You, then, o theo-phile, the force of daily enemies found invincible every day before that defection, which seduced many of the distinguished groups of your Charity to full negligence in error. Therefore in the abyss of necessity, in the storm of distractions, in the very waves of affliction you have paid the debts of spiritual charity, greeting in the letter you gave: and I have rendered to thee the greatest diligence, the honorable favor which precedes the offering. But only the vapor of the world's temptations can often avert me from the memory of urgent things, and to prevent sometimes from the beauty of greeting which according to the spiritual law is due to the office of friendship. But not so in the events that occurred; it could not, I think, restrain the vehemence of the enemy in this manner, without the necessity of another's earnest and enthusiastic approach to the loving person of your God, where the spiritual law demands that concord be used; but that negligence of the losses you drove from me by the full help of God; and again to the necessity which dragged me from the place of my cathedra, for a short time, as it were to the restraints of urgent matters. With the lack of trustworthy couriers, which must have happened, I was overcome by the way I was defeated until now.
In accordance with the other letter also I celebrate the friendship of the former with due grace of action, and to thee I rejoice with God who loves while I am discussing the cause of your letter with friends alone. I am not pleased with its beauty by which many are subjected to the stings of flattery, which are wont to be pleasant, and on both sides they procure for themselves the anguish of conscience unless it has been corrupted by the disease of insensibility. It is beautiful, I think, that a man of noble descent, who is moved by love, enjoy freedom of expression with his friend, full of confidence. But the example of our Fathers suffices to our mind, that, when they were shaken by the spirit of pure love, they have left behind the legacies of their labors, the spiritual modes of fair conduct, that we may all imitate them; and may the help of God lead us to the image of their valor through his grace and mercy forever, amen!
About what you wrote to me, brother, while the burden of arrogance is on the genius of the proud "be not surprised at such things; for the higher one guards the high", as it is written {Eccl. 5:7}. But you, trust in the Lord, keep his way, and do the work of a herald; that is your job. For he that is proud is smitten by a low clod of dust, and submits to the pride of the glorious with the rod of humiliation; and if it will not stop God will submit to the very instruments of his armor. For you can overcome passion by passion, according to the word spoken. If neither this nor that happens wait for humiliation so that you are worthy of the blessings that are written. God protect you from all evil.
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