A letter from Gregory I, pope (590, December)

Translated letter:

Gregory I to the noblewoman Clementina, 590, December hc: In answer to her letter announcing a death, Gregory sends consolation to Clementina and also explains why he cannot send her the deacon she had requested. Receiving your glory’s letter, which spoke of the passing of Eutherius of late magnificent memory, we reveal that our soul no less than yours is lost in such grief, because we see men of upright opinion gradually taken away from this world, whose ruin in these things is now proved by the results of events. But it is fitting that we withdraw from this with skilled prudence of living so that its downfall not likewise involve us in it. And to be sure the loss of friends should sadden us endurably insofar as the condition of mortality demands that we lose them. But nonetheless the powerful one may console for the lost support of carnal life, who, by permitting that he would be taken away, might proceed as consolor to the one forsaken in that place. The deacon Anatholius, indeed, whom you asked to be sent to you – the circumstance of the situation more than harshness of inflexibility makes us unable to do this. For we have appointed him deputy, by whose judgment we have entrusted the bishopric to be arranged.

Original letter:

Epistolam gloriae vestrae suscipiens, quae de transitu Eutherii quondam magnificae memoriae loquebatur, indicamus non minus animos nostros quam vestros esse tali merore confusos, eo quod opinionis probatae viros huic paulatim subtrahi mundo conspicimus, cuius ruina in ipsis iam causarum effectibus comprobatur. Sed huic nos sollerti decet conversionis cautela subducere, ne sua nos secum pariter ruina circumplicet. Et quidem amicorum nos amissio tanto debet tolerabilius contristare, quanto amissuros nos illos conditio mortalitatis exposcit. Sed tamen amissum carnalis vitae subsidium potens est ille consolari, qui ut adimeretur permittendo concessit et ipse ad locum qui destitutus erat, consolator accedere. Diaconum vero Anatholium'quem ad vos dirigi poposcistis, hoc nos facere non posse causae magis modus, quam rigoris austeritas facit. Vicedominum enim eum constituimus, cuius arbitrio episcopium commisimus disponendum.

Historical context:

In answer to her letter announcing a death, Gregory sends consolation to Clementina and also explains why he cannot send her the deacon she had requested.

Printed source:

Gregorii Papae Registrum Epistolarum, ed. P. Ewald and L. M. Hartman, MGH, (Berlin: Weidmann 1887-91, repr. Munich, 1978), ep. 1.11.

Date:

590, December