Letter 2004: I firmly believed — and fervently hoped, however burdensome it might have been for you — that you would come to meet...

IV. To the holy lord, most blessed and to be looked up to with apostolic reverence, Bishop Ruricius, from Sedatus. I fully believed, and, however laborious it might be for you, I ardently desired, that you would come to that pressing matter which presented us here, so that I might earn your visit and your blessing by the occasion, and so that our common longing might be satisfied by the sight of each other. And truly, after the hope of your presence was disappointed, I was cast down as if from the very summit of my prayers, and both the toil that pressed upon me, and the absence from home, and all the things by which the distress of disappointed hope [...] and anxiety is heaped up, came together alike upon my mind. And the Lord knows that, if my strength were sufficient, or if the infirmity of my age allowed me to obey my desires, or if there were animals by which the journey could be accomplished at such a time as this, I would not return from Toulouse before I should earn the most longed-for blessing of your blessedness and of that singular charity of yours. But because these things which have been said above stand in the way of my desires, I ask and I adjure you through Christ, that your devotion may always represent me to you, and that you may not allow charity to be diminished, or forgetfulness to obscure it, on account of any slowness in offices of duty; but rather that you may pray for me unceasingly, as I am certain you do, and that, as often as it shall be opportune, you may deign to visit your servant through the converse of letters.

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