Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 512

Gregory to Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria. Our common son, the bearer of these presents, bringing your Holiness's writings, found me sick and left me sick; whence it came about that from the ample fountain of your Blessedness's letter but a little water could be given back by my brief letter. But it was of a heavenly gift that, set in bodily pain, I received the writings of your most sweet Holiness, which gladdened me sublimely concerning the doctrine of the heretics of the city of Alexandria and concerning the concord of the faithful; so that this very gladness of mind might temper for me the harshness of my affliction. And indeed we always rejoice with new exultation over your good things, yet we by no means reckon it to be anything new that you should act thus perfectly.

For that the people of the holy Church increases, that spiritual harvests are multiplied unto the heavenly granary, this we have never held uncertain to be from the grace of Almighty God which flows abundantly in you most blessed ones. We therefore render thanks to Almighty God, because we see fulfilled in you what is written: Where there are very many harvests, there the strength of the oxen is manifest (Prov. 14:4). For if the strong ox had not drawn the plough of the tongue in the earth of the hearers' hearts, so great a harvest of the faithful would by no means have arisen.

And because in the good things which you do I know that you also rejoice together with others, I render you the like turn of your grace, and I announce things not dissimilar, for while the nation of the Angles, set in a corner of the world, remained until now in the worship of wood and stones in a faithless manner, it pleased me, from the aid of your prayer, that with God as author I should transmit a monk of my monastery to that nation for preaching.

He, having received license from me, was made a bishop by the bishops of the Germanies, and with their aid also was conducted to the aforesaid nation at the end of the world; and now already writings have reached us concerning its salvation and his work, that with such great miracles either he himself, or those who were sent with him, shine forth in that same nation, that they seem to imitate the powers of the apostles in the signs which they display. And on the solemnity of the Lord's Nativity, which passed in this first indiction, more than ten thousand of the Angli were reported by that same brother and fellow-bishop of ours to have been baptized. This I have narrated for the reason that you may know what you accomplish among the people of Alexandria by speaking, and what at the ends of the world by praying.

For your prayers are in that place where you are not, whose workings are shown holy in that place in which you are. Furthermore, concerning the person of the heretic Eudoxius, concerning whose error I found nothing in the Latin tongue, I rejoice that I have been most amply satisfied by your Blessedness. For you have brought forth the testimonies of those most valiant men, Basil, Gregory, and Epiphanius, and we manifestly recognize as slain him against whom our heroes hurled so many javelins. But concerning those errors which are now proved to have arisen in the Church of Constantinople, you have answered most learnedly in all things, and as it befitted the judgment of so great a see to pronounce.

Whence we give thanks to Almighty God, because there are still within the ark of God the tables of the testament. For what is a priestly heart, if not the ark of the testament, in which, because spiritual doctrine flourishes, without doubt the tables of the law lie. Your Blessedness has also been at pains to indicate that now you do not write to certain persons the proud titles which have sprung from the root of vanity, and you speak to me, saying: 'As you commanded.' Which word of commanding I beg you to remove from my hearing, for I know who I am and who you are. For in place you are my brothers, in character my fathers. I therefore did not command, but took care to indicate what seemed useful. Yet I do not find that your Blessedness wished perfectly to retain this very thing which I brought to your memory.

For I said that neither to me nor to any other ought you to write any such thing; and behold, in the preface of the letter which you directed to me myself, who forbade it, you have taken pains to imprint the word of proud appellation, calling me 'universal pope.' Which I beg you, my most sweet Holiness, no longer to do, for that is subtracted from you which is proffered to another more than reason requires. For I seek to prosper not in words but in character. Nor do I reckon that to be an honor in which I know my brothers to lose their honor. For my honor is the honor of the universal Church. My honor is the solid vigor of my brothers. Then am I truly honored, when to each and every one the honor due is not denied.

For if your Holiness calls me 'universal pope,' you deny yourself to be that which you confess me to be universally. But far be this! Let those words depart which inflate vanity and wound charity. And indeed your Holiness knows that in the holy Synod of Chalcedon, and afterward by the Fathers following it, this was offered to my predecessors. But nevertheless none of them ever wished to use this title; so that while in this world they loved the honor of all priests, before Almighty God they might keep their own. Accordingly, rendering the due address of salutation, I ask that in your holy prayers you deign to be mindful of me, so that from the bonds of my sins—since by my own merits I cannot—by your intercessions the Lord may absolve me.

Gregory to Secundinus, bishop of Tauromenium. The petition presented by the monks of the monastery of Castellium, which is contained in the appended documents, has made plain the complaint of those monks. Accordingly, let your Fraternity take pains to scrutinize with solicitude these things which they assert. And if you find them to subsist in truth, extend protection to them, and provide that the monastery which is united to their monastery be, according to custom, set in order by monks assigned there from their own congregation. Because the order of reason does not suffer that a person—especially a lay person—should withdraw that same monastery, and above all against the will of its founders, from their disposal to his own arbitrary control, or that anyone should claim for himself any right therein.

Gregory to Scholasticus the defensor. Alexander Frix, the bearer of these presents, a tenant-farmer of our Church, has complained to us that in the house—that is, the church—which was built at Catania by our beloved son the deacon Cyprian, he labored for the space of three years, and did not receive the wage as is fitting. And although during those very times he is said to have labored for very many persons—whence also, while you were here, you received notice of it—yet by this authority we enjoin you that you diligently inspect the matter; and if he has worked in that same house for more than the wage he received, we will that, according to the measure of his labor,

if he has deserved anything above the four solidi and two tremisses which he is said to have received from the aforementioned deacon, you should add to him what you judge just, knowing that it is to be charged to your accounts.