教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 582 章

Gregory to Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria. I received the writings of your most sweet Holiness delivered by the bearer of these presents, which spoke to me of the swift settling of his cause. But as soon as he came, he recognized in what manner the possession which he was seeking was held by our Church, and quickly rendered account to himself. But those matters which he had with others he settled without contention. Concerning the cause, however, about which you ought by all means to have written to me, your Holiness wrote nothing—wherein you judged me also to be slow; and lest perchance it should break forth into the scandal of division, I was unwilling to be the author of that division. For I chose that those things which are to follow should proceed through others.

But in the time to come, God being the author, you will approve that in a cause in which I desire to please God I do not dread men. Concerning this I have already taken care to write to you also when you were coming to the city of Constantinople. The timber, indeed, as your Beatitude had written, I had prepared, the larger pieces; but so small a ship was sent hither that, unless they were cut down, it could not carry them. These I was unwilling to have cut, but reserved the matter to your judgment as to what ought to be done with them. If, however, they are not necessary to you, we shall here adapt them for other uses. I ask, moreover, that your Holiness earnestly pray for me, since I am ceaselessly beset both by the pains of gout, and by the swords of the barbarians, and by the afflictions of cares.

But if you extend to me the help of your prayer, I believe that you will bravely aid me against all adversities. (Cf. John the Deacon, book IV, chap. 67.) Gregory to Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna. What is to be done concerning the cause of Maximus, you have learned from the letters which we sent to you before this. But since we have now come to know, through the report of Castorius our chartulary, the bearer of these presents, what is the will—or rather the petition—of your Fraternity in this matter: therefore, if the same Maximus, in your presence and that of our aforesaid chartulary, shall have purged himself of the heresy of simony by taking an oath, and, being questioned only concerning the other charges before the body of Saint Apollinaris, as we have written, shall have answered that he is free of them;

then, as to the matter of his having presumed while excommunicated to perform the solemnities of the Mass, we commit the cause to the judgment of your Fraternity, that you may determine by what penance such a fault ought to be purged. And therefore, whatever seems good to you according to God, dispose it in security, and hold nothing doubtful concerning us. For whatever shall be ordained by you in this cause, we both gratefully receive and gladly admit. We exhort you, nevertheless, that you ought to be solicitous, and so temper the things you foresee are to be done, that both to him, if it shall seem fit, you may kindly grant it, and that you may, as is proper, by fitting dispensation preserve the vigour of ecclesiastical discipline. As to the aforesaid bearer, we have instructed him for the present as to what is to be done with him together with you.

From him learn all things in detail, and so bear yourself in all matters that we may perceive our own presence to have been in your solicitude. (Cf. John the Deacon, book IV, chap. 43.)