'But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace' (Gal. 5:22), and the rest. And in another place too he wished to signify something preeminent among the heavenly charisms, when he said: 'Because the charity of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us' (Rom. 5:5). This charity, which we received by the gift of the Holy Spirit while we were unworthy, is so good, so holy, so immense, that even he who has it in his heart can never unfold it in words. O what charity, greatly to be wondered at, greatly to be praised, and greatly to be loved! 3. He who does not have charity does not love it. — Nevertheless, not all who wonder at and praise charity straightway love charity;
and therefore, unless a man love it, it will profit him nothing that he wonders at and praises it. But then the admiration and praise of charity is fruitful, if love be not lacking in him who admires and praises. But can those who do not have it love it, just as they can admire and praise it? By no means; for charity itself is love: and how does he already love love, who has not begun to have love? For behold, we see many things with bodily sight, where the sight itself is not the same as that which we see by it: because that is the sense by which we see, but that is the sensible thing which we see;
and when that which is seen is taken away from the eyes, if there is soundness in the eyes, that which was being seen is removed from the sense of the beholder in such a way that the sense itself is in no way taken from the beholder: so it comes about that the sense of seeing remains in the man, although sight itself departs from that which was being seen. But when charity is loved, since it is loved by nothing but love, a man cannot turn away the attention of his love from charity, as he can the eye of the body from any visible thing, so as to be able both not to love charity and to have love. For charity, that is, love, is in no way loved unless there be had the love by which that love is loved.
Love, therefore, is loved by itself, because it is loved when it is had, and is not loved unless it is had. And indeed it can be loved by us, even when we ask that it be increased in us; but he does not love its increase who does not have its beginning. 4. Charity is not loved as money is. Charity is not loved as the other gifts of the Spirit are. — Charity, then, is not loved as a coin is, or anything of that sort. For anyone can not have a single coin, and yet love and desire a multitude of coins. Such a one, then, loves a multitude of coins, when he does not have the means even of one coin: within himself he finds not one coin, and outside he seeks innumerable coins.
This we find also in other bodily things, that some of them can be loved in such a way that the very thing which is loved is in no part possessed. There is something of this sort also in very many spiritual gifts: as if someone should love (for example) to have the gift of prophesying, which no one denies is contained among the spiritual gifts in the Apostolic writings: 'For to one indeed is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom (as the Vessel of Election affirms), to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the grace of healings in the one Spirit, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches.
But all these one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each one severally as he wills (1 Cor. 12:8-11). 5. The other gifts can be had without a good will; charity by no means. — Since therefore — to say nothing of the other spiritual gifts — prophecy can be loved and yet not had, charity nevertheless is neither had if it be not loved, nor loved if it be not had. Therefore the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, tongues, prophecy, knowledge of the mysteries, faith, the distribution of goods to the poor, and even the burning of the body itself, these can be had without a good will, to this end namely, that they burden their possessor, not honor him;
but charity cannot be had without a good will, because it does not permit the will in which charity is to become evil: for charity 'neither acts perversely nor thinks evil; and since it does not rejoice over iniquity' (1 Cor. 13:4-5), it is necessary that it make good the will in which it dwells. 6. A malevolent mind neither bestows charity nor has it. — A malevolent mind, therefore, does not bestow charity on another, because it does not have it for itself; but when it has begun to have, so to speak, the beginning of charity, it can be neither malevolent nor barren. And because, as long as one remains in charity, he remains in God, and God remains in him (1 John 4:16), he will always have it, if he always bestow it;
but when he does not bestow it, he will not have it. For it is proper to charity, as regards what pertains to the present life, that it grow in him who dispenses it, but depart without delay from him who has wished to have it for himself alone. He therefore will have it the more, who bestows it the more freely: for as a malevolent man can neither bestow it nor have it, so no one either has it or bestows it unwillingly. A benevolent man, therefore, is the dwelling-place of charity. Now this name, that is, 'benevolent,' is composed of 'well' and 'to will': if therefore anyone wills evil to another, insofar as he wills evil he is not benevolent, and thereby is malevolent: 'but into a malevolent soul wisdom will not enter' (Wis. 1:4);
and he is properly called a malevolent man, not everyone who desires or asks for something contrary either to himself or to another, but he who bears a will to harm, whether the thing he desires be good or evil. 7. A good will is judged not from the office but from the end. — Now the will, whether good or harmful, is to be weighed not from the office but from the end of each thing: because a man shows the quality of his will not from what he does, but from that for the sake of which he does it. For Paul too willed something contrary to himself, when he asked that the sting be taken from him which he had salutarily received against the vice of elation (2 Cor. 12:7); yet he did not have a malevolent mind, although he bore a will contrary to his own advantage.
For in asking that the sting by which he was being buffeted be taken from him, he wished the health of his body to profit his preaching more than himself, not seeking what was useful to himself, but what was useful to the many, that they might be saved. To them, therefore, he wished his own well-being to profit, to whom he knew that his very life also profited. Finally, though he had the desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), which was far better, he knew nevertheless that to remain in the flesh was necessary, on account of those among whom he ministered the office of the apostolate. The charity of Christ, therefore, urged him, whether when he asked that the sting be taken from him, or when, though desiring something else, he longed to abide in the flesh:
for we were constrained by the breadth of charity, that he both desired to be with Christ and willed to fulfill the office of pious necessity; therefore in both cases he loved charity, which he always breathed in a good will. 8. In the love of neighbor charity too is loved. The love of God and of neighbor is the love of charity. — Whoever, then, loves his brother according to charity (which is God), loves in him charity itself most of all. Therefore, when our Savior deigned to renew his apostles with a new commandment, saying: 'A new commandment I give you, that you love one another' (John 13:34), commanding through himself that brotherhood be loved, he also, through the apostle Paul, commanded that the charity of brotherhood itself be loved.
For when Christ spoke in him, the Teacher of the Gentiles wills us to have love without dissimulation: 'Hating evil, cleaving to good, in the charity of brotherhood loving one another' (Rom. 12:9-10). 9. Hence it is that in the eleventh book of the Confessions that distinguished doctor, the blessed Augustine namely, when he confessed to God his love, which he had received from him in order that he might love, says: 'I have already said, and I shall say: for love of your love I do this' (St. Augustine, Confessions XI, 1). Expounding also the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm, when he was explaining the meaning of that place where it is said: 'I am a sojourner on the earth, hide not your commandments from me' (Ps. 118:19); after some words he says thus:
'But what worthy-to-be-loved thing is loved, if love itself is not loved? Whence consequently this sojourner on the earth, having prayed that God's commandments be not hidden from him, in which love is enjoined, either alone or above all, proclaims that he wishes to have also the love of love itself, saying: My soul has longed to desire your justifications at all times' (The same, on Ps. 118, discourse 8). Does not the opinion of blessed Augustine concerning the loving of love seem to you to be plainly drawn from the prophetic and apostolic sayings? 10. Conclusion, that out of charity we pray for one another. — Wherefore the love of God and of neighbor,
which is the fullness of the law and the end of the precept, both loves in God the charity which is God, and loves in the neighbor the charity which is from God: for then God and neighbor are rightly loved, if charity itself be loved both in God and in neighbor. So it comes about that both in God we love God himself, and in the neighbor we love God without doubt. For not in vain, after the love of God, is no other but the love of neighbor alone commanded us, namely that we may acknowledge that we ought to love that creature in which we can find charity itself. For every irrational animal, as it does not have reason, so it does not have charity;
nor does anything else seem to me to be the chief reason, than a fitting and ordered love which is owed by man to God alone and to neighbor. 11. You see, holy brother, what a lengthy discourse I have woven with you concerning charity, since I love in you exceedingly charity itself, which you assuredly also love in us; and for no other reason, save that you so love this in us, of which you are full by the gift of God, that you desire those also whom you love to be likewise full. This, then, remains: that, since you love us purely, you would deign urgently to pray for us, that God, who first loved us (1 John 4:10),
and gave us the charity by which he might be loved by us — just as, when we had none, he himself bestowed it by preventing grace — so may consume in us all the remnants of worldly desire, and may perfect us who serve in the spirit (other MSS., fervent in the spirit) in charity, and may make us partakers of that blessedness, in which, as there is no depraved delight, so no death is feared from punishment: where no one suffers anything from the frailty of the flesh, but by all the saints there is reigning ever in the perfect charity of God and of neighbor. 12. May the divine clemency guard your holiness as you pray for us, which I desire, holy and most blessed lord and brother.
Lord Januarius greets your holiness with all affection of purity and veneration; the blessing sent by you I received with all exultation. The books, as you commanded, given to Monimus, I have consigned in quaternions, in which, if anything shall please, would that I may recognize it to be of truth, and not only of love! These, then, are the offering of my littleness, which the purity of your heart will make acceptable to you. Having received the suggestion of our common brother, I ask that the diligence of your charity may be present as a helper. I beseech that your servants may copy out from your codices the books which we have need of. Letter VI. To Theodore the Senator. On conversion from the world.
To the illustrious lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most excellent son Theodore, Fulgentius, a servant of the servants of Christ, greeting in the Lord. Chapter One. The occasion of writing the letter. — 1. That I, unknown in person, should dare to bring my acquaintance to you by an epistolary discourse, I beg you not to reckon it to impudence, nor to assign this work of charity to importunity. For to write, first the sweet letter of the holy brother Romulus, and then that of the brethren coming thence, who were kindly received by you in the Lord, urged me on by persuasion the more, the more gladly the knowledge of your spiritual purpose invited me.
For they related that, compelled by the affection of Christ, you kindly made mention of our name in conversation, saying that you were delighted with our letter. Gladly, therefore, I did what I gladly recognized you to wish, preferring to be seen uncultivated in speech rather than to be cold in charity, illustrious lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most excellent son. Chapter II. He congratulates him both on his conversion and on the world being trodden underfoot. — 2. And so I greatly rejoice that you are now not held by the bonds of secular love, and that you tread upon the world by despising it, by which, when you loved it, you were trodden underfoot. But now you are advanced to the consulship, now you are most certainly exalted in a happy triumph: not one which the Roman people applauds, but one in which the angelic assembly rejoices:
'Blessed are you, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but that Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 16:17), among which heavens you too have been made a heaven. How much grief do you suppose there is in the devil, because he perceives the world despised by you, and knows you converted to Christ: because he sees you forsaking those things in which you were seen to be, and already migrating in heart from the love of temporal and earthly things to those heavenly and eternal ones? For although Christ died equally for all the faithful, and bestowed an equal benefit of redemption on all, as the Apostle says: 'For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ: there is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus' (Gal. 3:27-28); nevertheless the conversion of the powerful of the world contributes much to the gains of Christ. Chapter III. The example of the nobles draws the multitude after them. — 3. For just as many brethren and friends, dependents and subjects, acquaintances and strangers alike, are stirred up by the authority of such men to the ardor of worldly love, and are the more kindled by the fire of secular concupiscence, the more they behold the lofty ones of the world gladly held captive by worldly love: so, as often as he who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble, who touches the mountains and they smoke (Ps.
103:32), as often as he mercifully looks upon hearts intent on earthly things, and by the consideration of his judgment compels them to tremble, and by his sternness touches the proud hearts of the lofty, as it were the heights of mountains, that they may smoke with the confession of sins; at the trembling of such men very many tremble along with them, and at the conversion of such men many flee to the refuge of the divine mercy. So it comes about that those who are established on the summit of the world either destroy very many along with themselves, or gain many along with themselves in the way of salvation. Either great punishment awaits such men, if they offer to many the snare of evil imitation, or glory, if they show to many the example of holy conversation. — Chapter IV.
— For who would not despise a small cell, when a senator despises a marble house? Who, despising earthly things, would not take counsel for himself to acquire the heavenly, when a Roman consul hastens toward heaven by the contempt of earthly things? 4. Conversion is the work of God. God is immutable, and what is the future blessedness of those who possess him. — Truly in you we see that fulfilled in deed which the prophet sang: 'This is the change of the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 76:11). For who could work this in you, save he who knows how to govern and dispense the order of mutable things according to an immutable counsel?
For that individual things are changed, according to the opportunity of the seasons and the variety of causes, either for the worse or for the better, comes about by the unchangeable counsel of Him who is changed neither by better things nor by worse. For He has nowhere in which He might Himself advance toward the better, nor anything by which He might decline toward the worse. He who is, always is; and as He is, so He is. He does not hold within Himself the possibility of not being what He is, because neither does He hold within Himself the possibility of being what He is not. And this, which thus is, is not anticipated by any beginning, is not bounded by any end, is not rolled along by times, is not contained by places, is not varied by ages. Nothing there is lacking, for the whole is in Him; nothing there is superfluous, for nothing exists besides Him.
If therefore any, having despised the love of temporal and mutable things, pass over into the love of Him, they shall be filled in Him in whom nothing is wanting; they shall be secure in Him in whom nothing is feared; they shall be truly and forever glorious in Him whose true and everlasting glory is neither taken away, nor diminished, nor increased. Who would not, out of longing for that life, despise the present life? Who would not, at the delight of that abundance, shudder at the riches of this passing age? Who would not, out of love for that kingdom, hold in contempt all earthly kingdoms? The future blessedness belongs only to the humble. That life, then, we shall receive, if we here account ourselves dead to this life; and those riches we shall then possess, if here we live poor in spirit;
and we shall then come to the summit of that kingdom, if here we hold with a true heart the humility which that Master, God, taught. To such as are dead the blessed Apostle says: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). Of such poor ones the Lord Himself also speaks, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3). And of such humble ones He says: For he that shall humble himself shall be exalted (Matt. 23:12); and in another place: Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:29).
This humility they do not possess, whether those who love the world, or those who ascribe to their own strength the fact that they despise the things that are in the world. There are two kinds of pride. Every good is to be ascribed to God, not to our own strength. The Holy Spirit designated these two kinds of pride in a single verse in the Psalm, David saying: They that trust in their own strength, and glory in the multitude of their riches (Ps. 48:7). For they glory in the multitude of their riches who so love their riches that they place in them the sum of blessedness; but they trust in their own strength who so despise riches that they ascribe that very contempt to their own powers; and through this both are proud:
the former, because they trust in riches, not in God; the latter, because the fact that they scorn riches they wish to ascribe to themselves, not to God: the former, because they wrongly love that which cannot be rightly loved; the latter, because they do not rightly scorn that which can rightly be scorned; and through this, the former do evil wrongly, the latter do good wrongly. Therefore, since already—by the Lord's mercy working in you—you have learned not to glory in the multitude of your riches, this remains: that you not trust in your own strength, that is, that you not reckon to your own powers the fact that you despise the world's resources and riches, that you count the world's honors as nothing, that you are kindled with longing for the heavenly kingdom, that you delight to run the way of God's commandments.
For all these things you would in no way possess, unless you received them from God as a gift of freely given bestowal. This is not given to man by nature, but by grace; this is not had from the quality of the human condition, but is acquired from the kindness of divine illumination. Man indeed was so made by God that he might be able to have these things, yet he cannot have them unless he has received them by the gift of a merciful God: for the eye too was so made that it can see light, but it cannot see unless the light pours itself into it. What the eye sees, then, is a benefit of the light; and if it lacks the light, it will remain blind in darkness. Not everything that can be something is already that which it can be, except that to which it belongs by nature that its being able to be is what it always is.
Now this one God is the Trinity itself, that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit: who alone is the Creator of all things, because He alone is created by none. But all things, since they were created by Him, and not out of Him, are by nature subject both to diminution and to increase. Therefore, that certain things may not fall back into what is worse, His grace governs; and that certain things may ascend to what is better, His grace lifts them up; and that they may abide forever, that same grace gives life and preserves. The grace of God is always to be sought, since He gives both the willing and the accomplishing. The help of this grace is always to be sought by us from God, yet in such a way that we do not ascribe to our own strength that very thing which we ask:
for not even the very disposition to pray can be had, unless it has been divinely granted. Therefore, that we may desire the help of grace, this very thing too is the work of grace. For grace itself begins to be poured in, that it may begin to be asked for; and it is poured in yet more abundantly when it is given to those who ask. But who can ask for grace unless he wills it? Yet unless God works that very will in him, he will in no way be able to will. On account of which the blessed Apostle testifies that God works in us not only the good works of men, but also the good will, saying: For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish, according to good will (Phil. 2:13).
This is what, commending solicitude and humility to the faithful, he set forth beforehand, saying: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; and there he added: For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish, according to good will. That we may also come to Him, we run; and we run for this reason, because we will to run. But lest we ascribe either the will or the running itself to our own strength, the same Apostle instructs us, saying: It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy (Rom. 9:16). Wherefore, that you may abide and advance in these good things which you have received from God; that you may neither halt on the way, nor turn back, nor divert to the right hand or the left;
whatever you have of good will or of good work, ascribe to God, who gave it, and humbly beg Him both to preserve and to increase what He has bestowed. Ascribe nothing good to yourself as your own, lest you fail to receive what you could have received, and lose what you had received. For detestable is the pride of the human heart, by which a man does that which God condemns in men; but more detestable still is that by which a man attributes to himself what God bestows on men. For the more this man exists ungrateful in the better gifts, the more he is held guilty of the worse pride. Damnable is he who ill uses the substance of this age, but more damnable he who is puffed up with pride over spiritual gifts. Humility of soul is the Christian's exaltation.
Let there grow, therefore, in you the humility of soul, which is the true and entire exaltation of a Christian; and by so much the more recognize the grace of God growing in you, by how much the more you see the humility of heart abounding in you. That you may always have it, and that in it you may always advance, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Let reading not be lacking to good works, nor let good works be lacking to the pursuit of reading. Provide things good before God and men; devote the study of your heart to the holy Scriptures; and there learn who you have been, who you are, and who you ought to be. If you approach these humble and meek, there indeed you will find both the prevenient grace, by which one cast down can rise; and the accompanying grace, by which one can run the way of a right journey;
and the subsequent grace, by which he may be able to arrive at the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom. Deign, I beseech you, to salute your holy and greatly venerable mother in Christ, who by your spiritual zeal is one with you in the Christian faith and in truly maternal charity; and also your venerable sister, now your wife in Christ. May the inseparable Trinity guard you by the protection of its power, which I desire, illustrious lord son. LETTER VII. TO VENANTIA. On right Penance, and future recompense. To the illustrious and deservedly venerable lady daughter VENANTIA, FULGENTIUS, servant of the servants of Christ, greeting in the Lord. CHAPTER I. As the true light is in no way darkened, so truth never lies in turn.
Now the Light and the Truth is God, of whom it is written: It was the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into this world (John 1:9). This same Light and Truth also says: I am the light of the world (John 8:12). And again He says of Himself: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). By His teaching we are admonished that a good tree brings forth good fruit, and that a tree is known by its fruits (Matt. 7:17); in Him, illustrious lady and deservedly venerable daughter, though you are unknown to me in body, I already know you; in Him I rejoice with you, though you are set so far away.
For through the letter of my most distinguished son Junillus I came to know the purpose and the zeal of your Christian faith; he took care to make known to me the grace which God has bestowed on you to such a degree that in his letters he showed me even a token of your greeting. This you would assuredly not have done, unless you had loved Christ with all purity of mind in His servants, nor would you salute an unknown servant so kindly in the Lord, unless you bore the Lord in a devout heart. Thanks be to Him who multiplies our joy over the charity of the faithful. It is charity itself which brings believers through to God, because charity itself is God. Whence the Apostle John says: God is charity;