Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 821

Gregory to the patrician and exarch Smaragdus. Long ago we came to know, most excellent son, with what longing, and with what conversion of mind, for the uniting of God's Church — namely in the regions of Istria — the fervor of your zeal has stood forth, out of zeal for our Redeemer and love of the eternal reward. And since this is so, those things which have lately been reported to us concerning those regions, we have not ceased to bring to your notice.

For Firminus, our brother and fellow bishop, prelate of the Church of Trieste, before the coming of Your Excellency, coming to his senses by wholesome counsel from the schism in which he had been entangled, and returning to the unity of his mother the Church, was strengthened by our letters, that fixed and stable in strength of mind he might remain in the true bosom of his mother the Church which he had come to know. When Severus, bishop of Grado, the very head of that schism, heard this, he first began, if he could, to recall him from his good purpose by various persuasions. And when, God being the author, he was in no way able to accomplish this, he did not fear to stir up against him a sedition of that man's own citizens.

How much our aforesaid brother and fellow bishop Firminus has endured from that same instigation, you will be able to learn there more fully and more truly from those near at hand. Therefore, dispatching Your Excellency's commands to those who, God being the author, are known to hold your place in the regions of Istria, order most strictly that they both defend our oft-mentioned brother from the harassments inflicted upon him, and by every means procure his tranquillity, which will profit many for imitation; so that this provision of yours may be both the desired security of the converted and a fitting occasion for those who follow. Wherefore, greeting Your Excellency with fatherly affection, we ask that the fervor of your zeal, once shown in this cause, may now more vehemently blaze up;

and may they find you so much the more avengers and defenders against the enemies of God, in proportion as the soul is more precious in God's sight than the defense of the body. May that very rectitude of faith which flourishes in you arm you against those who go astray; may that be restored in your times which in those regions is a torn body of the Church. You have in this cause the rewarder of your labor, the author of rectitude and integrity. For we trust in the divine mercy that our outward enemies will find you the more powerful against them, the more the enemies of the right faith perceive you to be terrible toward them through divine love. Moreover, we have sent two letters to Cilla, in case he should keep the peace which was made by Your Excellency for thirty days;

and he wrote back that he would keep it, provided however that it be kept toward him by the parties of the republic. As for those men whom he had held, he released them all together with their goods. But over his men who were slain he grieves greatly, and he is vehemently suspicious of you, because if—which God forbid—he finds an opportunity, there is no doubt that he will break out even during the peace. To the Pisans, however, we long ago sent our man, such as we ought and in the manner we ought; but he was able to obtain nothing. Whence their swift galleys have already been reported ready to set out.