Letter 2038: Because obedience is preferred to sacrifices [1 Samuel 15:22], I would rather expose my clumsiness than lose your love.
Ruricius of Limoges→Peter|c. 500 AD|Ruricius of Limoges
education books
From: Ruricius, bishop of Limoges
To: Peter, bishop
Date: ~500 AD
Context: A short letter explaining that obedience to a request trumps embarrassment about one's own literary shortcomings.
Bishop Ruricius to his brother, Bishop Peter.
Because obedience is preferred to sacrifices [1 Samuel 15:22], I would rather expose my clumsiness than lose your love. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up [1 Corinthians 8:1]. And so I write, rough as my words may be.
XXXVIII. RURICIUS EPISCOPUS FRATRI PETRO EPISCOPO.
Quia oboedientia sacrificiis antefertur, idcirco rusticitatem
meam malo prodere quam perdere caritatem. scientia enim
20] Prou. 12, 15. 26] 1 Cor. 8, 1.
1 dictans S 3 nepote meo dulcissimo v parthenio Kr., parthemio S
4 praesentiam uobis v exhiberim S 5 comendare S 6 presentare S,
praestare coni. Luetjohann 8 incensanter S affectum v amorum
ex qmorum 81 9 spacia S 11 cum] jjj) S (cu suppZ. 81) 1)& 8,
pari Luetjohatm, pariter v 13 parthemio S 16 resedente S 17 cognosco
ex cognosce S 18 uos ante manere denuo add. S 19 dulcidinem S
22 apto v agates S 24 petro episcopo] pet..... S 25 sacrifitiis S
26 mallo S
inflat, caritas, ut ipsi melius nostis, aedificat. quam ob rem,
quia iussistis, ut uos per singulas occasiones et de meis actibus
facerem certiores et desiderium uestrum, quod mihi non meo
merito, sed generali et insita uobis dilectione dependitis, alloquio
temperarem, me quidem (deo) propitio fortiorem, sed heu
plenum omne hospitiolum nostrum diuersis incommodis laborare
significo. peculiarius rogo adtentius domino supplicetis,
ut, qui nobis incolumitatem uestris orationibus reddidistis, et
his opem ac medellam diuinae misericordiae intercessionis uestrae
patrocinio conferatis. ora pro me.
◆
From:Ruricius, bishop of Limoges
To:Peter, bishop
Date:~500 AD
Context:A short letter explaining that obedience to a request trumps embarrassment about one's own literary shortcomings.
Bishop Ruricius to his brother, Bishop Peter.
Because obedience is preferred to sacrifices [1 Samuel 15:22], I would rather expose my clumsiness than lose your love. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up [1 Corinthians 8:1]. And so I write, rough as my words may be.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.