Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 279

We have received the letter of your love, to which, however, no signature was attached; but the trustworthiness of Magnus the presbyter and Hippolytus the cleric, who bore it, vouched for its authenticity. Having read it through, we learned that the consent of you all converges upon our son Constantius, deacon of your Church, who was long ago well known to me. And when in the royal city I was giving the responses of the Apostolic See, he clung to me for a long time, yet I never found anything in him that could anywhere be reproved. Nevertheless, because it is the resolve of my long-standing deliberation

—never to intervene on any person's behalf for the taking up of the burdens of pastoral care, I follow your election with prayers, that Almighty God, who is ever foreknowing of our future deeds, may furnish you with such a pastor, in whose tongue and character you may be able to find the pastures of divine exhortation; in whose mind humility may shine together with uprightness, and severity together with piety; who may be able to show you the way of life not only by speaking but also by living, so that by his example your love may learn to sigh with longing for the eternal fatherland. Therefore you (Gratian VIII, q. 2, c.)

—most beloved sons, admonished by the judgment of our office, we urge that in this matter of receiving your bishop none of you, neglecting the common advantage, should look to his own gain; lest, if anyone seeks his own profit, he be deceived by a frivolous estimation, for a mind which cupidity binds does not examine with free judgment the person to be preferred to itself. Weighing therefore what is expedient for all, offer always in all things the most upright obedience to him whom the divine grace shall have set over you. For once he has been set over you, he ought no longer to be judged by you; but he is now to be judged so subtly, inasmuch as afterward he is not to be judged.

When the pastor has been consecrated for you, God being its author, commit yourselves wholly to him in mind, and in him serve the Almighty Lord who has set him over you. But since, according to the merit of the peoples, pastors are wont to be provided by the supernal judgment, seek spiritual things, love heavenly things, despise things temporal and fleeting; and hold it most certain that you will have a pastor pleasing to God, if you are pleasing to God in your own deeds. Behold, we now behold all the things of this world perishing, which we used to hear in the sacred pages were to perish. Cities are overthrown, camps uprooted, churches destroyed; no tiller inhabits our land.

Upon us ourselves, the very few who have been left behind for a little while, together with the calamities of the supernal chastisement the human sword rages unceasingly. Therefore we behold the evils of the world which long ago we used to hear were to come, so that the very scourges of the lands have now become for us as the pages of the Codices. Amid the destruction of all things, then, we ought to weigh that what we loved was nothing. And so, behold with anxious mind the approaching day of the eternal Judge, and by repenting forestall its terror. Wash away the stains of all your sins with weeping; check by temporal lamentation the wrath which eternally threatens. For our merciful Creator, when He comes to judgment, will console us with the greater grace, the more He now beholds that our sins are punished by us.

We have, moreover, with God's favor, sent for this purpose the bearer of these presents, John our subdeacon, that he may cause your elect, with the aid of Almighty God, by his authority to be consecrated bishop according to the custom of his predecessor. For just as we exact our dues from others, so we preserve to each their own rights. (See above, ep. 29; below, ep. 39.)