Letter 23: Your affection will wonder at the reason for my long silence — but only if you fail to consider everything that...

Your Charity [the addressee, a bishop] will wonder at the reason for my past silence, if you consider all the things that have gone before; you will not wonder at my present address to you, if you weigh what the power of charity is. For we have learned, with the Teacher of the Nations [the Apostle Paul] instructing us, that charity endures all things; and since charity, as that very teaching declares, does not seek its own, it is not unfitting that, having made use of my privilege, I now display toward you that which may rather be of profit to you. For it was fitting that I should wait until you were free from association with those who err, and so love you as one corrected, that I should see you separated from those to be condemned, and so embrace you in a letter of communion. But him whom I wish to be brought back, why should I delay to summon while he tarries? Why should not room be given to forbearance, when nothing is taken away from equity? Those things ought to be expended which benefit the struggling, if they do not defile us by the contagion of fellowship. This has been my reason for the present letter: that I may exhort, that I may admonish, lest we suffer our land to lie barren through too much neglect. The diligent farmer does not long permit an unfruitful tree to occupy the ground; he waits patiently, but surely he does not persist under endless continuance? Called to the things of salvation, you do not delay; he does not depart far from innocence who returns to it without tardiness. Be moved by the admonitions of the fathers, and treading in the faithful footsteps without lapse or error, wash away through the things to come the things that went before. It lies before you, now by urging the peoples to what is just, now by supplicating for the faith in the footsteps of the leaders, to set straight what is astray, to make firm what is doubtful. It befits you to provide with great labor that an upright diligence of action may cover over the causes of the time now past. Indeed he renders service to his own soul through whom anything is conferred upon the universal Church; and so the matter stands, that if you press on zealously, if untiringly, the common cause may become profitable to you. Given as above.

mirabitur dilectio tua rationem praeteriti silentii mei, si quae praecesserint uniuersa considerat; non mirabitur praesentis alloquii. si quae sit uis caritatis erpendat. sustinere enim omnia caritatem magistro gentium docente cognouimus; quae 23 Cor. I 13. 7 1 pro creditae o*: procedite V 9 corrigeretur Bar., <se> corrigeret Causi. 14 quod o^: quid V 16 aq. datae . . documenta si adfueritis . . reductis <quod> effici omni temptaui: date . . documenta si affueritis . . redactis efficione F, date . . documenta si adfore cunctis . . reductis officio omni et J5ar., data (datae Thiel) . . <erunt> documenta si adfueritis . . rednctis <idemque a ceteri8> effici orani Coust. 128. Bat. (simul cum epp. 120, 129—132) a. 517 die 3 Apr. per Ennodium etc. Edd. Car. P 463; Bar. ad a. 517, It; Collect. Cmi- €il.; JBTA I 397; Thiel 800. 19 normtsda F, corr. a 20 racio V, corr. 21 consideret Car. euersa clauaularum contionantia (mei . . considerat . . alloquii . . expendat) 85* 546 Honnisda episcopis in Orientis partibus constitatis si sua, sicut continet doctrina ipsa, non quaerit, non incongrue abusus priuilegio meo, quod tibi potius prodesse possit, 2 exhibeo. expectare enim me decuit ab errantium coniunctione te liberum et sic amare correctum, uidere ab improbandis diuidi atque ita litterario sermone complecti. sed quem optea reducem, cur difieras uocare tardantem? cur non detur locus moderationi, cum nihil detrahitur aequitati? impendenda sunt, quae laborantibus prosunt, si nos societatis contagione non 3 poUuunt. haec causa mihi fuit praesentium littei*arum, ut horter, ut moneam, ne terram nostram iacere patiamur negle- gentius infecundam. non diu infructuosam arborem occupare solum diligens permittit agricola; patienter expectat, sed 4 numquid sub continuatione perdurat? uocatus ad salutaria non moreris; prope ab innocentia non recedit, qui ad eam sine tarditate reuerterit. mouere patrum monitis et insistens fidelibus sine lapsu aut errore uestigiis praecedentia delue per futura. 5 adiacet tibi modo ad iusta populos incitando, modo pro fide principalibus uestigiis supplicando dirigere quod deuium est, solidare quod dubium. magno te conuenit labore prouidere, ut causas transacti temporis rectae tegat sedulitas actionis. praestat quidem animae suae, per quem uniuersali aliquid confertur ecclesiae, et ita se res habet, ut si studiosus, si indefessus institeris, fiat tibi utilis causa communis. Data ut supra. 1 Cor. I 13, 5 12 cf. lacob. 5, 7 1 non (n sed n ex u. correcta: S. a) incongruae V 3 eiibeo V decut V, corr. o 4 correptum F, corr. 7 moderacione F, corr. p detragitur F, corr. o 8 socitatis F 16 dilue 17 incitanda F, corr. 20 recte F, corr. p 23 indefensus istiteris F, corr. p* Data ut supra F, qtMd non ad eam quae praecedit ^nstulam referen- dum exposui Beitrdge 10 sq. Epist. CXXVm 2 — CXXIX 5. 547