教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 739 章

Gregory to Ethelbert, king of the English. For this reason does Almighty God raise up good men to the governance of peoples, that through them He may bestow the gifts of His loving-kindness upon all those over whom they are set. This we have learned to have come to pass in the nation of the English, over whom your Glory has been placed for this end, that through the good things granted to you, heavenly benefits might be conferred also upon the nation subject to you. And therefore, glorious son, guard with careful mind that grace which you have received from God.

Hasten to spread the Christian faith among the peoples subject to you; multiply the zeal of your uprightness in their conversion; pursue the worship of idols; overthrow the buildings of their shrines; and build up the morals of your subjects by great purity of life—exhorting, terrifying, enticing, correcting, and showing forth examples of good work—that you may find Him your rewarder in heaven whose name and knowledge you shall have spread abroad on earth. For He Himself will render the name of your Glory yet more glorious even to posterity, whose honour you seek and preserve among the nations.

For thus did Constantine, once the most pious emperor, recalling the Roman commonwealth from the perverse cults of idols, subject it together with himself to Almighty God our Lord Jesus Christ, and turn himself with the peoples under him wholly to Him with all his mind. Whence it came about that this man surpassed the name of the ancient princes by his praises, and excelled his predecessors in renown by as much as he did in good work. And so now let your Glory hasten to pour into the kings and peoples subject to you the knowledge of the one God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that you may surpass the ancient kings of your nation in praises and merits;

and by how much you shall have wiped away the sins of others among your subjects, by so much may you be the more secure concerning your own sins before the terrible judgment of Almighty God. Now our most reverend brother Augustine the bishop, trained in the rule of monastic life, filled with the knowledge of Holy Scripture, endowed by God's authorship with good works—whatever things he admonishes you, hear willingly, perform devoutly, keep diligently in memory; for if you hear him in that which he speaks on behalf of Almighty God, that same Almighty God the more speedily hears him as he prays for you. But if—which God forbid—you set aside his words, when shall Almighty God be able to hear him for you, whom you neglect to hear for God?

With your whole mind, therefore, bind yourself to him in the fervour of faith, and aid his endeavour by the virtue which God has bestowed upon you, that He may make you partakers of His kingdom, whose faith you cause to be received and kept in your kingdom. Moreover, we wish your Glory to know that, as we learn from Holy Scripture out of the words of the Almighty Lord, the end of the present world is now near at hand, and the kingdom of the saints is to come, which shall never be able to be ended by any close. But as that same end of the world draws near, many things threaten which were not before—namely, changes of the air, terrors from heaven, tempests contrary to the order of the seasons, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes in divers places.

Yet not all these things shall come to pass in our days, but after our days all shall follow. Therefore if you perceive any of these things happening in your land, do not by any means let your mind be disturbed, because these signs of the end of the age are sent beforehand for this reason: that we should be anxious concerning our souls, watchful of the hour of death, and found prepared in good deeds for the Judge who is to come. These few things, glorious son, I have now spoken, so that when the Christian faith shall have increased in your kingdom, our discourse with you may also grow more ample; and it may please us to speak the more, by as much as joys concerning the perfect conversion of your nation are multiplied in our mind.

I have sent, moreover, some small gifts, which will not be small to you, when they shall have been received by you with the blessing of the blessed Apostle Peter. May Almighty God, therefore, guard and perfect in you His grace which He has begun, and both here extend your life through the courses of many years, and after long times receive you into the assembly of the heavenly fatherland. May grace from on high keep your Excellency safe, my lord son. Given on the tenth day of the Kalends of July, in the nineteenth year of the reign of our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, the eighteenth year after the consulship of the same our lord, in the fourth indiction.