Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 246

Gregory to John, bishop of Ravenna. That I have hardly replied to the many writings of your Beatitude, impute this not to my sloth, but to my sickness; for, my sins bringing it about, at that time when Ariulf, coming to the city of Rome, slew some and mutilated others, I was afflicted with such great sadness that I fell into a colic affliction. And I greatly wondered what it was, that that solicitude of your Holiness, so well known to me, availed nothing for this city and for my needs; but when your writings arrived, I recognized that you indeed acted with solicitude, but nonetheless had no one before whom you could act.

This therefore I impute to my sins, that this man who is now in office both neglects to fight against our enemies and forbids us to make peace—although now, even if he should wish to make it, we are altogether unable, because Ariulf, having an army of the Avars and of Nordulf, desires that they give themselves to him as sureties, before he would deign to speak anything of peace with us. But concerning the case of the bishops of Istria, all the things that your Fraternity wrote to me I had already before found to be so in those orders which came to me from the most pious princes, to the effect that I should for the time being suspend myself from compelling them. I indeed greatly rejoice together with you for the zeal and ardor about which you wrote, and I profess myself made many times over your debtor.

Yet know that concerning this same matter I shall not cease to write back to our most serene lords with the utmost zeal and freedom. But the animosity of the aforesaid most excellent man, the Roman Patrician, ought not to move you, because the more we precede him in place and order, the more, if there be any trivial faults of his, we ought to bear them with maturity and gravity. Yet if ever there is any occasion of prevailing with him, let your Fraternity act with him, that we may make peace with Ariulf, if we can do anything at all, because the soldier of the city of Rome is protected, as he himself knows. But the Theodosiaci who have remained here, not receiving their pay, scarcely accommodate themselves even to the guarding of the walls; and the city, destitute of all things, if it has no peace, how shall it subsist?

Moreover, concerning the girl about whom you wrote to us, who was redeemed from captivity, that we ought to inquire in what condition she was born, let your Holiness know that a person of unknown origin cannot easily be investigated. But that which you say, that he who has been ordained should be ordained again, is very ridiculous, and foreign to the discernment of your intelligence—unless perhaps the example be brought forward whereby he too is to be judged who is reported to have done any such thing. But far be it from your Fraternity so to think. For just as one baptized once ought not to be baptized again, so one who has been consecrated once cannot be consecrated again in the same order.

But if perchance someone came to the priesthood with a light fault, a penance for the fault ought to be enjoined, and yet the order is to be preserved. Concerning the city of Naples, with the most excellent exarch pressing upon it urgently, we inform you that Arigis, as we have learned, has made common cause with Ariulf, and has come against the commonwealth contrary to his faith, and lies greatly in wait for that same city; into which, if a duke be not swiftly sent, it is already reckoned among the lost. But as for that which you say, that alms ought to be sent to the burned city of Severus the schismatic, your Fraternity thinks so for this reason, because it does not know what rewards against us he sends to the palace.

But even if he were not to send them, we had to consider that mercy is to be shown first to the faithful and afterward to the enemies of the Church. For close at hand is the city of Fanum, in which many have been taken captive, to which I already wished, a year ago now, to send, but did not presume amid the midst of the enemy. It seems to me therefore that you ought to send there Claudius the abbot with a certain sum of money, that he may redeem those free persons whom he shall find there held in servitude for a price, or any who are still captives. But concerning the sum of that same money to be sent, be assured that whatever you decide is pleasing to me.

But if you deal with the most excellent man, the Roman Patrician, that we ought to make peace with Ariulf, I am prepared to send another person to you, with whom the affairs of the ransom may be better handled. But concerning our brother and fellow-bishop Natalis I was greatly saddened, for I had learned certain proud things about him; but because he has corrected his own ways, by conquering himself he has at the same time consoled my sadness together with my own self. On this account admonish our brother and fellow-bishop Malchus, that before he comes to us he render his accounts, and then at last set out elsewhere, if it is necessary. And if we recognize his deeds to be good, it is perhaps necessary for us to restore to him this very patrimony which he held.