Letter 5006: The reverence I owe your holy way of life and the affection I bear you personally have joined forces to compel this...

The supreme benefit of heavenly grace has grown beyond my merit, since I who am worthy of punishment exult at having obtained the rewards of the just. In vain does despair, mother of danger, hurl the erring headlong to extremes. Let those established in the greatest error be restored to solid hope by my example. I know not from what work, from what innocence, the fruit of your letters has come to me and satiated with the honey of heavenly good a soul rich in the abundance of sin — unless it is because he who took on our wounds and grieved for us, with the condition of merits reversed, chastises with gifts those he has seen worthy of scourges, and conversely fills the souls of the guilty with favorable things and thereby improves them with shame. Therefore by the condescension of a heavenly secret I have drawn forth the fruits of your conversation. He who cares for my soul through spiritual physicians, compelling it to return to the state of health that was granted, has made you solicitous about the health of my body. You inquire with the investigation of religious solicitude about the condition of my limbs, whose state neglects the part of the soul and is weighed down by the whole burden of this world. Bring it about by your prayer that I may become such as you assert by your blandishments, because the cloudless purity of your calling, the man whom it proclaims to be good, announces as one who will soon be so before the time of innocence. To my brothers and fellow servants whom you sent, I did not deny what consolation I was able to display — adequate more in desire than in substance. It remains that, receiving my services, together with the entire council over which you preside, sworn by the mercy of almighty God, you persist in prayers to God for my insignificance, so that he to whom confidence in the good is lacking through his own actions may obtain it through your intercession.

VI. LEONTIO ABBATI ENNODIVS. Supra meritum meum summa circa me beneficii caelestis adoleuit, dum qui poena dignus sum iustorum praemia consecutus exulto. frustra delinquentes periculi mater desperatio ad extrema praecipitat. in errore maximo constituti meo ad spem solidam reparentur exemplo. nescio de quo opere mihi, de qua innocentia epistolarum uestrarum fructus accesserit et animam peccati ubertate locupletem caelestis boni melle satiarit, nisi quia ille qui uulnera nostra suscepit et pro nobis doluit mutata meritorum condicione quos flagellis dignos uiderit castigat muneribus et uersa uice noxiorum animas dum secundis replet, pudore meliorat. superni ergo secreti dignatione confabulationis uestrae fruges elicui. uos de corporis mei sanitate sollicitos ille reddidit, qui animae meae curam per Y. 1 deetenatia B praebites B 2 conscius B parta T ut videtur 3 orbanus B 4 ceptie T 6 rebus om. B 8 mihi BL V 9 ddne P, dominae B, dfie LT, donatione b 10 ostendere] finit add. B VL 14 adolinit B 15 diiperatio LV, disaperatio B . 16 precipitat B 17 solidam spem P (spem s. I.) b 19 animam Bb, adimam LV, animam adunam T (animam e. 1. m, 2) T, ad unam P (al. a ι̃ a * 2. I m. alia) uberate B 21 conditione BLT 23 meliorat∗∗ ur eras.) L 25 aollicituB B spiritales medicos ad statum indultae ualitudinis redire conpellit. quae sit in me substantia membrorum, religiosae sollicitudinis inuestigatione perquiritis, quorum status animae partem neglegens toto mundi istius grauatur imperio. agite oratione me talem fieri, qualem adseritis blandimentis, quia fuci nescia propositi uestri claritudo quem bonum esse praedicat ante tempus innocentiae adnuntiat mox futurum. fratribus meis et conseruis, quos direxistis, quantum exhibere solacii potui uoto potius quam re idoneus non negaui. superest ut accipientes obsequia mea cum uniuerso cui praeestis concilio per dei omnipotentis misericordiam coniurati deo pro paruitate mea precibus insistatis, ut cui deest per actiones suas fiducia bonorum per suffragia uestra contingat.