Gregory to Natalis, bishop of Salona. We have received the writings of your reverence which returned thanks for our advancement, offered by Stephen the deacon whom you sent; and they are indeed much to be believed to have been bestowed with the grace and zeal of charity, since reason admonished you to rejoice together at the rank of your pontificate. Therefore, made the more glad by the occasion of your salutation, we declare our conscience: that we undertook the burdens of this very honor with an ailing mind. But because I could not resist the divine judgments, of necessity I recalled my mind to the more joyful part.
For which reason we beseech your reverence by epistolary discourse, that both we and the Christian flock committed to our care may fully enjoy the consolations of your prayer, so that we may be able, by the firmness of that protection, to overcome the storms of the times. In the month of February, in the ninth indiction.