Labours Of Old

Ideo et sancti antiqui et martires laboraveunt, et se morti exposuerunt pro salute fratrum, et animas posuernt ut dictum est, et etiam se vendiderunt infidelibus, ut eos converterent et decuerent ad devotionem et unionem caritatis. Sicut narratur de Serapione, qui et Sindonius dicebatur in libro qui dicitur paradisus patrum: Quod se vendidit paganis precio xx. solidorum, et eis servivit donec Cristianos eos fecit. Cunque recederet pecuniam dedis eis, et cum dicerent ut eam pauperibus daret, respondit: vos eam dater quia vestra vestra est, ego alienas peccunias non do pauperibus. Ibidem legitur: Quod alius vendidit se uni de primatibus civitatis, quem cognovit Manicheum esse, servivitque ei donec eum convertit. Sic et alii sancti laboraverunt et sustinuerunt pro salute fratris. Sicut et Paulus qui ait ii Corinthios ultimo: Ego libentissime impendam et superimpendar pro animibus vestris. Mirum ergo est, qui se dicunt habere caritatem perfectam, qui nec fratribus mala patientibus compatiuntur, nec proficientibus gaudent, nec egenis subministrant de suis superfluitatibus necessari, de quibus verificatur quod ait apostolus. Habentes quidem spem caritatis virtutem autem abnegantes, ii. Thimoteum iii: De his et pertinentibus ad predicat debet predicator diumus conferre cum fidelibus et cetera. Johannes Gallensis, Communiloquium sive Summa Collationum, Quinta Distinctio, Captitulum Tercium, Secunde Partis Source: here, p115

So the saints and martyrs of old laboured, even exposing themselves to death for the salvation of their brothers, and laying down their souls, as it is said, and even selling themselves to the faithless, that they might convert them and lead them to the devotion and piety of love. So it is told of Serapion, who was called Sindonius, in the book which is called the Paradise of the Fathers. He sold himself to pagans for the price of twenty solidii and he was their slave until he made them Christians. And when he left, he refused the money paid by them, and when they said that he should give it to the poor, he replied: 'You give what is yours, I do not give another's money to the poor.' In the same place it may be read that another fellow sold himself to a certain great man of a city whom he knew to be a Manichee, and he was his slave until he converted him. So even the saints laboured and suffered for the salvation of their brothers. So even Paul says in the last chapter of the second letter to the Corinthians: 'I will most glady spend and be spent for your souls.' 1 It is a wonder, then, that they say they have perfect love who neither suffer evils with their brothers who suffer, nor take joy in their improvement, nor attend to the needs of the poor from their abundance, which things the Apostle confirms when he says. 'Having the hope of love but denying the power of it.' 2 Concerning these things and things related to them the preacher should spend much time in speech with the faithful. John of Wales, The Communiloquium, Fifth Distinction, Third Chapter, of the Second Part 1 2 Cor 12.15 2 cf 2 Tim 3.5