Gregory to Brunhild, queen of the Franks. How firmly Your Excellency's mind is established in solidity within the fear of Almighty God, you show praiseworthily, among the other good things you do, also in your love for His priests; and great joy arises in us concerning your Christian faith, since those whom you venerate and love truly as servants of Christ, you are eager to increase with honours. For it becomes you, O most excellent lily, it becomes such as you to be so, that you may be subject to the Sovereign Lord. For in this your royal power is strengthened even over the subjected peoples, in that you bend the neck of your mind to the fear of the Almighty Lord; and by that whereby you submit yourselves to the service of the Creator, by that same you bind your subjects the more devoutly to your service.
Having therefore received your letters, we signify that Your Excellency's zeal has greatly pleased us, and we have willed, according to your petition, to send the pallium to our brother and fellow-bishop Syagrius. Concerning which, as our deacon, who was transacting the responses of the Church before him, has made known to us, the will of the most serene lord emperor is also favourable, and he altogether desires that this be granted; and many good things concerning our aforesaid brother have been reported to us, both you and others bearing witness, and we have especially learned of his life through John the regionary who returned to us.
And hearing what he has done in the case of our brother Augustine, we bless our Redeemer, because we perceive that he fulfils the name of priest even in his works. But very many matters stood in the way, which by no means permitted us to do this for the present. First, indeed, because he who had come to receive the pallium itself is held entangled in the error of the schismatics. Next, because you wished it to be understood as transmitted not upon your petition, but from ourselves. Besides this, moreover, because neither had he who desires to use it asked by a special petition addressed to us that this be bestowed on him, and we ought by no means to have granted so great a thing without his request;
especially since ancient custom too has prevailed that the honour of the pallium ought not to be given except when the merits of the causes demand it and to one who strongly petitions for it. Nevertheless, lest we should perhaps seem to wish to defer Your Excellency's desire under the pretext of some excuse, we have provided that the pallium be sent by our most beloved son, the presbyter Candidus, charging him to bestow it in our stead with fitting observance. Whence it is necessary that our aforementioned brother and fellow-bishop Syagrius, out of his own act, together with some of his bishops, make petition to hope for this, and give it to the aforesaid presbyter, so that he may worthily attain, by the grace of God, the use of that same pallium.
So that this care may be to your credit in the sight of our Creator, let the solicitude of your Christian faith diligently keep watch; and let it suffer no one who is under your kingdom to approach the sacred order through the giving of money, or through the patronage of any persons whatsoever, or by right of kinship; but let him be chosen for the office of the episcopate or of any other sacred order whom his life and morals shall show to be worthy; lest, which is not more to be wished, if the honour of the priesthood be venal, the simoniacal heresy—which first sprang up in the Church, and was condemned by the sentence of the Fathers—should rise up, and, which God forbid, diminish the strength of your kingdom.
For it is a grievous crime altogether, and beyond what can be told, to sell the Holy Spirit, who has redeemed all things. But let this also be your care, that—since, as you know, the excellent Preacher altogether forbids a neophyte to approach the government of the priesthood—you suffer no one to be consecrated bishop from a layman. For what kind of master will he be who has not been a disciple? Or how shall he furnish leadership to the Lord's flock who was not first subject to the discipline of a shepherd? If, therefore, anyone's life shall have been such that he is worthy to be promoted to this order, let him first serve in the ministry of the Church,
so that by the practice of long exercise he may see what he should imitate, and learn what he should teach, lest perhaps the burden of governing be unbearable to the newness of his conversion, and an occasion of ruin arise from the immaturity of his advancement. But in what manner Your Excellency has conducted yourself toward our brother and fellow-bishop Augustine, and how great a charity you have bestowed on him, God inspiring you, we have learned by the report of divers of the faithful: for which, rendering thanks, we beseech the mercy of the divine power that it may both guard you here with its protection, and, as among men, so also after the times of many years, make you reign in life eternal.
Moreover, be zealous, for the sake of your reward, to recall to the unity of concord those whom the error of the schismatics separates from the unity of the Church. For they are rolled hitherto in the blindness of their ignorance for no other reason than that they may flee ecclesiastical discipline, and hold, as they have wished, a perverse licence of living, since they understand neither what they defend nor what they follow. But we venerate and follow in all things the Council of Chalcedon, from which they take to themselves the pestilent mists of excuse; and if anyone presume to diminish or add anything to its faith, we anathematize him.
But the taint of error has so imbibed them that, trusting to their own ignorance, they flee from the universal Church and from all four patriarchs, not by reason but only by malicious mind; so that he who was sent to us by Your Excellency, when he was asked by us why he existed separated from the universal Church, professed that he did not know. Nor was he able to know either what he himself said, or what other thing he heard.
This likewise we exhort, that you ought to restrain the rest of your subjects also under the moderation of discipline, so that they may not sacrifice to idols, may not be worshippers of trees, may not offer sacrilegious sacrifices of the heads of animals, since it has come to us that many of the Christians both run to the churches and—which it is impious to say—do not depart from the cults of demons. But since these things altogether displease our God, and He does not possess divided minds, provide that they be wholesomely restrained from these unlawful practices; lest, which God forbid, the sacrament of holy baptism become for them not unto rescue but unto punishment. If, therefore, you know any who are violent,
if any adulterers, if any thieves, or such as you know to be given to other depraved deeds, hasten to appease God concerning their correction, lest He bring upon you the scourge of foreign peoples, which, as far as we see, has been stirred up for the vengeance of many nations; lest, which we do not believe, the wrath of divine retribution being provoked by the action of the wicked, the plague of war destroy those whom the precepts of God do not call back, when they offend, to the way of rectitude. It is necessary, therefore, that with all zeal and assiduous prayer we hasten to be converted to the mercy of our Redeemer, where there is a safe place for all and great security. For there, no peril crushes, nor does fear harass, anyone who stands firmly established.
The book, moreover, as you wrote, we transmit through our aforesaid most beloved son the presbyter Candidus, to be offered to you, because we hasten to be partakers of your good zeal. May Almighty God guard you with His protection, and defend your kingdom from the faithless peoples by the extension of His arm, and after long courses of years lead you to eternal joys. Given in the month of October, in the first indiction.