教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 341 章

Gregory to Maximianus, Bishop of Syracuse. Euplus, the bearer of these presents, states that Eusanius, Bishop of the city of Agrigentum, was his father, and declares that many possessions of his mother remained in the bishop's hands. Since he asserts that the man died intestate, he therefore petitions both that his mother's property ought to be restored to him, and that he be permitted to obtain the estate of the aforesaid bishop his father. Concerning this matter we commit it to your Fraternity by the tenor of this precept, that you take care diligently to inform yourself; and if anything belonging to his mother's property can be found in the aforesaid Church — provided there is nothing that can reasonably stand in the way of the said Euplus — cause it to be restored to him according to his portion.

Accordingly also concerning the paternal property which he is known to have possessed before the episcopate, if he did not in any way transfer it into the right of his Church, see to it that satisfaction be made to him, as much as you know can lawfully belong to his portion. For it is proved to be altogether both against reason and against our purpose, if we deny that those things be restored and satisfaction made to anyone which are justly owed. Let your Fraternity, therefore, hasten to fulfil these things in such a way that no necessity of returning to us again on this matter be imposed upon the above-written bearer. For as to what our predecessor of blessed memory had directed by precept — that when the man had lapsed, all his property should remain to the Church — we believe he commanded this for this reason, lest through them still more should be lost;

but now we deem it just that the father's fault should not burden the son, but that, by your Fraternity's dispensation, he should obtain whatever can lawfully belong to him. Gregory to Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards. It has come to us by the report of certain persons that your Glory has been led by some bishops even to this scandal against the holy Church, that you have withdrawn yourself from the communion of catholic unanimity. At this, the more purely we love you, the more strongly do we grieve over you, because you give credence to unskilled and foolish men, who not only know not the things they speak, but scarcely can grasp the things they have heard.

These men, since they neither read nor believe those who read, remain in that very error which they have invented for themselves concerning us. For we venerate the four holy synods: the Nicene, in which Arius; the First of Constantinople, in which Macedonius; the First of Ephesus, in which Nestorius; and that of Chalcedon, in which Eutyches and Dioscorus were condemned — professing that whosoever thinks otherwise than these four synods is a stranger to the faith of truth. And we condemn whomsoever they condemn,

and whomsoever they absolve, we absolve — striking with the interposition of anathema him who presumes to add to or take away from the faith of these same four synods, but especially of Chalcedon, concerning which doubt and an occasion of superstition has arisen among certain unskilled men. Since, therefore, you recognize our integrity from my open tradition and profession, it is fitting that you have no further scruple of doubt concerning the Church of blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles; but persist in the true faith, and establish your life upon the rock of the Church — that is, upon the confession of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles — lest all your tears and so many good works perish, if they be found alien from the true faith.

For just as branches wither without the strength of the root, so works, however good they may appear, are nothing if they are disjoined from the solidity of faith. It becomes your Glory, therefore, to send with all speed to our most reverend brother and fellow-bishop Constantius, whose faith and life have long been well approved by me, and by letters directed to him to signify how graciously you receive his ordination; and that you are in no way separated from the communion of his Church, so that we may truly rejoice with common exultation, as over a good and faithful daughter. And in this you shall know that you and your works please God, if before His examination comes they be approved by the judgement of His priests. (See above, Epistle 4.)