教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 723 章

Gregory to Anatolius, deacon of Constantinople. Your Dilection has written to me that our most pious lord commands that a successor be appointed to my most reverend brother John, bishop of the First Justiniana, on account of the infirmity of the head from which he suffers, lest perchance, while that same city does not have the rights of a bishop, it should—which God forbid—perish at the hands of enemies. And indeed nowhere do the canons prescribe that a successor be appointed to a bishop on account of infirmity. And it is altogether unjust that, if a bodily ailment assails him, a sick man should be deprived of his honour. And therefore this cannot in any wise be done by us, lest sin come into my soul from his deposition.

But it should be suggested that, if he who is in the governance is sick, such a steward be sought for him as can undertake all his care, and preserve his place in the governance of the Church—he himself not being deposed—and fulfill it in the guarding of the city, so that neither may Almighty God be offended, nor the city be found to be neglected. But if the same most reverend John should perhaps, on account of his ailment, petition that he ought to be released from the honour of the episcopate, it is to be granted, he giving his petition in writing. But otherwise we can by no means do this, out of fear of Almighty God. But if he should so refuse this—that which pleases the most pious emperor—whatever he commands to be done is within his power. As he knows, let him himself provide.

Only let him not cause us to be mixed up in the deposition of such a man. But whatever he himself shall have done, if it is canonical, we follow. But if it is not canonical, we bear it in so far as we are able without sin on our part.