Gregory to Agilulf, king of the Lombards. We give thanks to your Excellency, because, hearing our petition, you have established the peace that would profit both parties, just as we had confidence in you. For which reason we greatly praised the prudence and goodness of your Excellency, because by loving peace you showed that you love God, who is its very author. For if — which God forbid — it had not been made, what else would have had to be done, except that, with the sin and peril of both parties, the blood of the wretched country-folk, whose labour benefits both sides, should be shed?
But that we may feel this same peace to profit us, in the manner in which it has been made by you, greeting you with fatherly charity, we ask that, as often as occasion offers, you command by your letters your dukes stationed in various places, and especially in these parts, that they keep this peace purely, as was promised, and not seek for themselves any occasions from which either some strife or some ingratitude might arise, so that we may be able to give still greater thanks for your goodwill. The bearers of these presents, moreover, we have received truly as your men, with the affection that was fitting, because it was just that we should both receive and dismiss with charity men who are wise, and who announced, God being favourable, that peace had been made.