Letter 2042: I give thanks that you both care about my well-being and took the trouble to refresh me with the fresh vegetables...

42. To my most devoted lord, and venerable to me with every honor, brother Leontius, from Ruricius. I give thanks that you reckoned it of such worth both to take care of us and to refresh us with the novelty of fresh greens, which you know we gladly have, since by this you render service alike to custom and to affection. And therefore, upon the return of your boy, I render back the reciprocal office of a salutation of well-being, and I urge that you think unceasingly about the office you have undertaken, with God favorable, because God is shown to require not the beginning of a good work but its end, saying: "He who shall have persevered unto the end, this one shall be saved" [Matthew 10:22]. His mercy will grant, as we believe, that he who deigned to breathe into you a mind for repentance may himself, out of his own compassion, bestow upon us both virtue in increasing it and full remission in its consummation - he who alone is able both to heal what is corrupted, and to repair what has collapsed, and to blot out what has been committed, and to abolish things past, to preserve things present, and to grant things to come.

XXXXII. DOMINO DEUINCTISSIMO ET MIHI OMNI HONORE UENERABILI FRATRI LEONTIO RURICIUS. Gratias ago, quod et nostri curam gerere et nouitate holerum, quae libenter habere nos nostis, nos reficere tanti habuistis, quod et consuetudini praestatis pariter et amori. ideoque redeunte puero uestro reddo reciprocum sospitationis officium et, ut de suscepto deo propitio officio indesinenter cogitetis, admoneo, quia deus non initium boni operis, sed finem requirere conprobatur dicens: qui perseuerauerit usque in finem, hic saluus erit. praestabit, ut credimus, misericordia ipsius, 25] Matth. 10, 22. 5 mallo S 6 potestati S 7 mendabitis S 9 se dederit] sederit S pacietur S 11 non ante excipit denuo add. S praestauit S 12 tumultiba S dilatis ex dilectis S2, deletis Mommgenus 13 paruump S Ijitius S\', citius 82 fructus nos 8 man. rec., fj>cti|!s ;;08 81 14 uestra v in notis carpere v 15*aflFectibus v mitigentur] finit add. S 17 deuictissimo S uenerabile S 18 leoncio S 19 nouijte S (t eras.) 20 nos nostis S 22 offitium S 23 offitio S 26 praestauit S du* sericordiam S ut, qui paenitendi uobis animum inspirare dignatus est, ipse nobis et in augendo uirtutem et in consummatione plenam tribuat pro sua miseratione remissionem, qui solus potest et sanare corrupta et reparare conlapsa et delere commissa et abolere praeterita, conseruare praesentia et donare uentura.