Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 482

Gregory to Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria. Your most sweet Holiness has said many things to me in your letters concerning the chair of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, saying that he himself even now sits in it in his successors. And indeed I acknowledge myself to be unworthy, not only of the honor of those who preside, but even of the number of those who stand. Yet all that has been said I gladly received, in that he who holds the chair of Peter has spoken to me concerning the chair of Peter. And although special honor in no way delights me, I was nevertheless greatly gladdened, because you, most holy ones, in what you have bestowed upon me, have given to your very selves.

For who does not know that the holy Church was made firm upon the solidity of the prince of the apostles, who drew the firmness of his mind into his very name, so that he was called Peter from 'petra' (rock)? To whom it is said by the voice of Truth: 'I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew 16:19). To whom again it is said: 'And you, when once converted, confirm your brethren' (Luke 22:32). And again: 'Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Feed My sheep' (John 21:17). Therefore, although there are many apostles, yet by reason of the primacy itself only the see of the prince of the apostles has prevailed in authority—which, in three places, is the see of one man. For he himself exalted the see in which he deigned even to rest and to end his present life. He himself adorned the see to which he sent his disciple the evangelist.

He himself established the see in which, though about to depart, he sat for seven years. Since therefore the see is one and of one man, over which by divine authority three bishops now preside, whatever good I hear of you, this I impute to myself. If you believe any good of me, impute this to your own merits, because in Him we are one who says: 'That all may be one, as You, Father, in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us' (John 17:21). But paying the debt of salutation and address, I signify that I exult with great joy, because I have learned that you labor assiduously against the barkings of the heretics;

and I beseech the almighty Lord to assist your Beatitude with His protection, that through your tongue He may tear out from the bosom of the holy Church every root of bitterness, lest, springing up again, it hinder many, and through it many be defiled. For, having received the talent, you consider what was commanded: 'Trade until I come' (Luke 19:13). I therefore, though I am able to trade nothing, yet rejoice together in the gains of your trading, knowing this indeed, that even if the work does not make me a sharer, charity makes me a sharer in your labor. For, as I judge, the good of one's neighbor becomes common even to the idle man, who knows how to rejoice in common at another's deeds. Moreover, I wished to send timber;

but your Beatitude did not indicate whether it was needed, and we can send much larger pieces, yet by no means is such a ship sent hither as would be able to hold these. But to send smaller ones I think shameful. What, however, I ought to do, let your Beatitude make known to me by your letters. As a small blessing from the Church of your beloved Saint Peter, I have sent six smaller Aquitanian pallia and two stoles; for because I love much, I presume even in small things. For love itself has its own authority, and is altogether certain that there will be no offense in anything that it presumes out of love. I have received, moreover, the blessing of the holy Evangelist Mark, according to the note inserted in your letters.

But because I do not gladly drink strained or filtered wine, presuming upon our friendship, I ask for cognidium, which your Holiness caused to become known in this city last year, after a long time. For here we obtain from the merchants the name of cognidium, but not the substance. And I ask that against all the bitternesses which I suffer in this life, the prayer of your Holiness may support me, and by its intercessions defend me from these before the almighty Lord.