1. Your letter has reached me, containing the good and gladdening news that you have not forgotten me but regard me with your customary affection, and that you take great pleasure in whatever gifts the Lord has deigned in His mercy, and not for my deserving, to bestow on me. It was gracious of your Holiness to write to me, and in your letter, my dear lord whom I cherish with reverence and very genuine devotion, I discerned once more that fatherly feeling for me which is no new or sudden refreshment to me from your generous heart, but a joy already experienced and appreciated.
1. Plenas bonorum gaudiorum litteras, quod sis memor mei meque, ut soles, diligas magnaeque gratulationi tibi sit, quicquid in me donorum suorum dominus conferre dignatus est misericordia sua, non meritis meis, missas munere tuae sanctitatis accepi. In quibus affectum in me paternum tuo benignissimo corde non repentinum et novum hausi, sed expertum plane cognitumque repetivi, domine beatissime et venerabiliter sincerissima caritate amplectende.
2. The literary efforts I expended in the composing of some books have been well recompensed by your Grace's reading them. Surely that came from no other source than the Lord's desire (for my soul is subject to Him) to appease my anxieties and abate the fear that of necessity harassed me in such an undertaking, of stumbling, through my comparative inexperience and imprudence, even in the straight and level path of truth. For when my writings find favour with you, I know with whom it does find favour, for I know who it is that dwells in you: He who apportions and bestows all spiritual gifts has by your verdict ratified my obedience. For whatever my writings contained that merited your satisfaction, it was God who said “Let it be done, and it was done,” by me as His instrument, while in your approval it is the Lord who “saw that it was good.” a If my own dullness has prevented me from grasping those problems you were good enough to bid me solve, still I could unravel them with your valued assistance.
2. Unde autem tanta exorta est felicitas litterario labori nostro quo in librorum quorundam conscriptione sudavimus, ut a tua dignatione legerentur, nisi quia dominus, cui subdita est anima mea, consolari voluit curas meas et a timore recreare, quo me in talibus operibus necesse est esse sollicitum, necubi forte indoctior vel incautior quamvis in planissimo campo veritatis offendam? Cum enim tibi placet, quod scribo, novi cui placeat, quoniam quis te inhabitet novi. Idem quippe omnium munerum spiritalium distributor atque largitor per tuam sententiam confirmavit oboedientiam meam. Quicquid enim habent illa scripta delectatione tua dignum, in meo ministerio dixit deus: “Fiat,” et factum est; in tua vero approbatione vidit deus, quia bonum est.
3. But I do beg you to intercede with God for me in my weakness, and not only to give the careful attention of a reader, but also to adopt the critical attitude of a reviewer, to any works of mine that happen to come into your holy hands, both those on which it was your kind and fatherly desire that I should try my hand, and any others. For I am fully conscious of God's gifts, and no less of my own mistakes.
3. Quaestiunculas sane quas mihi enodandas iubere dignatus es, etsi mea tarditate implicatus non intellegerem, tuis meritis adiutus aperirem. Tantum illud quaeso ut pro infirmitate mea depreceris deum et sive in his quibus me exercere benigne paterneque voluisti, sive in aliis, quaecumque nostra in tuas sanctas manus forte pervenerint, quia sicut dei data sic etiam mea errata cogito, non solum curam legentis inpendas, sed etiam censuram corrigentis adsumas.