Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 461

Gregory to Constantius, bishop of Milan. Know that I have already for a long time heard, by the report of many, with what darts of tongues and snares of evil hearts the ancient enemy of the human race judged you to be assailed. But in all the adversities that befall in this life, there is, as you know, only the severity of Almighty God to be weighed, and one must always have recourse to one's own heart, so that no man's tongue may there entangle us, where conscience does not accuse. For whom conscience defends is free even amid accusation; and he can be free even without accusation, if only the conscience which inwardly condemns accuses.

Far be it, therefore, from the judgement of Christians that we should bring into any measure of suspicion, concerning Your Holiness, those things which we believe to have been fabricated by the rumours of slanderous men; since we hold the testimony of sacred eloquence, that greater evils, when perchance they are spoken, ought not to be believed unless proved, but when proved ought to be the more quickly avenged. For God Himself, who created all things and beholds all that He made, being moved to the avenging of grievous evils, says: 'The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is ascended up to me; I will go down and see whether they have accomplished in deed the cry which I have heard, and take vengeance; or whether it be not so, that I may know' (Gen. 18:20 ff.)? For whither would God go down, that He might know what things were done? Or what would He not know, who is everywhere?

But that He might give us an example of discernment in our ignorance—that we ought not to believe grievous evils that we have heard—He says of Himself that He descends to take cognizance, though it is clear to all that even without descending He would know all things.

These things, therefore, I have said, that I might show it to be of exceeding levity, if anyone should be eager to believe grievous evils which cannot be proved. Wherefore Your Holiness ought to sever your mind from the rumours and detraction of slanderous men, and to think only of those things which are of eternal life and which profit toward the usefulness of your subjects; because for this too perhaps the ancient enemy has wished you to be entangled with such care, so that while the mind of Your Fraternity is incessantly occupied about the things that are his own, it may think less of the things of others, and may bring no comfort of the word to its subjects, and may with no severity gainsay those who act perversely. For thus it is wont to happen in bodily battle, that the enemy vehemently assails him who bears the standard in the fray;

so that if he himself who is watched by the rest should receive a wound, the whole multitude, being the more quickly scattered, may be captured. This wound, therefore, of the rumour brought against you, Your Fraternity ought not to feel, but rather to care for the life and betterment of those committed to you, so that before the Judge to come you may be able to render a good account both of your innocence and of the betterment of your subjects. But the other things which are suited to the usefulness of the time, we have commanded to be intimated to you by word through Marinianus your defensor.

But that bishop whom we have found to have been deposed by Your Fraternity—since the sacred canons, as you know, prescribe that a Church be not vacant beyond three months—if a manifest crime has appeared in him, let it be your care by all means to ordain a bishop in his place, because a Church ought not long to be without its own ruler. In the month of March, indiction 15.