Letter 2048: Magnus, whom we both know, has now been compelled by necessity to do what he should have done willingly — to seek a...

Bishop Ruricius to his venerable lord and brother John. Magnus, our common dependent, has now done under the compulsion of necessity what he ought to have done of his own free will: namely, to seek a letter of recommendation to Your Reverence, and to present himself to your favor through our intercession so that he may now be received into grace, even though, through his own negligence, he was ungrateful in the past. I have assented to his petition the more readily because I believed, as indeed I am confident, that you will gladly grant my request. Therefore, having paid my greeting, I hope that you will count it worth so much to receive him on account of our intercession and that, since he has paid back what he owed, you will deign to grant him the interest of those very solidi not so much for the sake of our prayers as for the sake of the divine precepts. This you will, without hesitation, bestow on account of your manner of life, by which, God being favorable, I hear that you advance day by day, since you yourselves know that he shall receive the kingdom of God with joy and gladness, and shall be glorified upon the mountain of the Lord and shall ascend, who shall not have exacted the interest of his money from his neighbor in the present age, but shall have awaited it from the Lord in the age to come. Nor does he cast upon those who labor, through deceitful favors, the snares of debts that cannot be loosed, but he is the moneylender and creditor of that One who says: Give, and it shall be given unto you; and with what measure ye shall have measured, with the same shall it be measured back to you. Indeed he is unfaithful and unjust even to himself who does not wish to possess in perpetuity that which he has chosen to desire. For although whoever amasses much, gathers much, and acquires boundless wealth through diverse traffickings, he will depart from this world a beggar, unless beforehand he has sent ahead a portion of his goods to eternal blessedness, as the Lord says through the prophet: Be not afraid, when a man shall have been made rich and when the house of his glory shall have been multiplied, for when he dies he shall not take all things away, nor shall the glory of his house descend together with him; and again: They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands. But if they were kind to their own soul, they would rather entrust their goods to him who is both a fit surety for the poor and a most bountiful repayer of interest. Do not, therefore, be greedy, dearest brother, to receive now in double measure what the Lord promises he will repay to you a hundredfold, whence you will be able neither to dread destruction from the moth nor to fear loss from the thief, since our Lord himself is both the bestower and the keeper of his own gifts.

XXXXVIII. RURICIUS EPISCOPUS DOMINO UENERABILI FRATRI IOHANNI. Magnus communis susceptus, quod uoluntarie facere debuerat, fecit nunc necessitate conpulsus, ut ad uenerationem tuam commendaticias flagitaret et se gratiae tuae, etsi propter neglegentiam suam de praeterito ingratus, per insinuationem nostram nunc tamen gratificandus ingereret. cuius petitioni ideo promptius adquieui, quia credidi, sicut et confido, uos petitioni meae libenter annuere. unde salutatione depensa spero, ut ipsum pro intercessione nostra recipere tanti habeatis et, quia hoc, quod debuit, reddidit, usuras illi solidorum ipsorum non tantum pro precibus nostris, quantum pro diuinis praeceptis donare digneris. quod pro conuersatione uestra, qua uos deo propitio per dies singulos audio proficere, sine dubitatione praestetis, quia ipsi nostis, quod ille regnum dei laetitia et gratulatione percipiet et in montem domini glorificatus 29] Matth. 5, 1. 1 offitium S in me istum Luetjohann, in (ex id) istum S, initum Mommsemis 2 gessit uel ingessit v S formidate S 5 esse in eo r 6 praecibus S intellegitur] indulgetur v Kr . 7 necessitudinis com. Luetjohann 10 me om. v 11 pollitacionem S 15 episcopus om. r 16 magnus S litteris MAG implexis, manus uel amicus v uoluntariae S 18 commendatias S 19 negligentia S 20 ingerere S 21 prumptius S 24 reddedit S 28 ipse v ascendet, qui pecuniae suae usuram non in praesenti saeculo a proximo suo exegerit, sed a domino exectauerit in futuro. nec per dolosa beneficia laqueos laborantibus inicit insolubilium debitorum, sed illius est fenerator et creditor, qui dicit: date et dabitur uobis et, qua mensura mensi fueritis, ea remetietur uobis. Infidelis utique et iniquus est etiam sibi, qui hoc, quod elegit concupiscendum, non uult habere perpetuum. quamuis enim, quicumque multa condat, multa congreget et infinita diuersis nundinationibus adquirat, mendicus de hoc mundo descendet, nisi de rebus suis portionem suam ad aeternam beatitudinem ante praemiserit, dicente domino per prophetam: ne timueris, cum diues factus fuerit homo et cum multiplicata fuerit domus eius, quia non, cum morietur, recipiet omnia neque simul descendet cum eo gloria domus eius, et iterum: dormierunt somnum suum et nihil inuenerunt omnes diuitiarum in manibus suis. qui si benigni essent animae suae, illi potius bona sua crederent, qui et idoneus fideiussor est pauperum et largissimus redditor usurarum. non ergo cupidus sis, carissime frater, nunc recipere in duplo, quod dominus redditurum se tibi promittit in centuplum, unde nec a tinea poteris pertimescere exterminium nec a fure formidare dispendium, quia ipse dominus noster munerum suorum et largitor et custos est.