Letter 1017: As you yourselves know better than I, it is written: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord" [Romans 12:19].

XVII. To Pomerius, lord of his own soul and to be cultivated with all the heart's affection in Christ the Lord, to the Abbot: Ruricius the bishop. It is written, as you yourself know better: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord [Romans 12:19]. So now forgive me, if you charge me with anything, since you must know that the Lord has taken vengeance. Know that we were led along such trackless ways into such hidden solitudes that the spirit shudders to recount them, the mind shrinks back, and speech is unable. For we ran into a path blocked with branches, narrowed in its breadth, bristling with thorns, closed off by tree-stumps, overgrown with brambles, rough with mold, obstructed by piles of rocks, paved over with a tangle of roots, swallowing us up in mire, so that amid such varied and such manifold evils there was no single form of danger: while the strength of the roots holds back the horses' feet and the rottenness of the ground will not bear them up, the path was stretched up so high among the mountains and sunk so deep into the valleys that we believed we were making our journey through a billowing sea, with the gusts of raging winds stirring it up, and the day snatched from our eyes by mists and clouds, since, even though the sun's ray shone upon the world, its very splendor and warmth could not reach us because of the density of the forest, while the tallness of the unhappy ferns presses upon us along the way, and the flooding of the dew so besprinkles us that, shrunk with cold or compelled by it, we sought the warmth of a great fire on the dog-days of summer. But when we had reached the place toward which our purpose was directed, hemmed in by waters and made wet, we began to perish of thirst, because, although there was, as we said, a chill in the air, yet there was warmth in the spring, a stench in the river, a burning heat on the plain, a scorching in the encampment. And, to sum up everything in a brief word, know that we made our journey along such a road as no one would wish to take even to paradise, not to say to exile. Therefore, since our Lord both made me run into all these things and ordered you to escape them, distinguishing my sins from your merits even by a visible journey, so that you, who spiritually travel the narrow and toilsome way, should not enter into the straits of this road, and we, who walk the broad and spacious way, always looking back behind us, should run into the injuries of this one: pray to the Lord, to whom we confess all things are possible, that, even though by a different road, He may nevertheless cause us to come together into one city, into which mercy can bring us, and your merits.

XVII. DOMNO ANIMAE SUAE ET TOTIS IN CHRISTO DOMINO DILECTIONIS UISCERIBUS EXCOLENDO POMERIO ABBATI RURICIUS BPISCOPUB. Scriptum est, sicut ipsi melius nostis: mihi uindicta, ego retribuam, dicit dominus. iam uos mihi, si quid inputatis, ignoscite, quia sciatis dominum uindicasse. tam auiis esse nos itineribus noueritis in tam abditas solitudines inductos, ut eas retexere animus horreat, mens refugiat,. sermo non queat. incurrimus namque semitam obstructam ramis, spatio constrictam, spinis hirtam, stirpibus clausam, obsitam sentibus, situ asperam, saxorum aggeribus inpeditam, radicum conexione constratam, caeno uoraginosam, ut in tam uariis tamque multiplicibus malis non esset simplex forma periculi, dum caballorum pedes radicum uirtus detinet et soli putredo non sustinet, montibus uero ita in sublime porrectam et uallibus in profunda demersam, ut nos per undosum mare excitantibus eum uentorum saeuientium flabris erepto ab oculis nostris nebulis ac nubibus die iter agere crederemus, quia, etiamsi mundo radius solis inluxit, ad nos prae densitate nemoris splendor ipsius et calor peruenire non ualuit, dum nos ita per iter infelicium filicum 14] Rom. 12,19. 5 queso S 8 carpere v presentia S 14 uindictam S 17 noa I esse v 20 sensibus S 22 uorallgnosam S (1 man. alt.) 25 profundo Kr . 26 dimersam S eum om. v 30 filicum Kr., felicu S, felicium 11 XXI. Fmnst. 24 proceritas premit et sic inundatio roris aspergit, ut contracti frigore uel coacti apricitatem ignis plurimi diebus cynocaumatis quaereremus.. Sed cum ad locum, ad quem tendebat intentio, peruenissemus, uallati aquis atque made facti siti occepimus deperire, quia, cum esset, ut diximus, rigor in aere, erat tamen tepor in fonte, odor in flumine, ardor in campo, aestus in castro. et, ut breui sermone uniuersa concludam, per talem uiam nos iter egisse cognoscite, per quam nec ad paradisum, non dicam ad exilium quisquam ire desideret. quapropter quia haec omnia dominus noster et me incurrere et uos iussit euadere, peccata mea a uestris meritis etiam uisibili itinere discernens, ut uos, qui arta et laboriosa spiritaliter pergitis uia, istius non incederetis angustias, et nos, qui lata et spatiosa retrorsum semper respicientes incedimus, huius incurreremus iniurias, orate dominum, cui omnia possibilia confitemur, ut, etsi per diuersum iter, ad unam nos tamen urbem faciat conuenire, in quam nos misericordia potest inferre, uos merita.