文集 第 3 章 第 4/4 段

In a wondrous manner our consolers do business out of the poor and gain perpetual profits out of the needy. But I myself, by the Lord's bounty, received this first munificence: that my most pious Ruricius, after the tossings of this life, turned the prow of salvation toward the harbor of religion, with the hand of the Most High steering; that after the shadows of seducing vanities and the delusions of fleeting dreams he coveted things enduring and solid, and at last, despising the world, spurned its great wretchedness, and won his own felicity and profit out of a perishing world—as faithfully passing by, in the flight of collapsing things, as he conferred his wealth by contempt of it, which could now confer nothing to his own use.

Wherefore, with as much alacrity as we once did soldier's service in worldly pursuits, so now with as much devotion let us serve the Lord. And because your piety constrains me to speak somewhat austerely with you for the healing of sins, and does not heed the odium of that saying which declares, The just man is his own accuser at the beginning, first of all, then, let us shun the lapses of mouth and heart. But as for what we have said of the mouth: if you take pains to apply a guard to the heart, you will not labor to impose discipline upon the mouth. Without difficulty will he be able to set a door of circumspection to his lips, who has been wary in his senses; for that is uttered by the voice which is first shaped in the workshop of the conscience. This the outer man renders which the inner man dictates.

The mind exercises command, the tongue service; and therefore we are taught by heavenly oracles: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What seems to be born of speech is first conceived in thought, so that the sound of the mouth may bring forth nothing unworthy, and the mind may enjoin only what is just.

And because there are two kinds of fasting: one, to restrain the appetite of incontinence from the wickedly flattering sweetnesses of delights, so that the outer and earthly man, subdued by the plowshare of the cross, may waste away in a wholesome weakness; the other kind of abstinence is far loftier, far more precious, which no weakness can gainsay—to govern the motions of the soul and to bridle by the judgment of the interior the irrational disturbances and the tumult of thoughts struggling among themselves, and against hidden assaults and against domestic enemies to join a certain battle by the authority of a righteously indignant faith, and through benevolence, gentleness, patience, and tranquility to cultivate the image of God in the face of the inner man—an image whose beauty the Maker's skill has impressed not upon the person of the body, but upon the form of the soul.

Let not sadness break the man who ponders spiritual and divine things, nor let joy dissolve him; let a magnanimity of evenness show forth a breast established in the fear of God, so that there may be fitted to us also the noble beginning of that little book, where that magnificent Elkanah—which is interpreted 'the possession of God'—is called by mystic utterance 'a certain one man': There was, it says, one man; that is, ever the same, because nothing doubtful appeared in him, nothing double, nothing changeable, nothing diverse; but as he remained in the state and unshaken order of virtues, things befalling him did not move him to the contrary, changeable times did not change him, nor did the light gusts of the winds turn him, as is the way with the waves of the sea, now to this side, now to that.

So too let the solicitous servant of God, founded on the vast mass of faith, be changed in this alone—with Christ working in him—so that he may ever be clothed with new graces, that useful things may be planted in the field of his heart, and harmful things cut down. And because the divine word commanded His soldiers: When, it says, you have gone forth to war, and among the rest of the spoils have desired a virgin, you shall cut off her nails and her hair, and thus shall join her to yourself in marriage—so let us, girded with holy fear of Christ, take captive the prudence of the world, which was made by God simple, uncorrupt, and sincere, subjecting it to spiritual wisdom, and, cutting off its superfluities with the vices removed, let us unite it to our breast in a chaste conjunction.

Before all things, insofar as we can with God's help, let us take care to war down in ourselves those passions of the five senses. For whatever grows fair to the sight, whatever flatters the smell, whatever entices to the touch, whatever grows sweet to the taste, whatever corrupts by hearing—all these things, if we abuse them, will roll down the intention of the mind from spiritual things to earthly. And therefore, just as the father of faith overcame those five kings in three hundred and eighteen, with a mystery hidden beneath the letter, so through the help of the Lord and through His cross let us strive to storm these allurements of the five principal vices. For through the sign of the cross and through the sacred name of Jesus, among the Greeks the numeral of both reckonings is stamped.

By which arms those overcoming carnal delights shall merit to hear: To him that overcomes I will give the crown of life; and: He that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. Hence you yourself easily despise earthly things, or dispense them after the manner of one lending at interest, while you ponder that time in which sinners shall be burned up like hay, in which those blazing with the perpetual fury of Gehenna—whose smoke rises up unto ages of ages—these who neglected what was offered shall be punished with such a death that it is not permitted them to die in their pain, being about to die to life and destined to live for death without end. While you set that time, I say, before your eyes with a mind provident for the future, of which we read:

I will go into your house with burnt offerings; that is, when, laden with the fruit of good works and crowned with the insignia of justice, you shall enter the gate of life in triumph over the flesh you have conquered; of which we read: The daughters of Tyre shall adore Him with gifts; that is, the souls acquired for Christ from the nations shall offer gifts to their Lord, saying with thanksgiving: Behold, I have multiplied the talent which You gave; receive with interest, O Lord, Your loan. For there shall then be a certain commerce of giving and receiving between man and God. Man shall bring what he has labored for, and God shall restore what He has promised. At which time, with your Sarah, each to be rewarded for the other, to be adorned with a double crown for your mutual salvation, you shall merit to hear:

Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things: enter into the joy of your Lord. Then you shall marvel that the use of present things has passed over into the property of things eternal, and, about to be glorified before your betrayers, you shall rejoice to have become their debtor by a delightful exchange of goods. I greet with pious service our inseparable son Leontius and the whole household, the little ones together with the greater. May the Lord our God multiply His benefits in you with a happy longevity pleasing to Himself, most devoted lord, and brother to be singularly honored with all the virtue of piety. X. TO THE LORD MOST DEVOTED AND SPECIALLY TO BE HONORED WITH DISTINGUISHED HONOR, RURICIUS THE SON, FROM FAUSTUS.

Thanks be to the Lord, who by a universal dispensation has granted this: that among those whom the intervals of place set apart, the mind might travel free and enclosed by no laws of absence, and that nothing might be so impenetrable as not to lie open to the mind's gaze, but that through the heart's insight dear ones might behold one another from thence, with grace running between—there, where charity itself abides.

For our inner man too has his own eyes, with which the witness of conscience looks into itself, with which, turned in upon itself, it considers things either to be blushed at or to be rejoiced in; with which it foresees the last day; with which it disposes—before the face of its own soul, with a thought provident for the future—the history of a whole life, whether shameful or, by God's granting, praiseworthy, and brings into the presence of trembling solicitude the time of rendering account; and with a hope that forms images, paints upon the secret page of its own heart those things which God has prepared for those who love Him. These eyes, as I think, you too always raise up at the beck of the dread Judge, so that of you may deservedly be said that prophetic word: The eyes of the wise man are in his head.

Hence it is—for I have there, my son, your betrayers—hence it is, I say, that the supports of present things, which must be left behind, you commend, like an eager money-lender, through the ransoms of captives, into the bosom of the Rewarder, after the manner of one sowing; you make property out of use, and convert perishing things into everlasting treasures. Hence it is that, with your most faithful Sarah under the one yoke of Christ, striving toward a common crown, a despiser of earthly things and a competitor for heavenly ones, a pilgrim of the world and a candidate for paradise, you, the secret soldier of Christ, mock this world, which no longer has wherewith to deceive or seduce you.

Together with the companion of an unending kingdom, by fastings and prayers and with a certain hand of faith, you knock in pious conspiracy at the gate of life, that you may take a twofold palm for your mutual salvation. But amid these things, little is whatever is done, provided that here incurable causes be healed, that here inextinguishable fires be extinguished, that here inescapable necessities be overcome, that here the arrows of sins be plucked from the vitals of the soul, that here wounds impressed deep in the very marrow be cured, that here invisible stains be washed away, that here eternal joys be procured by the labor of faithful pursuits. That life indeed shall be the reward of this present one, but it is fitting that this be the price of that.

With my services set before you, therefore, I beg that, when a fitting opportunity presents itself, you would make us rejoice over your welfare and your prosperity. For my sons and deacons I return abundant thanks; my lady daughter, the mirror of religion and the exemplar of piety, I salute, venerating her with due reverence. May the Lord our God both fill your goodness—which must be magnified by me—with present goods and render it worthy of eternal ones, most devoted lord, and son specially to be honored with distinguished honor. XI. TO THE LORD MOST BLESSED AND TO BE SINGULARLY HONORED BY ME BEFORE ALL WITH THE HIGHEST HONOR, BROTHER RURICIUS THE BISHOP, FROM FAUSTUS.

So great is my confidence in the kindness of your soul that I am no longer content to draw alone from its most pure fountain, but I invite others also, who may be refreshed together with me by its use—especially since the bounty of this thing, once extended, passes over into the gain of the giver, and the receiver is so endowed by its good that the imparter is not diminished, but rather, after the manner of his own interest, grows by his expenditures, most blessed lord, and to be singularly honored by me with the highest honor before all. And so I offer the unpayable rent of this charity, by which the payer's revenue is rather enriched, and I presume to bring forward the matter of a good work on behalf of the commendation of those in labor.

I trust that my introduction pertains, as it were, to your fruit; and therefore I could not deny to the bearer of this letter—who endured captivity in the region of Lyons—the mercy which ecclesiastical humanity has been accustomed to afford to the wretched. Would that the bounty of the faithful could be as ready as this man's need is all too manifest! And because, though in himself in some measure set free, he is held captive in the servitude of his wife and children, with my services set before you I beg that you would keep the custom of your kindness also in the consolation of this man, and would attend him with letters to those set over the place whither he shall have sought. My fellow-servants, and especially your admirer, my brother the presbyter Memorius, most reverently greet you together with me.

May the Lord our God preserve your pious blessedness, mindful of me, for the advancement of His Church with a happy longevity, most blessed lord, and brother to be singularly honored by me before all with the highest honor. XII. TO THE LORD MOST BLESSED, TO BE LOOKED UP TO WITH DUE PIETY AND MOST WORTHY OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE, BROTHER RURICIUS THE BISHOP, FROM FAUSTUS.

Thanks to you, while we write to you about our homeland—you who have made a homeland for us in our sojourning, who by untiring liberality have tempered the longings for our homeland, bringing a certain force upon divine justice by benefits following one upon another, so that what it had brought in for chastisement, it might turn to honor, confer for consolation, change to rest; that it might pass over our merits so as to heap up yours, forgetting debts and multiplying your gains, exercising toward both parties the greatness of its own goodness—enriching us by your service, and enriching you by our exile.

Whence it came about that already in the present it dispensed, impatient, the blessing of things to come, and exalted its most faithful servant upon the candlestick of His house—with mercy, justice, sincerity, continence, and kindness cooperating, that is, with these household advocates. Behold at what price my Ruricius has purchased the highest priesthood! That from which he bought is the very thing he bought, and, with his own witnesses acclaiming, he displayed in himself refuges of honor as the causes of honor. So great a gift, therefore, he knows how to guard in the name of Christ, who knew how to acquire it.

But the bearer of this letter, the holy presbyter Florentius—long since known to me and adorned both with the examples of his master and with the flowers of good character—since he journeys abroad for the ransoming of his own sister, I commend to you; he has brought himself to me, a welcome mediator, at an opportune moment. Your whole household, elders together with the younger, we greet with fatherly affection. My fellow-servants, your debtors and admirers, most reverently greet you together with me. May our Lord preserve your blessedness—which must be magnified by me—for the advancement of His Church and for our joys with a perfect longevity, most blessed lord, to be looked up to with due piety and most worthy of the apostolic see, brother. In a treatise which was appended to the letter of Pope John II,

—of the year 534—letter to Caesarius, in the cause of a certain bishop who, on the note of a crime committed, was cast down from the episcopate, these things are read (cf. Concilia antiqua Galliae ed. Sirmond I 235): 'And this too must be diligently attended to: that if, according to what is written above, those clerics who return to their own wives are entirely suspended from office, and if likewise the twice-married, or the husbands of women once married before, who indeed do a lawful thing, nevertheless cannot be ordained clerics, or, if they have been ordained, are cast down—concerning whom also the holy bishop Faustus says in his letter:'

'He loses the grace of the consecrated who still wishes to exercise the office of a husband.' Whether these words pertain to a letter, or rather to a certain sermon of Faustus, is indeed uncertain to me. For that sermons are here and there designated by the name of 'letters' is shown, among other things, by the rubric of the first Faustine sermon preserved in the Durlach codex 36 as documentary evidence (cf. p. 223, note to line 3).