Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 250

Gregory to all the bishops in the case of the Three Chapters. Your letter I received with the greatest joy; but there will be in me a far more abundant gladness, if it should befall me to rejoice over your return. And so the very forefront of your letter made known that you are suffering a grievous persecution. Which persecution, however, since it is not reasonably endured, in no way profits toward salvation. For it is lawful for none to expect the recompense of rewards for a fault. For you ought to know, as blessed Cyprian says, that it is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause. Since therefore this is so, it is exceedingly unfitting for you to glory in that persecution, as you call it, through which it is established that you are by no means advanced toward eternal rewards.

Let therefore the integrity of faith at last lead back your charity to the mother Church which begot you; let no straining of minds separate you from the unity of concord, let no persuasion, by leading you back, weary you from the right path. For in the synod in which the matter of the Three Chapters was treated, it is plainly evident that nothing of the faith was overthrown or in any degree changed, but, as you know, only concerning certain persons was action taken there — one of whom, whose writings evidently deviated from the rectitude of the catholic faith, was not unjustly condemned. But as to what you write, that from that time Italy above other provinces is chiefly scourged, you ought not to twist this to her reproach, since it is written:

Whom the Lord loves, He chastises: and He scourges every son whom He receives (Heb. 12:6). If therefore it is as you say, from that time she has been more beloved with God, and in all ways approved, from the time she merited to endure the scourges of her Lord. But that it is not so as you endeavor to affirm to her insult, attend to the reason. After Vigilius the pope of recordable memory, established in the royal city, had promulgated a sentence of condemnation against Theodora, then Augusta, and against the Acephali, then the city of Rome was entered and captured by enemies. Did the Acephali therefore have a good cause, and were they unjustly condemned, after whose condemnation such things befell? God forbid! For it befits none of you,

nor others, who are instructed in the mysteries of the catholic faith, to say or in any way to confess. These things at length being known, withdraw now at last from this deliberation. Therefore, that satisfaction concerning the Three Chapters may be abundantly poured into your minds, all doubt being removed, I have judged it useful to transmit to you the book which my predecessor of holy memory, Pope Pelagius, wrote on this subject. Which if, laying aside the zeal of a willful defense, with pure and vigilant heart you are willing to read over often, I trust that you will follow it in all things and will nonetheless return to our unity.

But further, if after the reading of this book you are willing to persist in that deliberation in which you are, without doubt you show that you give your effort not to reason but to obstinacy. Wherefore again, with compassion had, I admonish your charity that — since, by God's suffrage, the integrity of our faith in the case of the Three Chapters has remained inviolate — the swelling of mind being laid aside, you return to your mother the Church, who awaits and invites her sons, all the more speedily as you know that you are daily awaited by her on your behalf.