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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 20
Letter CXVII.
Without address. [2392]
For many reasons I know that I am a debtor to your reverence, and now the anxiety in which I find myself necessarily puts me in the way of services of this kind, although my advisers are mere chance comers, and not like yourself joined to me by many and different ties. There is no need to bring the past under review. I may say that I was the cause of my own difficulties, by determining to leave that good discipline which alone leads to salvation. The result was that in this trouble I soon fell into temptation. What happened has seemed worthy of mention, so that I may not again fall into similar distress. As to the future, I wish to give full assurance to your reverence, that, by God's grace, all will go well, since the proceeding is lawful, and there is no difficulty about it, as many of my friends about the court are ready to help me. I shall therefore have a petition drawn up, similar to the form presented to the Vicar; and, if no delay intervene, I shall promptly get my discharge, and shall be sure to give you relief by sending you the formal document. I feel sure that in this my own convictions have more force than the imperial orders. If I shew this fixed and firm in the highest life, by God's aid the keeping of my chastity will be inviolable and sure. I have been pleased to see the brother entrusted to me by you, and hold him among my intimate friends. I trust he may prove worthy of God and of your good word.
Letter CXVIII. [2393]
To Jovinus, Bishop of Perrha. [2394]
You owe me a good turn. For I lent you a kindness, which I ought to get back with interest;--a kind of interest, this, which our Lord does not refuse. Pay me, then, my friend, by paying me a visit. So much for the capital; what of the increment? It is the fact of the visit being paid by you, who are a man as much superior to me, as fathers are better than children.
[2392] Answer of Firminius to the preceding.
[2393] Placed at the end of 372 or the beginning of 373.
[2394] The mss. vary between Jovinus and Jobinus. cf. Theodoret, Ecc. Hist. iv. 13.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/basil/letters-2.asp?pg=20
