4:17).' For in the incomprehensible dispensation of Almighty God consist the governings of mortal life; and sometimes, when the sins of many righteous men are to be smitten, a burden is raised up, through whose harshness the necks of those subjected may be pressed down beneath the yoke of tribulation. Which we have proved for a long time in our own tribulation. But sometimes, when the merciful God decrees to refresh the hearts of many mourners with His consolation, He advances one man to the summit of rule, and through the bowels of His mercy pours into the minds of all the grace of His exultation. With which abundance of exultation we believe ourselves to be swiftly strengthened, we who rejoice that the benignity of your piety has attained to the imperial dignity.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth exult (Psalm 95); and from your benign deeds let the people of the whole commonwealth, vehemently afflicted until now, grow glad. Let the proud minds of enemies be pressed down beneath the yoke of your dominion; let the contrite and downcast spirits of your subjects be relieved by your mercy. May the virtue of heavenly grace make you terrible to enemies, and your piety make you benign to your subjects. Let the whole commonwealth be at rest in your most happy times, the plunder that has been carried off under the appearance of lawsuits being the spoil of peace. Let the snares of wills cease, and the gifts violently extorted by favour. Let secure possession return to all in their own affairs, that they may rejoice to hold without fear the things that have not been acquired by them through frauds.
Now let each one's liberty be restored to him under the yoke of pious empire. For in this the kings of the nations and the emperors of the commonwealth differ, that the kings of the nations are lords of slaves, but the emperors of the commonwealth are lords of free men. (Book XIII, letter 31.) 21. And when Phocas asked, with great reverence of humility, that a deacon of the Roman see be sent to him, Gregory wrote back thus: 'It is pleasing to consider, with joys and great acts of thanksgiving, how great praises we owe to Almighty God, that, the yoke of sadness being removed, we have arrived at times of liberty under the imperial piety of your benignity.'
For as to the fact that your Serenity did not find a deacon of the apostolic see remaining in the palace according to the ancient custom, this was not owing to my negligence, but to most grave necessity: because, while all the ministers of this our Church, in fear, shunned and fled from those crushed and harsh times, none of them could be compelled to go to the royal city to remain in the palace. But after they learned that your Clemency, by the disposing grace of Almighty God, had arrived at the summit of empire, they too, gladness urging them on, hasten to come to your footsteps, who before had greatly feared to go there.
But because some of them are so enfeebled by old age that they can scarcely bear the labour, while others are vehemently entangled in ecclesiastical cares, and the bearer of the present letter, who was the first defender of all, is well known to me from long assiduity, and approved in life, faith, and morals, I have judged him fit for your Piety's footsteps. Whence, with God as author, I have made him a deacon, and have been eager to send him with speed, so that, finding an opportune time, he may be able to suggest to your Clemency all the things that are done in these parts. To whom I beg that your Serenity may deign to incline pious ears, that you may be able to have mercy on us the more swiftly, the more truly you shall have known our affliction from his report.
For with what daily swords and with how great incursions of the Lombards, behold, we are now oppressed through the length of thirty-five years, we are able to set forth by no words of report. But we trust in Almighty God that He will bring to completion for us the good things of His consolation which He has begun; and He who has raised up pious lords in the commonwealth will also extinguish the cruel enemies. (Book XIII, letter 38.) 22. Likewise to the Augusta Leontia: 'What tongue can utter, what mind can conceive, how great thanks we owe to Almighty God for the serenity of your empire, that the burdens of so long a time, so harsh, have been removed from our necks, and the light yoke of the imperial summit has returned, which delights the subjects 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 by men on earth, because the whole commonwealth, which has borne many wounds of grief, now finds the remedies of your consolation. Whence it is necessary for us to implore the mercy of the omnipotence of God the more earnestly, that His right hand may ever hold the heart of your piety, and may 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 it shall have known to serve the Ruler of all. May He make His defenders in the love of the catholic faith those whom He has made, out of His benign work, our emperors.
May He pour into your minds zeal together with gentleness, that with pious fervour you may ever be able both not to leave unpunished whatever is committed against God, and, by sparing, to bear whatever is done amiss in you. (Book XIII, letter 39.) 23. With these praises Gregory soothed the new princes, either that, hearing what sort they ought to be, they might become milder than Maurice had been, whose times enveloped in so many crimes they knew; or because, seeing them most devoted to himself and to his church, he did not think that they would rush into tyranny.
He who, just as he reproved the base deeds of any men whatsoever with free words, and permitted no one to go against the canons or the ancient customs, so denied to no one at all the things that belonged to custom. For as soon as he shone forth as bishop of the apostolic see, he sent his synodical letter to the patriarchal sees, and afterwards writes to Secundinus, a servant of God who was enclosed as a recluse, among other things, saying: 'Hence it is also that, whenever prelates are ordained in the four principal sees, they should send synodical letters to one another in turn, in which they may profess that they keep the holy Council of Chalcedon together with the other general councils.' (Book IX, letter 52.) Likewise to Athanasius, a presbyter of Isauria, after many things:
'Moreover, to our brother Cyriacus, prelate of the city of Constantinople, who was lately ordained in the place of the most reverend bishop John, we wished to send our writings; but because it is not the custom that we should write to him before his synodical letter is brought to us, we have therefore for now deferred it, but afterwards we shall make it known.' (Book VI, letter 66.)
Which custom indeed — just as our own men also bear witness, who two years before presided in the holy eighth synod under the most liberal pope Hadrian — the Eastern sees especially retain even until now: that in their diptychs they should write the name of no pontiff until they receive his synodical letter, and so long number a deceased pontiff among the living, until his successor shall have been eager to send his own letters. 24. Hence it is, without doubt, that Gregory, not departing from the ancient custom, writes to John, subdeacon and rector of the patrimony of Liguria, saying:
'By as much as the apostolic see, with God as author, stands preferred before all churches, by so much, amid manifold cares, does that matter also greatly concern us, wherein our judgment is awaited for the consecration of a prelate. Laurence, therefore, the bishop of the Church of Milan, being dead, the clergy by their report made known to us that in the election of our son Constantius, their deacon, they had unanimously consented. But since that report was not subscribed, lest we omit anything that pertains to caution, it is therefore necessary that you, supported by the authority of this our precept, set out to Genoa.'
And because there many of the Milanese, compelled by the barbaric ferocity of the Lombards, are settled, it behoves you, having called them together in common, to search out their wishes. And if no diversity separates them from the unity of the election — if indeed you find the wishes and consent of all to persevere in our aforesaid son Constantius — then you shall cause him to be consecrated by his own bishops, as the custom of antiquity requires, with the assent of our authority, the Lord consoling and helping: so that, this custom being kept, both the apostolic see may retain its own vigour, and may not diminish its own rights granted to others. (Book III, letter
30.) But when, after some years, Constantius, having discharged the pontificate distinguishedly, had fallen asleep in the Lord, the clergy and people of Milan, electing the deacon Deusdedit, were terrified by King Agilulf into electing the one whom the Lombard barbarity had wished. But they, directing their decree to Gregory, ask counsel and permission. To whom he wrote back thus, among other things: 'Let not that which you have indicated to be written to you by Agilulf move your Charity.'
For as to the fact that we should wish to consult wholesomely for your advantage, by no reasoning do we grant our consent to a man who is not elected by catholics, and especially by Lombards, since he is evidently shown to be an unworthy vicar of Saint Ambrose, if one elected by such men is ordained.' And after a few words: 'That therefore no delay may arise in ordaining the deacon Deusdedit, who has been elected by you, we have sent Pantaleo our notary, who, our consent's authority assenting, may cause him, as is the custom, to be consecrated.' (Book IX, letter 4.) 25.
Gregory, that most valiant soldier of Christ, manfully defended those who were sorely oppressed by adverse powers, and those unjustly cast down he not only did not reckon among the deposed, but even restored to their former grades by the privilege of his authority. For Anastasius, patriarch of Antioch — who, reproving with free voice John of Constantinople the prelate, had been thrust into exile by the command of the emperor Justin, and had remained so from the very times of Pope John until the times of his own pontificate — as soon as he obtained the supreme priesthood, reckoning him among the patriarchs, he encouraged him with such writings:
'Moreover,' he says, 'just as to the other patriarchs your peers, I have directed to you a synodical letter, because with me you are always that which you received to be by the gift of Almighty God, not that which by the will of men you are thought not to be.' Likewise writing to the same in another letter, after some things: 'I make known to your Fraternity that from the most serene lords I have asked, with as many prayers as I could, that they might grant that you, your honour being restored, may come to the thresholds of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, and, so long as it shall thus please God, may live here with me, so that, while I shall have deserved to see you, we may relieve the weariness of our pilgrimage by speaking in turn of the eternal fatherland.'
At length the most zealous father Gregory kept pressing upon the emperor Maurice with his suggestions, until, after the courses of many years, the great Anastasius was restored to his own throne. To whom, congratulating him, he wrote back, saying: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will, because that great river which had once left the parched rocks of Antioch, having returned to its own channel, waters the valleys subjected and lying near, that one may bear thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold fruit.' (Book V, letter 39.) 26.
Hadrian, bishop of the city of Thebes, unjustly deposed by John of the First Justiniana and by another John, bishop of Larissa, he not only restored to his own see, but even, defending his church by Roman law, withdrew it from the power of the bishop of Larissa, saying among other things: 'We have found that the bishop Hadrian both laboured under your hatred contrary to sacerdotal manners, and by no right was condemned by your Fraternity's sentence in pecuniary causes. Since therefore, being deposed also by the aforesaid John, bishop of the First Justiniana, contrary to law and canons, he could not be deprived of the grade of his honour, we have decreed that he be restored to his own church, and recalled to the order of his own dignity.'
And whereas it had been fitting that you should thereby be deprived of the communion of the Lord's Body — because, having despised the admonition of my predecessor of holy memory, whereby he exempted him and his church from the jurisdiction of your power, you again presumed to reserve to yourself some right and dominion over them — nevertheless we, decreeing more humanely, and meanwhile preserving to you the sacrament of communion, decree that your Fraternity abstain from all jurisdiction of the power previously held over him and his church, and, according to the writings of our predecessor, if any cause, whether of faith or of crime or pecuniary, should arise against the aforesaid Hadrian our fellow-priest;
let it be examined either by those who are or shall be our representatives in the royal city, if it is a middling question; or let it be brought here to the apostolic see, if it is arduous: so that it may be decided by the sentence of our audience. But if, contrary to these things which we have established, at any time whatsoever or on any occasion or by any surreption, you should attempt to come, know yourself to be deprived of the sacred communion; nor do we decree that you receive it, except at the last time of your life, unless by the granted command of the Roman pontiff. For these things we have sanctioned by a definition consonant with the holy Fathers, that whoever knows not how to obey the sacred canons, is not worthy either to administer the sacred altars or to receive communion. (Book III, letter
7.) Likewise to John, bishop of the First Justiniana: 'After the long tribulations which Hadrian, bishop of the city of Thebes, suffered from his fellow-priests as though from enemies, he took refuge in the Roman city. And although against John, bishop of Larissa, his first complaint had been, it was not adjudged by him in pecuniary causes, the laws being reserved: yet after these things he complained most grievously rather against the person of your Fraternity, by whom he alleged that he had been unjustly cast down from the grade of the priesthood.' And below:
'But as to that which pertains to the present,' he says, 'the aforesaid decrees of your sentence being first quashed and reduced to nothing, we decree, by the authority of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, that you, deprived of the sacred communion for the space of thirty days, implore from Almighty God our Lord pardon for so great an excess, with the utmost penitence and tears. But if you shall have known yourself to have fulfilled this our sentence too remissly, know that not only the injustice but also the contumacy of your Fraternity is, with the Lord's help, to be punished more severely.'
'But the aforesaid Hadrian, our brother and fellow-bishop, condemned by your sentence, as we have said, in no wise subsisting according to the canons or the laws, we arrange, Christ accompanying us, that he return to his own place and order: so that neither may the sentence pronounced against the course of justice harm him of your Fraternity, nor may your Charity remain uncorrected before the future indignation of the Judge, for the appeasing of it.' (Book III, letter 6.) 27. Hence it is that, crimes excepted, Gregory deposed none of the priests, but rather, according to the qualities of their offences, deprived them of communion venially. Whence, writing to John, bishop of Callipolis, after some things, he says:
The register-woman whom our brother and fellow-bishop Andrew, bishop of Tarentum, had chastised with cudgels — although we do not believe that she died in consequence, since she survived eight months afterward — nevertheless, because he had her afflicted in this manner contrary to the order of his own profession, suspend him for two months from the solemn celebration of Masses, so that at least this discipline may teach him with what shame he ought to conduct himself toward others. (Book iii, letter 46.) 28. Whenever anything concerning the offences of priests had to be examined, Gregory, with the utmost strictness and great caution, weighing the precise measure of each particular head of the case, promulgated his sentence with more difficulty than ease. Hence, writing to Natalis, bishop of Salona, he says:
Since all matters require the diligence of investigating the truth, yet those which pertain to the deposition of priestly ranks must be weighed the more strictly; for in these the question is treated not so much of human ordinances as, in a certain manner, of a divine withdrawal of blessing. For it has been reported to us that Florentius, bishop of the city of Epidaurus, was accused by certain persons in criminal cases, and that — with no canonical proofs sought out, and without the preceding judgement of a priestly council — he was deposed from the office of his dignity not by law but by mere authority.
Therefore, since no one can be removed from the rank of the episcopate except for just causes and by the concordant sentence of the priests, we exhort your Fraternity to cause the aforesaid man to be brought out from the very exile into which he has been thrust, and that his case be examined by episcopal adjudication; and if in those matters of which he is accused he shall have been convicted by canonical proof, he must without doubt be punished with canonical retribution. But if by synodal inquiry it shall be found otherwise than has been supposed concerning him, then it is necessary both that his accusers dread the severity of just law, and that for the man accused the pledges of his innocence be preserved inviolate.
But the execution of the aforesaid business we have committed by our command to Antoninus, our subdeacon, that by his insistence both what is approved by the canonical laws may be decreed, and the decrees, with the Lord's help, may be brought to effect. (Book iii, letter 8.) Likewise to Constantius, bishop of Milan: Having read again the letters which you sent to us by Marinianus, the bearer of the present, we have written back that your solicitude was pleasing to us, in that you would by no means suffer to be dissembled those things which reached us concerning our brother and fellow-bishop Pompeius, who is still to be so named by us.
But such as was the care in the inquiry, had there been the like subtlety in the examination, nothing of what has been said about him would have remained doubtful, but it would have been plain whether it was true or fabricated. For already, some time ago in Sicily, before our brother of reverend memory Maximianus the bishop, such a question, as we have learned, was raised against him. But because his case was sought out with an altogether subtle investigation, he who had been accused of the crime was found innocent.
Now therefore, since those things which were alleged against him were not investigated with that strictness which was fitting, and the proceedings which were thereupon drawn up before your Fraternity are proved sufficient neither for his condemnation nor for his acquittal, this is no light matter, that it should be settled incautiously or in passing. For it is grave enough and unseemly that, in a doubtful matter, a certain sentence should be pronounced. And indeed these proceedings could have been suitable for a decision, if the confession of the accused had followed — provided nevertheless that the subtlety of the examination had drawn out that same confession from hidden things, and not that a vehement affliction had wrung it out, which frequently brings it about that even the innocent are compelled to confess themselves guilty.
For after the aforesaid bishop asserts, as is reported, that he is being tortured by confinement and consumed by hunger, you ought to know, if it be so, whether a confession, if it has thus been extorted, can do harm. Is it not the case that, when causes of this kind receive their sentence, and appeal is made to the Apostolic See, the very person who is being judged is present, so that most strictly and on every side the truth may be sought, in order that then, whether it ought to stand or not, the sentence may be determined? And likewise, if the aforesaid bishop should wish to appeal to the Apostolic See, must not his case be thoroughly and with all diligence examined?
And therefore, since the person is absent, and the proceedings which you have sent to us do not, as we have said, seem to have satisfied us adequately, we neither ought nor are able to decree anything rashly concerning the person of a bishop, lest — which God forbid — we be found blameworthy in our own conduct, we to whom by right it belongs to review the sentences of others. (Book x, letter 29.) Likewise to John the defender, after some other matters: Because, he says, Stephen the bishop asserts that certain things were fabricated out of hatred against him, and that he was accused on false counts, and that nothing was done in orderly fashion, but that he was unjustly condemned, it must first be diligently inquired whether the judgement was held in orderly fashion, whether the accusers were one set of men and the witnesses another.
Then the quality of the causes must be examined, whether it was worthy of exile or deposition; or whether, in the presence of him who was accused, testimony was given against him under oath; whether it was done in writing; whether he himself had liberty of replying and of defending himself. But also concerning the persons of the accusers and of the witnesses inquiry must be made subtly — of what life, of what condition, and of what reputation they are; whether they be needy, or whether perchance they had harboured any enmities against the aforesaid bishop; and whether they gave testimony from hearsay, or whether they truly attested that they knew the matter specifically; whether judgement was given in writing, and whether the sentence was recited in the presence of the parties.
But if perchance these things were not done in due solemn form, nor was the cause proved which is worthy of exile or deposition, let him by all means be recalled to his own Church. (Book xiii, letter 45.) 29. The authority of any of the supreme pontiffs Gregory in no way diminished by the greatness of his own authority, but rather strengthened it manifoldly. And although among the guilty he recognized the authority of his own primacy, yet among innocent bishops he showed himself altogether their equal. Wherefore, writing among other things to John, bishop of Syracuse, he says:
As to the fact that the primate of Byzacena, when assailed by his own bishops, says that he is subject to the Apostolic See — if any fault be found in bishops, I know not what bishop is not subject to it. But when fault does not require it, we bishops are all equal according to the principle of humility. And so forth. (Book ix, letter 12.) Likewise in the book of the Pastoral Rule: It is clear, he says, that nature begot all men equal, but, by the varying order of their merits, guilt sets some behind others. And this very diversity, which has come in through vice, is dispensed by the divine judgement, so that, since not every man is able to stand equally, one may be governed by another.
Whence all who preside ought to weigh in themselves not the power of their rank, but the equality of their condition; nor let them rejoice to be over men, but to profit them. For our ancient Fathers are recorded to have been not kings of men, but shepherds of flocks. And when the Lord blessed Noah and his sons, saying: 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth,' He forthwith added: 'And let the fear and dread of you be upon all the living things of the earth' (Genesis ix, 1-2). Since the fear and dread of them is commanded to be upon the beasts of the earth, it is assuredly forbidden to be upon men. For man is by nature set above the brute animals, but not above other men.
And therefore it is said to him that he is to be feared by the animals, and not by men. For to be proudly exalted is contrary to nature: to wish to be feared by an equal; and yet it is necessary that rulers be feared by their subjects, when they perceive that God is by no means feared by them, so that at least by human dread those may fear to sin who do not dread the divine judgements. Yet let those set in charge by no means be proud on account of this fear that is exacted, wherein they seek not their own glory, but the righteousness of their subjects. For in this, that they exact fear of themselves from those who live perversely, they lord it as though not over men but over animals; because, namely, in that part in which their subjects are beast-like, in that same part they ought also to lie prostrate under fear.
But very often the ruler, by the very fact that he stands pre-eminent above the rest, swells up with elation of thought. And while all things lie ready for his use, while his commands are swiftly fulfilled according to his wish, while all his subjects extol with praises whatever has been well done, but contradict with no authority the things ill done; while they very often praise even the things they ought to have censured — his mind, seduced by those things which lie beneath at hand, is lifted above himself; and while outwardly he is surrounded with boundless favour, inwardly he is emptied of truth, and, forgetful of himself, he scatters himself abroad into the voices of others, and believes himself to be such as he hears himself to be outwardly, not such as he ought to have discerned himself to be inwardly. He despises his subjects, and does not acknowledge them to be his equals by the order of nature.
And those whom he has surpassed by the lot of power, he believes that he has also transcended by the merits of his life. He esteems himself to be wiser than all whom he sees himself to be more powerful than. For he sets himself upon a certain summit in his own esteem, and, though he is bound by an equal condition of nature with the rest, he disdains to regard the rest as on a level with himself; and thus he is led even to the likeness of him of whom it is written: 'He beholds every high thing, and he himself is king over all the sons of pride' (Job xli, 25). He who, coveting a singular summit and despising the companionable life of the angels, said: 'I will set my throne toward the North, and I will be like the Most High' (Isaiah xiv, 13-14).
By a wondrous judgement, therefore, he inwardly finds the pit of his own downfall, while outwardly he exalts himself on the summit of power. For he is made like to the apostate angel, when a man disdains to be like to men. Thus Saul, after the merit of his humility, grew into the swelling of pride at the summit of power. For through humility he was set over others, and through pride he was reproved, the Lord bearing witness, who says: 'When thou wast little in thine own eyes, did I not make thee head over the tribes of Israel?' (1 Samuel xv, 17). Formerly he had seen himself little in his own eyes; but, propped up by temporal power, he no longer saw himself as little. For, preferring himself in comparison with the rest, because he could do more than all, he esteemed himself great above all.