教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 488 章

Gregory to Peter, bishop of Corsica. Having received the letters of your Fraternity, we have rendered great thanks to almighty God, because you have deigned to relieve us with news of the gathering of many souls. And therefore let your Fraternity carefully strive to bring to perfection, with the Lord's help, the work which it has begun. And let it hasten to bring back to the faith, with a penance of some days imposed, those who were once faithful but, through negligence or by compulsion of necessity, returned to the worship of idols, so that they may bewail their guilt, and may hold all the more firmly that to which, God helping, they return, the more perfectly they shall have wept over that from which they departed;

Let your Fraternity make haste to gather to the almighty Lord those who are not yet baptized, admonishing them, entreating them, terrifying them with the judgment to come, and giving them the reason why they ought not to worship wood and stones; so that at His coming, when the stern day of judgment arrives, your Holiness may be found among the number of the saints. For what more profitable and more sublime work could you undertake than to give thought to the quickening and gathering of souls, and to bring back to your Lord, who has given you a place for preaching, an immortal gain? Moreover, we have sent to your Fraternity fifty solidi for the purchase of clothing for those who are to be baptized;

and to the presbyter of the church which is situated on Mount Negeugnus we have caused to be given the possession which your Fraternity requested, on the condition that by as much as it provides, by so much shall he receive less of the solidi which he had been accustomed to receive. Your Fraternity has also requested that a bishop ought to be established in the church which is not far from that same mountain; which I have received altogether gladly, since the nearer it is, the more it will be able to profit the souls dwelling there. The bearer of these presents we have made an acolyte, at the intercession of your Holiness, and we have sent him back to your service, that if he serves the more in the winning of souls, he may the more be advanced.