教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 827 章

Gregory to Leontia Augusta. What tongue is able to speak, what mind to conceive, how great thanks we owe to almighty God for the serenity of your empire, because the burdens of so long and hard a time have been removed from our necks, and the gentle yoke of imperial sovereignty has returned, which it is a pleasure for the subject to bear? Let glory therefore be rendered in heaven to the Creator of all by the hymn-singing choirs of angels, let thanksgiving be paid on earth by men, because the whole republic, which has endured many wounds of grief, has now found the healing balm of your consolation.

Whence it is necessary for us more earnestly to entreat the mercy of almighty God, that He may ever hold the heart of Your Piety in His right hand, and dispense your thoughts by the help of heavenly grace, so that Your Tranquillity may be able to rule those who serve you the more rightly, the more truly you shall know yourself to serve the Ruler of all. In the love of the catholic faith may He make His defenders those whom by His benign work He has made our emperors. May He pour into your minds zeal and gentleness together, that you may always with pious fervor be able both to leave unpunished nothing wherein God is offended, and, if anything be done wrong against you, by pardoning to bear it.

There shines forth to us, in your piety, the clemency of Pulcheria Augusta, who for her zeal for the catholic faith was in the holy synod called a new Helena (Acts of the synod of Chalcedon). May the mercy of almighty God grant you, together with your most pious lord, ampler spaces of living, that the longer your life is extended, the more strongly may the consolation of all subjects be confirmed. Perhaps I ought to have asked that Your Tranquillity might have specially commended to it the Church of the blessed apostle Peter, which up to now has labored under grievous plots. But since I know that you love almighty God, I ought not to petition for what you exhibit of your own accord out of the benignity of your piety.

For the more you fear the Creator of all, the more can you love His Church, to which it was said: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And to whom it is said: To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. xvi, 13). Whence we have no doubt with how strong a love you bind yourselves to him, through whom you earnestly desire to be loosed from all sins.

May he therefore be the guardian of your empire, may he be your protector on earth, may he be your intercessor in heaven, so that through this—that, the hard burdens being lifted, you cause your subjects to rejoice in your empire—after long times of years you may rejoice in the heavenly kingdom (John the Deacon, book IV, chapter 22).