15. Charity is the bond of brotherhood, the foundation of peace, the holdfast and security of unity, which is greater than both hope and faith, which excels both good works and martyrdoms, which will abide with us always, eternal with God in the kingdom of heaven. Take from it patience; and deprived of it, it does not endure. Take from it the substance of bearing and of enduring, and it continues with no roots nor strength. The apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it endurance and patience. “Charity,” he says, “is large-souled; charity is kind; charity envieth not, is not puffed up, is not provoked, thinketh not evil; loveth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, beareth all things.”35 1 Cor. xiii. 4–7. Thence he shows that it can tenaciously persevere, because it knows how to endure all things. And in another place: “Forbearing one another,” he says, “in love, using every effort to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.”36 Eph. iv. 2, 3. He proved that neither unity nor peace could be kept unless brethren should cherish one another with mutual toleration, and should keep the bond of concord by the intervention of patience.
XV. Charitas fraternitatis vinculum est, fundamentum pacis, tenacitas ac firmitas unitatis, quae et spe 0632A et fide major est, quae et opera et martyria praecedit, quae nobiscum semper aeterna apud Deum in regnis coelestibus permanebit. Tolle illi patientiam, et desolata non durat. Tolle illi sustinendi tolerandique substantiam, et nullis radicibus ac viribus perseverat. Apostolus denique, cum de charitate loqueretur, tolerantiam illi et patientiam junxit. Charitas, inquit, magnanima est, charitas benigna est, charitas non aemulatur, non inflatur, non irritatur, non cogitat malum , omnia diligit, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet (I Cor. XIII, 4-7). Ostendit inde illam perseverare tenaciter posse quod noverit omnia sustinere. Et alio in loco: Sustinentes, inquit, invicem in dilectione, satis agentes servare unitatem spiritus in conjunctione pacis (Ephes. IV, 2). Probavit nec unitatem servari 0632B posse nec pacem nisi se invicem fratres mutua tolerantia foveant, et concordiae vinculum patientia intercedente custodiant.