus fluit .
Crucem corona lucido cingit globo,
Cui coronae sunt corona apostoli,
Quorum figura est in columbarum choro.
Pia trinitatis unitas Christo coit
Habente et ipsa trinitate insignia:
Deum reuelat uox paterna et spiritus,
Sanctam fatentur crux et agnus uictimam,
Regnum et triumphum purpura et palma indicant.
Petram superstat ipse petra ecclesiae,
De qua sonori quattuor fontes meant,
Euangelistae uiua Christi flumina .

Inferiore autem balteo, quo parietis et camerae confinium
interposita gypso crepido coniungit aut diuidit, hic titulus
indicat deposita sub altari sancta sanctorum:

1 illa] nostra FPU dominedium FLMOP, domine diuum U
2 domini nostri L, dm iliu M dei om. M 8 abdita U 4 trichoram
coni. Lebrun 5 cuius absidam M 6 pictura FXPU hii M 7 uerbis
F 8-21 exh. syU. inscript. christ. (ed. de Rossi II, 1, p. 191)
t
coruscas L 9 agno (i m. 2) M, agnus inscr. (cf. p . 292,13 stat Christus
in agno) 12 corona FPU 14 trinitas inscr . cogit inscr. 15 et M,
om. cd . in ipsa M habent et ipsa trinitatem coni. SacrA . 16 deum
Ot), dominum cet . 17 sacram M fatetur christus agnus inscr . 18 purpurae
FUv, purę LM palma 0, palmae cet. v 19 ipsae ai ipsa inscr .
petro aecclesiae 0 20 quas inscr.1 sonori inscr.\' Rosw., honori FL
POU inscr.1 v, bonorum ex honorum(?) M 22 balneo LM parietes
LOPUv camere FL, canire U, camre P 23 gipso FPU coniugit P
hic titulus-p. 287,17 requiem exh. 4 24 sanctorum] inscr . ixs. M:
item in loco reliquiarum

Hic pietas, hic alma fides, hic gloria Christi,
Hic est martyribus crux sociata suis.
Nam crucis e ligno magnum breuis hastula pignus
Totaque in exiguo segmine uis crucis est.
Hoc Melani sanctae delatum munere Nolam,
Summum Hierosolymae uenit ab urbe bonum.
Sancta deo geminum uelant altaria honorem,
Cum cruce apostolicos quae sociant cineres.
Quam bene iunguntur ligno crucis ossa piorum,
Pro cruce ut occisis in cruce sit requies!

Totum uero extra concham basilicae spatium alto et
lacunato culmine geminis utrimque porticibus dilatatur, quibus
duplex per singulos arcus columnarum ordo dirigitur.
cubicula intra porticus quaterna longis basilicae lateribus inserta
secretis orantium uel in lege domini meditantium,
praeterea memoriis religiosorum ac familiarum accommodatos
ad pacis aeternae requiem locos praebent. omne cubiculum
binis per liminum frontes uersibus praenotatur, quos inserere
his litteris nolui; eos tamen quos ipsius basilicae aditus habent
scripsi, quia possent, usurpare si uelis, et ad tuarum basilicarum
ianuas conuenire, ut istud est:

Pax tibi sit, quicumque dei penetralia Christi
Pectore pacifico candidus ingrederis.

Vel hoc de signo domini super ingressum picto hac specie,
qua uersus indicat:

Cerne coronatam domini super atria Christi
Stare crucem duro spondentem celsa labori
Praemia; tolle crucem, qui uis auferre coronam.

15] Ps. l, 2.

1-10 exJa. inscr. christ. Z . c. 3 magnum inser. om . astula tnscr . pignus]
habetur add. inscr . 4 in s. l. m. 2 F semine FU 5 melanii M sancto
ttucr . 6 hierusalem L, hierusolimae 0, hierusolyma inscr . 7 uelat FU, uel 0
12 gemmis U utrinque FP, utrumque U 14 longis s. J. F 16 famila-
rium L 17 loquus L 18 bonis FPU 19 ipsis U additus PU 20 usurpare
si 0, si usurpare cet. v 21 istud est] imer. ins. M: uersus in ingressu
basilicę 24 de signo — l. 28 coronam exh. J ac FLPU 28 offerre FLPU

Alterae autem basilicae qua de hortulo uel pomario quasi
priuatus aperitur ingressus, hi uersiculi hanc secretiorem forem
pandunt:

Caelestes intrate uias per amoena uirecta,
Christicolae; et laetis decet huc ingressus ab hortis,
Vnde sacrum meritis datur exitus in paradisum.

Hoc idem ostium aliis uersibus ab interiore sui fronte signatur:

Quisque domo domini perfectis ordine notis
Egrederis, remea corpore, corde mane .

Prospectus uero basilicae non, ut usitatior mos est,
orientem spectat, sed ad domini mei beati Felicis basilicam
pertinet, memoriam eius adspiciens; tamen cum duabus dextra
laeuaque conchulis intra spatiosum sui ambitum absis sinuata
laxetur, una earum inmolanti hostias iubilationis antistiti
patet, alia post sacerdotem capaci sinu receptat orantes. laetissimo
uero conspectu tota simul haec basilica in basilicam
memorati confessoris aperitur trinis arcubus paribus perlucente
transenna, per quam uicissim sibi tecta ac spatia basilicae
utriusque iunguntur. nam quia nouam a ueteri paries abside
cuiusdam monumenti interposita obstructus excluderet, totidem
ianuis patefactus a latere confessoris, quot a fronte ingressus
sui foribus noua reserabatur, quasi diatritam speciem

4] (Verg. Aen. VI, 638).

1 alterae FOv, altere PU, alteri LM ortulo m 2 hii MO 4 uireta
LMP 5 et om. Mortis FLMPU 7 hostium FLPU aliis
uersibus om. FU ab v, a FO, ad cet . interiorem sui frontem LM
signatur aliis uersibus FPU, signatur. Ex alia parte uersus M 9 quisque
w (nisi quod que in qus corr. 0), quisquis v domo domini s, ab
aede dei v 11 perspectus FPU 13 dextera L 14 coneulis FLMOU,
chonculis v spatium U absgisinuta F, absisi nuta PU 15 laxectur F
uni F ostias L antisti 0 16 alia LO, altera cet . capaci sinu
om. M 17 tota simul om. FU simul om. P in basilica FOPU
18 perducente fort . 20 absidg 0, absida (a ex corr.) M 21 munimenti
L 22 latae 0 confessionis LMO quod FOPU 23 reserebatur
FO, referebatur U diatretam scripsi, diatritam (d

ab utraque in utramque spectantibus praebet, sicut datis inter
utrasque ianuas titulis indicatur. itaque in ipsis basilicae nouae
ingressibus hi uersiculi sunt:

Alma domus triplici patet ingredientibus arcu
Testaturque piam ianua trina fidem.

Item dextra laeuaque crucibus minio superpictis haec
epigrammata sunt:

Ardua floriferae crux cingitur orbe coronae
Et domini fuso tincta cruore rubet.
Quaeque super signum resident caeleste columbae
Simplicibus produnt regna patere dei.

[Item de eo:]

Hac cruce nos mundo et nobis interfice mundum
Interitu culpae uiuificans animas.
Nos quoque perficies placitas tibi, Christe, columbas,
Si uigeat puris pax tua pectoribus .

Intra ipsam uero transennam, qua breue illud, quod
propinquas sibi basilicas potius discludebat, interuallum continuatur,
e regione basilicae nouae super medianum arcum hi
uersus sunt:

Vt medium ualli, pax nostra, resoluit Iesus
Et cruce discidium perimens duo fecit in unum,
Sic noua destructo ueteris discrimine tecti

1 ab utraque om. FPU utranque FPU, utrumque Ov inter] in L
2 inducatur U 3 hii OM sunt in ingressu basilicae M 4 patet
Rom., parte m arcu liosw., archum FP, arcum cet . 6 item — l . 16
pectoribus exh. Ll munio L1, minioque U, nimio 01 haec om. FPU
7 epigramata LM et sic infra sunt] inscr. M: item utraque parte ianuae
O
8 florigerae M 12 de om. 4, in M eo om. J, eodem LM 13 munda M
interficere Ll 14 animas M, animae 0, anima L, animam cet . 16 pax M
et Sacch., pars cet . 17 inter F ipsum 0 18 potius] prius coni. Sacch .
19 e] et U super—p. 290, 5 sacerdos exh. L1 regem 0, archum P
hii MO 21 ihesus M 23 hic M distructo d ..tectis 0

nVllll. Panlim Nol. epiltulae.

19

Culmina conspicimus portarum foedere iungi.
Sancta nitens famulis interluit atria lymphis
Cantharus intrantumque manus lauat amne ministro.
Plebs gemina Christum Felicis adorat in aula,
Paulus apostolico quam temperat ore sacerdos .

Haec uero binis notata uersiculis epigrammata super arcus
alios dextra laeuaque sunt.

Adtonitis noua lux oculis aperitur, et uno
Limine consistens geminas simul adspicit aulas .

In alio:

Ter geminis geminae patuerunt arcubus aulae,
Miranturque suos per mutua limina cultus .

Item in isdem arcubus a fronte, quae ad basilicam domini
Felicis patet, mediana, hi sunt:

Quos deuota fides densis celebrare beatum
Felicem populis diuerso suadet ab ore,
Per triplices aditus laxos infundite coetus;
Atria quamlibet innumeris spatiosa patebunt,
Quae sociata sibi per apertos comminus arcus
Paulus in aeternos antistes dedicat usus.

In aliis isti bini:

Antiqua digresse sacri Felicis ab aula,
In noua Felicis culmina transgredere.

8] (Verg. Aen. YIIII, 110).

2 atria] taria 0 3 kantarus M, chantarus U lauat amne aLlOr,
lauat ate L1, lauat amnis M, lautamur FPU ministro om. M 4 et 5
exh. syll. inscr. christ. I. c . plebs] lex inscr . 5 PaulusJ Xystus inscr . quod
temporat inscr . 6 hanc FPU binis uero LM arcus alias 0, alios arcus
LM 7 dextera L leuaq. sinister sunt 0; in primo arcu add. M, in uno
hoc add. v 8 uno] in alio add. L 9 lumine FU 10 in alio MOPU,
in alio in alio F, in altero hoc Lv 12 uultus FPU 13 isdem P, hisdem
LOU1, eisdem M, iisdem Ui fronteque quae U 14 hii MO 17 aditus]
lapsus FPU infundito 0 19 apertas 01 cominus F 20 antistitis
FPU 21 in aliis isti bini] item alii M 22 sacra FPU

[Item:]

Vna fides trino sub nomine quae colit unum
Vnanimes trino suscipit introitu.

In secretariis uero duobus, quae supra dixi circa absidam
esse, hi uersus indicant officia singulorum.
A dextra absidae:

Hic locus est, ueneranda penus qua conditur et qua
Promitur alma sacri pompa ministerii .

A sinistra eiusdem:

Si quem sancta tenet meditanda in lege uoluntas,
Hic poterit residens sacris intendere libris.

Egrediamur iam Nolana hac basilica et in Fundanam transeamus.
Fundis nomen oppido est, quod aeque familiare mihi
fuit, dum maneret possessio, quam illic usitatiorem habui.
itaque uel ad pignus quasi ciuicae caritatis uel ad memoriam
praeteriti patrimonii basilicam dare in ipso oppido, quoniam
et indigebat ruinosam et paruam habens, uoti fuit. propterea
et hos uersiculos adiciendos putaui, quos illi in hoc oppido
dedicandae basilicae paramus. nam adhuc in opere est, sed
propitio deo dedicationi propinqua. quod tamen ea mihi maxime
ratio persuasit, quia et in huius absida designatam picturam
meus Victor adamauit et portare tibi uoluit, si forte unam de
duabus elegeris in hac recentiore tua pingere, in qua aeque absidam
factam indicauit. sed de hac absida aut abside num magis

4 secratariis L absidam OJ, apsidem v 5 hii MO uersus — singulorum
om. M 6 a dextera LMv, dextra 0, otn. FPU absidę MO, abside
L, apsidis v, om. FPU 7 penu FPU 9 a] ad U sinistris
(sed supra in mg . sinistra) L eiusdem om. M 10 meditandi FMU
11 libris] inscr . de fundana basilica add. OPv 12 hac nolana M 13 fundus
F1 oppidi U1 14 usitatiorem illic FPU illic in mg. add. L
16 patronomii 0, matrimonii U 17 rumnosa U parua U 19 paramus
0, parauimus cd . 21 huis L absidam 0, asida F, abside v
22 unam scripsi, etiam 0, eam LM, ea FPU, et eam v 23 elegeris ea
ll
de duabus FPU recensiore FPU 24 absidem LM sed de (ri m. 2) M
apsida Pv, absidia U aut OJ, an v abside num (an ne?) scripsi,
absidine PUPU, abside Pv, abside L

19*

dicere debuerim, tu uideris; ego nescire me fateor, quia hoc
uerbi genus nec legisse reminiscor. uerum hanc quoque basiliculam
de benedictis apostolorum et martyrum reliquiis sacri
cineres in nomine Christi sanctorum sancti et martyrum martyris
et dominorum domini consecrabunt. ipse enim testatus
est se uicissim confessorum suorum confessorem futurum. ideo
super hac praeter picturam gratia geminatus est titulus.
De pictura:

Sanctorum labor et merces sibi rite cohaerent,
Ardua crux pretiumque crucis sublime, corona .
Ipse deus, nobis princeps crucis atque coronae,
Inter floriferi caeleste nemus paradisi
Sub cruce sanguinea niueo stat Christus in agno,
Agnus ut innocua iniusto datus hostia leto,
Alite quem placida sanctus perfundit hiantem
Spiritus et rutila genitor de nube coronat.
Et quia praecelsa quasi iudex rupe superstat,
Bis geminae pecudis discors agnis genus haedi
Circumstant solium; laeuos auertitur haedos
Pastor et emeritos dextra conplectitur agnos.

Ecce sub accensis altaribus ossa piorum
Regia purpureo marmore crusta tegit.
Hic et apostolicas praesentat gratia uires
Magnis in paruo puluere pignoribus.
Hic pater Andreas et magno nomine Lucas
Martyr et inlustris sanguine Nazarius;

2 neglexisse FP, neglessisse U uerum—l. 16 coronat exh A in
hac U quoue FU 3 bonedictis om. FPU 4 cineris FOU martyres
0 7 praeter JFOv, preter PU, propter LM 9 recte 0 10 coronae
40 12 florigeri M 13 agro O1 14 ostia L loeto d,
leto loco FPU 15 hiantem] ouantem M 16 rutilat L 17 quia]
qua fort . 18 pecudes M1 agni genus FU, genus agnus et M 19 hedus
M 20 paster et ex pastore te P Mt. 2 emeritos L*MP*v, meritos
cet . agnos] item alii uersus de reliquiis add. M, de reliquiis add.
Rosw . 21 ascensis M 22 marmare 01 23 apolicas U 26 illustri
FPU

Quosque suo deus Ambrosio post longa reuelat
Saecula, Protasium cum pare Geruasio.
Hic simul una pium conplectitur arcula coetum
Et capit exiguo nomina tanta sinu.

Haec interim, mi frater, et alia huiusmodi opera uisibilia
de terrenis in terra labore molieram; sed benedictus
dominus diei cotidie, qui facit mirabilia solus, sicut
conuertit petram in stagnum aquae, sic et terrena caelestibus
mutat et hanc nobiscum quamquam de suis et hic et
ibi rebus permutationem facere dignatur, ut quae corporaliter
molieram in terris latenter in caelis per ipsum aedificentur,
tunc reuelanda nobis, cum ipsa acie uidebimus quae nunc
per fidem prouidemus. itaque hic seminamus et ibi metimus;
hic spargimus et ibi congregamus; hic uiuimus et ibi conuersamur;
hic accingimur et ibi militamus; hic pugnamus et
ibi uincimus uel si istic uincimus, ibi coronamur. ita quod
istic manu struimus, illic fide condimus. et harum nobis
quamuis terrestrium aedificatio fabricarum si uoto et studio
spiritali struatur, beata caelestium est praeparatio mansionum.
haec enim aedificantes in domino ex adeptu fidei, aedificamur
ipsi a domino per eiusdem fidei profectum. nam et euangelicus
ille centurio exemplum nobis est ad spem certam mercedis
aeternae huius specialiter operis gratia recipiendae, qui ad
promerendam filii sanitatem et ipsum dominum legum fidei

6] Ps. 67, 20. 71,18. 118, 8. 12] (II Cor. 3, 18; I Cor. 13, 12).
13] (Gal. 6, 8). 19] (Ioh. 14, 2). 21] (Matth. 8, 5).

2 prothasius M patre 0 4 tanta] magna M 5 huiuscemodi F
nisibili FLPU 6 laborem FOU molieram ex meliora L 7 diei
i
OPU, die LMv, dei F sicut] qui sicut M 9 pr . et] qui M
10 comutationem M 11 molimur M per ipsum aedificemur in colis M
12 ipsa acie scripsi, specie tV, facie coni. Lebrun 13 praeuidemus M
itaque—metimus om. FPU metemus LMO 17 istic (ic corr.) L,
ista FPU condinus U 19 spuali M praeparatio est FPU 20 adeptu]
affectu coni. Sacch . 22 iste F 23 recipiendum FPlJ . quia FPlJ
24 promerendum FPU

suae praedicatorem habendum eo potissimum meriti ualuit,
quod plebs domini, quae tunc adhuc in Iudaeis tantum erat,
illi de Synagogae aedificatae testimonio suffragata est.

Quid igitur miseri nunc quiescimus oscitantes et quasi
non conducti mercennarii in tumultuoso huius saeculi foro
uacua manu stamus uel si conductos nos debere patrifamilias
suum denarium cogitemus, ut aliquid in uinea eius operemur,
id ipsum quasi indebitum gratumque praestantes, inputare
etiam meditamur domino, tamquam illi potius quam nobis
profutura faciamus?s o miseri homines! largiri nos aliquid credimus;
negotiamur et liberales habemur qui auarissimi esse
conuincimur, et quidem tanto auariores cupidissimis terrae
feneratoribus, quanto amplius est caelestia de terrenis et beata
de miseris egenisque rebus emere quam terrena terrenis et
labentibus lapsura mercari et dominum quam hominem fenerare.
damnatur in lege qui pecuniam suam dederit ad
usuram et munera super innocentes acceperit. ecce
euangelii gratia ostendit nobis quomodo eadem crimina ad
innocentiam sanctitatemque mutentur, nec poenae sed praemii
retributio consequatur, si tantum in praecepta diuina salutaris
cupiditate fidei conuertantur. da ad usuram pecunias tuas, sed
Christo, et salutaris usura est.

Item in saeculo corrupti muneribus reorum iudices condemnantur;
sed quisquis homo praeuentus in aliquo peccato
diffidens innocentiae tuae adfers pretium salutis tuae iudici
nostro, ne uerearis quasi corruptionis iniuriam iustitiae dei

3] (Luc. 7, 5). 5] (Matth. 20, 6). 16] Ex. 22, 25; Leu. 25, 36;
Deut. 23,19; Ps. 14, 5. 21] (Prou. 19,17; Eccli. 29,1). 23] (Ex. 23, 8;
Deut. 16, 19).

1 meriti (s. I . i merito m. rec.) M, merito coni. Sacch . 2 dei M
5 conducta U 6 mana U conductis nobis debere patrem familias v
8 gratuitumque M 10 aliquid nos F 11 quia FU auriores (* m. 2) F
13 de om. F 14 de miseris] dimiseris 0 15 lapsura labentibus FPU
domino quam homini M foenerari F, fenerari PU 16 dedit PU
17 munere U 20 si tantum] stantum FU 21 conuertamur F 23 in
scJo in textu, in marg . ai ipsalmo M reorum Rosw., om. M, eorum cet .
26 nec FPU

facere. accipit a te Christus libens salutis tuae pretium, quia
magis uult misericordiam quam sacrificium. sed forsitan
quaeris, ubi illum inuenias et qua corrumpas uia quem non
uides. surge, inquit, qui dormis et erigere a mortuis,
et adtinges Christum; hoc est discute carnalis inertiae
somnum et depressam cogitatione terrena mentem a mortuis
curis hoc est conuersatione carnali erige adtollens et dirigens
in dominum animam tuam, et adtinges Christum. operando
praeceptis ipsius uidebis eum in omni paupere, tanges eum in
omni egeno, recipies eum in omni hospite, quoniam sibi fieri
ipse testatur quae in eius nomine minimis eius fiant. ecce
nos(ti) iam contra quomodo uideas inuisibilem et inadprehensibilem
conprehendas. ergo nunc istic pauperemur, ut tunc ibi
locupletemur. nunc ploremus, ut tunc gaudeamus. nunc esuriamus,
ut tunc saturemur. omni, inquit, tempore pauperes
uobiscum habetis. uides quia nulla nobis occasio est beneficentiae
umquam procrastinandae, cum, si uoluntas nostra
non absit, pauper in promptu sit.

Commodemus ergo securi nunc egeno et in pauperibus
suis Christo, ut ex eius abundatura in isdem gloria participare
possimus. propterea enim dominus ipse praemonet dicens:
facite uobis amicos de iniquo mamona. uides quomodo
omnipotens faciat de nocte lucem et de iniquitate iustitiam,

2] Oseae 6, 6; Matth. 9,13. 4] Eph. 5, 14. 11] (Matth. 25,40).
15] Matth. 26, 11.

1 Christus om. FPU qua F 2 magis uult] mauult LMv forsitam
FU S inuenies Ov quia 0 corripias LM 4 erige
te Ov 5 attingis O hoc est — l . 8 Christum om. M 7 est om. U
a conuersatione FPU 8 adtingis U 9 praeceptis Ov, in praecep-
tis cet. illius FPU et iu 0 tangis 0, tangens U 11 testatus 0
eius in LM fiunt M 12 nosti iam contra scripsi, om. M, nos iam
contra cet., nobis iam constat v 13 istis F ut] et ut 0, et F
14 esuriamur F1 15 ut] et U 16 occasione L est s. I. F, om. L
beneficientiae L 17 nmquam om. M 18 absis U 19 commendemus
F nunc] et nunc coni. Sacch . et om. M x in pauperibus
e
suis M 20 habundantia F isdem PU, iisdem F, isdem L, hisdem MO
21 ipse dominus F, ipse M 22 mamona LOPU, mammona FM

ut cum defeceritis, inquit, recipiant uos in tabernacula
aeterna, quia uicissitudine quadam copiae uel inopiae
humanum genus temperetur, quod in illo inferno diuite et superno
in regno paupere euangelicus sermo patefecit, ut intellegamus
consilium communis auctoris, quo diuitem pauperi et pauperem
diuiti praeparauit, ut abundans egenti substantia alimoniae
sit et opulento inops materia iustitiae, ut fiat, sicut
apostolus dixit, aequalitas, et in illo saeculo repensanda illis
egestate praesenti opibus aeternis redundet illorum abundantia
ad inopiam nostram, si nostra istic abundantia ad illorum indigentiam
commodauerit. seminemus ergo illic carnalia, ut et
metamus ab illis spiritalia. laboret nunc de terrenis manus,
ut tunc de caelestibus anima reficiatur. \'spes praesens aedificet
rem futuram. faciamus istic tecta, quae nos illic tegant.
pascatur istic pauper, ubi me diuite eget, ut me illic pascat,
ubi me egente saturabitur. uidete commercium spiritale et, si
potestis, negate nos auaros, qui terram uendimus et tributum,
ut inmunitatem regni cum aeternitate coemamus.

Fragilem harenam iacimus, ut domum fundemus aeternam
et de uilibus adtingamus astra caementis, de quibus non
illam confusionis et superbiae turrem destruendam opere inrito
machinamur, sed in ipso angulari lapide fundamur, ut
surgamus per ipsum in ipsius plenitudinem, qui est turris
fortitudinis a facie inimici. hanc ipse nos turrem aedificare
conputatis ante sumptibus iubet, ne interrupta

1] Luc. 16,9. 3] (Luc. 16,19). 7]ICor.8,14. 11] (I Cor. 9,11).
20] (Gen. 11,4). 22] (Eph. 2, 20). 23] Ps. 60, 4. 24] (Luc. 14, 28).

•aT
1 aeterna tabernacula LM 2 qui sic (qui del. m. 1, ni add. m. rec.) M
8 temperat M, temperatur v, tepat (at in ras.) L, tempore 0 4 in
regno 0, om. cet . 5 quo] quod 0 6 substatia F aelimoniae PU
8 et om. FPU repensanda-aeternis om. M 9 abundantia illorum M
11 illic Ov, illis cet . ut et Ov . ut cet . 12 meditamus U spiri-
1 d*
tualia FMPU laboret (t in ras.) L in (t de m. 2) M 15 istic] illic F
illic] ille FPU 17 uos LMU 20 camentis FPU 21 turrim FPU
22 fundemur FPU 23 per ipsum resurgamus FPU 24 turrim FPU
25 ne] non LM aedificatione interrupta FPU

aedificatione defecti temeritatis inprouidae notam et dignam inrisionem
frustra audacis ignauiae perferamus. sumptus autem
noster fides firma est. ergo et secundum ueritatem dei credens,
qui spes et opes et uires suas dominum legum habet,
eius omnis aedificatio conpacta crescit et surgit et conscensio
est in plenitudinem dei. itaque nisi dominus aedificauerit
domum, in uano aedificantes labore sudabimus. sed ne
uel perfecta licet cooperante domino aedificatione resupini securas
manus remittamus, adicit scriptura diuina, quod etiam
aedificatam domum nisi deus idem custodiat, inrita seruantium
cura uigilabit.

Oremus ergo dominum, ut dum nos illi foris aedificamus
domicilia quae uidentur, ille in nobis intus aedificet illa
quae non uidentur, domum uidelicet illam, ut magister ait,
non manufactam, quam ingressi intellegemus in nouissimo,
uidentes scilicet facie ad faciem quod in aenigmate
nunc uidemus et ex parte cognoscimus. sed nunc, dum
adhuc in tabernaculo istius corporis constituti quasi sub illius
antiqui tabernaculi pellibus in deserto et tentoriis agimus,
praecedente nos per istius orbis aridam dei uerbo uel in columna
nubis, ut obumbret super caput nostrum in
die belli, uel in columna ignis, ut cognoscamus in
terra caelestem eius uiam: oremus, ut per haec nunc ecclesiae
tabernacula ingrediamur usque ad domum dei,

5] (Eph. 2, 21). 6] Ps. 126, 1. 19] (ib.). 14] II Cor. 5,1.
16] I Cor. 13, 12. 19] (Ex. 25, 40 et 26, 30). 20] Ex. 13, 21. 14, 19 et
23, 20. 21] Ps. 139, 8. 22] Ex. 13, 21; Ps. 66, 3. 24] Ps. 41, 5.

1 defecti Ov, defectu cet . temeritatis ne dignam irrisione notam
frustra M 2 sumtus M, spiritus cet . 3 ego FPU et om. LM
4 quae FO, que PU 5 conpicta PU, compicta F alt . et om. LM,
in v conscensio est scripsi, om. LM, consensionem cet. v 6 ita
quod F 7 in om. LMv sudauimus FPU 8 uel om. M coeperante
Fl 12 nobis FPU 14 magister] apostolus M 15 intelligemus
17, intelligamus LM, intelligimus FPU, intellegimus 0 nouissima
M 17 nunc nunc U dum om. FPU 21 umbret 0 23 caetestem
om. FPU oremus om. M nunc om. LM

ubi ut ipse dominus ille summus et factus nobis a domino
et excisus a monte et idem auctus in montem lapis extat,
qui est mirabilis in oculis nostris. ipse se nunc aedificationi
nostrae et fundamento praestet et culmini, quia ipse
est initium et finis. super eandem petram (nam et petra
Christus est), extra quam nemo potest domum stabilem fundare,
non stipulam aut fenum et paleas, sicut in Aegypto
seruientes in cophino, manus congerant, ne luteis aedificiis
operum sordidorum laterem, ut aiunt, lauemus et incuruati
oneribus laborum seruilium deuertamus dorsum nostrum a domino,
quia ut conuersos ad se reficit lumine, ita auersos adficit
caecitate.

Videamus autem aedificantes quid de nostra fragili terrenaque
substantia dignum diuino fundamento superaedificare
possimus, ut ipso principali lapide uiuificati lapides in fabricam
templi caelestis aptemur. aurum sensus nostri et sermonis
argentum conflemus in Christo, ut nos in huius mundi
fornace purgatos aurum ignitum et moneta imaginis suae dignum
ipse placitarum sibi animarum discussor efficiat nosque
ipsos illi de operibus luminis pretiosos lapides adferamus.
neque in cordibus ligni duritia stolidi neque in operibus fenea
siccitate aridi neque in fide uel caritate mobiles et infirmi
leuium fragilitate palearum, sed ut opus arbitrii nostri non
arsurum paretur et inconcussum pacifica operatione consurgat,

1] Ps. 117,23. 10] (Ps. 80, 7). 14] (I Cor. 3, 10; I Petro 2, 5).
17] (Sap. 8, 6).

1 ut] et Llrfv 2 excissus FP autus U, actus L1 3 §dificationi M
4 post . et om. 0 5 eadem petra FPU 7 et LOv, exp. M, aut FM
PU sed M. s. l . 8 cofino 0 9 ut aiunt] crudum add. M incuruata FU,
incuruatione Ov 10 oneribus] riuus 0, per riuos v diuertamus FMU
nostrum om. M 11 qui FPU ut] aut P1 adsepeficit 0 aduerque

sos F 13 terrena fragili (qu. m. 2) M 15 ipso 0, ab ipso cet . lapides]
lapidis 0 16 celestis (s. I. F) templi FPU cęlestes 0 18 moneta
MOv, monetam cet . 19 dignum Ov, dignam cet . sibi M B. I .
discursor 0 21 foenea PU 23 leuiuir 0 24 inconcussa M, mcursum
0

oremus altissimum eam pacem aedificationis nostrae, qua paries
ille aliquando in templi murum factus est, ut malleus et
securis et omne uas ferreum non audiatur in ea, nec,
sicut postea in eiusdem templi reparatione inimica Persarum
inuidia, fabricam resurgentem hostilis inpediat et interrumpat
incursus. sic enim in domum orationis et pacis perficiemur,
si nulla nos carnalium cogitationum cura concidat, nullus quietem
nostram saeculi tumultus interstrepat. malleus enim nobis
cura uictus et cura uestitus est; securis et ferrum nobis cupiditas
temporalium et nocturnus mortis timor et liuor inimicus
et res huius saeculi, in cuius aut male cura aut bene amore
anima comeditur, mens conpeditur, et pax bonae uoluntatis,
quae conpositis religioso silentio sensibus confirmatur, atque
orationis intentio, quae inoffensa de libero et puro corde dirigitur,
carnalium oblatratione curarum quasi interstrepente malleo
uel securi feriente conuellitur. sed quia maior est qui
in nobis est quam qui in hoc mundo, potens est dominus
conterere Satan sub pedibus nostris, ut inpleatur
et illa pro nobis prophetia: contritus est malleus uniuersae
terrae.

Expedit autem nobis, ut etiam aedificatum cordis nostri
templum saepe dominus Iesus reuisat ueniens in flagello timoris
sui, ut eiciat de nobis mensas nummulariorum et uenditores
bonum uel columbarum, ne quod auaritiae conmercium
animus noster exerceat neque in nostris sensibus tarditas
bonum stabulet, quia ubi non sunt boues, praesepia

1] (Ps. 121, 6). 2] II Reg. 6, 7. 5] (I Esdr. 4, 4). 16] I Ioh. 4, 4.
17] Rom. 16, 20. 19] Hier. 50, 23. 23] (Matth. 21, 12; Marc. 11,15).
26] Prou. 14, 4.

1 qua] qui 0 4 reparationem 0 8 tumultus] quietus 0 9 et cura]
et F 10 mortis] noctis FPU 11 cuius] quibus FPU aut] rei add.
w mg. L male OP, malae cet . bene 0, bone P, bonae cet . 12 comeditur
scripsi, conciditur M, conditur cet., tunditur coni. Sacch . compeditur]
conciditur coni. Sacch . 14 orationi si 0 15 oblataratione 0
18 satam F, sathanan M, Satanam Rosw . 19 contritus Ov, quia contritus
cet . 22 saepe] ipse FPU fragello U 24 bouum 0, boum cet .
uel] et FPU 26 bouum 0 U, boum cet .

munda sunt, neque simus innocentiae nostrae uel diuinae
gratiae uenditores, ne faciamus orationis domum speluncam
latronum. expurgatis enim omni malitiae fermento sensibus
nostris inambulabit libenter dominus noster Iesus Christus et
uelut in illis quinque porticibus spatiabitur sapientia, uirtus
dei, quae sanat omnes languores nostros. nam et in
anima nostra multi, sicut in illa ad piscinam olim medentem
porticu, iacent aegri et debiles; quae si audiat dei uerbum, et
auaritiae lepram et inuidiae ferruginem et intemperantiae caecitatem
et iracundiae phrenesim et luxuriae paralysim praecepto
medente depellet, et nos non solum ad sanitatem innocentiae,
sed etiam ad firmitatem patientiae refectos iubebit
ilico non solum exurgere de infirmitatis lectulo, sed etiam
ipsum lectum tollere, ut portemus ualidi quo portabamur infirmi.
quod profecto etiam in spiritali uel aegritudinis uel
sanitatis nostrae genere conpletur, cum carnem nostram, cui
ut lectulo dediti iacebamus in uinculis uitiorum et infirmitate
uirtutum, postea in uerbo dei per gratiam Iesu Christi ad
bonam incorruptamque mentem renouato interiore sani quasi
grabatum illud tollimus et spiritu praeualente portamus, ferentes
ipsam sequentem quo uolumus, in qua infirmabamur expectantes
alienam opem semperque praeuenti celeritate

2] (Matth. 21, 13; Luc. 19, 46). 3] (I Cor. 5, 7). 4] (Ioh. 5, 2).
6] Ps. 102, 3. 14] (Ioh. 5, 8).

1 inmunda 0 2 spelumcam L 4 noster om. M 5 quinque om. 0
et uirtus LM, untus U 6 langores FMP 7 anima nra 0 ad-olim
om. U, adipisci nam olim P1 8 porticum FOPU multi iacent M
quae Ov, quam cet . audiat 0, adeat LMv, adiiciat F, adiciat PU
10 effrenesim 0, frenesim cet . paralysim v, paralisim L, paralisin Mf
paralisem 0, paralesim FPU 11 innocentie sanitatem FPU 14 portabamus
hoc in M infirmi Ov, infirmitatis FMPU, infirmitatis nostrae
pondere soluemur (pondere soluemur in ras.) L 15 quod-sanitatis om.
FMU; quod-completur om. L 16 nfo 0 17 in infirmitate FPU
18 dei uerbo F 19 interiores FLIU sani quasi Ov, antiqua si FPU,
nostro quasi M, homine si in ras. L 20 grabbatum O, grabattum M
illud om. M tollimus FPqU, tulimus LOP1, ferimus M portemus L1
21 quo] qua 0 infirmabimur FU spectatores U, pectatores F
22 celebritate FPU

piscinam occupantium, quia non erat qui porrigeret manum neque
qui saluos faceret, donec ipse legatis et angelis maior, quippe
ut prophetarum et angelorum dominus, adueniret et omnem
infirmitatem nostram miserando susciperet, adsumendo purgaret
et animam esurientem repleret bonis et iuberet
nos abire in domum nostram illam, ut supra dixi, non
manufactam, in qua uox laetitiae et salutis et ipse omnibus
suis Christus habitatio et regnum et rex erit testante apostolo,
quia semper cum domino erimus, cui honor et
gloria et potestas in saecula.

Text source →View original manuscript →

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern paulinus nola retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/csel-dev/master/data/stoa0223/stoa002/stoa0223.stoa002.opp-lat1.xml

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