Letter 39: To our holy and venerable brothers Aper and Amanda — Paulinus and Therasia, sinners.

Paulinus and Therasia, sinners, to the holy brethren Aper and Amanda, deservedly to be venerated and most beloved. Let returns from estates be furnished to other men by a customary payment; but for us, whose possession is your love in Christ, the return is taken from the offices of your affection and is reckoned in the kindness of your letters. Thanks be to the Lord our God, who, repaying living goods in place of dead and perishable ones, has bestowed you also upon us as a most fruitful estate. For just as in earthly matters that estate is dearer which either answers the greedy prayers of its farmer with flowing abundance, or flatters the eyes of its pampered possessor with its loveliness, so now in our spiritual estates, that is, in the holy brethren whom the love of Christ has joined to us and given us for an eternal possession, that man is reckoned by us a richer field who has been more devoted to us and more fruitful to us in the ministration of saving benefits. And since this is so, see how great a mass of possession of this kind we have, when, besides the affection which you pour out upon us in turn, you confer upon us other gifts, to which we cannot be equal, from the riches of your tongue and the resources of your mind. For the offices and eloquence of your letters, which you bountifully dispense to us in a yearly traffic, show how ample a possession we have, and how fertile a land you are unto God, already bringing forth the thirtyfold fruit from your continence in our midst, and approaching the sixtyfold by the daily increases of our common faith, and promising the hundredfold from a virginal offspring. Now as to what you write, that the care of your possession and of your children is a hindrance to your purpose, since these are the cause of that necessity by which you attend to earthly things while you desire heavenly ones, we judge rather that these things have been set before you by divine counsel as material in manifold ways for exercising your faith and perfecting your virtue. For since this whole possession of the world seems to have been established for man's sake and made subject to man, who would doubt that in every place of the world, in every part of nature, useful things have been prepared for the human race, from which we may take not only carnal profits, but much more may read through them spiritual ones? Therefore that wisdom which fashions things, which orders all things sweetly, says through Solomon that husbandry was created by the Most High, so that you might cultivate it not only with bodily but also with spiritual effort. And in short, it teaches how much may be drawn from the countryside to the instruction of the soul, when it sends its followers to the ant and the bee, both of which are creatures of the countryside: the one provident concerning the fruits of life, and the other a worker concerning the honey of the flowers. And how many things did the Lord teach in the Gospel by rustic examples, when by the fig tree and by the regions already near to whitening at the harvest he displayed the signs of the last times, and warning that we must learn in the field, that we beware in spirit lest the enemy sow in among us, like tares among the wheat, a fraud that rivals our faith. And so he called us his field and showed himself the sower of our life in us, and he expressed the differences of souls by the various natures of soils, so that we may beware lest the field be barren, and may cultivate our very selves also unto the fruitfulness owed to God and useful to ourselves, by pursuits engaged in the law of the Lord. Therefore, when you are in the field and look upon your countryside, consider that you yourself are also Christ's field, and look upon yourself as upon your own field. Such an appearance of your field as you require to be made by your bailiff, render such cultivation of your heart to the Lord God, and understand that whatever displeases or pleases you in your field, the same in your soul pleases or displeases Christ. If it is foul and overgrown with sins as with thorn-bushes, and is not watered by prophetic or apostolic clouds, it will be condemned, by the desertion of grace, into a dry wilderness. But if, careful of itself, it cultivates itself by frequent prayers and is enriched by the sacred scriptures, and presses the plough of the cross deep into the heart, and with the rake of divine fear roots out its own thorns, and is burned by the fiery word of God in its faults and enlightened in its senses: then it must needs be that the head of the household delights to walk abroad in your heart and to traverse all the regions of your soul, and rejoicing for you in his own joy he will say to you, if you appear a diligent cultivator of yourself: Well done, good servant, enter into the joy of your Lord; because you have been faithful in a few things, I will set you over many things. But as for us ourselves, who, by a perverse order, being weak give counsel to the strong, what shall we answer for ourselves, who are as poor in spiritual things as you suppose us to be in earthly ones, humble not by the strength of our mind but by the want of strength? That narrow little garden, which you describe with so broad a mouth, scarcely fertile and capacious of a single cabbage-stalk, is we ourselves; and beyond a half-cooked beet, as the prophet said, we are insipid. Let us see to it that in our house that single cabbage be not alone unsavory. Yet that cabbage is more excusable in not having salt, which it did not receive by the necessity of our poverty or by a vice of frugality; we rather are the boiled ones, we the more blameworthily insipid, in whom, through an over-abounding folly arising from voluntary sins, the apostolic salt has vanished, and the spiritual seasonings have fled from the face of our sins. But unless we are refreshed by your prayers, not even that single cabbage will grow green in us, and, our garden being utterly deserted, even the unsavory vegetable will be lacking. Pray therefore that the harmful caterpillar may not lay waste the shoots of our soul, that the devouring locust may not consume the standing corn of our mind, that the sluggish cankerworm may not settle upon our inmost parts, and that the blight, the last companion of these little beasts, may not eat away the innermost fibers of our vitals. For evil beasts and importunate birds press upon our inner man and frequently assail it, so that they may, if they can, snatch away from us the seed of the word. But thanks be to God, that we did not fall beside the way from the hand of the sower, but were rather sown in the way itself, that is, set in the bosom of our catholic mother; and that we may not be cast out from her like things untimely born, there is need of his mercy, that he may give us understanding in this way by which he commanded and granted us to walk, and may fix his eyes upon us, lest we become like the horse and the mule, in which there is no understanding. But let us return to the words of our husbandry; for our Lord and Father is himself a farmer, and our saving God is the true vine, and the Holy Spirit is the waterer of souls. Let it therefore come to pass for us, through your prayers, that the supreme head of the household and heavenly farmer and diligent gardener may visit and frequent and seal the garden of our soul, like that one in which he taught, prayed, and rose again. Let him make firm in us the bond of his love, that we may live as branches abiding in him. Let him command his clouds to rain upon us, and from our heart let him remove the wicked passions of carnal thoughts, like those creatures hostile to good fruits, lest there come to pass in us that saying of the prophet: that which the caterpillar left the locust ate, and that which the locust left the cankerworm ate, and that which the cankerworm left the blight ate. For there are in our body just as many chief incitements of the vices: hope, fear, joy, grief, by which the human race is most of all troubled, two of them being present and two future; present ones being sickness of soul or joy, future ones being fear or hope. Whence we must beware lest, while we flee one vice from among these, we run into its contrary. Therefore in the caterpillar and the locust and the cankerworm and the blight the passions of our affections are to be understood, of which some cling briefly in the heart, others grow little by little and, if they are not cast off, reach all the way to the marrow and drink up all the sap of the soul. For see how such monsters of the vices agree with one another in our hearts in the same way that the diseases of the monsters befall the crops. For, by way of example, if I should desire something forbidden and presently cast off the thought, it is a caterpillar sitting on the leaf and shaken off. But if I have indeed cast it off, yet the thought returns again and the casting off and returning grows frequent, it is a locust flying away and coming back. But if it begins to linger and has a greater span in eating than in flying away, it is called a cankerworm. But if that very cankerworm, which does not fly away enough but rather sits, is not cast off, it turns into blight, which, now clinging through and through, is, like blight upon the stubble, so from the soul never or hardly expelled. I fear lest, while I weary you too talkatively, I myself may have settled upon you more troublesomely than a locust or a cankerworm. Shake me off therefore like a caterpillar, and cast far away this little paper, lest from the longer contact of our discourse you contract the blight of our folly, by which the brightness of your heart may lose its splendor and the vigor of your mind be dulled. Yet for this much only, concerning this sin by which we so heavily weary you, forgive us: that out of the license of love we abuse your patience, and we so trust that your breast is filled with love of us that it may take no offense at us, even if we should do an injury by which we might deserve to give offense, if you could ever be offended by us, even when we deserve it.

XXXVIIII. SANCTIS MERITO VENERABIMBVS AC DELECTISSIMIS FRATRIBVS APRO ET AMANDAE PAVLINVS ET THERASIA PECCATORES. Aliis reditus de patrimoniis pensitatione sollemni praebeantur, nobis, quibus possessio caritas uestra in Christo est, reditus ab officiis affectionis uestrae sumitur et in litterarum uestrarum humanitate numeratur. gratias domino deo nostro, qui bona uiua pro mortuis et caducis rependens uos quoque 10 nobis uberrimum fundum largitus est. nam ut in rebus terrenis carior fundus est, qui aut auaris agricolae sui uotis proflua ubertate respondet aut delicati possessoris oculis 2] Ps. 31, 9. (48, 13; Tob. 5, 17). 6] Rom. 6, 19. 1 et om. FPU 2 conparantur 0, comparamur cet., comparabimur v 4 pasciscitur L1, paascitur 0 pietatis F1 contempta 0 5 uel tales om. FPU 6 diabulo 0 7 iniquitati-seruire om. U 9 deo FPU 11 curremus U 12 curramus U; uale add. FP%U . — finit . l- O. FLMOPU . — item eiusdem ad eundem XXX- L, ad eundem - XXXVIII. M, incipit . II 0, epistola sancti paulini episcopi ad aprum et amandam coniugem eius; quam habuit antequam efficeretur episcopus: De spiritali agricultura in homine exercenda. et de quatuor uitiorum incentiuis: de ortulo cordis extirpandis. uidelioet. spes. metus. gaudium. et b dolor U 14 ac] et F 15 amande P, amando FlO terasia M 16 alii U redditus FLMPU et infra patrimonii FLMPU 19 numeretur 01 22 auari FP9I1 23 delecati O amoenitate blanditur, ita nunc in nostris praediis spiritalibus id est sanctis fratribus, quos nobis caritas Christi conexuit et in aeternam possessionem dedit, is nobis ut opimior ager aestimatur homo, qui fuerit nostri diligentior et fructuosior nobis salutarium commodorum ministratione. quod cum ita sit, uidete quantam nos massam huiuscemodi possessionis habeamus, cum praeter affectum, quem in nos mutuo effunditis, alia, quibus pares esse non possumus, munera copiis linguae et mentis uestrae opibus conferatis. officia enim et eloquia litterarum uestrarum, quae nobis largiter annuo commeatu penditis, indicant quam ampla possessio nobis et quam fertilis terra deo sitis, iam tricesimum fructum de uestra inter nos continentia proferentes et cotidianis fidei communis augmentis saxagesimo propinquantes et de prole uirginea centesimum pollicentes. Nam quod scribitis inpedimenta uestri esse propositi possessionis et filiorum curam, qui causa sint necessitatis istius qua terrena curatis, cum caelestia desideretis, in multimodam potius uobis exercendae fidei perficiendaeque uirtutis materiam diuino haec esse proposita consilio iudicamus. cum enim haec uniuersa mundi possessio propter hominem constituta hominique subiecta uideatur, quis ambigat in omni loco mundi, in omni parte naturae utilitates humano (generi) paratas, e quibus non solum carnalia emolumenta capiamus, sed multo magis spiritalia perlegamus. propterea dicit per Salomonem ipsa rerum opifex sapientia, quae disponit omnia suauiter, ab 14] (Matth. 13, 8; Mare. 4, 8; Luc. 8, 8). 20] (Gen. 1, 26). 25] Sap. 8, 1. 2 connexit F in eternum 0, internam FPU 3 ut opimior scripsi, ut opinor m (nisi quod M s. l.), opinior v extimatur FPU, estimabitur M 5 commodo FLPU ministratione Ov, sub ministratione cet . 6 quantum F nos U massas F 7 effundetis 0 10 annua M impenditis LM 13 augumentis PU 14 et om. FPU 15 impedenta U possessiones Mv 16 et om. v curam M, om. cet. v sunt M istius] huius M 18 perficiendae F materiem FLMU 19 hec ex hoc F preposita FU 21 ambiget O1 22 naturae parte U utilitatis FOPU humano generi scripsi, humano FOP, humanae LMU, homini v 23 carnali P emulumenta Pll altissimo creatam rusticationem, ut eam non corporali tantum sed etiam spiritali studio colas. denique quantum de rure ad eruditionem animae trahi possit docet, cum sectatores suos ad formicam et apem mittit, quae utraque ruris animalia sunt, illa de frugibus uitae prouida et ista de floribus mellis opeararia. et dominus in euangelio quam multa de rusticis docuit exemplis, de ficu arbore et de flauescentibus propinqua iam messe regionibus ultimorum temporum signa demonstrans, et in agro esse discendum monens, quod caueamus in spiritu, ne fidei nostrae aemulam fraudem sicut zizaniam tritico inimicus interserat. itaque nos agrum suum dixit seque ipsum ostendit in nobis uitae nostrae satorem, et animarum discrimina uariis terrarum expressit ingeniis, ne sterilis sit caueamus, nos quoque ipsos ad fecunditatem deo debitam et nobis utilem contentis in lege domini studiis excolamus. Igitur cum in agro es et rus tuum spectas, te quoque ipsum Christi agrum esse cogita et in te sicut in agrum tuum respice. qualem agri tui speciem fieri a uilico tuo postulas, talem deo domino cordis tui redde culturam et intellege, quicquid in agro tuo tibi displiceat aut placeat, idem in anima tua placere Christo aut displicere. si uasta peccatis quasi dumis sordeat neque propheticis aut apostolicis nubibus conpluatur, in aridam solitudinem gratia deserente damnabitur. si uero sui diligens orationibus crebris semet excolat et sacris litteris opimetur et intimum cordi aratrum crucis inprimat et rastro « 3] (Prou. 6, 6. 30, 25; Eccli. 11, 3). 6] (Luc. 18, 6; Ioh. 4, 45; Marc. 13, 28; Luc. 21, 29; Matth. 13, 25. 24, 40). a 1 creatam esse M 2 spuali M 3 trihi 0 5 pr . de om. U flugibus M1, floribus P* in mg . 6 euuangelio 0 de] et de LM 7 flauiscentibus 0 propinquam iam U 8 messem PU demostrans L 9 ne om. U 10 zizania LM 13 igitur ne terra agri nostri sterilis sit M 14 intentis M 15 dominii U 16 igitur cum] cum ergo M r atro esset ros 0 quoque] que M 18 fieri om. FPU uillica tua FPU 19 domino deo FMPU 20 animo tuo F 21 Christo om. M si uasta] si autem LM 22 sordeant FOPU nubibus Ov, manibus cet . 24 suis F1 crebis L1 25 in intimum LM cordi 0v, cordis cet . I crucis aratrum U crucis] cordis M impmat exp. M diuini timoris spinas suas eruat ignitoque dei uerbo uratur in culpis, luminetur in sensibus: tunc necesse est ut spatiari in tuo corde patrem familias et omnes animae tuae regiones peragrare delectet, et pro te in suo adgaudens tibi dicet, si diligens tui cultor appareas: euge, bone serue, intra in gaudium domini tui; quia fidelis fuisti in paucis, super multa te constituam. Nos uero ipsi, qui peruerso ordine consilium ualidis infirmi damus, quid pro nobis respondeamus, qui tam pauperes quam putas spiritalia potius quam terrena re sumus, non uirtute mentis sed inopia uirtutis humiles. angustus ille, quem lato potens ore describis, uix unici caulis ferax et capax hortulus, nos ipsi sumus et ultra betam semicoctam, ut propheta dixit, insipidi; faciamus, ne in domo nostra caulis ille solus insulsus sit. excusabilius tamen ille non habet salem, quem inopiae nostrae necessitate aut parsimoniae uitio non accepit; nos potius elixi, nos culpabilius insulsi, in quibus superabundante de peccatis uoluntariis insipientia sal apostolicus euanuit et facie peccatorum nostrorum spiritalia condimenta fugerunt. sed nisi uestris orationibus reficiamur, nec ipse unicus caulis in nobis uirebit penitusque desertis etiam insulsum holus deerit. Orate igitur, ne germina animae nostrae nocens eruca populetur, ne mentis segetem edax locusta consumat, ne praecordiis nostris piger bruchus insideat et intimas uitalium fibras ultima harum bestiolarum comes rubigo exedat. urgent enim interiorem nostrum malae bestiae et inportunae alites 5] Matth. 25, 21; Luc. 19,17. 13] (Es. 51,20). 18] (Matth. 5,13). 22] (Ioel. 1, 4). 4 dicet LM, dicit 0, dicat FPU si-appareas om. M 5 bone serue Ov, serue bone cet . intra] et fidelis intra U 7 supra FMPU 8 ini firmi damus] infirmamus (\' m. 2) F 10 spiritali L\'v resumus U 11 humilis FLPU 12 discribis 0 ortulus M 13 bęt.am M semecoctam 0 14 caulus PU, caules 0 17 potius] peius Schot . elexi 0 18 insipientiae F 19 a facie Mv, acie fort . 20 nisi] si LM U nec om. FPU unius 0 21 disertis 0 holis 0 23 populet 0 praecordia nostra U 24 brucus w et sic infra insileat F 25 harum om. M uergent FPU 26 hominem] hominem nostrum LM XXVIIII. Fanlioi Nol. epistnlae. 22 frequenter infestant, ut a nobis, si possint, uerbi semen abripiant. sed gratias deo, quod non iuxta uiam de manu serentis excidimus, sed in ipsa potius uia seminati sumus, id est in catholicae matris gremio constituti, a quo ne proiciamur ut abortiui, ipsius misericordia opus est, ut intellectum det nobis in uia hac qua ingredi iussit ac praestitit, et confirmet super nos oculos suos, ne efficiamur sicut equus et mulus, quibus non est intellectus. Sed ad rusticationis nostrae uerba redeamus; nam ipse dens noster et pater agricola est, et deus salutaris noster uera uitis est, et spiritus sanctus rigator animarum est fiat igitur nobis per orationes uestras, ut summus pater familias et caelestis agricola et diligens hortulanus uisitet et frequentet et signet hortum animae nostrae sicut illum, in quo docuit orauit resurrexit. firmet in nobis caritatis suae nexum, ut manentia in ipsum sarmenta uiuamus. imperet nubibus suis, ut pluant super nos, et a corde nostro inprobas carnalium cogitationum passiones ut illa animalia bonis frugibus inimica submoueat, ne fiat in nobis uerbum illud prophetae: residuum erucae comedit locusta et residuum locustae M comedit bruchus et residuum bruchi comedit rubigo. sunt enim in corpore nostro principalia totidem incentiua uitiorum, spes metus gaudium dolor, quibus maxime genus turbatur humanum, duobus praesentibus et duobus futuris, praesentibus aegritudine animi uel gaudio, futuris metu uel spe. unde cauendum est, ne dum aliud ex his uitium fugimus, incurramus contrarium. 2] (Matth. 13, 4). 7] (Ps. 31, 8). 10] Ioh. 15, 1. 14] (Matth. 26, 36. 28, 6; Marc. 14, 32). 19] Ioel 1, 4. 1 arripiant FPU 2 excidamus U 4 proiciamus 0 7 oculos suos super uos M 9 et ipse FPU 11 post . est s. I . m. 2 F 13 ortulanus FMPU, ortolanus L (to in ras.) 14 ortum FLMPU 15 et resurrexit F 16 ipso v sermenta FO 18 passionis Ml 19 ne om. 0 illud uerbum U 20 locusta] locustae 0 21 bruci w 26 ne ex nec L alium 0, alterum v Ergo in eruca et locusta et brucho et rubigine nostrarum adfectionum intellegendae sunt passiones, quarum aliae breuiter in corde haereant, aliae paulatim crescant et, si abiectae non fuerint, usque ad medullas perueniant et omnem sucum ebibant animae. uide enim quae taliter ista sibi congruant in cordibus nostris monstra uitiorum, qualia in frugibus accidunt uitia monstrorum. nam uerbi gratia, si quid uetitum concupiscam et mox abiciam cogitationem, eruca est in folio sedens atque decussa; si abiecero quidem, sed rursus redierit cogitatio et coeperit abici et redire crebrescat, locusta est auolans et reuertens. quod si coeperit inmorari et maius habuerit spatium in comedendo quam auolando, bruchus dicitur. quod si ipse bruchus qui non satis auolat, sed magis sedet, non fuerit abiectus, in rubiginem uertitur, quae iam penitus inhaerescens ut de stipula sic de anima numquam aut difficile expellitur. Vereor ne, dum loquacius uos fatigo, ipse uobis molestius quam locusta aut bruchus insederim. discutite igitur ut erucam et procul abicite hanc cartulam, ne de longiore contactu sermonis nostri rubiginem insipientiae nostrae conligatis, qua desplendescat nitor cordis uestri et uigor mentis hebetetur. attamen ob hoc tantum super hoc peccato nobis, quo uos tam grauiter fatigamus, ignoscite, quod de licentia caritatis abutimur patientia uestra, et ita repletum pectus uestrum nostri amore confidimus, ut offensam nostri non capiat, etiamsi faciamus iniuriam, qua mereamur offendere, si uos umquam a nobis uel merentibus possitis offendi. n 3 herent M crescunt M 4 ad 0 v, om. cet . perueniant M 5 animae ebibant (ebibunt M) LMU quae taliter scripsi, qualiter w 6 uestris 01 7 accedunt 0 9 filio 0 atque (I), quae v, qua Gryn . 10 crebescat L lU 12 aduolando U brucus m 13 aduolat U 15 inherens F 18 indeserim 01 discutite m decutite corr. M 19 contractu U 20 nostrae insipientiae M inisipientiae 01 21 desplendiscat 0 22 peccato (o in ras.) M 23 agnoscite U 24 pectus om. M 25 offensum 0 nostram FPU 27 offendi] ualere uos opto add. Fp\'U finit ad aprum • II. 0 . 22*