Walters Ms. W.13, Synonyms of Isidore of Seville

you have pointed it out to me, you have made it known to me, through you I learned what I didn't know. Now I know for sure, now I am certain, now it does not elude me, it is clear to me, it is well known to me, it is weighed by me, it is now sufficiently explored by me, now it is no longer hidden from me, now it is no longer ambiguous to me, now it is no longer hidden. REASON: Hence, O man, hence comes all this calamity, hence comes this bitterness, hence comes this cross, hence comes this punishment, hence comes this distress. From you spring the causes of your sins, not from any accident, not from any event, not from any chance. This sickness is due to personal guilt, this illness is due to personal iniquity. Does it seem different to you? Do you think otherwise? Do you reckon otherwise? Do you feel otherwise? Do you gaze at anything else?

Do you judge otherwise? Do you think otherwise? MAN: No, certainly, not at all, absolutely not, by no means, no way, I have nothing to contradict, I yield to the truth, I cannot deny it, I confess it is true. Who would doubt this? Who would question this? Who would deny this? REASON: If so, if you will consider it so, if you are certain, if you have weighed it, if you have examined it, remove vice from you now, remove crime from you, restrain yourself from the evil of vanity, retract yourself from vice and sin, flee now from the stain of vice, flee from the disgrace of life, with purity of life, wash away your old stains. MAN: You speak well, you teach well, you instruct well, you admonish well, you persuade well, you guide well. But I longed to be released from the bond of sin,

I wished to be pulled back from the bad habit, I desired to recede from vice, I sought to overcome the most wicked habit. But alas! It is difficult to conquer a wicked habit, a bad custom is hardly abolished, persistent habit turns into nature, continual custom turns into a vice of nature, a mind bound by crimes can hardly be torn away from them, so great are my vices that they can hardly be rooted out, I hardly believe my sins could fade away over any span of time, willingly I have long since tainted my wretched self, of my own accord I have long since defiled myself with lust, by my own judgement I first lost myself, by my own will I tainted myself. I was good, I slipped into sin of my own free will, I was free, and by my own will I have become indebted to death. Unhappy me, I myself first committed the sin voluntarily,

I first embraced the opportunity to sin. Now I am held bound by the habit of sin, a bad habit has seriously entangled me, the habit of sin has bound me with the chains of necessity. I want to depart from wrong but I am not able, I seek to rise from my fall and I cannot resist the habit, I am drawn by the love of good, I am pulled back by the law of bad habit, long habit has made its own right and law, long habit of sinning has conquered me, my sins have hardened by habit, I want to do good, but accustomed desires do not allow it. By the habit of sinning, when I do not know, I offend thus, I fall into the habit of sin even when I do not wish to. I want to do good, but accustomed desires do not allow it. While resisting

carnal habit, I am unable to fulfill the good, I strive against the corrupt habit, but I am burdened by the desire of the flesh. The love of justice raises me up, but habit constrains me to sin. REASON: Fight against the bad habit, fight against the habit of sinning with all your strength, conquer the carnal habit, even though it may be with pain, even though with difficulty, conquer the harmful habit, even though with pain, resist the evil habit. Set before you against the heat of present flesh, the fire of future punishment, let the memory of eternal burning overcome the heat of lust, may the memory of the heat of hell, exclude the burning of luxury, let the fear of punishment for fornication overcome the fear of a more severe punishment, let the stronger