Letter 37: To my kindred brother Victricius,

Paulinus to his brother Victricius, of one mind with him. As cold water is to one who thirsts, and as good news from a distant land, so to us was a refreshment and a restoring the utterance of your holiness, which we received in the hand of our most beloved letter-carrier in a letter brief indeed in words but ample in love. This is our son Candidianus, in whose grace we have rejoiced together, because for the sake of the words of holy lips he drove, with a ready spirit, the unwilling beast of his weak flesh along hard roads, relying not on strength but on faith. And without doubt, through your prayers, he received, as it were wings of a dove or the feet of a stag, strength for fulfilling the ministry of love, and thereupon, in his small body made as it were a giant, he exulted to run the way, and he filled our soul with the blessing of sweetness, bringing to us letters more to be desired than gold and the precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. By them your holiness changed our mind, made bitter by sins, into the sweetness of joy with a spiritual delight, just as the holy and sweet breath of your blessedness changed that bitterness, like that bitter water (marah) in the hand of Moses, through the wood of the mystery. For from this very thing too we had drawn a bitter sorrow, that you had not come to us out of the city by a short journey, as we had hoped, you who had come to the city across such great expanses of land. For I confess that by the loss of this good I was not only saddened but also confounded; for never had my sins been more made manifest to me myself, not to say to others, than that they had begrudged me the light of your face from so near. For could not the hand of God, which had brought you so far, have had the power to bring you near? But our sins, set as a great wall against our desires, separated us between you and ourselves. Woe to me, wretched sinner with unclean lips, who dare to say that you were near us, or that we were near you, since, even if you had come all the way to us, we would nonetheless have been far from your holiness; for so great a distance of virtues and so great a remoteness of merits could not have been made equal or joined by mere place. Nevertheless, the work of that act of piety would have been added to the fruits of your holiness, and your reward in heaven would have grown from so devout a labor, if you had fulfilled, with respect to our weakness which needs to be visited near at hand by your face and your hand, that word of the saving Lord, that there is no need of a physician for the healthy, but for those who are ill. For I do not want you, O man blessed in the Lord, to be so without concern about us as to think that all the sicknesses of our soul are already healed, those in which we have sinned and do sin against the Lord, although that supreme perfumer himself, who for the remedies of our salvation compounds various sweetnesses of saving ointments and of virtues, has prepared the medicine of our life not only from the outpouring of his Spirit but also from the assumption of our body; having been made, as it is written, sin for us through the likeness of the flesh of sin, in the truth of our flesh, so that from sin he might condemn sin, that is, that he himself, free of sin, might condemn the root of our sin out of matter that was previously sinful, blotting out that handwriting of the mortal decree which was against us through the blood of his passion, and the enmity by which we were separated from God through the intervention of sins he slew in his own self, and triumphed over the adverse powers by his flesh, giving us an example of living and of conquering in our very selves the spiritual and invisible enemies in a spiritual and invisible battle, which is waged between the law of the mind and the law of the flesh that strives to take us captive into the law of sin. But pray the Lord and entreat him to lay hold of arms and shield and to rise up as a help for us and to say to our soul: I am your salvation; that our way may not become darkness and slipperiness, and the shadow of death cover us, and the enemy say: I have prevailed against them. But with you stretching the bow of prayer on our behalf, we shall not be turned into a crooked bow. Let God arise in us, that our enemies may be scattered, because for the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor, whose partners we are, the Lord has arisen, to turn away our evils upon our enemies and to make safe sinners, of whom we are the chief, like the lowest of the servants of Christ, who cannot even do the things we owe to do, though we ought to add by our own affection some voluntary gift beyond the debt of the law, as the master himself did, whose imitator you are, who, having the power to live from the Gospel, nevertheless was unwilling to use his power, and by foregoing what was lawful found for himself this occasion of heaping up reward with Christ, namely, that he might set forth the Gospel without cost. But your holiness holds a rich glory not only from the foregoing of lawful things and the abstaining from the visible comforts of Christian poverty, but also, as I have learned, from the multitude of adversaries and the endurance of trials, since unjust witnesses rose up against you, and iniquity lied to itself. But a knot in a bulrush and a blemish in the light could not be found; for your lamp was not hidden under a bushel, that lamp which stands out and shines splendidly above the holy candlestick, so as to give light to all who are in the house and to be kindling for the lighting of many lamps for the Lord. And therefore your candlestick has remained unshaken and stable, because it was pushed by human hands that it might fall. But you did not deserve to be moved to ruin by the hand of him who holds the seven stars and walks among the seven golden candlesticks, having in his mouth a twice-sharpened sword, with which he armed the right hand of your mind, so that you, as victor, might extinguish the burning darts of the enemy with the torch of each Testament, and that a thousand might fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but might not come near you, whom the truth of God shall cover with an unconquerable shield, so that the bows of those who are said to have sharpened the daggers of their tongues against you may be weakened. But like the arrows of little children, so their blows were made feeble, nor could they find a place for a wound in a body hedged about by the mighty arms of God; for the Lord is your protection, and the Lord is the illumination of your heart, who instructed you in the spirit of truth, so that in the teaching of Paul you might be a teacher of the nations with faith and truth, not in the inflation of knowledge nor in the loftiness of speech announcing the mystery of Christ, but showing yourself to know nothing among men except Christ of the law and him crucified. Since, therefore, your faith and confession, as we believe and trust, testifies that the coeternal Trinity is of one divinity and substance and work and kingdom, and since it holds the Father to be God and the Son to be God and the Holy Spirit to be God, who is and was and is to come, who sent you, like Moses and the apostles, to evangelize to the nations the good things of the Lord, you teach this as you yourself were taught by God: joining the unity of the Trinity without confusion and distinguishing the Trinity of that same unity without separation, so that no person may coincide with another, and in every person of the three the one God may shine forth, and the Son indeed is as great as the Father, and as great as the Holy Spirit, but each one, always distinct by the property of his own name, may keep an undivided concord in equality of virtue and glory. And we are certain that you so proclaim the Son of God that you are not ashamed to confess the same one also the Son of man, as truly man in our nature as truly God in his own, but the Son of God before the ages, because he himself is the Word of God, God, who was in the beginning with God, equally God, co-omnipotent and co-worker with the Father. For through him all things were made, and without him was nothing made that was made. And this Word, by the mystery of immeasurable piety, was made flesh and dwelt among us, not however the flesh only of our body, but a whole man, by the assumption both of our body and of a soul, and of a rational soul, which according to the natural workmanship of God has a mind implanted in it; otherwise we shall wander in the darkness of Apollinaris, if we say that the man assumed by God had a soul empty of the mind of the human mind, such as is the soul of beasts and of cattle, and that the Son of God, who must of necessity, by that truth by which he is the truth and by which he created man, have assumed the whole man, in order to renew his own work with full salvation, took up that man whom he assumed [as something less than a man]. But there is no salvation of ours unless it is full, because the Son of God took up not a man but some other I-know-not-what animal of irrational creation, if he did not have the mind proper to the soul of the man assumed, and if, against the nature of the human race, that firstborn man of all creation, assumed above all into the form of human perfection, was so far lacking in his own mind that he is said to have had a mind not from a human but from a divine spirit. This is said by the mouth of those in whose heart this poison is conceived, that even the truth might lie. But near you and in you is the word of truth and the truth of God. Nor do you lack the Holy Spirit, you who confess and believe and proclaim that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, God, abides in the glory of God the Father and at the right hand of power as King of kings, and that from the resurrection of the dead he is to be present as judge of the living and the dead. Be mindful of us, and glory, according to the Apostle, because this tribulation in brief has worked for you an eternal weight of glory and has laid up for you the crown of justice, which you will receive from the hand of the Lord; and war has been permitted to be stirred up for you as material for victory, so that for you too, according to the blessed Paul, your teacher, it may be allowed to glory in your sufferings, and, with your mouth opened wide over your enemies, to say how you labored in long-suffering, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God, through the arms of justice on the right hand and on the left, through glory and dishonor, through ill repute and good repute, as a deceiver and yet truthful, as unknown and behold known, as chastised and not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as needy yet enriching many. For this very trial of your holiness has come to the advancement of the Gospel for many, because no one has been confounded in you, while the grace of Christ and the truth of your faith shine forth not only in the directness of your teaching but also in the virtue of your conduct, which is in heaven. For the kingdom of God, he says, is not in speech but in virtue. What then is sought, when in you that which excels even in word stands out? For who would doubt that the faith of truth dwells in his spirit, in whose life he sees the virtue of faith stand forth?

XXXVII. VICTRICIO VNANEMO FRATRI PAVLINVS. Sicut aqua frigida sitienti et bonus nuntius de terra longinqua, ita nobis refrigerio et refectioni fuit 1] Matth. 22,13. 5] Rom. 5,1. (Ioh. 14,27). 8] (I Cor. 6,17). 10] Eph. 2,14. 14] (Ioh. 14,23). 16] Matth. 25, 21. 19] Prou. 25, 25. 1 mittur L 2 exterioris 0 3 dampnatus M in aetternum U, in eternum P 5 deum LM 6 desidet F, dessidet P 7 conserit 0, e consenserit FLPU, consentit M 8 adherat L 9 dno 0 12 tunc ex nunc L ignis] ipse M 13 horum 0, harum cet . duarum LM cum] trium M, eum Lebrun ex cod. Vienn . spiritu coni. Sacch., spirituum M ut conspirituum Bosw., uel eum spirituum Lebrun ex codice Vienn . trium] illum M 15 nos F est F s. I. m. 2 16 ducens U uestri] uale uale add . F, opto ut ualeas add. ptU . — explicit L, finit 10 FLMOPU . — epistola s paulini ad uictricium rotomagense epm XXVII. L, ad uictricium rotomagensem epm ■ XXX • V • M, incipit ad Yictricium prima 0, meropii paulini nolani episcopi liber quintus epistolarum ad diuersos incipit feliciter. epistola sancti paulini episcopi ad uictritium episcopum ubi de humilitate et patientia in persequutionibus eloquium sanctitatis tuae, quod per epistolam breuem quidem uerbis sed caritate prolixam in manu carissimi portitoris accepimus hoc est, filii nostri Candidiani, cuius gratiae congratulati sumus, quia propter uerba labiorum sanctorum prompto spiritu inpigrum carnis infirmae iumentum angariauit in uias duras non uirtute sed fide fretus. et sine dubio per orationes tuas quasi pennas columbae aut pedes cerui ad inplendum caritatis ministerium roboratus accepit et inde in paruo corpore quasi gigas factus exultauit ad currendam uiam, et repleuit animam nostram benedictione dulcedinis, adferens nobis epistolas desiderabiles super aurum et lapidem pretiosum nimis et super mei et fauum dulces. quibus mentem nostram de peccatis amaram, quasi merram illam in manu Moysi per lignum mysterii, ita beatitudinis tuae sanctus et dulcis adflatus in dulcedinem laetitiae spiritali suauitate mutauit. nam et inde tristati amaritudinem duxeramus, quod ex urbe ad nos, sicut sperabamus, breui itinere non ueneras, qui ad urbem per tanta terrarum spatia perueneras. fateor enim me huius boni damno non solum contristatum sed et confusum fuisse; numquam enim magis mihi ipsi, ne dicam aliis, manifestata fuerant peccata mea, quam quod mihi de tam proximo uultus tui lumen inuiderant. numquid enim dei manus, quae tam longe te perduxerat, prope non ualuisset adducere? sed peccata nostra grandi muro desideriis nostris opposita inter nos et te separauerunt. uae mihi misero 5] (Ps. 16, 4). 7] (Ps. 17, 34. 54, 7). 9] Ps. 18, 6. 11] Ps. 18,11. 14] (Ex. 15, 25). 25] Es. 6, 5. habenda: et de misterio trinitatis et incarnationis domini nostri ytiu xpi aperto sermone prosequitur U scõ et merito uenerabili ac dilectissimo fratri uictricio paulinus LM, om. OPl 18 Paulinus] XXII add. F 19 scicienti P 20 loginqua L refectionis 0 1 epistulam 0 2 in om. LM 8 misterium FPU roboraratus L 9 factus om. M 12 supra FPU 13 merram Lebrun, mirram FLU, myrram MOP in om. LM 14 manus LM 15 ducis F 15 dulcedinem L, dulcedine FOPU, dulcedinem quandam M 20 confissum L1 21 manifesta FMPU fuerunt M 22 inuiderant lumen U peccatori inmunda labia habenti, qui audeo dicere te prope nos uel nos prope te fuisse, cum, etiam si ad nos usque uenisses, aeque tamen a sanctitate tua longe fuissemus; neque enim locis potuisset aequari aut coniungi tanta uirtutum distantia et longinquitas meritorum. Verumtamen fructibus sanctitatis tuae opus istius pietatis accesserat, et merces in caelo tua de tam pio labore creuisset, si et circa infirmitatem nostram facie et manu tua comminus uisitandam uerbum illud domini salutaris inplesses, quia non est opus medico sanis sed male habentibus. nolo te enim, benedicte uir domino, ita securum esse de nobis, ut putes iam sanatos esse omnes languores animae nostrae, in quibus domino peccauimus et peccamus, quamlibet ipse summus unguentarius, qui ad remedia salutis nostrae conficit uarias unguentorum salutarium atque uirtutum suauitates, medicamentum uitae nostrae non solum de effusione spiritus sui, sed etiam de corporis nostri adsumptione confecerit; factus, ut scriptum est, pro nobis peccatum per similitudinem carnis peccati, in ueritate carnis nostrae, ut de peccato damnaret peccatum, hoc est radicem peccati nostri ipse peccati liber de materia prius peccatrice damnaret, delens illud quod aduersum nos erat mortalis edicti chirographum per sanguinem passionis suae, et inimicitiam, qua separabamur a deo peccatis interuenientibus, interfecit in semet ipso et triumphauit potestates aduersarias carne sua, dans nobis exemplum uiuendi atque uincendi in nobismet ipsis spiritales et inuisibiles inimicos spiritali et inuisibili 9] Matth. 9, 12. 17] II Cor. 5, 21. 19] Rom. 8, 3. 21] Col. 2,14. 24] Eph. 2,16. 3 a] et U tua sanctitate U 7 adcesserat 0, accesserat FPU, sccederet LM, accessisset coni. Lebrun lambore L 8 cominus FPU 9 saluatoris LM 11 in domino FMl PU 12 sanatos scos 0 langores LM 14 ungentarius M 15 ungentorum LM suauitatis 0 22 aduersum Ov, in cet . mortis M cyrographum FLMP, cyrografum U 24 interfecerit LM 25 triumphauerit LM in carne cmi. Lebrun proelio, quod geritur inter legem mentis et legem carnis captiuare nos nitentem in legem peccati. Sed ora dominum et exora, ut adprehendat arma et scutum et exurgat in adiutorium nobis et dicat animae nostrae: salus tua ego sum, ne fiat uia nostra tenebrae et lubricum et operiat nos umbra mortis et dicat inimicus: praeualui aduersus eos. te uero intendente pro nobis arcum orationis non conuertemur in arcum peruersum. exurgat in nobis deus, ut dissipentur inimici nostri, quia propter miseriam inopum et gemitum pauperum, quorum participes sumus, exurrexit dominus, ut auerteret mala nostra inimicis nostris et saluos faceret peccatores, quorum praecipui sumus, sicut infimi seruorum Christi, qui nec ea quae debemus facere possumus, cum et supra debitum legis aliquod uolunt.arium munus adicere debeamus affectu nostro, ut magister ipse fecit, cuius tu imitator es, qui potestatem habens de euangelio uiuendi noluit tamen uti potestate sua et abutens licito hanc occasionem sibi cumulandae apud Christum mercedis inuenit, ut euangelium sine sumptu poneret. Tua uero sanctitas non solum de abusione licitorum et abstinentia commodorum uisibilium Christianae paupertatis diuitem gloriam tenet, sed, sicut conperi, etiam de multitudine aduersantium et tolerantia temptationum, quoniam insurrexerunt in te testes iniqui, et mentita est iniquitas sibi. sed nodus in scirpo et naeuus in lumine non potuit inueniri; non enim sub modio latebat lucerna tua, quae 1] (Rom. 7, 23). 3] Ps. 34, 2. 3. 7] Ps. 12, 5. 8] Ps. 67, 2. 77,57. 9] Ps. 11,6. 11] Ps. 53,7. 12] I Tim. 1,15. 13] (Luc. 17,10). 19] (I Cor. 4,12. 9,18; I Thess. 2, 9; II Thess. 3, 8). 23] Ps. 26, 12. 26] Matth. 5,15; Marc. 4, 21; Luc. 11, 33. 2 uos 0 3 deum v 7 intendentem 0, tendente v arcum pro nri nobis U 8 non] ne FU conuertamur FPU 9 ei\' M 12 et] ut FPU 13 infirmi 0 15 de affectu v 16 tu om. LM 18 occansio- > > te nem 0 22 etiam conperi 0 24 te] me FO, me M 25 et] ut F 26 lucebat FPU eminet et splendide fulget supra candelabrum sanctum, ut luceat omnibus qui in domo sunt et multis domino accendendis luminaribus fomes existat. et ideo inconcussum et stabile permansit candelabrum tuum, quia manibus humanis inpellebatur, ut caderet. non autem merebaris, ut illius manu in ruinam commoueretur, qui habet septem stellas et ambulat inter septem candelabra aurea, habens in ore gladium bis acutum, quo armauit dexteram mentis tuae, ut utriusque testamenti face candentia inimici iacula uictor extinguas et cadant a latere tuo mille et dena milia a dextris tuis, tibi autem non adpropinquent, quem inexpugnabili scuto teget ueritas dei, ut arcus eorum infirmentur, qui in te dicuntur acuisse linguarum machaeras. sed ut sagittae paruulorum, ita infirmati sunt ictus eorum nec potuerunt in corpore armis dei potentibus saepto locum uulneris inuenire; dominus enim protectio tua, et dominus inluminatio cordis tui, qui te in spiritu ueritatis instruxit, ut in doctrina Pauli magister sis gentium cum fide et ueritate, non in inflatione scientiae neque in sublimitate sermonis adnuntians mysterium Christi, sed nihil te indicans scire inter homines nisi Christum legum et ipsum crucifixum. Cum ergo fides et confessio tua, ut credimus atque confidimus, coaeternam trinitatem unius diuinitatis et substantiae 6] Apoc. 1, 16. 2, 1. 9] (Eph. 6, 16). 10] Ps. 90, 7. 14] Ps. 63,4. 9. 16] Ps. 26, 2; II Tim. 1,11. 19] I Cor. 2,1. 1 super FPU ut] et FPU 2 lucet U dtfSs P1, dominis P\'U, U dominis domus F 4 candalabrum L, candellabrum P 5 implebatur P1 uti FPU illius om. U 6 conuertentur FPU 7 ambulabat F 9 ut F 8.1. m. 2 face v, facie 0, acie FLMP, atie U tela FPU 11 quem Ov, cum FPU, cum te LM, quoniam coni. Sacch . 12 teget Ov, teget te FPU Sacch., tegat LM infirmetur U 13 machaeras v, macheras 0, machinas cet . 14 infirmiti M iactus FPU 15 poterunt F ullum F 19 post . in om. OU semonis L 20 adnuntias 0 21 iftm xpm M ipsum] hunc M et operis et regni esse testetur cumque patrem deum et filium deum et spiritum sanctum deum putet, qui est et erat et uenturus est, qui misit te sicut Moysen et apostolos euangelizare gentibus bona domini, quod ita, ut ipse a deo doctus es, doces: unitatem trinitatis sine confusione iungens et trinitatem ipsius unitatis sine separatione distinguis, ita ut nulla alteri persona conueniat et in omni persona trium deus unus eluceat, et tantus quidem filius, quantus et pater, quantus et spiritus sanctus, sed semper quisque sui nominis proprietate distinctus indiuiduam retineat in uirtutis et gloriae aequalitate concordiam. Certi autem sumus, quod et filium dei ita praedicas, ut eundem et filium hominis confiteri non erubescas, tam uere hominem in nostra natura quam uere deum in sua, sed filium dei ante saecula, quia ipse est dei uerbum deus, qui erat in principio apud deum aeque deus coomnipotens et cooperator patris. per ipsum enim omnia facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil. et hoc uerbum pietatis inmensae mysterio caro factum est et habitauit in nobis, non autem caro tantum corporis nostri, sed homo totus et corporis nostri et animae adsumptione, animae autem rationalis, quae iuxta naturale opificium dei habet insitam mentem; alioquin in tenebris Apollinaris errabimus, si hominem adsumptum deo animam mentis humanae uacuam, qualis est pecorum et 2] Apoc. 1,4. 3] (Ex. 5-10; Matth. 18, 19; Act. 1, 8). 17] Ioh. 1, 3. 14. dirat 1 cumque] eumque uel itemque Sacch . 2 putet scripsi, ut est M, ut est cet . erat et] qui erat et qui M 8 apostolos v, apostolus 0, apostolum eel . euangegelicare F, euuangelizare 0 4 quod om. M 5 doces om. FPU unitatem] uidelicet add. M confessione 0 6 separatio L distinguis 0, distinguens cet . 7 omi 0 personat L 8 et U s. l. m . 2 quansemper tus et pater] quantus et pater, tantus pater fort . 9 pater 0 10 retineat scripsi, retinet at in om. FPU aqualitate 0 12 autem] etiam coni. Sacch . 13 erubescis FPU non erubescas confiteri M 15 et ipse F, ipse et PU est om. FPU deus F 8. 1 . 19 factus 0 habitabit FOPU 20 sed-nostri om. U 22 insite 0 23 appollinaris 0, appolinaris P errauimus 0 XIVIDI. Paulini Nol. opistulae. 21 iumentorum, dicamus habuisse, et eum hominem, quem suscepit dei filius, qui necesse est ea ueritate, qua ueritas est et qua creauit hominem, totum susceperit, ut opus suum plena salute renouaret. nulla est autem salus nostra, nisi plena est, quia non hominem, sed aliud nescio quod inrationabilis creaturae animal suscepit dei filius, si mentem suam propriam hominis adsumpti anima non habuit et contra naturam generis humani ille potissimum primogenitus omnis creaturae homo in formam perfectionis humanae adsumptus in tantum mente sua indiguit, ut non de humano sed de diuino spiritu mentem habuisse dicatur. quod illorum ore dicitur, in quorum corde concipitur hoc uenenum, ut et ueritas mentita sit. sed prope te et in te est uerbum ueritatis et ueritas dei. neque indiges spiritu sancto, qui dominum Iesum dei filium deum in gloria dei patris et ad dexteram uirtutis regem regum manere et ex resurrectione mortuorum iudicem uiuis et mortuis adfore con- fiteris et credis et praedicas. Memento nostri et gloriare secundum apostolum, quia haec in breui temptatio in aeternum tibi gloriae pondus operata est et reposuit tibi coronam iustitiae, quam accipies de manu domini, et in uictoriae materiam tibi bellum excitari permissum est, ut et tibi secundum beatum Paulum doctorem tuum liceat gloriari in passionibus tuis et dilatato super inimicos tuos ore dicere, quomodo laboraueris in longanimitate, in spiritu sancto, in caritate non ficta, in uerbo ueritatis, in uirtute dei, per arma iustitiae a dextris et sinistris, per gloriam et ignobilitatem, per infamiam et bonam famam, ut seductor et uerax, sicut ignotus et ecce agnitus, quasi castigatus et non mortificatus, quasi tristis, semper autem gaudens, sicut egens, 19] (II Cor. 4, 17). 20] (II Tim. 4, 8). 22] (II Cor. 12, 9). 24] n Cor. 6, 6. 4 plena est] neque plena est addiderim 5 inrationalis LM 9 absumptus U 11 dicitur 0, dicatur cet . 12 incipitur U 19 haec om. M 21 et in] in M materia LM 22 et om. U 24 longnimitate 0 26 a] ad TJ PtJ et a LMU 29 alt . et LM, ea FOP, est (t eras.) II multos autem locupletans. nam haec ipsa temptatio sanctitatis tuae multis in profectum euangelii uenit, quia nemo in in te confusus est, elucente gratia Christi et ueritate fidei tuae non solum in directione doctrinae tuae sed etiam in uirtute conuersationis, quae in caelis est. non est enim, inquit, regnum dei in sermone sed in uirtute. quid ergo quaeritur, cum in te id, quod et uerbo praestat, emineat? quis enim dubitet in eius spiritu fidem ueritatis habitare, in cuius uita uidet fidei extare uirtutem?