¹ Although it is always a joy for me to converse with an undivided heart, using the language of love, and to embrace you with the eager devotion of my duties, I have now received with even greater eagerness and urgency this token of your affection, delivered to me by the service of your household messenger. In him, merit has demonstrated more than mere report conveyed, for knowledge has confirmed what words could not fully express.

² Thus, I rejoice that you have grown in virtue, for in him, a better way of life has erased the condition of his first birth; in him, the stain of human lineage has been cleansed by the liberation that comes from faith; in him, the adoption of Christ has transformed a servant into a free member of the household of God.

³ As for how we ought to conduct ourselves in the pure sincerity of his company, or among the rest of our brethren, you have laid this out clearly in your open and precise discourse, explaining the vast generosity of the Apostle’s teaching. And though the sacred page describes them as less learned, we have marveled at the refinement of their character—seeing, through the gift of meekness and humility, the fullness of true wisdom.

⁴ For the generosity of grace surpasses the teachings of doctrine. Even within a short time, bright purity and radiant simplicity have entered into their enlightened hearts and clear minds—through which the mirror of the divine image shines forth in the splendor of the inner person. Indeed, the divine image—for thus we read of the Lord: “He is pure, simple, and subtle.”

⁵ Yet that divine simplicity signifies something far greater, for in us, there is a dual nature, composed of both spirit and flesh. What we possess, we have received; the various gifts of virtue have been granted to us, not born within us. Undoubtedly, what can be given can also be taken away. If we are good, it is because we have borrowed goodness from the Author of all good. Though we live by Him, we are not life itself as He is. We may be just, but we are not justice itself.

⁶ He alone is truly simple because nothing has been added to Him by external generosity. He who exists from Himself has taken nothing from another. God is both living and life itself, good and goodness, merciful and mercy itself. In the glory of His virtues, He is what He possesses. Man, in mere words, may be gilded with gold, but God is gold itself. What is grace in man is nature in God.

⁷ And because nothing extrinsic has been added to Him, nothing can be taken away. He suffers no loss because He knows no increase. He is both the source and the source for the Son, for both the fountain and the river have one origin. Among those who possess eternally without beginning, there is communion, but no transfusion.

⁸ Since we read about the Son that He is “the radiance of God’s glory”, just as God has never existed without His radiance, so the Father has never been without the majesty of the Son. And just as the names of both are coeternal—for if the Son had not been begotten, the Father would not be called Father—so the antiquity of a single fatherhood holds them together without separation. The Son is from the Father, but He is not later than the Father, just as a face comes forth from the head yet is not found to be younger than the head. Thus, our God is neither confused in His distinct persons nor divided; He is one power, neither separated in authority nor in time. Just as He is three in subsistence, since each person subsists in Himself, so He is simple in substance, for He does not know how to precede Himself, nor does He receive one who is later or one who is earlier. From this, we too receive simplicity, if in us there is nothing discordant, nothing inconsistent, nothing divided; if we strive always to be the same through worthy pursuits and minds firmly established in Christ, so that we remain unchanging in goodness, being transformed only by daily progress.

⁹ A truly beneficial and complete meditation is to lighten the burdens of the soul by distributing the responsibilities of earthly governance among many and then to consider, through a threefold deliberation, what is best: to retain, to administer, or to relinquish one’s own portion.

¹⁰ Indeed, the highest good would be for a servant of Christ to seek, with complete devotion, to walk in the ways of Christ, who was poor—if only it were possible to embrace the perfect discipline of a great monastery or, better still, the angelic fellowship of a monastic community on an island. For to undertake the eremitic life in the midst of the world requires both great courage and great difficulty.

¹¹ It is indeed a prudent course to place the burden of one’s responsibilities upon one’s heirs for the relief of the soul. However, careful consideration must be given as to whether any of the children are capable of bearing such a heavy responsibility—lest the obedience owed to a father’s command become, in some way, a burden upon the father himself…

¹² The next best course is to remain, as a second option, under an administrator who, though imperfect, still provides some benefit—provided that either the will is present or the means are sufficient to meet the necessity of an annual payment.

¹³ The third option is to govern the retained portion of one’s substance with less personal concern by entrusting the responsibilities of management to chosen, faithful servants, thus ensuring that affairs are conducted with moderation along the right path. In offering this advice, I seem to consider either our own benefit or that of the poor.

¹⁴ In this arrangement, there is no small gain if ownership is relinquished while the right of use is retained. Therefore, in summarizing what is first, second, and third, we leave the choice to the judgment and ability of the one seeking counsel. May He, for whose fear and love this consultation is undertaken, reveal what is most fitting and most readily accomplished.

¹⁵ May our Lord God multiply His blessings upon you with long life that is pleasing to Him, my most pious lord and son, whom I honour in Christ with singular devotion.