教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 174 章

Gregory to all the bishops throughout Illyricum. The most excellent man, our son, the provost throughout Illyricum, is known to have indicated to us in his writings that, by the sacred letters directed to him, it had been ordered that the bishops whom the fury of hostilities had driven from their own places should be joined to those bishops who up to now dwell in their own places, for the sustenance and stipends of the present life.

And although the imperial command admonishes your Fraternity to this, yet we have a greater precept than these, that of the eternal Prince, by which we are compelled to carry out these things still more awfully: namely, that we should love—I do not say our brethren and fellow-bishops, but even those very persons whom we suffer as our adversaries—when opportunity demands, in conferring aid for the necessities of the flesh. It behooves you, therefore, both to be obedient first of all to the heavenly Prince in this matter, and also to consent to the imperial commands, so that you ought gladly to receive our brethren and fellow-bishops, whom the straits of captivity and of divers necessities oppress, to be consoled and to live together with you in ecclesiastical maintenance.

Not indeed that the dignity of the episcopal throne should be divided through common participation, but that they ought to receive from the Church, according to its ability, sufficient sustenance. For thus we are proved both to love our neighbour in God, and God in our neighbour. We grant them indeed no authority in your Churches, yet we most earnestly exhort that they be sustained by your consolations. In the month of June, in the ninth indiction. (Cf. John the Deacon, Book III, ch. 96.) Gregory to Peter the subdeacon. The divine precepts admonish us to love our neighbours as ourselves:

and since we are commanded to love them with this charity, how much more ought we to come to their aid in the reliefs of the necessities of the flesh, so that we may relieve their straits, if not by all, at least by some supports. Since therefore we have observed that the son of Godiscalcus, a most worthy man, suffers want not only through the loss of his sight, but also through poverty of livelihood, we have deemed it necessary, as far as our ability affords, to furnish him with relief. Therefore we command your Experience by this present order that you ought to supply, for the sustenance of his life, every year twenty-four modii of wheat, twelve modii also of beans, and twenty decimatae of wine, which may afterwards be credited in your accounts.

So act, therefore, that the bearer of the present letter may suffer no delays in receiving the Lord's gifts, and that you may be found a partaker of the well-dispensed reward. (Cf. John the Deacon, Book II, ch. 55.) Gregory to Virgilius of Arles, and to Theodore, bishop of Marseilles in Gaul. Although there was no occasion of fitting time or of persons for the address of writing to your Fraternity and rendering the greeting due, yet I have acted so that at one and the same time I might both fulfil what was becoming concerning the love of fraternal nearness, and not keep silent about the complaint of certain persons, which has been brought to us, as to how the souls of the erring are to be saved.

For very many men of the Jewish religion dwelling in this province, and thereafter travelling into the parts of Marseilles for divers business, have brought to our notice that many of the Jews settled in those parts have been led to the font of baptism rather by force than by preaching. Now such an intention I judge to be worthy of praise, and I profess it to descend from love of our Lord. But unless a fitting effect of Holy Scripture accompany this same intention, I fear lest either no work of reward come forth thereby, or lest, in some measure, the ruin of the souls which we wish to be rescued may—which God forbid—follow.

For when anyone comes to the font of baptism not by the sweetness of preaching but by necessity, returning to his former superstition, he dies the worse from that whence he seemed to have been reborn. Let your Fraternity therefore provoke men of this kind by frequent preaching, so that they may rather desire to change their old life through the sweetness of the teacher. For thus both our intention is rightly accomplished, and the mind of the convert is not turned back again to its former vomit. A discourse must therefore be applied to them, which should both burn up the thorns of errors in them, and by preaching illumine whatever grows dark in them, so that for this frequent admonition your Fraternity may receive a reward, and may lead them, as far as God shall grant, to the regeneration of a new life.

(Cf. John the Deacon, Book IV, ch. 43.)