Amicitia igitur ipsa virtus est qua talis dilectionis ac dulcedinis foedere ipsi animi copulantur, et efficiuntur unum de pluribus. Unde ipsam amicitiam non inter fortuita vel caduca, sed inter ipsas virtutes quae aeternae sunt, etiam mundi huius philosophi collocarunt. Quibus Salomon in proverbiis consentire videtur: «Omni, inquiens, tempore diligit qui amicus est» (Prov. XVII, 17); manifeste declarans amicitiam aeternam esse, si vera est; si autem esse desierit, nec veram fuisse cum videretur existere. ... et ut ait noster Hieronymus: «Amicitia quae desinere potest, numquam vera fuit» (Epist. 41, ad Ruffin.)
Ivo.
Ergo ne inter amicitiam et caritatem nihil distare arbitramur?
Aelredus.
Immo plurimum. Multo enim plures gremio caritatis quam amicitiaeamplexibus recipiendos, divina sanxit auctoritas. Non enim amicos solum, sed et inimicos sinu dilectionis excipere, caritatis lege compellimur (Matth. V, 44). Amicos autem eos solos dicimus, quibus cor nostrum, et quidquid in illo est, committere non formidamus; illis vicissim nobis, eadem fidei lege et securitate constrictis.
From the English translation by Lawrence Braceland.
Friendship is that virtue, therefore, through which by a covenant of sweetest love our very spirits are united, and from many are made one. Hence even the philosophers of this world placed friendship not among the accidents of mortal life but among the virtues that are eternal. Solomon seems to agree with them in this verse from Proverbs: “a friend loves always.” So he obviously declares that friendship is eternal if it is true, but if it ceases to exist, then although it seemed to exist, it was not true friendship. ... And as our Jerome says, “a friendship that can end was never true.”
Ivo.
Are we to conclude, then, that there is no distinction between friendship and charity
Aelred.
On the contrary, the greatest distinction! Divine authority commands that many more be received to the clasp of charity than to the embrace of friendship. By the law of charity we are ordered to welcome into the bosom of love not only our friends but also our enemies. But we call friends only those to whom we have no qualm about entrusting our heart and all its contents, while these friends are bound to us in turn by the same inviolable law of loyalty and trustworthiness.