Letter 9024: You have done well to take back into your household and favour, on the intercession of my letter, * the freedman who...
L To Sabinianus.
You have done well to take back into your household and favour, on the intercession of my letter, * the freedman who was once dear to you. This will afford you pleasure, and it certainly pleases me, first, because I see that you are so tractable that, even when you are angry, you are open to guidance, and, secondly, because you pay me the handsome compliment either of yielding to my influence or of indulging my requests. That is why I applaud your conduct, and thank you. At the same time I advise you for the future to be ready to pardon the faults of your household, though there be no one to deprecate your wrath. Farewell.
(*) See letter 21 of this book.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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Jerome writes in severe but moderate language to Sabinianus, a deacon, calling on him to repent of his sins. Of these he recounts at length the two most serious, an act of adultery at Rome and an attempt to seduce a nun at Bethlehem. The date of the letter is uncertain.