Letter 2046: When the report of our common grief reached me by rumor — and I was surprised not to have learned of it first from...

46. Bishop Ruricius to the priest Albinus. When the report of our common grief reached me by the rumor of a messenger -- though I was astonished at this, that I did not learn of it sooner from the account of your brotherly affection -- I myself would have come at once to seek you out, had not the reverence due to these days [the holy days] held me back. I have sent these lines, by which I hope that you may deign to hold me excused, and that you may console our daughter -- who, I hear, is afflicting herself violently -- in my place, as much by reason as by your authority, since our Lord, both when He willed and what He willed, has done with His servant. And therefore he will be seen to come against the will of the Lord, to whom the divine command is displeasing -- divine indeed, since He alone, when He has willed it, is able to lead our soul out of the body, He who poured it into the body. And for that reason this excessive grief, which seems to be of piety, descends rather from the counsel of the devil than from piety, so that, while sorrow, impatient of consolation, reproaches God with its complaints of impiety, He who sent His Son ahead through the human condition may, through unbelief, lose the soul. Let the dead bewail their own dead, those whom they do not believe will rise again, those who reckon that the soul perishes together with the flesh, those who have no confidence concerning the blessedness of the soul, none concerning the restoration of the body. But we, who have the hope of resurrection in Christ, who believe that our souls, according to the promise of the Lord Himself, are placed in the bosoms of the saints, let us betake ourselves to Him with heart and with prayers, and let us take consolation from His own promise, namely that He makes those who believe in Him to live with Him, and that no one is judged dead in His sight except the unbeliever. And so let us temper our lamentations, as the Scripture teaches us, saying: the mourning of the wise man is seven days, but that of the impious all the days of his life. Just as we know that he is dead in body, but in soul lives unto God on account of his innocence, so let us, living in body, die in heart.

XXXXVI. RURICII EPISCOPI AD PRESBVTERUM ALBINUM. Ubi ad me communis luctus nuntii rumore peruenit, quod tamen miratus sum, quod non hoc prius ex germanitatis uestrae relatione cognoui, ipse ad uos requirendos continuo uenissem, nisi me dierum horum reuerentia retardasset. has transmisi, . quibus spero, ut me excusatum habere dignemini et filiam nostram, quam audio se uehementer affligere, ad uicem meam tam ex ratione quam ex uestra auctoritate consolemini, quod dominus noster de seruo suo et, quando uoluit, et, quod uoluit, 1 uos v, uos S, uobis Luetjohann mannis Kr., mensis LuetjohanR 4 dignimini S 5 coquinae coni. Mommsenus praestitur S, praestatur r 8 rurici S 9 dora noniae S, dora nomine, re v 11 diliciis S 12 conpescimus scripsi, conpescemus S uentri v, uestri S porregimus S 14 repeusautis S, obsequiis suppl. Luetjohann coll. ep. II50 18 instruatisj finit add. S 20 rurici S 21 nantii S 23 latione S 26 num mea scribendum ? fecit. et ideo contra uoluntatem domini uenire uidebitur, cui displicet diuina praeceptio, utique diuina, quia animam nostram ille solus, cum uoluerit, ex corpore potest educere, qui fudit in corpore. et idcirco luctus iste nimius, qui uidetur esse pietatis, magis ex diaboli consilio quam ex pietate descendit, ut, dum dolor consolationis inpatiens querellis suis deum inpietatis exprobrat, qui praemisit filium per humanam conditionem, per incredulitatem animam perdat. Plangant mortui mortuos suos, quos resurrecturos esse non credunt, qui animam cum carne aestimant interire, quibus nulla (de) beatitudine animae, nulla de corporis restauratione fiducia est. nos uero, qui spem resurrectionis habemus in Christo, qui animas nostras iuxta pollicitationem ipsius domini in sanctorum sinibus credimus conlocari, ad ipsum nos corde et orationibus conferamus et consolationem de ipsius promissione capiamus, quod credentes in se secum uiuere faciat nec ullus apud eum nisi infidelis mortuus iudicetur. et ita planctus nostros, sicut scriptura nos edocet, temperemus, dicens: luctus sapientis septem diebus, impii uero omnes dies uitae suae. sicut scimus illum mortuum corpore, anima uero pro innocentia sua deo uiuere, ita nos uiuentes corpore corde moriamur.