Letter 2018: You reproach me repeatedly and frequently for not having written until now to Your Beatitude, who is inseparable...

To the holy lord, most blessed and to be cultivated by me with a special devotion and affection particularly his own, Pope [bishop] Sedatus the bishop, Ruricius the bishop. You blame me rather often and frequently charge it against me that until now I have not written to your blessedness, which is inseparable from me in Christ the Lord. Would that the opportunity for doing so were as ready as the will for writing, so that the love which is conceived in the heart might be brought forth by the mouth. But where utterance is lacking, the affection is kept silent, and content within the hiding places of the breast it knows in its own conscience that it is not blameworthy in love, even if it does not perceive itself to be equal in the repayment of its duties, because it trusts that, just as it itself perceives a brother's love for itself by inference from its own, so too the loving brother is likewise able to know it from his own love, since by no means do we better measure the secrets of other men's hearts than by the contemplation of our own hidden thoughts. For we believe ourselves to be loved by another to just the degree of love with which we love him. And so I have complied with your request, I have complied with your command, that I should send to you a writing woven together with words of whatever quality, which you, if you love me sincerely, as I trust, will either at once destroy, lest what is dear to you begin to be an object of contempt to others, because love and hatred do not hear with equal judgment; or else you will certainly keep it to be reread by yourself alone, so that, whenever the fire of love for seeing me has blazed up within you, you may temper your longing by their conversation. Indeed, moreover, that you might more fully know the sincerity of our love toward you, we have presumed to inflict an injury upon your ears, because we are certain that they desire to hear not so much eloquent things as strong ones, not so much pleasurable things as true ones. Wherefore we believe that neither will the length of our page bring satiety to your devotion, nor will our rustic speech bring disgust, knowing that, the more you ruminate upon us, the more ardently you will hunger.

XVIII. DOMINO SANCTO AC BEATISSIMO ET MIHI PECULIARI CULTU AFFECTUQVE SPECIALITER EXCOLENDO PAPAE SEDATO EPISCOPO RURICIUS EPISCOPUS. Culpatis me saepius et crebrius inputatis, quod indiuiduae mihi in Christo domino beatitudini uestrae hucusque non scripserim. utinam sic esset facultas faciendi, sicut est scribendi 1] Gen. 80, 88. 15] Psalm. 88, 8. 18] Matth. 5, 8. 4 hac S uos v fratres optimi v optimae S 5 num fidentes acri- bendum 9 6 praesumsimos 8 quibus] qui ut v 7 salute S 9 sancti] s. S agustini S 13 eminentior v, eminenter S uos v 14 poaitos] uita suppl. Luetjohann de posita v 15 ambulant v 16 syon S 17 collirio S 19 deum add. v, om. S Kr . proinde v 20 habitentur S, corr. v 23 peculiare S 24 papae] patrono Kr. coil. 11 34, 35 sedat\' ejfs S 28 uoluntas scribendi v uoluntas, ut caritas, quae corde concipitur, ore promeretur. sed, ubi deest effatus, siletur affectus et intra latebras pectoris contenta est sui conscientia se non esse in dilectione culpabilem, etsi in officiorum redhibitione se non cernit aequalem, quia confidit, quod, sicut ipsa amorem fratris in se sui coniectione persentit, ita et diligens frater eum similiter possit ex sua dilectione cognoscere, quia nulla re melius aliorum cordium secreta quam arcanorum nostrorum contemplatione metimur. tantum enim nos ab alio diligi credimus, quanta eum nos caritate diligimus. Parui itaque petitioni uestrae, parui iussioni, ut qualibuscumque sermonibus contexta uobis scripta transmitterem, quae uos, si nos simpliciter, ut confido, diligitis, aut confestim delebitis, ne, quod uobis cordi est, aliis incipiat esse despectui, quia non aequali iudicio amor audit et odium, aut certe uobis tantum relegenda seruabitis, ut, quoties in uobis uidendi nos caritatis ignis exarsit, desiderium uestrum eorum conloquio temperetis. quin etiam, ut amoris nostri circa uos sinceritatem plenius nosceretis, (auribus uestris) iniuriam inferre praesumpsimus, quia certi sumus, quod non tam diserta cupiunt audire quam fortia, non tantum uoluptuosa quam uera. quapropter credimus, quod pietati uestrae nec longitudo paginae nostrae adferat satietatem nec rusticus sermo fastidium, scientes, quod, quanto nos amplius ruminaueritis, tanto esuriatis ardentius.