Letter 3004: Sedatus, bishop, to the most holy Brother Ruricius.

To the holy lord, most blessed and to be looked up to with apostolic reverence, Pope [Bishop] Ruricius, from Sedatus. I fully believed, and, however laborious it might be for you, I earnestly hoped, that you would come to that necessity which has occasioned our presence here, and that I might, through the opportunity, deserve also your blessing, and that our mutual longing might be satisfied by seeing one another. And truly, after the hope of your presence had been disappointed, I was as though cast down from the very summit of my prayers [...] and the labor that pressed upon me, and the absence from home, and all the things by which the distress and anxiety of a disappointed hope is heaped up, came together alike into my mind. And the Lord knows that, if my strength were sufficient, or if the infirmity of my age permitted me to obey my desires, or if there were animals by which a journey of such length could be accomplished at such a season, I would not return from Toulouse before I had earned that most longed-for blessing of your blessedness and of that singular charity of yours. But because these things which have been mentioned above stand in the way of my desires, I ask and adjure you through Christ, that your devotion may ever keep me present to you, and that you may not allow charity to be diminished, or forgetfulness to obscure it, on account of the slowness of my services; but that, as I am certain you do, you may pray for me without ceasing, and that, as often as it shall be opportune, you may deign to visit your servant through the conversation of letters.

IIII. DOMINO SANCTO AO BEAT1SSIMO ET APOSTOLICA REUERENTIA SUSPICIENDO PAPAE RURICIO SEDATUS. Satis credidi et, quamlibet uobis laboriosum esset, uehementer optaui, ut ad necessitatem istam, quae hic nos exhibuit, ueniretis uel per occasionem et benedictionem uestram mererer et desiderium commune mutuo satiaretur aspectu. et uere, posteaquam me praesentiae uestrae spes frustrata est, uelut de uotorum culmine deiectus ** et laborem, qui incubuit, et absentiam domus et omnia, quibus aegritudo deceptae spei 1 a om. v commendante v, commendam S 2 disperantes S arguete 8 3 ignaue securitates 8 desides v 7 cumuni S opere precium S 8 quae] q S, qui quae Kr . conteneret S, continebat v 9 qui addidi, om. S capitulatim i. 1.] capitula tamen librum coni . v 10 carh tacius S ferendam v 11 carta 8 12 iubetis] lubet v 13 a S 14 corregere S 17 suspiciendo Kr., suscipiendo S 19 quamlibet Kr., quam habet S, quam habere iter v et post esset add. v 20 obtani S que S 22 saciaretur S 23 presentiae S frustata S 24 deiectus] odi uel fastidio desiderat Kr . labor v 25 asententia S, absentia f egritudo S decepte S et anxietas cumulatur, in animum meum pariter conueuerunt. et scit dominus, quod, si uires suppeterent aut parere desideriis aetatis infirmitas pateretur aut, si essent animalia, quibus tantum tali tempore posset itineris expediri, non prius ego a Tolosa reuerterer, quam beatitudinis uestrae et singularis illius caritatis benedictionem desideratissimam promererer. sed quia haec, quae supra dicta sunt, desideriis obsistunt, rogo et per Christum uos adiuro, ut me uobis uestra semper pietas repraesentet nec patiamini, ut pro officiorum tarditate caritatem inminuat aut obfuscet obliuio, sed pro me, sicut facere uos certus sum, incessanter oretis et, quotiens oportunum fuerit, seruum uestrum per conloquia litterarum uisitare dignemini.