Letter 23: To my brother Severus,

Why do you force us to love you more? What is already at its fullest does not admit increase. If the sea could overflow its boundaries, and whatever things preserve their natural fullness could experience a growth in time, then the love we bear you could be heaped still higher — we who already fulfill love's measure by loving you as we love ourselves. And so, just as we cannot add a cubit to our stature, neither can we add to the sum of our love for you. Yet to our longing we set no limit. For you who think you satisfy us by this constancy of honor and devotion, by which you try to compensate for your presence through such frequent letters, you rather whet the appetite of our love, and the more you fill us with the grace of your letters, the more you furnish cause — by that very diligence and the warmth of your speech, brother of such singular harmony with us in Christ — for us to desire you yourself. For what can be done more lovingly in God and neighbor than what you show forth in us for Christ? In him both commandments of God are fulfilled, because he is both God to us by the majesty of his own nature and has become our neighbor by his assumption of ours. In you, therefore, as this love advances, your charity is brought to perfection — a charity that is infinite in the one who is himself perfect, because it finds its end in Christ, whose greatness has no limit. But in him let our end be this: that through him we may live without end. For Christ is both our universal beginning, because through him are all things, and our particular summit, because he is the head of the body whose members we are. Sweet and upright is the Lord, sweet in you to me; and how great is the abundance of his sweetness — you are that to me! For however great you are, whatever your mind, whatever your tongue, you are wholly desire, and you taste to me of the sweetness of Christ, like a garden to me, like the fragrance of a full field, which you gathered while running in the fragrance of his ointments. For you too are his field, just as he in turn is our field: in him we sow and from him we reap. But you are a field not bristling with thorns nor parched with sand nor rough and bare with rocks, where seed is either choked or abandoned or scorched, but that field which God has blessed with the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth. Hence your tongue drips with the word of God, and your heart, fertile ground, multiplies the seed received from God with a spiritual harvest, so that from your fruits the reaper fills his hand and the one who gathers sheaves fills his bosom — that is, God himself, who is both sower and reaper of his word in us. He is also the hand, being the right hand of God, which we fill with good works; and he is that bosom of Abraham in which we rest as the reward of our works. So this God, abounding toward us in your love, blesses, visits, feeds, and enlightens us not only through your letters but also through your messengers, opening to us through both the good treasure of your heart. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and, he says, every creature is gathered to its like. Therefore God has blessed you, because the innocent and upright have cleaved to you, and you have not sat with the ungodly. You have hated iniquity; you love your soul, which you have cast away in Christ so that, lost to this life, it might be preserved for the eternal one, gaining itself by its own loss, if through the love of Christ it becomes cheap in its own eyes. Breathing in the sweetness of your soul — precious to God though cheap to yourself — from your lips that breathe Christ, we bless the Lord, God the Word, who, just as in that very man whom he bore, so in our minds works through certain stages of bodily age: he is born, he grows, he matures, he grows old. But we must pray that he not remain long or perpetually small and weak and poor in us. In you, indeed — and we boast of this, because your good is our glory — experiencing his advancement, we recognize one who is great in goodness, small in malice, old in wisdom, strong in faith, poor in the spirit of holy humility, and rich in love. For by your earlier acts of service toward our lowliness you had outstripped all others: more devoted than all our friends, more reverent than our neighbors, more diligent than our brothers, as we have often attested. But now, by this latest visit, you have surpassed even yourself with a graciousness that exceeds all bounds. For it would have been enough for us to earn your letters through annual visits and to see those sent by you, in whom we could hold not only a substitute for your presence but also an image of your faith. Yet for you it was not enough to celebrate the established observance with its customary performance. Your great love made the winter's silence from us seem long. Your heart grew hot within you, and in the meditation of your devotion a holy fire of blessed impatience blazed forth. And it was not enough for you to hasten by sending a letter to us, unless you also heaped up the grace of your message by choosing a distinguished bearer from among your holy companions. Blessed is the one whom you chose and took up for this service, by which you lend to God at interest — because, even though we are sinners by the true confession of our conscience, yet by the mistaken opinion of your simplicity you think us saints, as you say, and love us no longer with merely human love but with the love of Christ. And for that reason you will receive the reward of a prophet, because for the sake of Christ's name you receive even non-prophets with the honor due to prophets. But a similar grace is not owed to us for this service, by which we received brother Victor [a monk sent by Sulpicius Severus, a close friend of Paulinus] — coming to us in God's name and in your person — with deep affection and great joy. For we did only what useless servants ought to have done, since the evident truth compelled us to receive and revere in him a pure sheep: one whom not only the fleece of a sheep but the spirit of meekness and the modesty of Christ, expressed in his word and silence alike, revealed. We truly recognized in him the pattern of the blessed saints Martin [Martin of Tours, the famous ascetic bishop, d. 397] and Clarus [a disciple of Martin of Tours], whom, as you have told us, he follows at a close interval as a disciple of that illustrious master. He declared himself, this son of peace, Victor, to be the offspring of the one in regeneration and the companion of the other on the way. A man truly, as you wrote, of God — humble of heart, not humble in grace — a vessel of mercy and a dwelling of the Most High, who receives him and delights him in the tranquil hospitality of his trembling soul. He brought us blessings beyond those twin gifts he carried from you in letters and cloaks: he added more from the riches of his own mind. He was most welcome to us not only in spiritual fellowship but also diligent in bodily service. For I dare confess this burden of mine: let me not be silent about his good deeds, which I know are your joy, since the good of your household is your portion. He served me — I say it again, served me — and woe to me, wretch that I am! I suffered it. He served even a sinner, he who was not a slave to sin. And I, unworthy, was ministered to by a servant of righteousness. But from this I hope for some relief from so great a burden: that I did not claim the holy brother's service out of pride, but admitted it from fear of grieving his love and from faith in receiving a blessing. For his holy service in the name of God was a blessing to me, and his loving service in the spirit of freedom. For this reason I accepted his voluntary good deed for his own benefit as well, presuming that the more merit he acquired from works of devotion, the more powerful he would be in praying for me. He will surely see to it by his prayers that what came to him from me has not added to my burdens but has also increased his own fruits. For I loved, I confess, the blessing in his service, fearing that if I rejected it, it would distance itself from me, because I held fast to what is written: "He did not desire blessing, and it shall be far from him." And so I gave myself entirely into his hands and his heart, because through the heart of love he applied his servant hands as anointer to my limbs and washer to my feet, full of generous feeling but seizing upon servile tasks — he would scarcely let me minister water to his hands. For from your book I had come to love the grace of this kind of service, so that I might taste at least a tiny drop from the sacred deeds of Martin. He himself, indeed, every day desired not only to wash my feet but also to clean my shoes, if I allowed it — greedy for inner dominion and therefore tireless in bodily servitude. But regarding the washing of feet, I confess that only once did I yield to the apostolic example — I who had read that the apostles presented their own feet to the Lord who served them. For they would not have received their share in the inheritance unless they had accepted the service of the one who served, since the good Lord and teacher of saving things conferred the merit of ruling through the ministry of serving and provided an example of human humility, through which he was preparing a share in divine exaltation. Hence, having perceived the mystery of so great a gift and having understood the magnitude of the good, those who at first had hesitated to offer their feet at the servant's approach now asked to be washed not only on their feet but on their whole selves, up to the head. And I, venerating the Lord Jesus in brother Victor — because every faithful soul is from God, and a humble heart is the heart of Christ — confess that I desired, as a remedy for my weakness, that this better fellow-servant should touch me with oil or water. Nor was I disappointed in the help I presumed upon: for the oil, as though medicated by his devout hands, glided more gently into my very marrow from the very gentleness of the anointing, and my humbled bones exulted. My soul blessed the Lord, and all that is within me blessed his holy name. For this exercise of devotion — a wrestling-match of piety rather than of the body — also benefited the strengthening of my senses, as the good brother, composing my fragile limbs with his shaping hand, also raised the vigor of my mind by refreshing my bones, with faith doubtless cooperating with his hands, so that while the hand of a loving one guided my weak flesh, the grace of a believing one cleansed my sympathizing soul, and what was outwardly oil of healing became inwardly oil of gladness. Receive now another form of this same man's service to our senses, by which, tending not only to our refreshment but also to our frugality, he taught us to take a simple meal of porridge cooked in a splash of oil and plenty of water. But he seasoned them with such a salt of grace, such a sweetness of love, that we did not miss cooks and seasonings — because simplicity joined to love blended the oil of sweetness, which no importunity of flies could drive away, with the pure water. But this spiritual cook, more skilled at feeding the inner person, in order to destroy the food of gluttony prepared our porridge not from fine wheat flour but from coarse meal or millet. And lest he seem to deal too delicately with us — he who was training us to adopt the appetite of monks — he stirred beans into the groats, so that we might the sooner lay aside our senatorial fastidiousness. But in the blessing of the soul's sweetness we had our delicacies, rejoicing that our brother, spiritual even in his bodily ministrations, fed us on prophetic foods. For in the blended concoction he imitated those loaves of tribulation which the prophet Ezekiel [the Old Testament prophet commanded by God to bake symbolic bread] was commanded to make from various kinds of grain and meal, and, as an expression of Jewish confusion — they who, forgetting God, exchanged their glory for the likeness of a calf eating grass — to bake them over cow dung and eat them, baked under foul ashes, with tears of captivity, taking them by measure: so that they might foresee in the prophet's body the punishment for their faithlessness, physically enacted, and thus at least return to the Lord, if the wrath of the offended God, proclaimed not only in words but also expressed in the bodies of the prophets, should call them back to repentance. Brother Victor wished, therefore, that we should learn to humble our soul not only by fasting but also by our food, and, by remembering old sins and understanding present ones, to eat in sorrow the bread of grief — although he spared us in part, mixing only beans with millet and groats. Yet this may have been more a matter of forgetfulness than moderation, for the holy man would have been careful, out of faithful caution, not to subtract anything from Holy Scripture for us, and, to complete the whole preparation of the prophetic bread according to God's word, he would also have mixed in lentils and barley and vetch into the pot, so that, as its contents boiled over with the ferment of unlike grains resisting one another in the cooking, the pot would crack and split open with fissures. Nevertheless, filling a capacious vessel from even these fewer grains, he served us dishes steaming with much smoke, and filled not only the space of our little table but also the extent of our little cell with a pungent haze. And, to multiply the blessing for us, he offered our little supper the meal of yet another prophet, bringing us the pot of Elisha [the Old Testament prophet, successor of Elijah], into which he cast flour — not cooking in the herb of poison but a condiment of salvation, doing everything he did in the name of the Lord. Thus safe and secure, we did not cry out to him, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" — because life was now in our pot, after the Lord Jesus, the Word of God, was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the clay vessels of our body, which had slipped from his hands through the slipperiness of our own willful depravity and had been broken by prolonged sins — he, the potter himself, assumed them in himself to renew them for better use, being himself made from the clay of our body like, as he says, a lost vessel — that is, in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that through sin he might condemn sin. And so he says: "Moab is the pot of my hope," because he assumed his body not only from Judah but also from Moab — that is, not only from the line of the holy but also from that of sinners. Having cooked away, as it were through the pot of our flesh, its rawness, he sanctified for us an eternal food — his own flesh. For his flesh, as he himself says, is truly the food of life. This same pot is also, according to Jeremiah [the Old Testament prophet], the pot that burns away sins and consumes them with that fire of which he says: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth" — a fire we should pray to have kindled in us, so that in the pot of the Lord's body, that is, the Church, we may be cooked down, and, with our vices burned away and purged, we may become silver tested by fire, tried in the earth, purified sevenfold — so that we may remain no longer as branches fit for burning but as fruitful shoots in the same Lord, that is, the true vine, and that the same Lord may become sweet food for us, that delightful cluster which, hung for us on the carrying-pole of the cross from the promised land, both showed us the fruit and gave us a taste, so that we no longer pursue the worthless weeds of uncultivated ground, among which we also risk picking the poisonous berries of wild vines. This is what surely happens to us when, our soul overgrown with the thorns of worldly cares — the soul whose cultivation is the word of God — we sigh through this life that is short in years and barren of good, and amid superfluous pursuits we gather noxious sins like poisonous growths among wild herbs, and so we put death into the pot of our body or heart. But thanks be to God, who has delivered us from this body of death through Christ Jesus our Lord: by mixing the power of his Spirit with our weakness, both the bitterness of our malice and the barrenness of our uselessness have been changed to sweetness and fruitfulness — as if by the sprinkling of saving or life-giving salt — the word of God poured into our hearts transforming them. Let us return to brother Victor, who also made our little jar of flour abundant from the blessing, through the regular use he made of it in the name of God, so that he might give us something even from the jar of blessed Elijah [the Old Testament prophet fed by ravens and who multiplied the widow's provisions], whose heavenly prophet fed the blessed widow with her children through a three-year famine, refilling the jar to unfailing sufficiency by a sacred word. In that widow, I think, Christ was already then, through the prophet, feeding his Church not with the bread of wheat but of the Word — she of whom he says: "I will surely bless her widow," namely that widow whom the Apostle says is free to marry whom she wishes when her husband is dead, because when the Law — whose end is Christ — ceased, the Church, making the transition to the freedom of grace, married Christ as a widow of the Law, so to speak. The oil of grace and the flour of blessing in the vessels of this widow have not failed amid the famine of all the nations outside, whose wretched starvation from the food of life and faith in the Trinity was fittingly prefigured by that three-year famine of old. But, to conclude on this subject, the grace of the Lord was so felt in our flour under brother Victor's hand that what barely sufficed for bread before now abounds even for porridge, and satisfies the monastic brotherhood — eager for their evening meal after fasting — with a double service of leavened rounds or loose groats. Yet the same Victor of mine, although he strove to accustom our stomach to heartier foods, nevertheless also consulted for our weakness as a necessary brother, in that he made up for the failings of our faith in consuming those porridges, and completed the works of his own hands with one helper for this dish on our behalf — one whom we had taken in from the country folk and reared at home, old in body's age but an infant in mind, because already failing with old age he had been reborn in grace and bloomed into newness of life from the old age of the flesh. Brother Victor's cooking nourished him both with his accustomed food, making a civilized person out of a rustic, and with food soft enough for a toothless man. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him. He rescued him from darkness and the shadow of death. And now, sprinkled with hyssop and cleansed, in the voice of exultation and confession he feasts and cries out: "I have gone astray like a sheep that was lost. I will bless the Lord at all times, who has given me understanding and rescued me from the mire of the dregs and put a new song in my mouth. I was young, and I have grown old; but my days have not been consumed in vanity, because he who is mighty has done great things for me. He has given me to drink from the torrent of his pleasure, and my flesh has flourished again. He has sent me grain in abundance and has satisfied my empty soul, and now my old age is in the mercy of rich fatness, until I fall asleep in peace and rest in length of days." I come now to a greater service of brother Victor toward me: he deigned to cut my hair with his own hands. Yet he wished me to owe even this kindness to you, saying that he was revealing his craft to me at your bidding. For this reason I asked him that what he did with his skilled hand, you both might accomplish with lavish prayers — namely, that with the Lord prevailed upon by your prayers, our sins (by which our soul is matted, multiplied as they are beyond the hairs of our head) might not be trimmed by a halfway cutting but utterly destroyed as if by a razor shaving down to the living skin. Now we have a razor that brings either salvation or destruction. The razor of remedy and beauty for us is Christ our God, who circumcises our heart, shaves away our vices, smooths the head of the soul, and tends the face of the mind. He purifies and frees us like that captive woman in the Law, stripping us of the dreadful hair of wretched servitude, so that, about to be joined to the Lord — as she was to pass into marriage with an Israelite man — we may be stripped of the sins of our flesh as of barbarian locks, and then, with our senses renewed, we may shine forth with fresh growth, and consecrate our life to God in chastity and temperance, nurturing it like the hair of a Nazirite [one under a special vow of consecration to God, as described in the Book of Numbers]. But we must beware lest that hostile razor on the other side — the one that shaved the head of the human race when the first parents were deceived by its harmful fraud — ascend to our head, that is, our faith by which Christ is made our head, and strip us of spiritual grace as it stripped that Nazirite of his hair. How much that hair benefits those who preserve it and how destructively it is shorn from the careless — that hero in the Book of Judges [Samson], made sacred by divine oracles, demonstrates: invincible while his hair was kept, captive when it was cut, and strong again when it grew back. Would that he had been as prudent in avoiding the woman as he was strong in strangling the lion! But he who had conquered by spiritual grace was overcome by fleshly enticement: having prevailed against the strong, he was defeated by weakness. This is bound to happen to those who do not subject their own woman — that is, their flesh — to their man — that is, their spirit — under God's laws, and who, like soft husbands yielding to a seductive wife, acquiesce with slack souls, unlike that master who, the moment he recognized Christ, in the very first stages of his service as a soldier, victorious in the great contest, did not acquiesce to flesh and blood. Let us therefore consider all that Samson suffered, corrupted by his faithless wife, because we sinners will spiritually undergo the same things that he endured in the flesh as an object lesson for us. For if we violate the grace of Christ, just as his hair was cut, the enemy will mock us — will take our eyes, throw us into prison, and assign us to turning millstones like donkeys. Hence the Lord warns us, lest we make our neck — not submitted to the yoke of Christ — worthy of a donkey's millstone, through the prophet: "Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding." For a human being, as the same prophet says elsewhere, who does not understand his honor — that is, the dignity of his own nature, which by reason rules over the other creatures on earth, and was made rational precisely so as to know and worship his Creator — abusing so great a gift of the Creator for the license of his own error, is compared to the beasts and made like them. This we see clearly fulfilled in the king of Babylon [Nebuchadnezzar, as described in the Book of Daniel], who, stripped of human sense as punishment for his senseless impiety and insane pride, endured these things with the heart of a beast. For a person set in error and fallen back from righteousness, justly deserted — like Samson — of the power of both wisdom and grace, is punished with blindness and the millstone, because the one who has robbed himself of the light of reason and cast himself down as a slave of the body in the likeness of beasts deserves the labor of a beast. Consider the life of mortals of this kind, and the whole image of a beast at the mill will present itself to you. Just as that beast has its bodily eyes covered with rags, so this person has the eyes of his mind sewn shut with the filth of his life, and through the errors of his senses he revolves, wretched, in laborious station as if around the circuits of millstones — empty for his own use and busy for another's. He stands in the way of sinners, shackled by the chains of his own desires, and is himself his own prison, beset by the darkness of his error and encrusted with the squalor of his conscience. Within himself he endures the workhouse of a mill, turning the stone of his heart, hardened by the stubbornness of his iniquity, like a millstone, grinding flour for his enemies from the corrupted grain of his soul. Because, as it is written, the sinner runs from his own soul, so the one who works sin grinds hostile wheat from the mill of his life, to feed the devil, whose bread is the soul that is its own famine. But if the spirit, not always departing but sometimes returning, becomes like hair growing back and grace reflowering, he will be restored. But to weave our whole letter from the topic of hair, it is a pleasure to indulge the discussion and follow that strong man of the Lord all the way to his end. For we shall marvel that even in his blindness and in his death the mysteries of the divine sacrament were prefigured: the fact that is written, that he laid low more enemies in dying than he had struck down in his whole prior life, I think should be interpreted first and foremost as a figure of the power of the Lord's passion, by which the devil's house fell and the kingdom of death was dissolved. For although Christ always lives, as he does live, and before his coming in the flesh, as God the Word in the majesty of his nature with God the Father, nevertheless — the ages having been arranged in their order from Adam to Moses — the power of death had reigned with its license running wild, and had grown through the Law when sin was understood but not avoided. This kingdom, the King of kings and disposer of times, the Son of God, divided and destroyed by his passion. God was made subject to the Law, so that he might free those who were enslaved to the Law; made through a woman — but a woman by sex, a virgin in birth — so that the Creator of both sexes might sanctify both, by receiving the Word, by being born through a woman. And so he destroyed death itself by dying, dissolving, as it is written, enmities in his flesh, and making both one — that is, human and God — whom God and man, Christ Jesus, joined in himself, in whom the discord of both natures' substance reached its settlement and recognized the eternal covenant of unifying grace. We had been robbed by the devil's brigandage and wounded on the road: a brother in the Levite passed by, a brother in the priest — those whom the Law had redeemed neither by sacrifices nor by prophets. But that Samaritan [referring to the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10] did not pass by — he who for our sake also accepted the insult of that very name. He did not pass by, because he was not a hireling but the true and good shepherd, who had come to lay down his life for his sheep. This one, taking pity on his own human being, whom his predecessors had passed by and not healed, drew near and took him up on his own beast — that is, by the incarnation of the Word — and, having commended him with the oil of grace and the wine of his passion to the innkeeper, that perfect teacher of the nations, he healed him with the wage of a denarius from the two testaments, and will repay him also the abundant rewards and innumerable crowns of blessed virginity from the countless fruits of that good — because, adding this counsel to the commandment, he spent from his own beyond what was owed. This one was therefore not a brother (for both in condition the Lord differed from servants and in nature God from mortals), yet he was also a man — the one of whom it is written: "He is a man, and who shall know him?" Nor is he our brother, though divine compassion in the humility of his heart has granted that name to his servants, saying, "I will declare your name to my brothers." Still, our presumption should not dare to call him brother, nor because he deigned to become a man does he have anything in common with us in his very birth as a man, since he was made flesh by the Holy Spirit and both conceived and born with the virginity of his sacred mother inviolate, beyond the process of our generation. And so, having become our body without any contagion of our body, he did not offer his own ransom to God, because he himself was the propitiation — nor the price of the redemption of his own soul, but of ours, because the Savior did not need salvation. For we, sold under sin, needed the price of redemption, and therefore he became a man for our sake, the form of a servant for our sake, the son of a handmaid for our sake. He who is blessed and the sanctifier of saints was nevertheless made for us both sin and a curse — what he was not — so that we, who were sin by transgression and a curse by condemnation, might be absolved from both, as he nailed both to the cross in his own flesh. Therefore I think it was said: "A brother does not redeem; a man shall redeem" — because those whom a brother had not redeemed, that is, a prophet or lawgiver who was only a man, this man redeemed, who was also God. "For God," he says, "was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." For only a man of this kind could prevail against the sentence of death and the sting of sin, to abolish the bond of death and humble the accuser — not, however, engaging him with the majesty of his own nature but with the garb of ours, and wresting nothing from him by violent domination, but overcoming him by the law of justice: since a woman had been deceived and the man cast down through the woman, the devil claimed the entire offspring of the first man as sinners by the laws of death — with a malicious desire to harm, yes, but nevertheless with what was, as it were, the most just right of victory — and his power would endure until he should kill the just one, in whom he could show nothing worthy of death, not only because he was killed without offense, but also because he was born without lust, by which the devil had enslaved those he had captured, so that whatever was born from that source he might retain as fruit of his own tree — with a perverse desire to possess, yes, but nevertheless with a not unjust right of possession. Most justly, therefore, he is compelled to release those who believe in him whom he most unjustly killed, so that both in their temporal death they pay the debt owed, and in their eternal life they live in him who paid for them what he did not owe. For this reason, I think, he is also for us that lion in whose dead mouth we find the food of honey. For what is sweeter than the word of God? And what is stronger than the right hand of God? And in whose dead mouth are the honeycomb and bees, if not in the word of him in whom are the good of our salvation and the gathering of the nations? Many have preferred to place the figure of the nations in this lion, because the people of the nations who believed were formerly a body of savagery, but are now Christ's — in whom the apostles, like bees from the dew of heaven and the flowers of divine graces, stored up the honeys of wisdom; and, if food has come forth from the mouth of the eater, because formerly savage nations, receiving the word of God and consuming it with a faithful heart, produced the fruit of salvation. But those who prefer to see Christ himself in that same lion make Samson a figure of the Jews — so that the Jew killed that lion as it were Christ. And they also assign to the mystical preparation the fact that it was precisely at the time when he was seeking a marriage that he accomplished the slaying of the mighty beast, because the marriage pact in Christ and the Church could not be sealed unless the lion of the tribe of Judah were killed. For the same Lord is both that lion who has conquered and the cub of the lion, who fell asleep of his own will and was raised up by himself — of whom it is written: "Who shall rouse him?" For in sacrificing himself voluntarily for us to the Father as the victim of his own body, the same one who is the supreme and eternal priest took back his own soul, as he himself testifies, by the same power with which he laid it down. He is the lion's cub because the Son of God, and the same one is the lion because equal to the Father. Therefore, as seems more fitting to me for this lion: "From the eater came forth food, and from the strong came forth sweetness" — that is, from our Savior, since his word is life: he both chewed this food for us in teaching and brought it forth in sharing. And, if you prefer it otherwise, food comes from the eater in this way: because this lion of the tribe of Judah, victorious for us, snatching us from the mouth of the opposing lion, hunts in order to save, captures in order to set free, breaks in order to make whole, chews in order to restore — eating in us that by which we are corrupted. Therefore let us desire to become the prey of this lion, lest we be the prey of the enemy lion. Let us become the food of God, lest we be the food of the serpent. Let Christ eat us, lest the devil devour us. For when Christ eats, as I said, what consumes us is consumed in us. For Christ is life, and we shall not be able to put off this mortal nature unless we are swallowed up, because Christ devours our death. But we cannot be the food of Christ unless we do his will, so that he in turn may become food for us, in whom we always live, if we live according to his commandments. Thus from the strong comes forth sweetness, when the bitterness of our malice, transformed through him into the sweetness of goodness, we become a sweet food proceeding from his word — he who, by eating, consumed us to sin but restored us to life. He alone is mighty, sweetly mighty, who freed the poor from the strong oppressor, who, destroying the savagery of my body through the mystery of his devotion in the death of his own body, produced the food of life where the wretched famine of death had withered — he who has exchanged for me offense with grace, sin with righteousness, weakness with strength, death with life, shame with glory, exile with his kingdom. We used to hear: "You are dust and to dust you shall go." Now we already hear: "Our citizenship is in heaven." And so that image which is woven into Samson, whether in his regrowing hair or in his death, I think applies to every servant of Christ. For a person who has been overtaken in some sin, if he returns through salutary repentance to the restoration of grace — as if by hair growing back — bending, as it were, his arms into a bronze bow, that is, the faith of true hope and the hope of faith unfeigned, and training his hands for battle with works of devotion — whose exercise is profitable for all things — then, strong with the muscles, so to speak, of good conscience and firm faith, he will dare to attack and will be able to overturn the columns of his enemies. These are the columns of the enemy's house on which it rests, in which the enemy feasts as if over our defeat, mocking his captives — if he uses our members as the weapons of his iniquity. We therefore topple this enemy from his own house by the destruction of our subjugated flesh, with whose help the enemy, enclosed within us, shakes our soul with intestine war, having become powerful over us by the guilt of our own will, holding our own vices as his soldiers, and attacking our inner self through the ministry of our outer self. But let us remember the covenant by which, through the grace of baptism, buried with Christ in the mysteries of the cross, we swore that we would no longer live as though living in this world, but that Christ might live in us, not we ourselves. When Christ is restored to us in the honor of our head, the devil's house will fall, and the whole cohort of enemies will die with the death of our sin. Therefore, not only from Samson's death do I learn to die alongside my enemies — that is, by mortifying my flesh to kill sin at the same time, so that with my spirit surviving I may triumph as victor of salvation and say to my soul: "Return to your rest, for the Lord has been good to you" — but also from Samson's blindness, by which he lost only his bodily eyes but did not lose his spiritual ones, I am enlightened toward good understanding, so that by his example I may know which eyes I should rather have. For that man would not have called upon the Lord for the help of his strength unless he had kept the eyes of his mind intact — those eyes whose light is Christ, in whose light we shall see light. If that light always burns in the lamp of our body, then the works of darkness will die, and the prince of this world is cast out — not, of course, outside this world, with which, as it is written, he will be emptied at the final condemnation together with those who are judged, but out of our hearts, from which he is expelled if we receive Christ. Therefore, since those who belong to his side imitate him, let us imitate the Lord Jesus, who has called us into the lot of his inheritance and has commanded us to take up his yoke, which is easy, so that he might shake off from us that heavy yoke of the Law and of death. Now hair too, like a yoke, can be either light or heavy: for, as divine Scripture teaches us, the hair of the holy is light, that of the ungodly heavy. The former is a sign either of virtue, as in Samson, or of consecration, as in Samuel [the Old Testament prophet-judge]; the latter is a sign either of weight, as in Absalom [the rebellious son of King David], or of squalor, as in Nebuchadnezzar [the king of Babylon who was driven mad]. By this discord of men and their hair we are taught to judge works by their hair, since for the Assyrian king, condemned to wilderness and bestiality, the mournful matting of his unshorn head bristled into a lion's mane, so that even in bodily appearance he might pass into a beast — he who was exiled not only from his kingdoms but even from human senses: his grim mane making him a lion, his hooked nails a vulture, his sense and fodder an ox — lest he bear the likeness of only one beast in his punishment, he who had been like many in his behavior. Yet when he at last understood God and was restored both to his senses and to his kingdom, he too became an example of faith for us: that we should fear to lose by sinning the kingdom that is within us, and remember to seek it back by repenting. Nor could Absalom, although proud in both his handsome body and his head of hair, say what Samson said: "If I am shorn, my strength will leave me" — because he did not have in his beautiful hair that strength which was not of bodily hair but of spiritual grace, which the ungodly man could not possess. For the power and wisdom of God is Christ, who does not enter a murderous soul, because he does not dwell in a body subject to sins. And indeed the fact that the hair of that man was cut off under the weight of his iniquities is confirmed by the stated necessity of shearing. For thus you read: "He used to shear his head because it weighed him down; and when he had been shorn, he would weigh the hair of his head, and it came to a hundred shekels by the royal weight." What could more plainly express that hair is reckoned according to works, since in the head of the ungodly man Scripture signifies not any virtue but only a burden of hair? "He would weigh," it says, "the hair of his head." For the glory of the ungodly is his iniquity. And not only does wicked action delight him, but also, as someone has said, the fame of his wickedness. Hence you have in the Psalms: "Why do you glory in malice, you who are mighty in iniquity?" For the light of the ungodly is darkness, their honor a shadow, their eminence a passing thing, their head is the devil — and therefore their hair is a burden. On this account Scripture says the hair of that parricide was heavy with the royal weight — that is, with the devil's weight, for every ungodly person is the devil's kingdom. So also "those who are clothed in soft garments," he says, "are in the houses of kings" — that is, of the rulers of this air and the generals of spiritual wickedness, in whose houses and kingdoms people are either hard with impiety or soft with wantonness. Their riches are sin, their paths are slippery, their end is destruction, their glory is in hell, their house is in the grave. The locks of such people are crimes, and therefore they cannot be the locks with which the sacred warrior used to snap the cords and new ropes of his enemies like soft threads. Rather, they are the locks of which it is written: "The cords of sinners have entangled me." For by his own sins the soul is both ensnared and weighed down. The prophet proves this fully, saying: "My iniquities have risen above my head; like a heavy burden they weigh heavily upon me." You see what heavy locks the sinner bears. But the one whose locks are Christ is light and swift, and exults saying: "God, who girds me with strength and has made my way blameless, who has made my feet like the deer's and set me upon the heights." For the yoke and the hair of Christ, as I have said, are light, because those who serve Christ perform good works by which we are given wings and carried to the heights. Hence even to Christians still placed in the flesh, the Apostle says: "But you are no longer in the flesh but in the spirit." For the flesh that is subject to a soul obedient to God passes into spirit — not by a change of substance but of life. And so I desire both Samson's death and his blindness, that I may live and see for God. For perhaps he who received his strength back through his hair on account of the coming mystery did not desire to receive his eyes as well, as he had lost them, because that power of heavenly grace, healthy in its inner eyes, did not need bodily sight. By this example, then, with our senses intent upon the Lord, let us blind our fleshly eyes by turning away from worldly things — those eyes the prophet desired to be robbed of when he said: "Turn away my eyes, lest they see vanity." And the Lord himself, preferring blindness to the eyes of the Jews, says: "If you were blind, you would have no sin." Let us remember with what destruction their eyes were opened in paradise — eyes they had kept illuminated by God for as long as they had kept them closed to sin. For only then did they take in the shame of their mature age, when they lost the chastity of good conscience, with whose light they were clothed, by the crime of transgression. And therefore it is a loss of true light to use one's eyes for the things of darkness, and to blind eyes fixed on earthly things to heavenly things. But the soul is enlightened by a blindness of this kind, by which it despises the world in order to behold God. "For everything that is in the world," he says, "is the lust of the eyes." For this reason the Apostle, teaching us to have our gaze veiled from this world and cleared for Christ — that is, for him who enlightens every person coming into this world, that is, every person's mind that comes — urges us from the sight of present things to the contemplation of eternal things and says: "Do not seek the things that are in this world, for the form of this world is passing away." And again: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is at the right hand of the Father." For all things, as Ecclesiastes says, are vanity under the sun. Above the sun, therefore, is truth. And so those who stand in the truth, even if they live within the world in their bodily habitation, are nevertheless above the world in their heavenly way of life, and with their soaring spirit they scale and surpass the choruses of stars and the poles of heaven, and they act on a plane higher than the elements, not subject to the things and uses of the elements, but with their life fixed on Christ they become superior to the world, remaining in him who is God blessed above all things forever. You see how an imitator of Christ, by teaching and by the example of virtue alike, carries us from mortal things to God, removing the veil from our heart, so that with unveiled face we may contemplate the glory of God — which is hidden from unbelievers by the veil of the Law, but uncovered to believers by the revelation of the Gospel. And so we no longer need that carnal hair. For "old things," he says, "have passed away, and behold, all things are made new, since a light has risen in the darkness for the upright of heart, merciful and compassionate and just is the Lord. And the Lord is Spirit." Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And so hair was an honor when that spiritual veil of the Law still needed to be displayed even in bodily appearance. But now it is a burden, since the sun of eternal freedom has shone forth and Christ has become our head — to relieve us of the yoke and the burden of bowed heads. Therefore we now dare, in a voice of exultation and confession, to proclaim as free people: "Let us break their bonds and cast off their yoke from us!" For now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation, when the truth is present no longer in the shadow of a cloud but in the light of his own body. And conveniently, for the time of grace and the appearance of freedom, a barber is at hand to relieve us of the longer veil of the head, so that the benefit of spiritual grace may be attested even by bodily appearance, and the joy of inner freedom may be displayed by the serenity of an uncovered brow. Only for women did apostolic authority preserve long hair, because even if for them the same faith removes the veil of the heart just as it does for us, nevertheless the covering of the head and the shade over the brow are required by the honor of modesty. And so the perfect teacher of faith and discipline teaches that long hair is unbecoming for a man, because the head of a man — Christ — cannot be hidden; this is also that city built on a hill, which is the Church, the body of Christ. Therefore what is a disgrace for a man is an honor for a woman, who is head to no one, but adorns her husband with the cultivation of propriety and sustains the order of the body, which is woven from Christ as God the head, from Christ as the man's head, and from the man as the woman's head — placed, as it were, at the foundation. But even her, through the fellowship of the body and the weaving together of its members, Christ makes a sharer in the supreme head, in whom there is neither male nor female. Let women, then, have their hair, with which, after the manner of that woman sinner in the Gospel, they may wipe the feet of Christ and be entwined about the feet of wisdom — so that they may know nothing but to love wisdom, to embrace virtue, to kiss modesty — and so that, sprinkled at least with the furthest dew of the heavenly Word, they may say: "For the dew that comes from you is our healing." Let the hair of our women be spiritual acts of virtue: fasts, works of mercy, prayers. For such locks befit even a man. Let them be adorned by the grace of Christ, not by their hair; by the gem of chastity, not of stone; and let there be fragrance in them of the perfume of works, not of scents. Let them remember that they are daughters of that king's daughter whose glory is entirely from within. Let them understand why the Apostle ordered them to be covered with a longer veil over their heads: "because of the angels," he says — those, namely, who are ready for seduction, over whom the saints will judge. For these test the weaker vessels more impudently, just as the serpent attacked not Adam but Eve. For this reason women are also prohibited from teaching in the church, lest with their spirit exalted they dare to gaze upon the decrees of wisdom and burst apart with the inflation of knowledge. Indeed, it will serve to confound the evil ones if they see a woman covering her senses with the appearance of ignorance through silence, confessing the discipline of her understanding by a modest demeanor — so that the serpent may not dare to approach for temptation again, in despair of capturing her. Not without reason does the Apostle teach that this should be done at the very time when a woman either prays or prophesies. For then she enters into the conception of the Spirit, and therefore then she especially arouses the envy of the tempter, when, breathing into a perfect man, she exceeds the boundaries of her weakness. And that the Apostle feels the same about prayer as about prophecy is not surprising, since in another place too he says that one should pray in the spirit: "For even when we pray," he says, "we do not know what we should ask for, but the Spirit himself teaches us." Therefore, because even in prayer a spiritual conception occurs, lest — as it is written — some trick or snare of the enemy befall a woman acting beyond the bounds of her vessel, the Apostle wishes it to be shown in her bearing that there is a power above her head by which she is both governed and defended — that very humility of heart conferring strength upon her, by which she suppresses the arrogance of knowledge with the rudder of discipline and prefers to fear rather than to think lofty thoughts, safer in her silence through the fear of faith than learned with her tongue — pressing down her brow with her hair in vain unless she has also veiled it with modesty. Therefore let every soul in common strive to be adorned with those hairs that God has numbered, as he himself says: "Even the hairs of your head are all numbered." And whose head's hairs would he deign to number more than that head of which he himself is the top? Of which it is said: "His head is like gold, cephas" — by which name I think a more excellent and purer gold is signified, like that from the land of Havilah [a region mentioned in Genesis as having fine gold]. For this gold is the pattern of the saints, who gleam like lights on the head of the body, and are gold refined by fire for God — because he found them tested through the trials of sufferings in the furnace of this world, as it is written, worthy of himself, and on them he struck the sacred coinage of his own image, imprinting on their hearts and tongues the word of his truth, and establishing them as money-changers, so that according to his own pattern they might mint coins acceptable to the Lord, and, with the image of Caesar obliterated from us, they might stamp the living coin of the eternal King — so that, inscribed with the spirit of redemption, with our necks now free from the yoke and our brows fortified with the title of salvation, we might sing: "The light of your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord." Let us therefore strive with the utmost effort so to fashion ourselves that we may deserve to be the hair and the gold of the divine head — which for us, by the grace of God, is Christ. For from that very head springs that growth of hair of which it is written: "His locks are like flocks of goats." And rightly are the flocks of Christ designated by the name of those animals above all, whose chief use is in milk, because everyone who believes that God is Christ embraces the whole fullness of the Trinity in him whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit, with the faith of devotion. And therefore the mother of all the living herself, the body of Christ which is the Church, overflows with the sap of devotion, and her good breasts are better than wine — by which, I think, is signified that the freedom of grace in the milk of mercy is sweeter than the austerity of the justice of the Law in wine. "For the letter," he says, "kills" — you see the unmixed wine of judgment — "but the Spirit gives life" — you see the gift of the breasts and the effect of milk. But let this, as you prefer to understand it, be given to the seed, from which the first milk of newborns thickens. Good then are those breasts which the good shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, milked for those little ones from whose mouths he perfected praise for himself, to destroy the enemy of good and the defender of evil. From these flocks of goats came that man of the flock who nourished the little ones of Christ — not yet fit for more solid food — with tender nourishment, to whom he said: "I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you were not yet able, nor are you even now." But when we have grown with the nourishment of this milk, having first steadied our steps with the firmness of faith's conception, we shall grow into the strength of youth, and with patience confirmed through faith and love, we shall raise our hands to more robust action and shall live on the works of virtue as on stronger food, so that we too may become those locks of which it is written: "His locks are like fir trees, black as a raven" — but this is a good raven, not that one forgetful of returning to the ark, but the one mindful of feeding the prophet, to whom those locks that rival fir trees are rightly compared, of which it says: "Good fir trees, and black, bringing the ships of Tarshish." Hence this raven is a raven not of night but of light, with whose color the locks are beautiful. So too are the saints — a royal and priestly race — with whom the divine head is purpled as with the crimson of his glory, because the grace of youth clothes the flourishing age especially with hair of this color. Yet it should not be passed over that this bird is sometimes found in Scripture as a figure of sin, sometimes as a figure of grace. For it seems to be deadly when it is brought forth to the punishment of the wicked, because God sends evils through evil angels; or when in vengeance for a curse it is said: "The eye that mocks a father and a mother — let the ravens of the valleys pluck it out." But the same bird is praiseworthy either when it feeds the prophet with bread in the morning and meat in the evening, or when the young ravens call upon the name of the Lord. Its color too is sometimes applied to saints, sometimes to the ungodly. For the bride of Christ says she is dark and beautiful, and the Lord "made darkness his hiding place." And again, on the other hand, the Apostle warns us lest the darkness overtake us. But those black and good fir trees bringing the ships of Tarshish follow the pattern of her who is both dark and beautiful. For the saints are her members, who, like palms flourishing and cedars multiplying, are also fir trees, black and good — because in the Church, that is, on the mountain of God, they stand out with the heights of their merits, as fir trees do on their mountains. And just as those trees are suited for weaving into ships, so these leaders of the people, hewn from the mountain of the Law as from Lebanon, fashioned the ark of the Lord, or rather the ship — that is, the Church — by planing the nations with the word of God, and taught them, joined together in the framework of love bound by faith, to cut through the waves of this world without rotting. And even now, souls trained in the apostolic faith are fir trees, black and good: black, I think, no longer from sin so much as still from the habitation of the body or from the dust, as it were, of a battlefield — the grimy sweat of internal struggle. Yet they are good because of their spiritual way of life, even during the nights of their bodies. So too they are ships that float above the waves of the world and are armed, as it is written, with faith of the righteous and works of the just on the right and on the left, like oars. They are guided by the word of God as by a helm, and they spread the sails of their senses to the breeze of the Holy Spirit, and they bind the sail of their heart with the ropes of love to the mast of the cross. And their mast is the rod from the root of Jesse [a messianic image from Isaiah], which governs the whole four-oared galley of our body. And if, according to that poetic fable, we are bound to it in prophetic truth, tied with voluntary bonds and with our ears stopped not with wax but with faith, and not the ears of the body but of the heart, we shall pass safely and innocently through the various enticements of this world — equal in their power to harm, ready to capture — sailing past the rocks of pleasures as past the rocks of the Sirens. But let us bind ourselves to this mast with the strongest rope, bound in hope, faith, and love, believing with our hearts and confessing with our mouths the undivided Trinity, which is the threefold cord that is not broken. With this cord let our works also be woven, and by this cable let the mast of our faith be raised and the yard-arm of love and the sails of our life be spread, so that we may be those fir trees which, woven into great rafts for the building of the temple, were brought from Tarshish — or rather, those same ships that might rival that one which once brought to Solomon chosen gold and the riches of Tyre. But our commerce should be pursued with all the more diligence and profit, inasmuch as our King, the eternal Jesus, is more excellent than that temporal Solomon. "For behold," he says, "one greater than Solomon is here" — who will not shatter us with a violent wind among the ships of Tarshish, if we bring him the profit of the good conduct of our life, which is the most precious merchandise to God, so that he may receive his own price back from us — because he himself is also the pearl, and the whole activity of this spiritual trade strives to acquire it for itself. If our means suffice to purchase it, we shall carry not a burden that weighs us down but one that lifts us up across this great and wide sea, and we shall dare to rouse the Lord who sleeps within us because of our sluggishness — if we deserve at least to carry him even while he sleeps — so that, rebuking the winds of hostile spirits or even of our own senses, he may save us from faintheartedness and the storm, and as we make for his calm he may smooth the seas, and, as ships laden with his own riches, he may lead us into the harbor of salvation, and joyfully set green crowns upon our victorious sterns. Let us also be the right hand of him who is wholly right hand, having no left in our deeds, so that we may deserve to stand at the right hand of the Judge or rather to be the right hand of the Judge himself, and so that the Lord who rewards may count our works on the day of retribution as hairs of his own head, as he himself has already said in the Gospel — works to be pronounced upon in judgment, when the blessed words of divine benediction and royal bestowal will reward the merits of spiritual virtues, that is, the most beautiful locks of his own head. With such locks that woman in the figure of the Church also wiped the feet of Christ, bathing them with ointment and tears — she who pleased not so much by the cost of her gifts as by the devotion of her service. For the Lord loved in her not the ointment but the love, with which — modestly shameless and devoutly insistent, without fear of reproach or rejection — she, uninvited, penetrated the house of the Pharisee with that holy force by which the kingdom of heaven is seized. And hungering solely for the heavenly Word, she ran not to the Pharisee's riches but to the feet of Christ, and in those feet she washed and fed herself, and made those very feet her sanctuary, so to speak, and her altar — on which she made her libation with tears, her offering with ointment, her sacrifice with devotion. For "the sacrifice to God is a broken spirit" — and she, offering this sacrifice to God, merited not only the remission of her sins but also the glory of being proclaimed along with the Gospel of his name. And because she prefigured the Church that was to be called from the nations, she bore upon herself all the marks of the mystery of salvation: she was anointed with the chrism of her own gift, she had the tears of repentance as her baptism, the depths of her love as her sacrifice — a living and life-giving bread she took in advance with her hands and mouth. She also tasted in advance the blood of the chalice — before the chalice of blood was instituted — with her sucking kisses. Blessed is she who tasted Christ in the flesh and in the very body of Christ received his body — rightly preferred to the Pharisee who was feeding Christ, she who, while the Jew feasted, fasted and served — hungry not for food, as I said, but for salvation. Blessed is she who deserved to be figured in this form also as a type of the Church: that in the house and at the banquet of the Pharisee, it was not the Pharisee himself but the sinner who was justified and pardoned. Her insistence counted for more. For the order of the mystery ordained from the ages demanded, according to that prophetic blessing of father Noah, that the habitation of Japheth should pass into the tents of Shem — that is, that in the house of the Law and the Prophets it was rather the Church that should be justified: younger in age but greater by the law of grace. Hence the Law itself, speaking in the person of John, confesses: "He who comes after me has been made before me, because he was before me." And so that the Church might also correspond in type to her head, she had fittingly taken on the form of the sinner, because Christ too took on the form of the sinner. But the Jew, who was to have neither head nor foundation in Christ, had anointed neither the head nor the feet of Christ — both of which the woman of the Gospel had bathed with precious ointments. Therefore the synagogue has from Christ neither the oil of grace nor the water of refreshment, because for that Pharisee — who bore her type — though he was in the presence of the very fountain of both salvific oil and water, both the water and the oil of love ran dry. Of this fountain God had foretold through the prophet: "Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head" — just as to his Church he could say: "You have anointed my head with oil." For her ointment was precious not only in its preparation but also in its vessel, whose fragrance of many herbs or flowers, mixed together in one by grace, was redolent with virtue. Who but the Church could have compounded such an ointment? She who, from the various flowers and juices of heavenly graces, breathes fragrant and manifold sweetnesses to God from diverse nations, and exhales the prayers of the saints like incense burned on bowls blazing with the Spirit of truth — so that to her, flowing with the fragrances of such flowers and the dew of such perfumes, the Bridegroom himself may be delighted and speak to her with that voice by which he also addresses her in the Song of Songs: "My dove, my perfect one, for my head is filled with dew" — the head of Christ being God, and his locks the chosen saints in whom the Father rejoices in Christ — "and my locks with the drops of the night." Dew, as we know, is not the moisture of rain but of coolness, which refreshes grass parched by the heat of day. With the bright drops of this dew the earth is sprinkled only on a clear night. Hence it is given to understand that those drops of the night, in which Wisdom rejoices that her head and locks are moistened, are a figure of the saints, whom the Apostle also designates as gleaming among the stars — stars which likewise sparkle on clear nights when dews fall. And what night in a spiritual sense should we consider but the passion of the Lord, which also illuminated the day? Of which I think it is written: "And the night is an illumination in my delights." But you may also consider this age to be the night, which has been cleared, as it were, of clouds by the conversion of the nations — nations whose darkness before the faith had made it terrible — and now, with the light of the Church as with the mirror of a full and perfect moon, and with holy people like pure stars in the calm, the works of the faithful drip down like dew in this night of the age, as we have said — works by which each person, giving life to his soul, refreshes it from the thirst of past dryness. And therefore Christ rejoices that his head is filled with such dew, and the illuminator of our nights nevertheless rejoices that his locks are drenched with the drops of our night — because his own refreshment and nourishment are the deeds of the faithful, by which brothers are aided and the needy are warmed. For this very reason he also spurned the voice of Judas, who, having received the spirit of the devil into his heart, begrudged the woman's ointment on Christ's feet. For by works of devotion and mercy Christ is both anointed and lent to at interest and fed. But the traitor, before he betrayed the Lord, betrayed his own treachery: it was not concern for the poor but for his own thefts that had moved him, along with the envy of a faithless mind — so that he judged that ointment, however costly, yet utterly cheap in comparison with the Lord's blood, to be more precious than the body of salvation, and was indignant at the woman's devout extravagance. Yet the Lord himself testifies that she has performed a good work upon him, teaching that care for the poor should be set aside — but only for himself — to show by this that with a perverse heart Judas had put mercy before faith, when faith is the kindling of works, and the teacher himself takes precedence over his own commandments. Except that in this too the son of perdition showed how cheaply he held Christ, since he said that the ointment poured upon Christ was wasted. And therefore he has no share in the price of Christ's blood, because he cannot have as redeemer the one he preferred to have for sale. And rightly the contractor of death is excluded from the commerce of life, to be condemned by his own judgment, by which he sold for thirty gold pieces the one whom the woman, as he himself had valued, anointed with three hundred. But in this he was perverse: he who, estimating the Lord himself cheaply, appraised that ointment — which was being sent ahead for his burial unto our salvation — at a high price. Truly, like the devil, ignorant of the grace of God in which he would have no share, it was not from love but from envy that he set a high price on his death, by which he who bought us at a great cost saves us freely — he does not sell. For he wishes to make us precious by the cheapness of his own gift. He is all the more precious to us in this devotion, because he wishes to be held cheap so that he may be purchased by all. "For he himself," Scripture says, "made both the poor and the rich, and his care is equal for all." Hence he says: "Freely you have received grace; freely give." Rich with the gratuitous riches of this grace, Peter, having no money, enriched a helpless poor man — who desired only a meager handout — not with wealth but with health. Therefore let us be poor in the greed for gold, so that we may abound in grace, and through voluntary poverty, becoming cheap to this age, let us become precious ointment to the Lord. For we shall breathe the good fragrance of Christ to God if, carrying the death of Christ in our body and manifesting life in the spirit, we are fragrant with the scent of both the Lord's passion and his resurrection. And we pour ointment on the body of Christ if we devote our substance and our life to faith in his truth and obedience to his commandment. Then we shall be fragrant in his body as ointments filling the whole house, if with perfect love we can ever say: "The world has been crucified to me" — not loving riches, not loving the honors of the world, not loving what is one's own, but what is Christ's, not loving what is seen, but what is unseen. These shall be our locks for strength and holy ministry, with which we may both wipe the feet of Christ and be able to break the cords of sins, and, rejoicing in the spirit of freedom, say: "You have broken my bonds; to you I will sacrifice a sacrifice of praise." But while there is a course to run, while there is a time to serve, let us nurture such hair and imitate not only the love of that woman sinner in the Gospel, so that by great love we may wash away great debts, but also her insistence, so that we may snatch salvation from approaching wrath. Seeking the bread of life in season and out of season, let us knock on the door of the master of the house even at night. "For in the nights," he says, "lift up your hands to the holy place." Wearing down the threshold of every person wise in Christ, as we are commanded, let us everywhere seize the food of life; wherever we may catch the word of God, let us hang on the lips of every faithful person, because the Spirit of God breathes into every believer. And from even the least servant of God a drop of heavenly wisdom must of necessity distill — one that may water the dryness of my heart and overflow for my benefit beyond the rivers of this age's wise men. For I would rather speak five words in the law than many thousands in a tongue, just as I would rather live one day in the courts of the Lord than a thousand in the tents of sinners, "since the Spirit breathes where he wills, and I hear his voice and do not know where it comes from." Therefore wherever I may catch his breeze, from whatever quarter I may gather even the faintest breath — even if I am unworthy, even if I hear that the righteous one has come to the house of a Pharisee — I shall strive to seize the guest's grace first, to seize the kingdom of heaven if I can. Wherever the name of Christ resounds for me, I shall run to it. Into whatever person's inner house I learn that the Lord has entered, I too shall hasten. When I find wisdom, when I find righteousness reclining in someone's innermost chambers, I shall run to the feet of Christ, so that I may be marked at least by the farthest footstep of wisdom. And I shall not disdain the feet — rather, I shall desire that Christ touch my head even with his feet. She touched the hem of his garment, and was healed; others were healed even by the passing shadow of the apostle's body. Let us spread out our locks before him — that is, let us lay before him all the dignities of our distinctions, and let us cast ourselves down from ourselves, so that we may be exalted by him who dwells on high and looks upon the lowly. Let us confess our sins with tears, so that of us too that heavenly justice may say: "She has bathed my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair." For perhaps he did not wash his own feet, when he was washing the feet of his disciples, so that we might wash them with our own tears. No ordinary soul is the one of which Wisdom can say: "Since she entered, she has not ceased kissing my feet." What is this kiss but the eternal pledge of that love which covers a multitude of sins? These kisses the Church was already then preparing for her bridegroom when she sang: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." This privilege only catholic love rightly claims for itself — love that, single and perfect, seeks from the mouth of the one Bridegroom himself the kisses of truth in the Word, lest it be polluted by the poison of heretical fraud, as by the kisses of an unchaste, alien mouth. Therefore let us press chaste kisses upon the feet of Christ, so that we may deserve to rise from the feet to the head, and, growing into the higher members of the body, may at last dare, from close by, to ask for the kisses of his very face and mouth. And when, tasting the Word of God with a pure heart, we have tasted how sweet the Lord is, then may our soul, kindled in all its depths with love for wisdom, be refreshed by a sweet burning, and, pierced by the fiery arrows of the Lord's love — by which every delight of hostile pleasures is slain — may say in a stricken heart: "For I am wounded with love." Blessed indeed is the one who can also anoint the feet of Christ with a kiss. Who would sear my wretched mouth and purify my tongue with that heavenly coal, so that I might deserve to touch even the heel of Christ with the tips of my lips, and with my head bowed might wipe only his holy soles — so that my head might rather be wiped by the feet of Christ, and while I lick his divine feet, I might purify my impure lips with the holy footprints. Let us therefore exhort one another and say in rivalry: "Come, let us worship and weep before the Lord who made us." To him, weeping, we shall sow our joys; anointing his feet, we shall heal our own wounds. For whatever we spend on Christ, we bestow rather on ourselves. Indeed, that woman, by pouring ointment on Christ, washed herself; by wiping his feet, she cleansed her own sins; in loving him, she loved herself. And therefore she deserved to hear: "Daughter, your faith has saved you" — which the one who was among the sons of the kingdom did not deserve to hear. And she was justified more by her service than he by his banquet. For the Pharisee had not believed; she believed. Indeed, he was saying: "If this man were a prophet, he would surely know what sort of woman it is who touches him." And therefore he was not justified by the banquet to which he had invited Christ as merely a man, perhaps imputing to him — since for our sake he was also poor — that this poor man had made much of being taken in for a rich man's feast. But she would not have hoped for the remission of sins through so great an outpouring of service and expense and tears unless she had believed that God was in Christ. And therefore, even at the farthest footprint of the Savior, she found the head of her salvation. Where will you boast, wretched Jew? In your own house our sinner has gotten ahead of you, entering into your labors. For you were feasting so as to be proud; she was fasting so as to serve. And the water you had refused to pour from your pitchers, she supplied from her own eyes. You did not wipe the feet of Christ even with a towel; she wiped them with her hair. Those feet which you, unworthy one, did not even wish to touch with your hands, she did not cease to caress with kisses. But surely you rather owed this service to the guest received in your house, if you had kept even the sacred custom of hospitality after the example of the fathers. But it is enough for you to boast in your pride of having Abraham as your father. And therefore she outstripped you, she who proved herself the truer daughter of your father by faithful devotion — she from whom you are shown to have degenerated by this very inhumanity, by which you disdained to wash the feet of the Lord, when even Abraham washed the feet of angels, and the Lord himself washed the feet of his servants. Although even then the father of faith also washed the feet of Christ, whom, seeing as one of three with his prophetic eyes, he worshiped. And therefore he himself rebukes you with these words, spoken to your face: "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham." And he added: "He saw my day and rejoiced." But he also blessed those who did not see, but believed along with those who saw. From which it is clear that faith has been acquired for us, while for you the nature of faithlessness remains. Let them keep for themselves, then, their arrogance, their riches, their nobility, and their own righteousness — those who glory in Abraham as their father more in body than in spirit, uncircumcised in heart and Jews only in the flesh. For us, for both salvation and glory, Christ is enough — even Christ crucified — who raised us from stones into children of Abraham, while they, from being children of Abraham, have hardened into stones of our own origin. For us, Ephraim, placed on the left, is blessed at the right hand and prospers. Them, in Manasseh — who by the presumption of the elder had stood at the grandfather's right hand — the mystery of the cross has marked, with the left hand transferred to his head: because the cross, a scandal to the Jews but a future glory for Christians, was going to make him left who had been right, and me right who had been left. For as the Jews slip into our desert and we invade their sown fields, they are by blindness what we once were, and we are by grace what they once were. But we shall not rejoice in our salvation so as to take pleasure in your destruction. For we have been taught by the brother of your body but the master of our spirit not to insult broken branches, because we ourselves have been grafted — not from our own works but from the gifts of God's mercies — onto the tree of your stock. But the Lord who is common to all, yet the Father of Christians, that is, the God of the faithful, is able also to graft you back into the native folds of your own bark and replant you in your own soil — he who has filled us with the sap of your richness through the benefit of adoption, so that both of us, bearing fruit for the Lord as one, may be sustained by a single root. Meanwhile I prefer the riches of our sinner and our poor woman — riches in tears and devotion — to your riches in impiety and in the letter; her fasting to your feasting. I prefer to be entangled in her hair at the feet of Christ rather than to recline at your table next to Christ but without Christ. If I do not have ointment for the feet of Christ now, I shall not have oil for my torches at his coming. And woe to me if my ointment is cheap! For costly ointment is needed, so that I may deserve to be buried together in his burial — for unless I die with him in his death, I shall not live in his resurrection. Let us therefore love him, whom it is our duty to love. Let us kiss him, whom to kiss is chastity. Let us be joined to him, to marry whom is virginity. Let us submit to him, for to lie beneath him is to stand above the world. For his sake let us cast ourselves down, for to fall before him is resurrection. Let us die with him, in whom is life. And how worthily can we repay this Lord, in whom we live even when dead, who in turn deigns to be for us whatever we have been to him, his little servants! For he so mingles himself with us and joins us to himself that he makes what he himself has received work for our benefit, and what is given to us — that is, to the least of his — he counts as received by himself. And thus, entwining his own in his honor, he has shared with us almost everything, even his own names. As he is called the power of God, so he deigns to be our power: "For God is our refuge and our strength." As we are his inheritance, so he is ours: for just as you read in Moses, "His people Jacob became God's portion," so too in the Psalms you read: "My portion is the Lord." And just as he says of himself, "I am the light of this world," so too he said to his own: "You are the light of this world." "I am," he says, "the living bread" — and we are all one bread. "I am the true vine" — and to you he says: "I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true." Christ is the mountain of God, in which it has pleased God to dwell, and his saints too are mountains of God, fertile mountains, from which "he illuminates us, wonderful, from the everlasting mountains." Christ is the rock: "For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ." Even to his own disciple he did not deny the grace of this name, to whom he says: "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." But why do we marvel that he has granted to his servants his own names — he who shares with them even his Father and his kingdom? For he gave those who received him the power to become children of God, and, as far as it was in him, he said to all people: "You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High." But we, by the fault of our own wills, die like mortals and fall like one of the princes. For one of the chief angels was such before, by casting himself down, he fell and became the devil, to whom it is said: "How has Lucifer fallen, he who used to rise in the morning?" But we have not been condemned like him to eternal destruction, because he was the author of sin and will be punished for both himself and for the human being who perished by the same crime by which the devil destroyed. But the human being did not deserve to be utterly expelled from paradise and to be mere earth, because divine justice judged more leniently one who sinned by another's mind than by his own. It is more criminal to deceive than to be deceived, and to invent a sin than to commit it. And so the one who assented to the fraud was punished temporarily and for correction, while the inventor of death was destined for eternal punishment — he whose penalty for sin will never cease, because he never ceases sinning. And so not an angel, not an envoy, as it is written, but the Lord himself came to raise up the fallen, to loose the shackled, and to save what was lost. But to confound our deceiver by a kind of reciprocal deception, through the mystery of his devotion the only-begotten Son of God deigned to take on the very nature of our fragility, so that from the very nature the devil had deceived, the devil might be conquered — and he who had always been under God's power and laws might, as he is, be subjected to a mere man. What then shall we give back to him for all that he has given back to us? For he has given back — but as a good Lord, good things for bad — to us who had heaped bad things upon him for good. He blessed, and we cursed. He healed, and we blasphemed. He justified the ungodly, and was reckoned among the wicked. What then shall I give him for the evils of mine that he bore? What for the goods of his that he bestowed? What for the flesh he assumed? What for the blows? What for the insults? What for the scourges? What shall I repay for the cross, the death, the burial? Granted, let us return cross for cross, death for death: can we possibly return what we have from him and through him and in him — we who have all things, and are ourselves what we are, from him? For he himself made us, and not we ourselves, and our soul is always in his hands. Let us return love for our debt, charity for his gift, grace for money. For woe to us if we have not loved. But when shall I, wretched and needy, hope to be able to repay this Lord, to whom not even the apostles profess to have made a return? Hear, then, one of them confessing that he has not repaid: "Who has first given to him, that it should be repaid?" But thanks be to him, who remits the interest on so great a loan and grants a settlement of our immense obligation, asking from us only love for himself — which, placing it in the chief position among his commandments, he showed how even the poor might pay the debt they could never discharge. Let no one therefore excuse himself on the grounds of difficulty in paying, because no one can say he does not have a heart. No sacrifices, no costly gifts, no hard labors are demanded of us; within us is the means to pay. For our affection is something within our power; let us spend it on the Lord, and we have paid. Indeed David, delivered from the hand of all his enemies, paying for the full security of his salvation not from the riches of his kingdom but from his heart, said: "I will love you, Lord, my strength." I would add further that he who is our creditor will become our debtor, if we pay the price of his goodness — which he bestows on us unearned — with the free payment of a loving heart. And he is loved even in ourselves, because he himself said this would be the sign of his disciples: if they loved one another with the love with which he loved us — that is, that we should have one heart and one soul in Christ, and each should do for his neighbor what he wishes done for himself. All the more do we glory in your love in the Lord, which alone enables us to pay at least one of the great and innumerable debts we owe to God. For in all other goods we profess ourselves barely initiated and in few things; only in your love do we profess ourselves perfect.

XXIII. SEVERO FRATRI PAVLINVS. Quid extorques, ut te plus amemus? crescere summa non recipit. si potest mare superfluere obices suos et quaecumque naturalem plenitudinem seruant incrementum temporale sentire, potest et caritas in te nostra cumulari, quam suo fine conplemus, cum te sicut nosmet ipsos diligamus. itaque ut. cubitum ad staturam nostram adicere, sic amoris tui cumulum facere non possumus; desideriis tamen modum nullum ponimus. qui enim existimas satisfacere te nobis adsiduitate ista honorificentiae ac pietatis tuae, qua praesentiam tuam nobis tam frequentibus epistolis conpensare conaris, sollicitas potius gulam caritatis tantoque minus exples gratia litterarum, quanto maiorem sedulitate ipsa et humanitate sermonis tui causam suggeris te ipsum, tam unicae nobis unanimitatis in Christo frater, desiderandi. quid enim fieri diligentius in deo et proximo potest, quam quod in nobis exhibes Christo? in quo dei praeceptum utrumque conpletur, quia idem nobis et deus est maiestate naturae suae et adsumptione nostrae proximus factus est. hoc igitur in te proficiente consummatur caritas tua, quae sit in ipso infinita perfecto, quia finitur in Christo, 4] (Prou. 8, 29; Hier. 5, 22). 7] (Matth. 6, 27). FLMOPU . — ad sulpitiu seueru ■ XI • M, paulini ad sulpiciu seuet5 IH - L; incipit • III • 0, epistola pauliui ad seuerum monacum ubi ei gratias agit pro missis epistolis U 2 Seuero fratri (Crater P) paulinus ppistola tertia FP, Paulinus seruus christi Iesu seuero kmo fri secundum communem fidem in deo patre et christo ifiu salutari (salutare L) nostro salutem LM 5 tempore 0 7 diligimus M 8 comulum 0 13 gratiam 0 14. quanto maiorem sedulitate Ov, maior est (ex maiorem P m. 2) sed humanitate FPU, maiorem (maiore L) humilitate LM 15 nobis tam unicae M unanimitate F1 16 desiderandi v, desiderande M dntS Ov 18 praeceptum] pceptum tuum Ov, praeceptum suum RoSlC . utrimque P 19 adsumptioni FOP, assumptioni U 21 infinito Lebrun ex eod. Vienn . pfecto OP1, profecto FptU, perfectio LM Lelrrun, perfecta v cuius magnitudinis non est finis; sed nobis in eo finis sit, ut per ipsum sine fine uiuamus, quibus Christus et generale initium est, quia per ipsum omnia, et speciale fastigium, quia caput corporis, cuius membra sumus. dulcis et rectus est dominus, dulcis in te mihi et, quam (multa) multitudo dulcedinis eius, tu mihi; nam quantus es, qua mente, qua lingua es, totus desiderium es et mihi dulcedinem Christi sapis ut hortus mihi, ut odor agri pleni, quem in odorem unguentorum illius currendo legisti. nam et ager tu illi es, qui uicissim ager nobis est. in ipso enim serimus et ab ipso metimus. ager uero tu, non ille spinis horridus aut harenis aridus aut petrosis asper et nudus, in quo semen datum aut subfocatur aut destituitur aut uritur, sed ille, quem benedixit deus a rore caeli et ubertate terrae. unde et lingua tua uerbo dei rorat et cor tuum fertile deo semen exceptum spiritali fruge multiplicat, ut de fructibus tuis inpleat manum suam messor et sinum suum qui manipulos conligit, hoc est ipse deus, qui uerbi in nobis sui et seminator et messor est. ipse et manus qui dextera dei, quam bonis operibus inplemus; idem et ille Abraham sinus est, in quo operum mercede requiescimus. Sic hic deus in tua caritate nobis abundans non solum litteris tuis nos sed et tabellariis benedicit uisitat pascit inluminat, utroque nobis aperiens thesaurum bonum cordis tui; ex abundantia enim cordis os loquitur et, omne, inquit, animal ad simile sibi congregatur. propterea 1] Ps. 144,3. 3] Roin. 11,36. 4] (Eph. 1,22; Col. 1,18). 5] Ps. 24, 8 et 30, 20. 8] Gen. 27, 27. 11] (Mattb. 13,4). 13] Geu. 27,28. 16] Ps. 128,7. 20] (Luc. 16,22). 24] Matth. 12,34. 25] Eccli. 13,20. 26] Ps. 24, 21 et 25, 5. 2 Christus] ipse M et] est F 5] est om. F quam multa scripsi, quam FOPU, quam magna LM, quanta v 6 quantus quantus FPU •t- diel quam mte 0 7 lingaa totus M es om. L 8 ortus FM 9 ungentorum eius M ille P1 10 nobis ager FPU ab] in FPU 11 spinis om. FPU 17 colliget FPU 19 qui] et M 20 abrahę P 22 sic 0, si FPUv, oni. LM 24 utrique U nobis 0, nobis munere cet . bonum om. FU 25 enim inquit FLOPU, om. M; enim deleui benedixit te deus, quia innocentes et recti adhaeserunt tibi, et cum inpiis non sedisti; odisti iniquitatem, diligis animam tuam, quam proiecisti in Christo, ut huic uitae perdita seruaretur aeternae, damno sui semet ipsam lucrifaciens, si per caritatem Christi uilescat sibi. quo affectu uilis tibi et pretiosae deo animae tuae suauitatem in fanis oris tui Christum spirantibus odorantes benedicimus dominum, dei uerbum deum, qui sicut in ipso illo homine, quem gessit, ita in nostris mentibus gradus quosdam corporeae aetatis exequitur: nascitur crescit roboratur senescit. sed orandus, ne in nobis diu aut iugiter paruulus et infirmus et pauper sit. in te quidem, ut gloriamur, quia bonum tuum gloria nostra est, profectus eius experientes agnoscimus bonitate grandem, malitia paruulum, sapientia senem, fide fortem et in spiritu piae humilitatis pauperem, caritate diuitem. nam prioribus erga humilitatem nostram officiis alios anteuerteras, omnibus nostris, ut saepe testati sumus, et amicis studiosior et proximis religiosior et fratribus diligentior. nunc uero ista nostrae uisitationis uice etiam temet ipsum supergressa humanitate superasti. sat enim nobis erat annuis commeatibus emereri litteras tuas et a te missos uidere, in quibus non solum uicem praesentiae tuae sed et fidei teneremus effigiem. tibi tamen satis non fuit institutam obseruantiam sollemni perfunctione celebrare. longum tibi multa dilectio fecit mora hiemis a nobis silere. concaluit cor tuum intra te, et in meditatione pietatis sanctus tibi bonae inpatientiae ignis exarsit. nec suffecit litterarum ad nos editione maturare, nisi gratiam sermonis tui etiam de sanctis comitibus tuis lecto perlatore cumulares. 2] Ps. 10, 6; Ioh. 12, 25. 14] (I Cor. 14, 20). 24] Ps. 38, 4. 2 sedisti Ov, sedes cet . 3 diligi L 6 et] at M pretios U suauitate U 7 sperantibus 0 benedicimus 0, benediximus cet . 8 ipso om. FPU 11 aut infirmus FP et pauper sit M in mg . 18 bonitate] karitate M 14 et in om. M 16 anto uiceras LM 18 hunc U uisitatiouis nostrae M 19 superasti] uicisti M 24 sileri v 25 tuum L an ras., meum FU 26 in patientia FPU nec] nec tibi M, hec U sufficit FLPU litterum ad nos 0, ad nos litterarum FPU 27 editionem coni. Latinius Benedictus, quem in hoc munus elegisti et adsumpsisti, quo deum feneras, quia etsi peccatores nos uera conscientiae nostrae professione, tamen tuae simplicitatis opinione falsa putans, ut ais, sanctos non iam hominis sed Christi caritate nos diligis, et idcirco mercedem prophetae accipies, quia propter nomen Christi prophetarum honore accipis etiam non prophetas. nobis uero similis gratia non debetur huius officii, quo fratrem Victorem in nomine dei tuaque persona ad nos uenientem intima affectione et magna gratulatione suscepimus. id enim tantum fecimus inutiles serui, quod facere debuimus, quoniam perspicua ueritas cogebat nos ouem puram in eo suscipere atque uenerari, quem non solum ouem pellis, uerum spiritus mansuetudinis et expressa in uerbo eius atque silentio Christi modestia reuelabat. uere recognouimus in eo sanctorum formulam beatorum Martini et Clari, quem proximo interuallo inlustris magistri sequacem te auctore cognouimus. horum se unius in regeneratione esse progeniem, alterius in uia comitem fuisse filius pacis Victor adseruit. homo uere, ut scripsisti, dei, humilis corde, non humilis gratia, uas misericordiae et mansio altissimi, quem recipit et oblectat placido animae trementis hospitio, is nobis benedictiones praeter illas, quas a uobis geminas in litteras et palliis adferebat, plures addidit de opibus mentis suae, non solum contubernio spiritali gratissimus nobis, sed et corporeo famulatu sedulus. audeo enim rem oneris nostri fateri, dum tibi nihil de eius bonis taceam, quae gaudium tuum esse certo scio, quoniam portio tua est bonum familiaris tui. Seruiuit ergo mihi, seruiuit, inquam, et uae mihi misero, passus sum, seruiuit et peccatori qui non seruiebat peccato: 1] Ps. 64, 5. 5] Matth. 10,41. 10] Luc. 17,10. 18] Luc. 10, 6. 19] Matth. 11, 29.- 1 absumpsisti U 4 falsa— sanctos om. M ait FLU scs L homines FPU 10 suscipimus FOPU 12 in eo om. FPU 13 pellis scripsi, pelle M uerum Ov, om. L3f, sed FPU spiritu FptU mansuetudine v et] sed et LM 14 reuelebat 0 uere] ut FPU 15 formula U 16 quem-cognouimus bis scripsit F 17 esse om. FPU 21 recepit P 23 suo U1 24 "corpereo L1 27 pro certo LM 29 qui passus pptlJ, quod passus v sum] suum F et] etiam FPU et ego indignus a seruo iustitiae ministrabar. sed hinc mihi leuamen aliquod tanti ponderis spero, quod sancti fratris famulatum non superbia uindicaui, sed contristandae caritatis metu et fide capiendae benedictionis admisi. benedictio enim mihi erat sancta in nomine dei famulatio et in libertatis spiritu famula dilectio. ob hoc uoluntarium eius bonum et pro ipsius utilitate suscepi, praesumens eo potentiorem exorandi pro me futurum, quo plus meriti de religionis operibus adquisisset. aget profecto orationibus suis, ne meis oneribus adcreuerit quod etiam ex me accessit fructibus suis. dilexi enim, fateor, in eius obsequio benedictionem, timens ne repudiata elongaret a me, quia scriptum tenebam: noluit benedictionem, et elongabitur ab eo. dedi itaque me totum manibus eius atque uisceribus, quia per uiscera caritatis manus famulas et membris meis unctor et pedibus lotor adhibebat, liberalium plenus affectuum sed seruilium praereptor operum, uix ut me aquam ministrare manibus suis sineret. ex libro enim tuo istius gratiam seruitutis adamaui, ut minimam saltem guttulam de sacris Martini actibus delibarem. ipse uero cotidie non solum pedes meos lauare, sed et calciamenta, si paterer, tergere cupiebat, auarus dominationis internae et idcirco corporeae seruitutis inpiger. Sed de pedibus lauandis tantum semel fateor apostolico me exemplo cessisse, quos legeram pedes suos lauandos seruienti domino praebuisse. neque enim partem in hereditate nisi famulantis obsequio recepissent, quoniam bonus dominus et salutarium magister seruiendi ministerio dominandi meritum conferebat et humilitatis humanae praebebat exemplum, 6] (Philem. 14). 12] Ps. 108, 18. 24] (Ioh. 13, 9). 1 manifestabar U mihi hinc F 3 concitaudę LM, contestandae v 4 metu scripsi, meae causa M, meae cet . 6 ob] et ob F 8 pro me om. F quod OP1 religionis 0, religiosis eet . adquississet 01 12 elonguaret L, elongaretur Mv 14 qui U 15 uictor 01 lutor 0 16 preceptor FP\'U, praereptor uel praecerptor Ducaeus 17 ut uix LM manibus suis sineret om. F 18 saltim L 19 uere FU 24 cessisse eiemplo U seruienti] scribenti U 25 partim 0 28 prebaebat 0, conferebat FPU IIVIJII. Pavlini Nol. epistulae. 11 quibus diuinae sublimitatis parabat consortium. unde perspecto muneris tanti mysterio et intellecta boni magnitudine qui primo ministrantis apparatu pedes offerre trepidauerant iam non pedes tantum sed totos se usque ad caput perlui rogauerunt. et ego dominum Iesum in fratre Victore ueneratus, quia omnis anima fidelis ex deo est et humilis corde cor Christi est, fateor, ad remedium infirmitatis optaui, ut oleo me uel aqua melior conseruus adtingeret. nec inritus fui praesumptae opis; nam quasi medicatum manibus piis oleum de ipsa unguenti mansuetudine mihi lenius in medullas perlapsum est, et exultauerunt ossa humiliata. benedixit anima mea dominum, et omnia interiora mea nomen sanctum eius. nam et sensibus uegetandis proderat haec pietatis magis palaestra quam corporis, qua frater bonus artus mihi fragiles manu fingente conponens, mentis quoque uigorem recreatis ossibus erigebat cooperante procul dubio manibus fide, ut dum infirmam carnem manus diligentis duceret, conpatientem animam gratia credentis elueret fieretque mihi intus oleum laetitiae quod foris erat oleum sanitatis. Accipe modo aliam eiusdem in nostris sensibus seruitutem, qua non solum refectionis nostrae sed et parsimoniae curam gerens, facilem nos uictum cibo simplici capere coctis in gutta olei et aquae copia pultibus docuit; sed eas tanto gratiae sale, tanta dulcedine caritatis condiebat, ut coquos et condituras non desideraremus, quia aquae puro oleum suauitatis, quod nulla muscarum inportunitas exterminauit, simplicitas caritati iuncta miscebat. uerum spiritalis coquus interiorem hominem cibare doctior, quo destrueret escam gulae, non 6] Matth. 11,29. 11] Ps. 50,10. 12] Ps. 102,1. 19] (Ps. 44, 8). 25] (Eccle. 10, 1). 1 sublitatis U 3 repudiauerant FU 4 ad L s. I . 7 octaui U 9 piis manibus M 10 ungenti LV, ungeutis Rosw . 12 nomini sancto F1 14 palestra magis M corpori LM qua M\'Pl, quę OP%, *qua LM, quia FU et P s. I . 15 tingente fort . conponens om. FPU meritis LO 17 duceret] mulceret LM 20 seruieutem Pl 21 qua scripsi, quia LMO, quam P1, quod FP"U 24 coqus M1 25 puro 0, purum LM, purae cet . 27 quoquus U 28 quod FLPU siligine nobis pultes sed farina confecit aut milio. ac ne in hoc ipso delicatius nobiscum agere uideretur qui nos ad orexim monachorum parabat inbuere, fabam intriuit panicio, quo citius senatorium poneremus fastidium. sed in benedictione dulcedinis animae delicias habebamus, gratulantes quod frater etiam in carnalibus ministeriis spiritalis propheticis nos cibis pasceret. nam in contritione permixta panes illos tribulationis imitatus est, quos Ezechiel propheta de uario frugis et farris conficere sibi genere iussus est et ad expressionem Iudaicae confusionis, qui obliti deum inmutauerunt gloriam suam in similitudinem uituli manducantis fenum, in stercore boum coquere coctosque sub foetido cinere cum lacrimis captiuitatis in mensura sumere, uidelicet ut superuenturam perfidiae suae poenam corporaliter in propheta signatam prouiderent et uel ita reuerterentur ad dominum, si eos ad penitendum non solum uerbis denuntiata sed etiam corporibus prophetarum expressa offensi dei ira reuocaret. Voluit ergo frater Victor, ut non solum ieiunio sed et cibo humiliare animam disceremus et recordatione peccatorum ueterum intellectuque praesentium tristes manducare panem doloris, quamuis ex parte nobis pepercerit fabam tantum milio panicioque confundens, quod tamen forsitan obliuionis magis quam moderaminis fuerit. nam homo sanctus fideli cautione metuisset aliquid nobis de scriptura sancta subtrahere, et ut totam iuxta dei uerbum confectionem prophetici panis inpleret, 8] (Ezech. 4, 5). 10] Ps. 105,20. 20] (Fs. 126, 2). 2 ipso hoc LM oryxim LMO 3 panitio FLMO, panico U 4 senatorum LM imponeremus F fastidium 0, fastigium cet . 8 hiezechiel L denario FPU 9 genere conficere sibi M uisus FPU 10 obliti sunt F 12 bouum PU coquere ex eaque re P* coctosque om. F captiuatis LO 13 mensura mensam F, mensam P* perfidiei P 14 suae] siue U 15 reuertentur 0 dom 0 16 denunciatam FP, deuumptiatam U 17 expressam FPaU offensi M-v, offerens cet . di ex do 0 iram FU 21 perceperit P1 21 panicio (panitio P, panico U) milioque FPU 22 confondens FU quid U 25 totum F profectionem FPU 11* lentem quoque et hordeum et uiciam miscuisset in crumilum, ut aestuantibus extra sui labra feruoribus dissimilium sibi fructuum quasi repugnante coctura fatiscens rimis olla crepitaret. nihilominus tamen de paucioribus frugibus testam capacem replens intulit nobis multo nidore catina fumantia totumque non solum mensulae nostrae ambitum sed et cellulae nostrae spatium olida caligine uaporauit atque, ut multiplicaret nobis benedictionem, alterius quoque prophetae prandium cenulae nostrae contulit, ut Elisaei nobis ollam inferret, in quam misit farinam; nec herbam ueneni sed condimentum salutis incoxit, in nomine domini gerens omne quod agebat. quo tuti atque securi non exclamauimus ad eum: homo dei, mors in olla, quia iam in olla nostra uita est, postquam dominus Iesus dei uerbum caro factus est et habitauit in nobis; et uasa fictilia nostri corporis uoluntariae nobis prauitatis lubrico de suis manibus elapsa et diuturnis contrita peccatis, ut in meliorem usum figulus ipse renouaret, adsumpsit in semet ipso, factus et ipse de nostri corporis limo tamquam uas, ut ait, perditum, id est in similitudinem carnis peccati, ut de peccato damnaret peccatum. et ideo dicit: Moab olla spei meae, quia non solum ex Iuda sed ex Moab, hoc est non solum de sanctorum sed etiam de peccatorum origine corpus adsumpsit. qui decocta quasi per ollam carnis nostrae cruditate sanctificauit in aeternum nobis 1] (Ezeçh. 4, 9). 9] (nil Reg. 4, 41). 12] ib. 40. 14] Ioh. 1,14. 17] (Hier. 18, 6). 18] Ps. 30, 13. 19] Rom. 8, 3. 21] Ps. 59, 10. 1 quoque] que F ordeum FMPU crubilum 0, cumulum v, grumulum coni. Lebrun, cumerum maluit Cauchius 2 extuantibus FPU I i u sua (ll m. 2) M, uasis RostV . 5 catinam 0 famantia 0, infumantia v con 1 6 celle LM 7 nostrae om. M 9 cenule FU jtulit M elizei F, helisei LMOP 10 quam L, qua cet . 12 quo] quod P1 tuti atque] utique FP\'lJ, uti atque P1 15 et uasa] uasaque M nostrae LM 18 inseniet ipso U corporis nostri F 19 ut ait 0 v, om. ctf . in a. l. 711.2 P 22 etiam om. FPlJ 23 qui 0, quos FP1, quo M, quod LP7U 24 crudelitate U nob 1 eternu cibu M cibum carnem suam. caro enim eius, ut ipse ait, uere cibus uitae est. ipsa est et illa secundum Hieremiam olla urens peccata et illo igni consumens, de quo ait: ignem ueni mittere in terram, quem et in nobis optemus accendi, ut in olla dominici corporis id est ecclesia concoquamur perustisque uitiis defaecati efficiamur argentum igne examinatum, probatum terrae, purgatum septuplo, ut iam non urenda sarmenta sed palmites fructuosi in eodem domino id est uera uite maneamus fiatque nobis idem dominus ad escam dulcis ille botrus, qui nobis in crucis uecte suspensus de terra repromissionis et fructum ostendit et gustum dedit, ut non iam sectemur uilia ruris inculti gramina, inter quae etiam pestiferos uiticularum siluestrium racemos carpere periclitemur. quod certe nobis accidit, cum squalente curarum saecularium spinis anima, cui cultura dei uerbum est, uitam hanc aeui breuem et boni sterilem suspirantes, inter actus superuacuos peccata noxia quasi inter agrestes herbas germina uenenata conligimus et sic in ollam corporis uel cordis nostri mortem mittimus. sed gratias deo, qui nos liberauit de corpore mortis huius per Christum Iesum dominum nostrum, quo infirmitati nostrae sui spiritus uirtutem permiscente et amaritudo malitiae nostrae et sterilitas inutilitatis infuso praecordiis uerbo dei uelut conuertente salutaris aut uiuidi salis aspergine ad dulcedinem fecunditatemque mutata est. Recurramus ad fratrem Victorem, qui uas etiam farinulae nostrae ex usu usurpationis suae, quam in nomine dei faciebat, copiosum de benedictione fecit, ut aliquid etiam de 1] Ioh. 6, 58 et 48. 2] (Hier. 1, 13). 8] Luc. 12, 49. 6] Ps. 11,7. 8] (Ioh. 15,2). 9] (Num. 13,24). 15] (Luc. 8,11). 19] Rom. 7,24 et 25. 2 uita 0 ieremiam M 3 igni 0, igne cet . 5 conquoquamur M, couquocamur F, curacuoquamur II 7 terre P1, ter pptu 8 id est r* om. F 10 botruus O1 11 promissionis L iam non PU 12 interque FOU 13 uitucularum U 15 spinis 8. I. m. 2, curis in text. M 17 agresteas F 18 collegimus M 19 misimus M 22 in precordiis F 23 conuertende U, conuerteutente L aut] et M beati Eliae hydria nobis daret, qua propheta caelestis in uerbo sacro ad sufficientiam indeficientem repleta benedictam cum filiis Sareptae uiduam per triennii famem pauit. in qua uidua iam tum per prophetam Christus, ut opinor, ecclesiam suam non frumenti sed uerbi pane pascebat, de qua dicit: uiduam eius benedicens benedicam; illam scilicet uiduam, quam apostolus ait mortuo uiro quibus uolet nuptiis liberam, quia desinente lege, cui finis est Christus, ad gratiae libertatem transitum faciens ecclesia Christo quasi uidua legis innupsit. huius nunc uasis oleum gratiae et benedictionis farina non defecit in omnium foris gentium fame, quarum miseram a cibo uitae et fide trinitatis inediam congrue praefigurauit illa quondam triennii fames. sed, ut super hoc institutum concludam, ita domini gratiam farina nostra in fratris Victoris manu sensit, ut quae uix ante sufficiebat panibus nunc abundet et pultibus fraternitatemque monacham uespertini post ieiunia cibi auidam duplici ministerio fermentatis orbibus aut soluto farre distendat. Verum idem Victor meus quamuis fortioribus cibis inducere stomachum nostrum studeret, tamen et hoc infirmitati nostrae frater necessarius consulebat, quod defectiones fidei nostrae in illis pultibus adsumendis adinplebat et opera manuum suarum consummabat uno pro nobis adiutore istius ferculi, 1] (III Reg. 17,16). 5] Ps. 131, 15. 6] (Rom. 7,3). 7] (I Cor. 7, 39). 10] (III Reg. 17, 16). 1 behati 01 helifl LMO, helie FP, hplie U ydria M, hidria L a 2 benedicta 0 cum filiis om. FPU 3 sarapte FOPU 5 seruerbi 0 7 uoluerit M s. 1. m. 2 8 ad gratiae] a gratia 0, a gratia ad v 10 nunc] olim sup. scr . m. 2 M non 0, om. cet . deficit U 11 gentium foris LM et fame F 12 illa illa F quodam FU 13 triremii F ut 0, om. cet . 14 manu LtO, manus cet . 15 paucis sufficiebat LM habundat F 16 mouachorum FP, monacorum U uespertini Rosw., uespertinis M cibi 0 Rosw., cibis cet . 17 ministerio] aut add. Rosw . fermentatis urbibus (utribus v) FOPUv, frumentationibus uel frumentaciis orbibus coni. Sacch . haut 0 18 distaendat 0, discendat F 20 hoc om. FPU, in hoc LM 21 necessario coni. Sacch . defensores F 22 adsumendis 0, assumendis FPU, absumendis LMv quem ex rusticanis receptum domi renutrimus aetate corporis senem, mentis infantem, quia iam senectute deficiens renatus est gratiae, in nouitatem uitae de uetustate carnis effloruit. eum fratris Victoris coquina et adsueto cibo ut ex rusticis hominem et apto ut edentulum saginauit. iste pauper clamauit, et dominus exaudiuit eum. eripuit eum de tenebris et umbra mortis; et nunc adspersus hyssopo et emundatus in uoce exultationis et confessionis epulatur et clamat: erraui sicut ouis quae perierat. benedicam dominum in omni tempore, qui mihi tribuit intellectum et eripuit me de luto faecis et inmisit in os meum canticum nouum. iuuenior fui, et senui; sed non defecerunt in uanitate dies mei, quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est. torrente uoluptatis suae potauit me, et refloruit caro mea. frumentationem mihi misit in abundantiam et saturauit animam inanem, et nunc senectus mea in misericordia pinguedinis, donec in pace dormiam et requiescam in longitudinem dierum. Venio nunc ad maiorem fratris erga me Victoris operam, qua me suis manibus tondere dignatus est, quod ipsum 5] Ps. 33, 7 et 106, 14. 9] Ps. 50, 9; 118, 176 et 33, 2; 39, 3. 12] Ps. 77, 33; Luc. 1, 49; Ps. 35, 9 et 27, 7; 77, 25. 1 ruticanis F enutrimus M, remittimus F 2 qua P1, qui FP\'U 3 est fort. delendum gratia FPXU in] et in M nouitate FPU 4 hunc M, cum FU quoquina L1 cibo et apto ut ex rusticis hominem FU ut ex rusticis hominem P s. I. m. 2 ut] et FP, om. U 5 staginauit U 7 hysopo LOU, ysopo MV, isopo F 10 tribuit mihi F 12 iuuenior 0, iunior cet . 14 est s. I. m. 2 F uoluntatis OPU tue in sue corr. P\' 16 habundantia Mx animain meam FU 17 pini gnedonis O, pinguet PPU, pingui LM 18 obdormiam LM longitudine FPU dieruml explicit add. LM, finit liber • III - add. Ov. — quae secuntur ut nouam epistolam inscribunt LMOP: incipit eiusdem de artificio liber • IIII • fratri optimo souero meropius paulinus Ov, epfa eiusdem ad eundem XX. L, ad sulpititim seuerum XII. seuero fratri unanimo salutem M, eiusdem de artificio (uictoris add. m. 2) fratri optimo seuero meropius paulinus (continuatur cum superiore quia una est epistola add. m. rec.) P, atque hanc epistolae partem posteriore loco L et M exhibent tamen beneficium tibi debere me uoluit, mandato tuo dicens se mihi artem suam prodere. propterea rogaui eum, ut quod perita manu fecit id inpensis orationibus ambo faciatis, uidelicet ut exorato precibus uestris domino peccata nostra, quibus super capillos capitis multiplicatis animam habemus inpexam, non accisione medii tondeautur, sed ad uiuum quasi nouacula radente perimantur. est autem nobis nouacula nunc salutiferae, nunc pestiferae sectionis. remedii et decoris nouacula nobis Christus deus est, qui cor nostrum circumcidit, uitia radit, animae caput leuigat et faciem mentis accurat; nosque ut illam in lege captiuam purgat et liberat horrido miserae seruitutis capillo, ut coniungendi domino, uelut illa in Israelitae uiri nuptias transitura, criminibus carnis nostrae quasi barbaris crinibus exuamur, deinde sensibus innouatis ut comis rudibus enitescamus uitamque nostram quasi Nazaraeum crinem pascentes deo in castitate et parsimonia consecremus. Cauendum uero, ne illa inimica ex diuerso nouacula, quae in protoplastis noxia fraude deceptis generis humani caput rasit, in caput nostrum hoc est fidem, qua nobis caput Christus efficitur, adscendat nosque gratia spiritali tamquam illo Nazaraeo crine dispoliet, qui quanto seruantibus bono maneat et exitio decerpatur incautis, ille in Iudicum libro ab oraculis sacer heros argumento est, inuictus crine seruato, captiuus absciso et iterum fortis renato. utinamque tam prudens ad cauendam mulierem quam fortis ad strangulandum leonem! sed carnali uictus inlecebra qui gratia spiritali uicerat, cum praeualuisset forti, ab infirmitate superatus est. quod patiantur necesse est qui suam feminam id est carnem uiro suo 4] Ps. 39, 13 9] (Col. 2, 11). 13] (Deut. 2, 12). 15] (Num. 6,5). 22] (Iudic. 16, 19). 25] (Iudic. 14, 6). 6 occisione P1, accisione in abscisione corr. L tondeatur U uinum U1 7 radente-nouacula s. 1. L 8 remedire (om. et) U 10 radens M aciem FU 11 nosqq; LM purgaret (om . et) FP\'U 12 mesere F 18 israhelitae 0 14 barbaricis M innouatis 0, renouatis cet . 15 nazarenum L 16 parsimonia et castitate F 17 ex] e M 19 fide 0 22 iudicium L 25 transgulandum M 27 preuoluisset 01 quod] qui U 28 feminem 01 hoc est spiritui in dei leges non subiugant et tamquam malesuadae coniugi molles mariti fluentibus animis adquiescunt, degeneres ab illo magistro, qui mox ut agnouit Christum, inter ipsa militiae rudimenta magni certaminis uictor non adquieuit carni et sanguini. Videamus itaque omnia, quae Samso pertulerit ab infida uxore corruptus, quia eadem peccatores spiritaliter feremus, quae ille carnaliter ad nostram eruditionem expressa sustinuit. ita enim nobis uiolata Christi gratia, ut illi incisa coma, hostis inludet; auferet oculos, mittet in carcerem et uertendis molis uelut asinos deputabit. unde nos dominus, ne collum nostrum non subditum iugo Christi dignum faciamus asinaria mola, admonet per prophetam: nolite fieri sicut equus et mulus, quibus non est intellectus. homo enim, ut alibi dicit idem propheta, non intellegens honorem suum hoc est naturae suae dignitatem, quae ceteris in terra animantibus ratione dominatur, ideo rationalis factus, ut auctorem suum intellegere nosset et colere, abutens tanto munere creatoris ad licentiam erroris sui conparatur iumentis et similis efficitur. quod in rege Babylonio uidemus euidenter inpletum, qui stoliditatis inpiae et uecordis superbiae poenam sensu hominis exutus in beluino haec corde sustinuit. etenim homo in errore positus et a iustitia relapsus, iuste ut Samso sapientiae pariter et gratiae uirtute desertus, caecitate punitur et mola, quia dignus est opere iumentario, qui semet ipsum lumine rationis orbauerit et in similitudinem beluarum corporis seruus abiecerit. 4] Gal. 1, 16. 6] (Iudic. 14,1.16). 12] (Matth. 11, 29; 18, 6). 13] Ps. 31, 9. 18] (Ps. 48, 13). 20] (Dan. 4, 30). 23] (Iudic. 16, 21). 1 in lege dei F, uvi. M subiungat U male sua de PU, male suadenti LM 2 coniuge FU acquiescant U1 4 ipso F malitiae O1 6 samso 0, sampson FMU, sanson LP 7 peccantes M 8 qua M condicionem L 14 aequus 0 16 qua L 17 ratioe s. 1. m. rec. (?) M dominantur F 18 nossceret P, nosceret FU, posset (s. I.1 nosset 71.. rec.) M 21 pena* M, pęna L, om. FPU 23 samso 0, sampson F, sanson MPU 27 abiicerit U Considera huiusmodi mortalium uitam, ut tota tibi species iumenti molentis occurrat. ut ille pannis oculos corporis, sic iste sordibus uitae suae oculos mentis obsutus per errores suorum sensuum quasi circa ambages molarum laboriosa miser statione uersatur, usui suo uacuus et operosus alieno; stat in uia peccatorum, conpeditus uinculis cupiditatum suarum, et ipse sibi carcer est obsessus tenebris erroris sui et conscientiae squalore concretus; in semet ipso pistrini ergastulum patitur, saxum cordis sui pertinacia iniquitatis induratum quasi molam uersat, farinam hostibus suis de corrupta animae suae fruge conficiens. quia, sicut scriptum est, peccator de anima sua currit, ita qui peccatum operatur de mola uitae suae hostile triticum molit, ut zabulum pascat, cui panis fit anima quae sibi fames est. quod si non semper uadens sed aliquando reuertens spiritus fiat, uelut coma reduci ita gratia reflorente integrabitur. Sed ut totam de capillis texamus epistolam, iuuat indulgere sermoni et illum domini fortem usque ad finem suum prosequi. nam et in caecitate ipsius et in morte diuini sacramenta mysterii praelineata mirabimur, quodque scriptum est plures ilium hostes strauisse morientem quam toto prius uitae suae tempore perculisset, arbitror principe loco uim dominicae passionis interpretandam, qua zabuli domus cecidit et regnum mortis solutum est. quod, uiuente semper, ut uiuit, Christo et ante carnalem aduentum suum in maiestate naturae suae apud dominum patrem deo uerbo, tamen dispositis in ordinem suum saeculis ab Adam usque ad Moysen, mortis potestas licentia bacchante regnauerat et de lege intellecto nec euitato peccato 5] (Ps. 1, 1). 11] Prou. 7, 23. 14] (Ps. 77, 39). 20] (ludic. 16, 30). 27] (Rom. 5, 14). 1 ut scripsi, et w 2 occurret LM ut] ut enim M 3 sordidus F obsut\' M sed ob eras., obsutos 0 5 uersaturus. uisu 0 10 hostibus suis] corporis sui FPU 13 zabolum 0 14 famis 0 15 spiritus Ov, cristi Ff xpi PU, xps LM 17 epistulam 0 20 quodque scripsi, quia quod 10 21 prius toto FPU 22 perculisset scripsi, perculisse sed FO, perculisse M, piculisse L, pertulisse sed PU 23 interpretondam L1 zaboli 0 dnlfi Ov, deum cct . 26 dei uerbo FU, manente deo uerbo M 27 moysem v 28 bachante FLMP, baccante U cre*uerat (a eras.) L creuerat, hoc regnum rex regum et dispensator temporum dei filius passione sua diuisit ac diruit, deus factus sub lege, ut subiugatos legi solueret, factus per mulierem, sed mulierem sexu, uirginem partu, ut sanctificaret utrumque sexum creator utriusque, suscipiendo uerbum, nascendo per feminam. itaque mortem ipsam moriendo destruxit, soluens, ut scriptum est, inimicitias in carne sua et faciens utrumque unum id est hominem et deum, quem in se ipso conexuit deus et homo Christus Iesus, in quo utriusque substantia naturae discordiam posuit et unificantis gratiae aeternum foedus agnouit. spoliatos nos zabuli latrocinio et uulneratos in uia praeterierat frater in leuita, frater in sacerdote, quos lex nec sacrificiis redemerat nec prophetis. sed non praeteriuit ille Samarites, qui propter nos huius etiam nominis suscepit iniuriam; non praeteriuit, quia non erat mercennarius sed uerus et bonus pastor, qui animam suam pro ouibus positurus aduenerat. hic hominem suum praetermissum a praeuiis nec curatum miseratus accessit et iumento suo hoc est uerbi incarnatione suscepit et oleo gratiae et uino passionis suae commendatum stabulario, perfecto illi magistro gentium, in duobus testamentis denarii mercede sanauit, redditurus illi et beatae uirginitatis de innumeris huius boni fructibus uberes gratias et innumerabiles coronas, quia hoc consilium praecepto adiciens de suo supererogauit. Non ergo erat iste frater (et conditione dominus a seruis et natura deus a mortalibus discrepabat), sed tamen et 2] Gal. 4, 4. 6] Eph. 2, 14. 12] (Luc. 10, 31. 32). 16] (Ioh. 10,18 et 12). 19] (Luc. 10, 34). .1 et] ac FPU 2 filiis F dirruit FPU 3 legis Ov 4 utrimque U 5 suscipendo P uerbum 0, uirum cet . 7 inimititias 0 8 in se ipse M de 9 utramque 0 substantiam 0 10 posuit (de m. 2) M uiuificantis M 11 zaboli OPU 12 frater in leuita om. U 13 samarites v, samaritis OJ 14 etiam huius M 15 mercenarius FP **et (et eras.) L 17 suum] 2 carmndti ae saucium coni. Sacch . curratum 0 19 curatum stabularis comendatfl| (iwrmdSK m 2) M 20 perfecto 0, profecto cet . 23 hoc Ov, in hoc cet . praecepto consilium M 24 super errogauit PU 25 frater] nam add. M, qui add. v 26 tm L et om. LM homo erat ille, de quo scriptum est: et homo est, et quis cognoscet eum? neque ideo frater noster, quamquam et hoc diuina pietas pro humilitate cordis sui famulis nomen indulserit dicens: narrabo nomen tuum fratribus meis, tamen nostra adrogantia non audendus dici frater, nec quia homo fieri dignatus est, qua et ipso hominis ortu nihil habet commune nobiscum, qui citra nostrae generationis usum caro factus de spiritu sancto intemerata sacrae matris uirginitate et conceptus et natus est. et ideo sine ullo corporis nostri contagio nostrum corpus effectus, non dedit deo placationem suam, quia ipse propitiatio erat, nec pretium redemptionis animae suae sed nostrae, quia non egebat salute saluator. nos enim uenditi sub peccato egebamus pretio redemptionis et ideo propter nos homo, propter nos forma serui, propter nos filius ancillae. qui benedictus et sanctificator sanctorum pro nobis tamen et peccatum et maledictum factus est, quod non erat, ut nos, qui et ex praeuaricatione peccatum et ex damnatione maledictum eramus, ab utroque absolueret, utrumque in sua carne adfigens cruci. ideo dictum puto: frater non redimit, redimet homo, quia quos frater non redemerat hoc est propheta seu legislator, qui homo tantum erat, hic homo redemit, qui et deus erat. deus enim, inquit, erat in Christo reconcilians sibi mundum. huius enim modi homo solus praeualere potuit aduersus sententiam mortis et aculeum peccati, ut chirographum mortis aboleret et humiliaret calumniatorem, non tamen ei maiestate naturae suae sed habitu nostrae congrediens et nihil ei extorquens uiolento 1] Hier. 17, 9. 4] Ps. 21, 23. 10] Ps. 48, 8. 11] I Ioh. 2, 2. 12] (Rom. 7, 14). 14] (Phil. 2, 7). 15] II Cor. 5, 21; Gal. 3, 13. 19] (Col. 2,14). Ps. 48,8. 22] II Cor. 5, 19. 25] (Col. 2, 14). (Ps. 71, 4). 6 qua Opl, quia cet . ipso 0, in ipso cet . 11 pretio 0 12 salutem 0 14 in forma M 17 pr . et om. FLM 18 utrinque U 19 cruce 01 20 non redemit frater FPU uon s. I. 0 redimit 0, redemit P 22 qui et Ov, quia cet . erat inquit M 23 enim modi PUp, enim modo 0, modi enim FLM 25 cyrographum FMP, cirographum U 27 nostro F ei om. FPU dominatu, sed superans eum lege iustitiae, ut, quoniam femina decepta et deiecto per feminam uiro omnem prolem primi hominis tamquam peccatricem legibus mortis malitiosa quidem nocendi cupiditate sed tamen ut aequissimo iure uictoriae uindicabat, tamdiu potestas eius ualeret, donec interficeret iustum, in quo nihil dignum morte posset ostendere, non solum quia sine de(lict)o occisus est, sed etiam quia sine libidine natus, cui subiugauerat ille quos ceperat, ut quicquid inde nasceretur tamquam suae arboris fructus praua quidem habendi cupiditate sed tamen non iniquo possidendi iure retineret. iustissime itaque cogitur dimittere credentes in eum, quem iniustissime occidit, ut et, quod temporaliter moriuntur, debitum exoluant et, quod semper uiuunt, in illo uiuant, qui pro eis quod non debebat exoluit. Quamobrem puto et ipse nobis leo ille est, in cuius mortui ore cibum mellis inuenimus. quid enim dulcius dei uerbo? et quid fortius dei dextera? aut in cuius mortui ore fauus et apes nisi in cuius uerbo salutis nostrae bonum et congregatio gentium? quarum potius figuram plerique in hoc leone posuerunt, quia populus gentium qui credidit corpus feritatis erat ante, nunc Christi est, in quo apostoli uelut apes a rore caeli et diuinarum floribus gratiarum mella sapientiae condiderunt, ac, si esca ab ore edentis exierit, quia prius efferae deo nationes receptum dei uerbum fideli corde sumentes ructum salutis ediderint. qui uero Christum magis in eodem sibi leone, proponunt Samso Iudaeorum figuram, uidelicet ut illum leonem quasi Christum Iudaeus occiderit, id quoque adsignantes mysticae praeparationi, quod eo potissimum tempore, quo coniugium petebat, optatam potentis beluae egerit 1] (Gen. 8, 13). 13] (Ps. 68, 5). 15] (Iudic. 14, 8). 7 delicto coni. Lebrun, causa M, deo cet . 8 ceperat Pv, coeperat cet . exinde v 11 qui F 14 debeat U 19 plerique figuram M 28 condidere FPU si] sic LMU 25 ediderint 0, ediderunt cet . sibi in eodem M 26 preponunt F, proponunt dicunt M samso 0, samson L, sanso FPU, sanson M, samsonem v iudeorum esse M ut ex et F m. 2 27 leonem om. FPU xpm (m in ras.) L 29 optabam Fl caedem, quia uidelicet non posset firmari coniugium, quod in Christo et ecclesia pactum est, nisi occiso leone de tribu Iuda. idem enim dominus leo ille, qui uicit, et catulus est leonis, sua sponte sopitus et a semet ipso resuscitatus, de quo scriptum est: quis suscitabit eum? uoluntarie enim sacrificans pro nobis patri hostiam sui corporis idem summus et in aeternum sacerdos, animam suam, sicut ipse testatur, eadem resumpsit potestate qua posuit. hic leonis catulus, quia filius dei, et idem leo, quia aequalis patri. quare, ut mihi uidetur, huic aptius est leoni: de edente exiuit esca et de potente dulce, scilicet a saluatore nostro, (si,) cuius sermo uita est, hanc nobis escam simul et ruminauit docens et prompsit inpertiens, et, si placet aliter, ut de edente esca sic exeat, quia hic leo de tribu Iuda pro nobis uictor ei ore nos aduersi leonis eripiens ideo uenatur, ut seruet, capit, ut absoluat, frangit, ut solidet, mandit, ut integret, hoc in nobis edens quo corrumpimur. quamobrem optemus huius leonis praeda fieri, ne simus praeda leonis inimici. efficiamur esca dei, ne simus esca serpentis. edat nos Christus, ne zabulus uoret. edente enim Christo, ut dixi, in nobis consumitur quo consumimur. Christus etenim uita est, et mortale hoc non poterimus deponere, nisi absorbeamur, quia mortem nostram deuorat Christus. cibus autem Christi esse non possumus, nisi faciamus uoluntatem eius, ut uicissim et ipse nobis cibus fiat, in quo semper 2] (Eph. 5, 32). Apoc. 5, 5. 3] Gen. 49, 9. 5] Ps. 53, 8. 7] (Hebr. 7, 17). 8] (Ioh. 10, 18). 10] Iudic. 14, 14. 14] I Petr. 5,8. 21] (Ioh. 14,16). 22] (I Cor. 15,54). 23] (Ioh. 4, 34). 24] (Ioh. 6, 48). 2 tribubus F 3 leo ille 0, et leo F, et leo ille cet . 5 uoluntarie Ov, uoluntariam cet . 6 corporis sui LM et om. LM 8 catulus leonis LM 9 est et M ideo F quia om. F 10 huic] cui F, nulli L in ras . 11 scilicet a scripsi, nisi a 0, nisi L, nisi ad FPU, quam in ras. L, a quo enim egressa est nisi a M, a quo enim nisi a v saluatori (i in ras.) nostro L si add., om . « 12 uitae est FPU, uita et est L, uita est et qui v promisit FPU 13 imparciens FPU et] aut fort . ut de] unde FPU 16 iu Ov, om. cet . 19 zabolus OPU, diabolus F uocet L1 20 consumitur] absumitur LMv 24 ut Ovf et cet . et Or, om. cet . uiuimus, si ad eius praecepta uiuamus. sic ergo de potente exit dulce, cum amaritudine malitiae nostrae per ipsum in dulcedinem bonitatis commutata dulcis a uerbo eius esca procedimus, qui quos edendo consumpsit peccato reparauit ad uitam. solus hic potens, dulciter potens, qui liberauit pauperem ab auaro potente, qui feritatem mei corporis per mysterium pietatis suae in mortem sui corporis perimens, ibi cibum uitae edit, ubi miserae fames mortis arebat, qui mihi offensionem gratia, peccatum iustitia, infirmitatem uirtute, mortem uita, confusionem gloria, regno mutauit exilium. qui audiebamus: terra es et in terram ibis, nunc iam audimus: conuersatio uestra in caelis est. Itaque illam speciem, quae in illum Samso uel recrinito uel moriente retexitur, et in omnem Christi famulum conuenire arbitror. homo enim, qui praeuentus fuerit in aliquo peccato, ut salubriter paenitendo ad instaurationem gratiae quasi capillis renascentibus reuertitur, ponens ut arcum aereum brachia sua id est fidem spei uerae et spem fidei non fictam, exercens idem ad proelium manus suas operibus pietatis, cuius exercitatio ad omnia utilis est, tum ut quibusdam bonae conscientiae et fidei firmae lacertis ualens audebit inuadere et poterit uertere inimicorum columnas. hae autem sunt columnae hostilis domus, quibus nititur, in qua uelut nostri uictor epulatur inludens captis, si membris nostris ut armis suae 5] Ps. 71, 12. 11] Geu. 3, 19. Phil. 3, 20. 15] Gal.6, 1. 17] Ps. 17,35. 19] (Ps. 143, 1). 20] 1 Tim. 4, 8. 1 si eius praecepta seruemus M 2 exiit PU, exigit F amaritudiu nem 0 3 commutatam 0, comitata. L 4 quos scripsi, nos w 5 petens IP quia LMU 7 morte M ibi] ubi P1 8 aedit FL, t faIDee dedit M famis P1 mortis fame (ł femu m. 2) M, famis morte (rte in ras.) L mortis P s. 1. m. 2 10 audiuimus FLPU 11 nostra conuersatio LM 13 sampso 0, sapso F, sanso PU, sanson M, samson L, samsone v 15 in om. F 17 capillis L 8. 1 . 18 est fide 0 19 fictae Rosto. 20 tunc M 21 uolens U 22 inuadere] carnalia desideria desifarat Sacch . euertere uel uellere coni. Sacch . haejg L, quae FOti, que PU autem] quidem v 23 hostiles 0 24 operatur JJ capitis Ll iniquitatis utatur. deicimus ergo hunc inimicum domu sua interitu subiugatae carnis, qua adiutrice intus in nobismet ipsis hostis inclusus intestino animam nostram bello quatit, crimine uoluntatis nostrae potens nostri factus, nostra aduersus nos uitia satellites habet interioremque nostrum ministerio exterioris oppugnat. Sed meminerimus pacti, quo per baptismatis gratiam consepulti Christo in crucis sacramenta iurauimus, ne iam quasi uiuentes agamus in hoc mundo uiuamusque iam non nos sed Christus in nobis. quo nobis in honorem capitis restituto cadet zabuli domus et tota inimicorum cohors cum peccati nostri morte morietur. quamobrem non solum morte Samso commori disco hostibus meis, hoc est mortificando carnem meam simul interficere peccatum, ut superstite spiritu uictor salutis triumphem et dicam animae meae: conuertere in requiem tuam, quoniam dominus benefecit mihi; sed et caecitate Samso, qua corporeis tantum captus oculis spiritales non amisit, inluminor ad intellectum bonum, ut exemplo illius sciam quos magis debeam oculos habere. non enim inuocasset ille uir dominum in suae uirtutis auxilium, nisi mentis oculos habuisset incolumes, quibus lumen est Christus, in cuius lumine uidebimus lumen. quod si semper ardet in lucerna corporis nostri, tunc opera tenebrarum occident, et princeps huius mundi mittitur foras, non utique extra mundum hunc, cum quo, sicut scriptum est, in damnatione cum iudicatis mixto fine uacuabitur, sed foras a cordibus nostris, a quibus, si Christum recipiamus, expellitur. 10] (Rom. 6,4; Col. 2,12; II Cor. 5,15; Gal. 2, 20). 15] Ps. 114.7. 18] (Ps. 110, 10). 22] Ioh. 8, 12; Ps. 35, 10. 24] Ioh. 35, 12. 1 domu 0, domo cet . hominem nostrum M 8 crucis in M, cruci L, in crucis v 9 in in hoc F 11 zaboli 0, diabuli F1 18 sampso 0, sanso P, samson L, sanson FMU et sic hi codices infra hoc] id FPU 16 quia FPU beneficit L tibi LM 17 tantum om. M 20 uocasset M 21 oculos mentis FPU incolomes 0 24 occidunt c mittetur LM 25 cum - l . 26 uacuabitur om. M sicus U 26 cum iudicatis L, cumiudicatus O, coniudicatus cet . Ergo, quia illum imitantur qui sunt ex parte illius, nos imitemur dominum Iesum, qui nos uocauit in sortem hereditatis suae et tollere nos iussit iugum suum suaue, ut graue illud legis et mortis iugum discuteret a nobis. est autem et crinis ut iugum leuitatis; nam, ut scriptura diuina nos docet, leuis est sanctorum coma, inpiorum grauis. haec aut uirtutis, at in Samso, aut sanctificationis, ut in Samuel; illa aut ponderis, ut in Abessalon, aut squaloris, ut in Nabuchodonosor. qua hominum comarumque discordia docemur in capillis opera censere, siquidem regi Assyrio in solitudinem feritatemque damnato luctuosa concretio capitis intonsi in iubam leonis horruerit, ut etiam corporis specie transiret in beluam qui non solum a regnis suis sed etiam a sensibus exulabat humanis, coma tristi leonem, uncis unguibus uulturem, sensu et pabulo bouem referens, ne unius tantum beluae similitudinem ferret in poenis qui multarum similis fuisset in moribus. Intellecto tamen tandem deo et sensui reformatus et regno, factus et ipse nobis est in exemplar fidei, ut regnum quod intra nos est timeamus amittere peccando et meminerimus repetere paenitendo. nec Abessalon, quamuis decoro et corpore superbus et capite, poterat dicere quod Samso dixit: si tonsus fuero, discedet a me uirtus mea, quia non habebat illam in pulcherrimo licet crine uirtutem, quae non corporalium capillorum sed gratiae spiritalis erat, quam inpius 1] (Ioh. 8, 44; Eph. 1, 11; Col. 1, 12; Matth. 11, 30). 5] (I Ioh. 5,3). 7] (I Reg. 1, 11; II Reg. 14, 26; Dan. 4, 30). 19] (Luc. 17, 22). 21] (II Reg. 14, 25). 22] Iudic. 16, 17. 4 illius F 5 ut s. I. m. 2 F, et IJ nos docet] dicit F 6 aut] autem U 7 ut om. U sanso FPU, sampso 0, samson L, sanson M, sampsone v, et sic codices infra samuhel LMP, Samuele v illa om. FPU, illa autem v 8 abessalon LMO, absalon FPU, Abessalone v in om. U nabucdonosor FPU, nabucodonosor LM, Nabuchodonosore v 9 quam U hominum Ov, omnium cet . crinium comarumque LM in] ut in L 11 iuuam 0 17 tamen tandem Ov, tamen FPU, tandem LM sensu FPU 18 est et ipse nobis LM fin L 19 intra nos] in nobis FPU 20 abyssalon 0, absolou FP, absalon U et om. FU 23 licet in pulcherrimo LM 24 gratia FPU specialis FP, spetialis U inpius] ipsius L IXVIIII. Panlini Nol. epistulae. 12 habere non poterat. uirtus enim et sapientia dei Christus est, qui in parricidalem animam non adibat, quia non habitabat in corpore subdito peccatis. denique capillaturam illius pro iniquitatum mole desectam etiam tonsurae necessitas indicata testatur. sic enim habes: tondebat caput suum, quia grauaretur; cum autem detonsus esset, ponderabat capillos capitis sui, et erant centum siclorum pondere regali. quo apertius exprimi potest pro operibus numerari capillos, cum in inpii capite non aliquam uirtutem sed tantum sarcinam capillorum scriptura signauerit? ponderabat, inquit, capillos capitis sui. gloria enim inpio est iniquitas sua. neque solum operatio eum nequam sed et nequitiae, ut quidam ait, fama delectat. unde illud in psalmis habes: quid gloriaris in malitia, qui potens es in iniquitate? lumen etenim inpiorum tenebrae, honor umbra, celsitudo transitus, caput zabulus et ideo coma pondus est, propter quod scriptura regali pondere grauem illius parricidae comam dicit, hoc est zabulico pondere; zabuli etenim regnum est omnis inpius. sic et qui mollibus uestiuntur in domibus, inquit, regum sunt, hoc est principum aeris huius et nequitiae spiritalis ducum; in quorum domibus et regnis agunt aut inpietate duri aut lasciuia molles, quorum diuitiae peccatum, itinera lubricum, finis interitus, gloria in inferno, domus in sepulchro est. talium crines crimina sunt, et idcirco illi crines esse non possunt, quibus bellator sacer funes hostium et nouas restes quasi mollia fila soluebat, sed illi potius, de quibus scriptum est: funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt mihi. peccatis enim suis 1] (I Cor. 1, 21). 2] Sap. 1, 4. 5] II Reg. 14, 26. 14] Ps. 51, 3. 15] (Ps. 34, 6). 17] (II Reg. 14, 26). 19] Matth. 11, 8; Luc. 7, 25. 20] Ephes. 2, 2. 23] Phil. 3, 19. 24] Ps. 48, 12. 26] (Iudic. 16, 9. et 12, 13). 27] Ps. 118, 61. 2 in om. M parricidialem FPU, paricidalem 0 7 siderum U 8 regali ex galli P2 9 in om. OU 11 est enim impio M 12 eum sola operatio M 14 pr . in om. F 16 zabolus F\'OPČl, diabolus F*, et sic l . 18 17 parricidt; supra homicide M m. 1 24 domus] finis M 25 criuis F 26 funes om. U anima et inplicatur et premitur. quod plene probat propheta, qui dicit: superposuerunt iniquitates meae caput meum, sicut onus graue grauatae sunt super me.. Vides quam graues habeat peccator comas. at cui coma Christus est lenis et uolucer exultat dicens: deus, qui praecingit me uirtute et posuit inmaculatam uiam meam, qui perfecit pedes meos tamquam cerui et super excelsa statuit me. iugum enim, ut dixi, et coma Christi leuis est, quia seruientes Christo operamur bona, quibus pennati in alta prouehimur. unde etiam in carne positis Christianis apostolus dicit: uos autem iam non estis in carne sed in spiritu. subiecta enim subditae deo animae caro transit in spiritum non substantiae commutatione sed uitae. itaque et mortem mihi Samso et caecitatem uolo, ut uiuam et uideam deo. nam forsitan ille receptis propter futurum mysterium in coma uiribus recipere simul, ut amiserat, oculos ideo non desiderauit, quia uirtus illa caelestis gratiae internis sana luminibus corporeo non egebat obtutu. Hoc igitur exemplo et nos contentis ad dominum sensibus carnales oculos saecularium rerum auersione caecemus, quibus orbari propheta desiderabat, cum diceret: auerte oculos- 108 meos, ne uideant uanitatem. et dominus ip.se oculis Iudaeorum caecitatem praeferens s dicit: si caeci essetis, peccatum non haberetis. reminiscamur qua pernicie illis in paradiso oculi sint aperti, quos tamdiu habuerunt inluminatos deo, quamdiu clausos habuere peccato. nam tum demum puberis aetatis suae hauserunt pudorem, cum bonae conscientiae castitatem cuius lumine uestiebantur, praeuaricationis crimine perdiderunt. et ideo ueri luminis damnum est ad usum tenebrarum 21] ps2] Ps. 37, 5. 235] Ps. 17, 33. 258] (Matth. 11, 80). 11] Rom. 8, 9. 21] Ps. 118,37. 23] Ioh. 9, 41. 25] (Gen. 3, 7). 3: Plene 0, bone L, bene cet . 2 supposuerunt M meas FOPUv 30,*v*s PU 4 at] aut L 5 praecinxit v 14 morte M 15 deo -l** jiiej nihil ille Ov mysterium om. M 16 ideo om. M 19 intentls Jtf deum FPU 21 quibur U 26 puberis aetatis sciipsi, puber- D 8 ut aetatis Ov, aetatis FPU, nuditatis LM, pubertatis et nuditatis 8,0 - scientiae F 12* uti luminibus et oculos in terrena defixos caecare caelestibus. inluminatur autem anima tali caecitate, qua despicit mundum, ut conspiciat deum. quia omne, inquit, quod in mundo est, concupiscentia oculorum est, ob hoc apostolus obduci aciem nostram huic mundo et enubilari Christo docens, ei scilicet qui inluminat omnem hominem uenientem in hunc mundum, id est omnis hominis mentem uenientem, sollicitat nos ab aspectu praesentium in suspectum aeternorum et dicit: nolite quaerere quae in hoc mundo sunt; praeterit enim huius mundi figura, et iterum idem: quae sursum sunt quaerite, ubi Christus est ad dexteram patris. omnia enim, ut Ecclesiastes ait, sub sole uanitas. proinde super solem ueritas. ita et qui in ueritate consistunt, etsi intra mundum uiuant habitatione corporea, tamen supra mundum sunt conuersatione caelesti et astrorum choros uel caelorum polos euolante spiritu scandunt et superuadunt celsioresque elementis agunt, non subditi rebus et usibus elementorum, sed adfixa in Christo uita superiores mundo fiunt, manentes in eo qui est super omnia deus benedictus saecula. Vides quemadmodum nos a mortalibus ad deum transferat imitator Christi doctrina pariter exemploque uirtutis, auferens uelamentum a corde nostro, ut reuelata facie contemplemur in gloriam dei, quae infidelibus uelamine legis absconditur, fidelibus euangelii reuelatione detegitur. iam ergo nobis illa carnali coma opus non est. uetera enim, inquit, transierunt, et ecce nunc omnia noua, quoniam exortum est in tenebris lumen rectis corde, misericors et miserator et iustus dominus. dominus autem spiritus est. 3] I Ioh. 2, 16. 6] Ioh. 1,9. 9] l Ioh. 2,15. 10] I Cor. 7, 31; Col. 3, 1. 12] Eccle. 1, 14. 19] (Ioh. 15, 4; Rom. 1, 25). 21] (I Cor. 11, 1). 22] II Cor. 3, 18. 25] II Cor. 5, 17. 25] Ps. 111, 4; Ioh. 4, 24; II Cor. 5, 17. 5 huic mundo aciem nostram FPU 7 id -ueuientem om. M 10 figura huius mundi M 12 ait ecclesiastes FPU 16 euolantes LM v 19 quod F 20 tranferdt U 23 in 0, om. eet . uelamine om. LM 24 euangeliis 0 detergitur 0 25 carnalis 0 26 nunc om. FPU noua suut omnia FPU ubi uero spiritus domini, ibi libertas. et ideo tunc honori fuerit capillatio, cum adhuc illud spiritale uelamen legis etiam corporali habitu praeferri oportebat: nunc iam oneri est, postquam sol aeternae libertatis inluxit et caput nobis factus est Christus, qui nos ut iugo ita et onere capitum depressorum leuaret. propterea iam audemus in uoce exultationis et confessionis ut liberi proclamare: disrumpamus uincula eorum et proiciamus a nobis iugum ipsorum. nunc enim tempus acceptum, nunc salutis dies, cum iam non in umbra nubis sed in lumine corporis sui ueritas adest. et oportune ad gratiae tempus et species libertatis tonsori in promptu est, qui nos et prolixiore capitis uelamento leuet, ut gratiae spiritalis beneficium etiam corporalis forma testetur et libertatis internae laetitiam serenitas reuelatae frontis ostentet. Feminis tantum comam apostolica reliquit auctoritas, quia etsi ipsis una nobiscum fides uelamentum cordis amoueat, tamen tegimentum capitis et frontis umbraculum uerecundiae decus postulat; et ideo perfectus fidei ac disciplinae magister docet indecorum uiro crinem, quia abscondi non potest caput uiri Christus, quod est et illa supra montem aedificata ciuitas in ecclesia, quae corpus est Christi. itaque uiro dedecens, feminae decus est, quae nemini caput est, sed honestatis cultu ornat uirum et corporis seriem, quae a capite Christi deo et uiri Christo et mulieris uiro texitur, quasi in fundamentum locata sustentat. sed eam quoque per consortium corporis membrorumque texturam participem et summi capitis facit Christus, in quo nec masculus nec femina 4] (Matth. 11,29). 6] (Ps. 41, 5). 7] Ps. 2, 3. 8] II Cor. 6, 2. 19] Matth. 5, 14; I Cor. 11, 3; Eph. 1, 22. 27] Gal. 3, 8. 1 oneri F, honeri PU 3 honori FPU 5 honere PU depres- sos fort . 6 leuauit M 7 dirumpamus FL 9 non om. L 10 gratiam et 0, gratiam v 11 species-tonsori. Ov, speciem-tonsor cet. promtu L 13 ineterne F 14 reuelatae-etsi ipsis una om. Pl, U add. in mg. P* ostenderet F 17 tegmentum FPU, tegimentum L pra capitalis U 20 su F (p m. 2) 23 seriem corporis M 25 per ex pro U sortium 0 26 tertura M1 sumus. habeant sane capillos, quibus iuxta illam euangelicam peccatricem uestigia Christi tergeant et sapientiae pedibus inplicentur, ut aliud nisi sapientiam amare, nisi uirtutem amplecti, nisi pudicitiam osculari nesciant et ut extremo saltem rore uerbi caelestis aspersae dicant: ros enim, qui abs te est, sanitas est nobis. sint mulieribus nostris comae, spiritalium acta uirtutum, ieiunia misericordiae orationes; tales enim et uirum decent crines. ornet eas Christi gratia, non capilli, castitatis gemma, non lapidis, et operum in his, non odorum fragret unguentum. meminerint esse se filias illius filiae regis, cuius gloria omnis ab intus est. intelligant cur illas apostolus prolixiori capitis uelamento tegi iusserit; propter angelos, inquit, illos uidelicet. ad seductionem parates, de quibus sancti iudicabunt. hi enim petulantius infirmiora uasa pertemptant, sicut non Adam sed Euam coluber adgressus est. unde etiam docere in ecclesia prohibentur, ne exaltato spiritu decreta sapientiae audeant intueri et scientia inflante dissiliant. profecto enim ualeat ad confusionem malorum, si uideant mulierem sensus suos ignorantiae specie per silentium tegere, disciplinam intellectus sui uerecundo habitu confiteri, ut non audeat serpens temptandam rursus adgredi desperatione capiendae. Non frustra autem hoc eo potissimum tempore fieri debere apostolus docet, cum aut oret mulier aut prophetet. tunc enim uenit in spiritus conceptionem, et ideo tunc magis excitat temptatoris inuidiam, cum in uirum perfectum spirans exit terminos infirmitatis suae. quod autem et de oratione eadem apostolus quae et de prophetia sentit, non mirum, cum et alio 1] (Luc. 7, 38). 5] Es. 26, 19. 10] Ps. 44, 14. 12] I Cor. 11, 10. 15] (Gen. 3, 1). 16] (I Cor. 14, 34; I Tim. 2, 12). 22] (I Cor. 11, 5). ri 2 tergant FMPHJ, terg»ant. L 4 pudititiam 0 oscula 0 sale tim L 5 rorem 0 celestis aspr|sso L, celesperse U 7 misericordiae Ot\', misericordia cet . talem U 9 lapides 0 10 flagret LOv, fragrat F, fraglet M ungentum M 11 omnis gloria M 14 hii M uasa om. M 16 ne] ne scilicet M 17 audant U 18 ualeat 0r, ualet cet . 21 disperatione 0 capiendam (am ex e) L 22 autem hoc frustra M 23 orat M prophetat M 26 oratione] tractatione 0 loco dicat orari spiritu; nam et cum oramus, inquit, quemadmodum peti debeat nos nescimus, sed ipse nos spiritus docet. igitur quia et in oratione fit conceptio spiritalis, ne quis, ut scriptum est, mulieri ultra uasculi sui fines agenti dolus hostis et laqueus occurrat, uult apostolus in habitu eius ostendi esse illi supra caput potestatem, qua regatur pariter et defendatur, ea ipsa humilitate cordis uirtutem illi conferente, qua scientiae supercilium premit gubernaculo disciplinae et mauult timere quam altum sapere, tutius tacita per timorem fidei quam perita cum lingua, in cassum pressura frontem capillo, nisi etiam pudore uelauerit. Ergo in commune omnis anima studeamus illis adornari capillis, quos deus numerabiles habet, sicut ipse dicit: sed et capilli capitis uestri omnes numerati sunt. cuius uero ille capitis capillos magis numerare dignetur quam eius, cuius ipse uerticis caput est? de quo dicitur: caput eius ut aurum cephas, quo nomine probabilius aliquod et purius aurum significari puto, sicut illud de terra Euilath. hoc enim aurum forma sanctorum est, qui in capite corporis ut lumina micant et sunt aurum ignitum deo. quia uidelicet eos per examina passionum in huius muni fornace conflatos inuenit, ut scriptum est, dignos se, et in his sacram imaginis suae percussit monetam, inprimens cordibus et linguis eorum ueritatis suae uerbum eosdemque ipsos statuens nummularios, ut secundum suam formam probabiles domino cuderent nummos et abolita de nobis figura Caesaris uiuum regis aeterni nomisma signarent, ut spiritu redemptionis inscripti ceruice iam iugo libera et salutis titulo praemunita fronte caneremus: signatum est super nos lumen uultus tui, domine. 1] I Cor. 14, 15. Rom. 8, 26. 5] (I Cor. 11, 10). 11] (I Tim. 2,9). 13] Luc. 12, 7. 16] Cant. 5, 11. 18] (Gen. 2, 12). 20] Apoc. 3, 18. 21] Sap. 3, 5. 26] (Matth. 22, 21). 28] (Ezech. 9, 4). Ps. 4, 7. 2 spiritualis FU 7 conferentem U 10 praessura 0 15 capillos capitis M numerare magis FPU 17 caefas 0, ophaz LM aurom F 18 ille F euuilat OP, euilat F, eiulat U 21 conflato U 22 dignos se] dignosce FU, dignossce P percursit L 24 mummularios PU 26 nummisma FLMP 27 ut] et ut itl, in FU Summa igitur ope enitamur ita nos conparare, ut diuini capitis, quod nobis per gratiam dei Christus est, crines et aurum esse mereamur. ex ipso enim capite pullulat illa caesaries, de qua scriptum est: capillatura eius ut greges caprarum. et bene illorum potissimum animalium nomine designantur greges Christi, quorum maxime usus in lacte est, quia omnis qui credit deum Christum totam trinitatis plenitudinem in eo, quem pater unxit spiritu sancto, fide pietatis amplectitur. et ideo ipsa mater omnium uiuentium, Christi corpus ecclesia, suco pietatis exuberat, et bona ubera eius super uinum. in quo opinor significari, quod dulcior sit libertas gratiae in lacte misericordiae quam in uino iustitiae legis austeritas. littera enim, inquit, occidit, uides censurae merum; spiritus autem uiuificat, uides uberum munus et lactis effectum. sed hoc, ut tu mauis intellegi, semini detur, quo prima nascentium multra coalescit. bona igitur ubera, quae pastor bonus, qui pro ouibus animam suam posuit, illis inmulsit infantibus, de quorum ore perfecit laudem sibi, ut destrueret inimicum boni et defensorem mali. Ex harum caprarum gregibus erat ille uir gregis, qui » paruulos Christi nondum aptos solidiori cibo teneris lactabat alimentis, quibus dicebat: lacte uos potaui, non esca; nondum enim poteratis, sed nec adhuc potestis. cum autem huius lactis alimonia creuerimus, firmatis primum fidei conceptione uestigiis adolescemus in robur iuuentae, et confirmata per fidem caritatemque patientia leuabimus manus nostras in actionem robustiorem operibusque uirtutum uelut cibo fortiore 2] (Eph. 1, 22). 4] Cant. 4, 1. 6] (Prou. 27, 27). 8] Act. 10, 38. 9] Gen. 3, 20. 10] Cant. 1,1. 13] II Cor. 3, 6. 16] Iob 10, 10. 17] loh. 10, 11. 19] (Ps. 8, 3). 22] I Cor. 3, 2. 1 nitamur LM 5 bn§ L 7 credidit FPU 8 unsit U 10 bene M, bni L 15 sed hoc-coalescit om. M mauis 0 v, magis cct. intellegi semen detur Ov, intellegis emendetur cet.; semini emendaui 16 qui O1 multia U, mulctra M 21 paruuolos 01 nundum PU et infra 25 adolescimus FPU, adulescimus 0 rubur 0 confirmata Ov, firmata cet . 26 caritatemque Ov, caritate atque cet . 27 rubustiorem 0 t uiuemus, ut efficiamur et illi crines, de quibus scriptum est: crines eius abietes nigrae sicut corax id est coruus, sed bonus iste coruus nec ille ad arcam reuertendi inmemor, sed ille pascendi prophetae memor, cui bene conparantur illarum abietum aemuli crines, de quibus dicit: abietes bonae et nigrae, adducentes naues Tharsis; unde nunc corax iste non noctis sed luminis coruus est, cuius colore speciosi crines sunt ideo sancti, genus regale et sacerdotale, quibus diuinum caput ut ostro gloriae suae purpurat, quia et iuuenalis gratia in huius praecipue coloris capillo florentem uestit aetatem. Non dissimulandum tamen, quod auis ista interdum forma peccati in scripturis, interdum gratiae species inuenitur. uidetur enim esse mortifera, cum ad supplicium producitur inpiorum, quia mala, sicut scriptum est, per malos angelos mittit deus, uel cum in ultionem maledicti dicitur: oculum, qui inriserit patrem et matrem, effodiant eum corui de conuallibus. laudabilis autem eadem auis, uel cum prophetam mane panibus et ad uesperam carnibus alit uel cum pulli coruorum inuocant nomen domini. sed et color eius aliquando in sanctis, aliquando in inpiis ducitur. sponsa namque Christi dicit se fuscam esse et decoram, et dominus tenebras posuit latibulum suum. et rursus econtra ab apostolo commonemur, ne nos tenebrae conprehendant. uerum tamen illae abietes nigrae et bonae adducentes naues Tharsis secundum eius formam sunt, quae fusca pariter et decora est. ipsius enim et membra sunt sancti, qui sicut et palmae 2] Cant. 5, 11. 5] III Reg. 5, 8; II Paral. 9, 21. 8] I Pet. 2, 9. 14] Ps. 77, 49. 15] Prou. 30, 17. 19] (Ps. 146, 9). 21] Ps. 17, 12. 23] Ioh. 12, 35. 24] III Reg. 5, 8. 26] (Ps. 91, 15). 2 sucut U corax id est om. M 3 bñe L 6 nunc om. FU, huc O txp. P m. 2 7 coruus M colore scripsi, color w, coloris v 9 austro M, austro L et] et in 0 iuueualis Ov, iuuenilis cet . 10 gratiam Pl in om. FPU capillo om. FPU 13 splicium U perducitur FPU in 14 mala om. LM 15 mittit (in na. 2) M ultioue Ov 17 eadem < auis om. LM 18 pauibus U 20 dicitur v 22 contra L, e contrario 17 24 ille FMPU bn M, bne L florentes et cedri multiplicabiles, ita et abietes nigrae et bonae sunt, quia in ecclesia hoc est dei monte uerticibus meritorum eminent, ut abietes in suis montibus. et sicut illae aptae nauibus contexendis, ita illi principes populi de monte legis ut a Libano excisi arcam domini siue nauem hoc est ecclesiam per huius mundi diluuia nauigaturam edolatis uerbo dei gentibus texuerunt et in conpagem caritatis fide stringente coniunctam fluctus mundi istius inputribiliter secare docuerunt. Sed et nunc eruditae ad apostolicam fidem animae abietes sunt nigrae et bonae: nigrae uero iam non de peccato, ut puto, magis quam adhuc uel de inhabitatione corporea uel de exercitationis internae quasi bellico puluere uel puluerulento sudore nigrantes; bonae tamen propter spiritalem etiam in noctibus corporum conuersationem. sic et naues, quae fluctibus mundi supernatant, et fide ueri atque opere iusti a dextris, ut scriptum est, et sinistris uelut remis armantur, qui uerbo dei quasi gubernaculo diriguntur et ad auram spiritus sancti sensuum suorum sinus pandunt et cordis sui uelum uinculis caritatis ut funibus ad antemnam crucis stringunt. et arbor illis est uirga de radice Iesse, quae totam corporis nostri quadriremem regit et cui si iuxta illam poeticam fabulam in prophetica ueritate nectamur, uoluntariis adstricti nexibus et obstructis non cera sed fide neque corporis sed cordis auribus, contra huius mundi uarias ad capiendum, pares ad nocendum inlecebras tuti et innocui scopulos uoluptatum quasi saxa Sirenum praeteruehimur. adstringamur autem huic arbori fune ualidissimo, uincti in spe fide caritate, credentes cordibus et 15] (II Cor. 6, 7). 20] Es. 11,1. 2 eminet\' 0 5 nauem P in mg. m. 2 cuius Pl 6 edolatis Of), i modullatis cet . 8 inputrabiliter L 11 magisf qua M, magisque r habitatione LM 12 puluerulecto F 13 uigrato M 14 sic et] siccae F, sicce U, sic ut fort . 15 et om. in ras. M 17 et om. FPU n sancti spiritus FPU 19 atenam L, antennam FPU 21 quadriremen 0 et om. M 23 obstructis 0, obstrictis P3, obstricti cet . neque] non FPr; 25 sirenarum M 26 arbori om. M 27 uincti; L et caritate FM credentis L 1 MI oribus confitentes indiuiduam trinitatem, quae est spartum triplex, quod non rumpitur. hoc sparto et opera nostra texantur, quo et rudente fidei nostrae arbor erigatur caritatis antemna et uitae nostrae uela sinuentur, ut simus et abietes illae, quae in fabricam templi magnis ratibus intextae ducebantur a Tharsis, uel idem naues, qui illam aemulemur, quae Solomoni quondam electum aurum et opes Tyrias adferebat. tanto autem studiosius et quaestuosius nostra negotiatio debet agitari, quanto rex noster aeternus Iesus illo temporali Solomone praestantior est. ecce enim, inquit, maior Solomone hic, qui non conteret nos spiritu uehementi inter naues Tharsis, si illi bono actu uitae nostrae lucrum, quod est pretiosissimum deo mercimonium, conuehamus, ut suum ipse pretium accipiat a nobis, quia ipse est et margarita, atque eam tota spiritalis istius mercaturae conuersatio sibi nititur conparare. cui coemendae si facultas nostra suffecerit, non deprimentem sarcinam sed leuantem nos per hoc mare magnum et spatiosum uehemus et dormientem in nobis pro nostra segnitia dominum, si uel dormientem uectare mereamur, excitare audebimus, ut increpans uentos spirituum inimicorum uel etiam nostrorum sensuum saluos nos faciat a pusillo animo et tempestate tendentibusque nobis ad tranquillitatem suam maria consternat, ut quasi naues suarum onerarias opum deducat in portum salutis, uictricibus fluctuum puppibus uirides laetus inponat coronas. 5] (III Reg. 5, 8). 6] (III Reg. 9, 29 et 10,22: II Par. 8,18 et 9, 10). 10] Matth.12, 42 ; Luc.11, 31. 11] Ps.47,8. 14] (Matth. 13,46). 17](Ps.l03, 25). 19] (Matth. 8, 24 ; Marc. 4, 38; Luc. 8, 23). 21 ] (Ps. 54, 9). 23] (Ps. 106,30). 1 quod est fuuiculus triplex M 2 sparto om. M 3 et rudente v, erudiente tAl, ut rudente fort . 3 erigitur FPU antenne FU 6 idem 0, iidem v, eaedem FPU, illae ML illam Ov, illa cet . solomoni 0, salomoni cet. et sic infra 7 condam PU adferebant L, afferebant FMP, offerebant U 8 studio suis U 11 uehementi spiritu M tahrsis L 12 illo F 13 mercimoniam FPU 14 atque eam scripsi, ad - 1 quam 01, quam v 15 *nitit M (f eras.) conparare J corporaliter U, coparandam M 16 coemeuda L 0 r, coemendet F 17 mare om. U 23 et quasi F quasi onerarias F 24 uictricibus LOt" uictricibusque cd. pupibus LMP Simus et dextera eiusdem, qui totus dextera est, non habentes in actibus nostris sinistram, ut ad dexteram iudicis stare uel potius dextera ipsius iudicis esse mereamur et opera nostra in die retributionis sicut capillos sui capitis dominus remunerator adnumeret, ut ipse iam praefatus est in euangelio, pronuntianda iudicio, cum benedictione diuina et adtributione regifica remunerabitur spiritalium merita uirtutum hoc est pulcherrimas sui capitis comas, qualibus et illa in ecclesiae typo mulier Christi uestigia unguento et lacrimis rigans tersit, quae non tam pretio munerum quam obsequii placuit affectu. non enim unguentum in illa dominus sed caritatem dilexit, qua pudenter inpudens et pie inproba sine obprobrii et repulsae metu extraneam sibi domum Pharisaei non inuitata illa ui petulans penetrauit, qua rapitur regnum caelorum, et tantum uerbi caelestis esuriens non ad opes illius sed ad pedes Christi cucurrit seque in illis abluit et cibauit atque ipsos sibi pedes sacrarium, ut ita dixerim, et altare constituit. in quibus libauit fletu, litauit unguento, sacrificauit affectu. sacrificium enim deo spiritus contribulatus, quod illa immolans deo non solum remissionem delictorum sed et gloriam praedicandi cum euangelio nominis meruit. Et quia uocandae ex gentibus ecclesiae imaginem praeferebat, omnia in semet ipsa mysterii salutaris insignia gessit: uncta est chrismate sui muneris, paenitentiae lacrimas habuit in lauacrum, uiscera caritatis in sacrificium et ipsum uiuum 2] (Matth. 25, 33). 4] (Matth. 10, 30; Luc. 12, 7). 14] (Matth. 11, 12). 18] Ps. 50, 19: 20] (Matth. 26, 18; Marc. 14, 9; Ioh. 12, 3). 24] (Luc. 7, 38). 1 dextra F 2 ad O s. I. indicis Ol 4 sui om. M 5 ut - I. 8 comas om. M iam] etiam FPU est, orn. L 6 praenuutianda L, prenunctianda F, prenuncianda 1\', prenumptianda U benediccione 0 merita 7 remunerabit MO\'t, muuera P 8 capitis sui F qualibus]"qua U 9 typho P1 unguento et om. M rigaus om. FPU 11 ungentum M 12 prudenter MU, t pudenter M tIł. 2 13 farisei 0 illa ui petulans om. M 14 rapitur LMv, rapuit FPU, rupitur 0 regna Pl 15 opes] dapes coni. Socch . christi pedes FPU 16 et et F sibi om. F 18 littauit FPU ungento MU effectu L1 19 quod 0, quem cd . 23 semetipsa v, semet ipsam., 24 crismate LMOP 25 uinum U niuificantemque panem manibus et ore praesumpsit, sanguinem quoque calicis, antequam fieret calix sanguinis, osculis sugentibus praelibauit. beata, quae Christum in carne gustauit et in ipso corpore Christi corpus accepit, merito praelata Pharisaeo pascenti licet Christum, quae Iudaeo epulante ieiuna non cibi, at dixi, sed salutis auida seruiebat. beata, quae meruit in ecclesiae typum hac quoque specie figurari, ut in domo et conuiuio Pharisaei non ipse Pharisaeus sed peccatrix ad ueniam iustificaretur. plus huius inportunitas. etenim dispositi a saeculis sacramenti ordo poscebat iuxta illam Noe patris propheticam benedictionem in tabernacula Sem transire habitationem Iapheth, hoc est in domo legis et prophetarum ecclesiam potius iustificari, minorem aeui sed gratiae lege maiorem, unde ipsius in Iohanne persona, unde lex ipsa legis profitetur: qui post me uenit ante me factus est, quia prior me erat. Vt autem etiam in typo congrueret ecclesia capiti suo, bene formam peccatricis acceperat, quia Christus quoque formam peccatoris accepit. sed Iudaeus neque caput neque fundamentum habiturus in Christo nec caput Christi nec pedes unxerat, quod utrumque pretiosis unguentis mulier euangelica inrigauerat. propterea synagogae neque oleum gratiae neque aqua refectionis a Christo est, cuius typum illi Pharisaeo gerenti circa ipsum et olei et aquae salutaris fontem et aqua et oleum caritatis exaruit. de hoc fonte praedixerat per prophetam: oleum peccatoris non inpinguet caput meum, sicut ad ecclesiam suam dicere potuit: inpinguasti in oleo 14] loh. 1, 30. 25] Ps. 140, 5. 26] Ps. 22, 5. 2 suggentibus FL 4 fariseo ut semper 0 5 cibo FPU 6 seruiebat] esuriebat FP\'U 9 plus huius inportunitas om. M plus] pia L importunit atis P1; consequitur quam Pharisaei dapsilitas add. Rosw., quam illius comitas addiderim, si quid addendum seculi FPU 10 sacramti M s. I . prophetiam U 11 iaphet FLPU, iafet 0 13 aeui scripsi, temporum (tpr M, tempore L) aeui 00, temporum aeuo v gratiam FOPU 14 persona unde lex ipsa legis 0, unde lex ipsa legis persoua FPUv, legis persona LM 16 et ecclesia FLPU capitis sui L 18 neque caput neque caput U neque FU 23 aquae L 24 fonte L\'O, forte cet . per prophetara praedixerat M 26 inpingasti L, impingasti M caput meum, quae non solum confectione sed etiam uase pretiosum detulerat unguentum, quod multorum graminum siue florum mixta in unum gratia et uirtute fragrabat. quae potuit nisi ecclesia tale conficere? quae de uariis caelestium gratiarum floribus et sucis odora multimodas suauitates ex diuersis gentibus deo spirat orationesque sanctorum uelut aromata pateris incensa flagrantibus spiritu ueritatis exhalat, ut ei talium florum odoribus seu liquorum roribus adfluenti sponsus ipse gratetur illa qua et in Canticis Canticorum uoce blanditur: columba, inquit, mea, perfecta mea, quoniam caput meum repletum est rore, caput Christi deus et crines eius, electio santorum, quibus pater gaudet in Christo, et crines mei guttis noctis. ros, ut scimus, non est imbris humor sed refrigerii, quo reficiuntur arida ab aestu diurno gramina. huius roris lucidis guttis non nisi serena nocte spargitur terra. unde intellegi datur eas noctis guttas, quibus caput et crines suos sapientia maduisse laetatur, formam esse sanctorum, quam et in stellis apostolus coruscare designat, quae aeque serenis noctibus micant, quibus rores cadunt. quae autem nox intellectu spiritali putanda nisi passio domini, quae et dies inluminauit? de qua puto scriptum: et nox inluminatio in deliciis meis. sed sic et hoc saeculum noctem putes, quod conuersione gentium, quarum ante fidem tenebris horrebat, ut nubibus serenatum est, et nunc ecclesiae lumine quasi pleno lunae perfectae speculo et sanctis hominibus ut puris in serenitate sideribus opera fidelium, quibus animam suam quisque uiuificans a praeteritae siccitatis siti reficit, quasi rores in hac, ut diximus, saeculi nocte destillant. 10] Cant. 2, 10 et 5, 2. 18] (Phil. 2, 15). 21] Ps. 138, 11. 2 multarum FPU 3 uirtutes 0 fraglabat M, flagrabat OL 4 ecclesia nisi F quod FPU 5 adora U 7 fragrantibus FPU exalat FLMPU et ei FPU 8 affluentib; 0 9 garetur U, generaretur F 10 post . mea L s. I . 11 rore id est fort . 12 eius om. 0 13 simus FU umor LO 14 reficimur FU 15 spergitur F tarra om. M 19 mictant U 20 que est F 21 illuminatio] mea add. Rosw . sic et scripsi, et si F, u si et cet . 23 conuersatione LP, cuione M 25 perfectae 0, perfecta cet . 28 destillant 0, distillant cet . Et ideo caput suum Christus tali repletum rore laetatur et inluminator noctium nostrarum tamen guttis noctis nostrae crines suos gaudet esse perfusos, quia ipsius refrigerium et refectio est illa fidelium operatio, quibus uel fratres iuuantur uel inopes confouentur. ideo denique et uocem Iudae aspernatus est, qui recepti corde suo zabuli spiritu mulieris unguentum Christi pedibus inuidebat. operibus enim pietatis et misericordiae et ungitur et feneratur et pascitur Christus. uerum traditor antequam proderet dominum, perfidiam suam prodidit, quem non pauperum sed furtorum suorum cura commouerat et liuor mentis infidae, ut unguentum illud quamlibet pretiosum, dominici tamen sanguinis conparatione uilissimum, pretiosius corpore salutari iudicans, indignaretur in feminam pie prodigam, quam ipse dominus bonum in se opus testatur operatam, docens egentium curam esse posthabendam, sed sibi tantum, ut in eo ostenderet, ut corde peruerso fidei misericordiam praetulisset, cum fomes operum fides sit et praeceptis suis praestet ipse praeceptor. nisi quod in hoc quoque filius perditionis ostendit, quam uilem Christum haberet, qui unguentum, quod supra Christum effundebatur, perire dixit. et ideo non est in pretio sanguinis Christi, quia habere non potest redemptorem quem maluit habere uenalem, et iure a commercio uitae mortis contractor excluditur suo ipsius damnandus iudicio, quo triginta aureis uendidit eum, quem mulier, ut ipse taxauerat, unxit trecentis; sed in hoc peruersus, qui ipsum uili aestimans 1] (Cant. 5,2). 6] (Ioh. 13,2; Matth. 26,10; Marc. 14,6). 9] (Ioh. 12,6). 23] fbiatth. 26, 15; Marc. 14, 5; Luc. 22, 5). 1 laetatua LOP1 2 tamen om. FlJ 3 esse perfusos gaudet FPU 6 quia F recepti 0, recepto cet. in corde M zaboli OPU, diabuli F* 8 foneratur in textu, a-t fouetur in mg. M m. 1, serenatur FP (s. 1. m. 3) v 10 pauperem F furorum 0, futurorum L 1 causa M commoueatur F, conmoueatur U 11 quodlibet F 14 in se dns ipse bonum M 15 dicens FPU esse v, sibi M, se cet . sed sibi-ostenderet om. M fjuod 16 ut FOPU, iprobans M, quod L 17 praestet] praeferri debeat M 18 et ipse FLU 19 uile L et qui 0, ut qui v 21 qui FPU 23 quod L, q U, qui F 24 aureis] argenteis, sed in mg . af aureis. sed euangelium dicit argi M m. 1 uncxit 0, unxerat FPU 25 qui] quod M v exstimans U, aestimant 01 dominum unguentum illud, quod in salutarem nobis eius sepulturam praemittebatur, caro aestimauit. uere ut zabulus ignarus gratiae dei, in qua illi non esset portio, non caritate sed inuidia magno aestimauit pretium mortis eius, qua nos gratis seruat qui magno emit, non uendit. nos enim ille uult pretiosos facere sui muneris uilitate. ipse nobis hac pietate pretiosior, quod se uili uult aestimari, ut ab omnibus ematur. quoniam enim, inquit, ipse fecit pauperem et diuitem, et aequaliter illi cura est pro omnibus. unde ait: gratis accepistis gratiam, gratis date. huius gratiae gratuitis opibus diues Petrus debilem pauperem et tantummodo egenae stipis cupidum pecuniam non habens sanitate ditauit. Itaque egeamus auaritia auri, ut abundemus gratia et per inopiam uoluntariam uilescentes huic saeculo pretiosum domino efficiamur unguentum. spirabimus enim bonum Christi odorem deo, si mortem Christi in corpore nostro circumferentes et uitam in spiritu manifestantes et passionis dominicae et resurrectionis odore fragremus. mittimus autem unguentum in corpus Christi, si substantiam uitamque nostram in fidem ueritatis eius et praecepti oboedientiam conferamus. tunc in eius corpore replentia domum totam unguenta fragrabimus, si caritate perfecta possimus umquam dicere: mihi autem mundus crucifixus est, non amanti diuitias, non honores saeculi, non amanti quae propria sunt, sed quae sunt Christi, non amanti quae uidentur, sed quae non uidentur. hae nobis erunt in uirtutem et ministerium sanctum comae, quibus et pedes Christi detergeamus et funes peccatorum rumpere possimus et 5] (I Cor. 6, 20). 8] Matth. 10, 8. 9] Act. 3, 6. 16] II Cor. 2, 15. 4, 10. 22] Gal. 6, 14. 24] (Phil. 2, 21). 1 saluatorem F nobis om. M 2 premittebantur 01 caro] caro pcio M in mg. m. 1 extimauit U zabolus FlOPU, diabolus P 4 magna FPU extimauit FPU 6 precisior U 7 exstimari U 10 gratiam om. M 13 auricia L ut OP, et. cet . abondemus FlP gratiam 0 16 deo FPU 18 odorem O1 fraglemus M, flagremus LO mittemus Uv 19 fide 0 21 fraglabimus M, flagrabimus LO 23 onore 0 25 hee M, haec LO 26 uirtute 0 27 detergamus FMPU, deterg*amus (e eras.) L post . et om. FOPU in spiritu libertatis gratulantes dicere: disrupisti uincula mea, tibi sacrificabo hostiam laudis. Sed dum currendi spatium, dum seruiendi tempus est, pascamus huiusmodi comam et imitemur non solum dilectionem illius euangelicae peccatricis, ut amore magno magna debita diluamus, sed et inportunitatem eiusdem, ut praeripiamus irae inminenti salutem. oportune inportune panem uitae quaerentes patrisfamilias ianuam et nocte pulsemus. in noctibus enim, inquit, extollite manus uestras in sancta. omnis in Christo sapientis limina, ut iussum est, exterentes ubique captemus cibum uitae, ubicumque aucupemur uerbum dei; de omnium fidelium ore pendeamus, quia in omnem fidelem spiritus dei spirat; et necesse est a minimo dei seruo uel guttam caelestis sapientiae destillare, quae ariditatem mei cordis inroret et mihi supra huius saeculi sapientium flumina ad potum utilitatis exuberet, quia malo quinque uerba loqui in lege quam multa milia in lingua, sicut unam diem in atriis domini uiuere quam milia in tabernaculis peccantium, quoniam spiritus ubi uult spirat, et audio uocem eius et nescio unde ueniat. igitur ubicumque auram eius captabo, undecumque uel tenuem halitum legam. uel indigni uel in domum Pharisaei audiam iustum uenisse, contendam praeripere hospitis gratiam, praeripere si possim regnum caelorum. ubicumque mihi resonauerit Christi nomen, accurram; ad cuiuscumque interiorem domum legum intrare cognouero, et ipse properabo. cum repperero sapientiam, cum repperero iustitiam in 1] Ps. 115, 16 et 17. 8] (Luc. 11, 5 et 8). Ps. 133, 2. 16] I Cor. 14, 19. 17] Ps. 85, 11. 19] Ioh. 3, 8. 1 gratulanter M dirupisti F, dirumpisti L 6 deluamus 0 7 iminentis LM importune oportune LM pamem F, pane 0 s. I . 8 patrifamilias L ianuas U 9 omnis enim F 10 iussum 0, iustum cet . e sed in ras. P* 10 ubique MU 12 pendamus L 14 in cfilestis L distillare FL lpU 15 portum MO 16 mallo 01 17 unum Lebum 19 eius] es 0 21 alitum LMO uel indigni] quocumque uel in domum si indigni Rosw . uel indigni M 22 domo OP 26 repperiero P1 cum r. iustitiam om. U repperiero P1 in om. F XXVIIII. Paulini Nol. epistnlao. 13 alicuius penetralibus recumbentem, curram ad pedes Christi, ut uel extremo sapientiae uestigio signer; nec fastidiam pedes, immo optabo, ut uel pedibus suis tangat caput meum Christus. illa fimbriam tetigit, et curata est; alios et transitus apostolici corporis inumbrando sanauit. Expandamus illi capillos, id est omnes nostrorum insignium dignitates ante ipsum sternamus, et deiciamur a nobismet ipsis, ut exaltemur ab illo, qui in altis habitat et humilia respicit. lacrimis delicta nostra fateamur, ut de nobis quoque dicat iustitia illa caelestis: lacrimis rigauit pedes meos et capillis suis tersit. fortasse enim ideo non lauerit pedes suos, cum discipulorum lauaret, ut eos nostris lacrimis nos lauemus. non mediocris anima illa meriti est, de qua potest dicere sapientia: ex quo intrauit, non cessauit osculari pedes meos. quod est hoc osculum nisi pignus aeternum illius caritatis, quae operit multitudinem pecatorum? haec oscula sponso suo iam tunc parabat ecclesia, quando cantabat: osculetur me ab osculis oris sui. quod priuilegium sola sibi catholica dilectio iure uindicat, quae unica atque perfecta uni uiro ab ipsius ore uerbi petit oscula ueritatis, ne fraudis haereticae ueneno ut incesti oris alieni osculis polluatur. Pedibus ergo Christi oscula casta figamus, ut mereamur a pedibus in caput surgere et in superiora corporis membra crescentes iam de proximo uultus audeamus et oris ipsius oscula postulare. et cum dei uerbum puro corde libantes gustauerimus quam suauis est dominus, tunc anima nostra totis in amore sapientiae uisceribus accensa dulci refrigeretur ardore et confixa ignitis dominicae caritatis sagittis, 1] (Matth. 9,10). 4] (Act. 5,15). 8] Ps. 112,5. 10] Ioh. 18, 5. 14] Luc. 7, 45. 16] I Pet. 4, 8. 18] Cant. 1, 2. 1 penetrabilibus FU, penitralibus 0 2 sapientiam L1 3 ymo PU tanguat L 4 post . et om. M transitus LM, transitu cet . 6 illic FU 7 dignitatis L1 ipsum] spiritum U, illum LM et decidamur F, deiciamurque M 9 respicit] in celo et in terra add. F 10 dicit FU 11 non ideo F lauerat LM 12 laueret L 101 nos lacrimis nostris FPU 13 lauaremus FPU 14 intraui LOU 15 quid Rosw . 19 unita U1 21 incesti 0, incestis cet . 21 horis U 25 oscula Ov, osculum LM, om. FPU quibus omnis alia inimicarum delectationum delectatio interficitur, dicat in corde conpuncto: quoniam uulnerata caritatis ego sum. beatus uero qui potest et osculo unguere pedes Christi. -quis mihi misero os adureret et linguam meam caelesti illo carbone purgaret, ut uel calcaneum Christi mererer summo tenus ore contingere et subdito capite sola sancta tergere, ut caput meum potius Christi pedibus tergeretur et, dum pedes lambo diuinos, piarem casti labia inmunda uestigiis. Exhortemur ergo nos inuicem certatimque dicamus: uenite adoremus et ploremus ante dominum, qui fecit nos. illi flentes nostra gaudia seminabimus, illius uestigia perunguentes uulnera nostra sanabimus. quicquid enim Christo inpendimus, nobis potius conferimus. denique illa perfundendo Christum se abluit, pedes illius detergendo sua peccata mundauit, illam diligens se dilexit. et ideo meruit audire: filia, fides tua te saluam fecit, quod ille, qui erat de filiis regni, non meruit audire, magisque iustificata est haec seruitio quam ille conuiuio. Pharisaeus enim non crediderat, ista credebat. denique ille dicebat: hic si esset propheta, scisset utique quae esset mulier, quae eum tangit; et ideo non iustificatus est conuiuio, ad quod quasi tantum hominem inuitauerat Christum, inputans forte illi, qua propter nos et pauper erat, quod tanti fecisset in dapes suas pauperem diues adsumere. illa uero non tanto ambitu seruitutis et inpendii et lacrimarum sperasset remissionem peccatorum, nisi deum credidisset in Christo; et ideo in extremo licet saluatoris uestigio caput suae salutis inuenit. Quo te, miser Iudaee, iactabis? in domo tua te peccatrix nostra praeuenit ingressa in labores tuos. tu enim 2] Cant. 2, 5; cf. 4, 9. 3] (Es. 6, 7). 10] Ps. 94, 6. 15] Luc. 7, 50. 19] Luc. 7, 39. 23] (II Cor. 8, 9). 1 delectatio] dilectio v interficietur FPU 2 uulneratae L, uulnerate FP\'U caritates P1, caritate M 3 unguere 0, ungere cet., tangere Rosw . 6 soleam sanctam LM 8 casti 0, castis cet . 9 eiortemur FLxOPU 14 illius] xpi M tergendo LXM numdauit U 17 hoc FPU 19 scisset] sciret LMv 20 tangit eum LM 22 qua 0, quia cd., qui v et om. FU 24 post . et om. M 13* epulabaris ut superbires, illa ieiunabat ut seruiret. et quam de urceis tuis effundendam negaueras aquam, illa de suis oculis ministrabat. tu pedes Christi nec linteo, illa crine detersit. quos tu, indigne, nec manibus contingere uoluisti, illa osculis mulcere non destitit. at certe tu potius hoc ministerium in domo tua recepto hospiti debuisses, si uel exemplo patrum fas hospitale seruasses; sed sufficit uobis ad superbiam iactare patrem Abraham. et ideo te illa praeuenit, quae affectu fideli se potius patris tui filiam conprobauit, a quo te degenerem etiam ista inhumanitas arguit, qua dedignatus es lauare pedes domini, cum et Abraham angelorum et ipse dominus lauerit seruulorum; quamquam tunc quoque fidei pater etiam Christi pedes lauerit, quem unum de tribus propheticis uidens oculis adorauit, et ideo uos ipse sic increpat ore praesenti: si filii Abraham essetis, opera Abraham faceretis, et addidit: ille uidit diem meum et gauisus est. beauit autem et qui non uiderunt, sed cum uidentibus crediderunt. ex quo manifestum est nobis adquisitam fidem, tibi perfidiae superesse naturam. Sibi ergo habeant adrogantiam, sibi diuitias, sibi nobilitatem et iustitiam suam qui Abraham patrem corpore magis quam spiritu gloriantur, incircumcisi corde et sola carne Iudaei. nobis et ad salutem et ad gloriam satis est Christus et ipse crucifixus, qui nos de lapidibus in Abraham filios excitauit, illis contra de Abraham filiis in nostrae originis lapides obrigescentibus. nobis Ephrem sinister ad dexteram benedictus proficit; illos in Manasse, qui praesumptione senioris auo dexter 1] (Ioh. 4, 38). 3] (Luc. 7, 44). 7] (Gen. 18, 3. 19, 2. 24, 81). 14] Ioh. 8, 39. 16] Ioh. 20, 29. 22] (Ioh. 8, 39; Act.. 7, 51; I Cor. 2, 2). 25] (Matth. 8, 9). 27] (Gen. 48, 14). 2 negaueris FU oculis 0 5 hac L 6 doma L 8 fidei M 10 leuare U 11 lauarit L 1 15 abrahf M addit v 16 beauit 0, beati cet., beatus v 17 uiderant FOP1 18 perfidia P Lebrun superesse scripsi, perisse at Lebrun, non perisse v 20 ad arrogantiam h FU, ad aroganciam P 24 crucifLxus est FPU 25 abraę M 26 efrem M, effrem cet . 26 sinester 01 adstiterat, translata in caput sinistra crucis mysterio denotauit, quia crux Iudaeis scandalum, Christianis futura gloria, illum esset sinistrum factura de dextero et me dexterum de sinistro, quia, Iudaeis in nostra deserta labentibus et nobis in illorum sata inuadentibus, sunt caecitate quod fuimus et sumus gratia quod fuerunt. sed non ita nostra salute gaudebimus, ut uestro laetemur interitu. docti enim sumus a uestri corporis fratre sed spiritus nostri magistro non insultare ramis fractis, quia ipsi non ex operibus sed ex muneribus miserationum dei in arborem uestrae stirpis inoleuimus. potens autem est communis dominus, sed Christianorum pater hoc est fidelium deus, item uos genuinis corticis uestrae sinibus inserere et uestro cespiti replantare, qui nos uestrae pinguedinis suco per adoptionis beneficium medullauit, ut utrosque in unum domino fructificantes radix una sustineat. Interim malo peccatricis et pauperis nostrae diuitias in lacrimis et affectu quam tuas in inpietate et littera, illius ieiunium quam tuum conuiuium. malo inter capillos illius Christi pedibus inligari quam inter dapes tuas tecum iuxta Christum sine Christo discumbere. si modo unguentum ad pedes Christi non habeam, in aduentu eius ad meas faces oleum non habebo. et uae mihi, si unguentum meum uile sit; pretioso enim opus est, ut consepeliri merear sepulturae eius, cuius nisi morte conmoriar, resurrectione non uiuam. ergo illum amemus, quem amare debitum est. illum osculemur, quem osculari castitas est. illi copulemur, cui nupsisse uirginitas est. illi subiciamur, 2] (I Cor. 1, 28). 5] (Ioh. 4, 38). 8] (Rom. 11, 18). 17] (Luc. 7, 38). 21] (Matth. 25, 3). 23] (Rom. 6, 4). 1 extiterat FPU ministerio 0 denotauit ex designauit P m. 2 2 scandalo 0 3 dextro FLM me] in FPU dextrum FMPU 4 post . in om. LM eorum FPU 5 sunt ex siue P m. 2 cecitas n FP\'U 6 fuere FPU ura M gaudemus FLM 7 inte interitu L uestris 0 10 tirpis U 11 est om. U 12 idem 0 nos F genuiuis F, geminis U uestris F, urie M 14 dum LM 16 mallo 01 i i 18 mallo 01 19 pedibus x M 20 sine Christo om. LM x pedes M 22 uilescit FPU 23 eius] esi (cf. p. 193,19) 0 sub quo iacere supra mundum stare est. propter illum deiciamur, cui cadere resurrectio est. illi conmoriamur, in quo uita est. Et quam digne uicem huic domino referre poterimus, in quo et mortui uiuimus, qui uicissim nobis hoc esse dignatur, quicquid illi fuerimus seruuli sui! ita enim se inmiscet nobis ac nos sibi conserit, ut quod ipse accepit nobis proficere faciat, quod nobis id est minimis eius tribuitur sibi acceptum ferat. sic et honori suo inplicans suos prope omnia nobis, etiam nomina sua conmunicauit. ut uirtus dei dicitur, ita et nobis uirtus esse dignatur. deus enim nostrum refugium et uirtus. hereditas ut illi nos, et ille nobis. nam sicut habes in Moyse: facta est dei portio populus eius Iacob, ita et in psalmis habes: portio mea dominus. et sicut ipse de se ait: ego sum lux huius mundi, ita et ad suos dixit: uos estis lux huius mundi. ego sum, inquit, panis uiuus; et nos omnes unus panis sumus. ego sum uitis uera; et tibi dicit: plantaui te uitem fructuosam, omnem ueram. mons dei Christus, in quo bene placitum est deo habitare in eo, et sancti eius montes dei, montes uberes, de quibus nos inluminat mirabilis a montibus aeternis. petra est Christus: bibebant enim de spiritali sequenti eos petra, petra autem erat Christus. etiam discipulo suo huius uocabuli gratiam non negauit, cui dicit: super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praeualebunt aduersus eam. Sed quid miramur eum famulis suis. indulsisse sua nomina, quibus et patrem suum participat et regnum. dedit 4] (Col. 3, 3). 5] (Luc. 12, 37). 7] (Matth. 25, 40). 10] Ps. 45, 2. 12] Deut. 32, 9. 13] Ps. 118, 57 et 141, 6. 14] Ioh. 8, 12. 15] Matth.5,14. 21] I Cor. 10,4. 23] Matth. 16, 18. 27] Ioh. 1,12. 4 hoc est dignatur P1, est dignatus FP\' U 6 accipit LM 7 faciat] qui add. v 9 ut] et FPU 13 sicut om. FPU 14 sum om. L huius om. M ita et Ov, idem M, et idem cet . 15 huius om. FMPU 16 uitis MOv, ait uitis cet . fera 01 18 habitare L s. I . 19 mortes U 21 cristus est F enim] autem FPU sequenti Ov, consequenti cet . 23 cui] cum FPU 25 aduersus] ad LPU 26 indulxisse F nomina sua F enim potestatem recipientibus se filios dei fieri, et, quantum in ipso est, omnibus dixit hominibus: dii estis et filii excelsi omnes. nos uero nostrarum crimine uoluntatum sicut homines morimur et sicut unus de principibus cadimus. unus enim principum angelorum fuit, antequam deiciendo cadens fieret zabulus, cui dicitur: quomodo cecidit lucifer, qui mane oriebatur? sed non sicut ille in aeternum interitum damnati sumus, quia ille auctor peccati fuit simulque pro se et pro homine punietur, qui eodem periit scelere, quo perdidit. homo autem non in finem meruit exterminari paradiso et terra esse, quia diuina iustitia lenius iudicauit aliena mente peccasse quam propria. criminosius est decipere quam decipi et peccatum excogitare quam facere. et ideo temporaliter et ad emendationem punitus est fraudis adsensor, in aeternum autem supplicium destinatus mortis inuentor, cui numquam deficiet poena peccati, quia numquam desinit. itaque non angelus, non legatus, ut scriptum est, sed ipse dominus uenit erigere adlisos, soluere conpeditos et saluum facere quod perierat. sed ut illum deceptorem nostrum mutua quasi deceptione confunderet, per mysterium pietatis suae dignatus est unigenitus dei filius ipsam nostrae fragilitatis suscipere naturam, ut de ipsa, quam deceperat, zabulus uinceretur et qui semper sub dei uirtute et legibus fuit ut est homini subiugaretur. Quid ergo illi retribuemus pro omnibus, quae retribuit nobis? retribuit enim, sed ut bonus dominus bona pro malis, cui nos mala pro bonis ingesseramus. benedicebat, et maledicebamus. ille sanabat, et nos blasphemabamus; iustificabat inpios, et cum iniquis deputabatur. quid ergo illi pro malis meis quae pertulit, quid pro bonis suis quae. 2] Ps. 81, 6. 4] (Ps. 81, 7). 6] Es. 14, 2. 18] (Ps. 145, 8). Lue. 19,10. 24] Ps. 115,12. 28] Es. 58, 12. 1 enim] eis F 2 est om. U 4 et L 5 principium F 6 zabolus OP 9 punitur FPU perit LO, petijt M 10 fine FOPU 11 terra. (m eras.) L leuius FPv 15 nuquam pęna peccati numquam deficiet M 16 numquam peccare desinit M 19 illud M 22 ipsa L zabolus OP 23 ut] et L est] esse M 24 retribuimus FOPUv 28 ego FU contulit referam? quid pro suscepta carne? quid pro alapis? quid pro obprobriis? quid pro flagellis? pro cruce obitu sepultura rependam? esto, reddamus crucem pro cruce, funus pro funere: numquid poterimus reddere quod ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso habemus omnia et ipsi qui habemus sumus? ipse enim fecit nos, et non ipsi nos, et anima nostra semper in manibus eius. reddamus ergo amorem pro debito, caritatem pro munere, gratiam pro pecunia. uae enim nobis, nisi dilexerimus. Quando autem sperem me miserum et egenum huic domino posse reddere, cui nec apostoli se reddidisse profitentur. audi denique unum de ipsis confitentem se non reddidisse, qui dicit: quis prior dedit ei, et retribuetur illi? sed ipsi gratias, qui nobis tanti fenoris remittit usuras et obligationis inmensae conpendium praestat, solam a nobis dilectionem sui repetens, quam inter praecepta sua principali loco ponens ostendit quomodo illi insolubile debitum etiam inopes solueremus. nemo se igitur excuset difficultate soluendi, quia nemo se potest dicere animum non habere. non sacrificia, non munera sumptuosa, non duri labores exiguntur a nobis; in nobis est unde soluamus. res enim potestatis nostrae est noster affectus; hunc domino inpendamus, et soluimus. denique Dauid liberatus de manu omnium inimicorum suorum pro salutis suae plena securitate non regni opibus sed animi soluens ait: diligam te, domine, uirtus mea. Addo etiam amplius eum, qui creditor est, debitorem fore, si illi pretium bonitatis suae, quam nobis indebitam praestat, gratuita diligentes animo pensione soluamus. diligitur autem et in nobismet ipsis, quia ipse dixit hoc signum fore 4] Rom. 11, 36. 5] Ps. 99, 3. 13] Rom. 11, 35. 24] Ps. 17, 2. 1 pr . quid om. FPU alt . quid om. FPU 2 pro obitu FPU sepultura om. U 5 sumus] ab eo sumus Fp\'JU 7 amore U 12 de] illi ex LM 13 qui dicit quis] quis inquit M ei M (nu m. 2) retribuitur FOPUv 14 fęnoris MO, foeneris PU 18 igitur se F 19 munera] itinera FPU 21 soluamus LM 23 omnium om. F 24 opes LM 26 amplius: cum U 28 diligente U discipulorum suorum, si diligerent inuicem dilectione qua ipse dilexit nos, id est ut cor unum et unam animam habeamus in Christo et id quisque proximo suo faciat, quod sibi fieri cupit. quo magis tua caritate gloriamur in domino, quae sola nos facit aliquatenus uel unum de magnis et innumeris debitis deo soluere. in omnibus enim aliis bonis uix nos tantum uel in paucis initiatos, in tua tantum dilectione profitemur esse perfectos.