Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 506

Gregory to Sabinianus, bishop of Zadar. Enough, most dear brother, do I rejoice over your sincerity, in that I recognize it with priestly zeal both to obey where obedience is due, and to resist where resistance is due, by the discretion of a careful judgment. For with how great alacrity of devotion you submitted yourself to those things which we enjoined on account of the fault of your past excess, the page of your letters which you directed by the bearer of the present has disclosed. For it could not be otherwise received from a beloved brother than as it was enjoined by one who loves. Hence I trust in the compassion of Almighty God that His grace so protects you, that through this you may, being absolved even by others, rejoice to have salutarily obeyed.

But as to this—that Your Charity has signified being saddened by the rivalry of Maximus, the prevaricator and excommunicate—you ought not to be troubled, but it is fitting that you patiently endure by tolerating the waves that swell up vainly for a little while, and that you lay low the foam of the billows by the virtue of perseverance. For patience knows how to make light that which is heavy, and constancy how to overcome that which rages. Let adversity, therefore, not cast down your spirits, but kindle them. Let priestly vigour show you more daring in all things. For the true proofs of truth are: to show oneself readier in hardships, and stronger in adversities.

In order, therefore, that the strength of rectitude may not by any impulse be plucked from the good of your deliberation, direct the steps of your mind, as you have begun, upon the solidity of that Rock, upon which you know our Redeemer to have founded His Church throughout the whole world, so that the upright footsteps of a sincere heart may not stumble upon a devious path. But those things which you wrote to us, or which the bearer of the present, being placed before us, unfolded, do not believe that we negligently pass over, but we think upon them altogether solicitously. And to our most beloved son Anatolius the deacon we have both formerly and now again indicated everything subtly:

exhorting him that whatever pertains to the utility and tranquillity of Your Charity or of your sons, he should, with the aid of our Creator assisting, hasten to act strictly and studiously. And therefore let neither grief afflict Your Fraternity, nor the enmity of anyone distress you. For, with the grace of divinity aiding, we trust that it is at hand that both the presumption of the aforesaid prevaricator and excommunicate may be more strictly repressed, and that your tranquillity, as you desire, may come. And to our most excellent son the Exarch, who is eager to commend him to us, we have by no means omitted to write concerning his depravity. But as for the presbyter (Gratian, distinction 50, canon

3) about whom Your Fraternity consulted us by the report of the bearer of the present, know that in no wise can he, after his lapse, either remain in the sacred order or be recalled to it. Yet toward him one must act more mildly, for the reason that the crime committed is said to have been confessed by an easy admission. Moreover, this bearer likewise here intimated certain privileges of your Church granted by our predecessors. Concerning these writings we wish to be more subtly informed by Your Charity; or if any of them lie by in the archive of your Church, it is necessary that copies of them be transmitted hither; so that whatever pertains to the reverence of your honour or to the dignity of the aforesaid Church, we may with a willing mind be able to restore.

But as for our glorious common son, the lord Marcellus, if he is willing to come here, urge him the more insistently, for I greatly desire to see him. If, however, he chooses to remain there, show yourselves toward him in the charity that is fitting, so that you may be able, as is right, to respond to the affection which he bears toward you. May Almighty God guard and protect you by the gift of His grace, and may He ever kindle your heart in those things that are pleasing to Him.