A letter from Gregory I, pope (598 December to 599, January)

Translated letter:

We ascertain from a certain abbot reporting to us that certain slanderous people have alleged to your glory that, God forbid, we harbor some hostility against you. If this is so, whoever falsely invented this, beneath the appearance of purity they were ambiguous to you, so that they both displayed themselves as faithful and made us doubt wrongly about you. But I, glorious daughter, knowing previously your good qualities and especially the chastity that has been your friend from adolescence, have always held you in great veneration and love. But so that your glory not suspect that my heart is now otherwise, I declare that I have not a modicum of hate or anger against you, but know that I bear paternal love for you. Nonetheless I must not keep silent about one thing that was relayed to me, so that charity not begin to fade if I were to suppress with silence what I should say for the sake of correction. To be sure it was reported to me that if ever anyone has offended you, you irremissibly harbor grief. If this is true, because the more I love the more I am saddened, I ask that you nobly remove from yourself this vice and that you not permit an enemy’s seed to grow in your crop of good work. Let the words of the Lord’s prayer be recalled to mind and do not let blame be stronger than mercy in you. Let your glory’s goodness rise above deviations and behave more beneficially by forgiving the guilty, whom persistent harshness can cause to be faithless. Allow him to relinquish the source of his shame, and not preserve what he may lament. For very often discrete forbearance has more power to chastise than does the harshness of pursuing vengeance, so that sometimes this (forbearance) makes one more faithful and submissive, but that (harshness) makes one stubborn and grudging. And certainly we do not say these things so that [lacuna] you from the zeal for rectitude, but so that you not behave regarding the smallest matters as you should for the greatest. For when the quality of a transgression demands severity, you should respond so that both punishment reforms the sin and afterward forgiveness is not denied to those who have been corrected. Therefore since with paternal love urging for the sake of your soul we impress these things on you, receive them with the charity with which they are spoken and adopt them for your glory’s usefulness, so that your good qualities can be most illustrious in the sight of men and most pure to almighty God. Moreover, as a true and dearest daughter trust in us faithfully in all things and, because we always desire to hear of your prosperity, console us more often with current letters.1

Original letter:

Abbate quodam ad nos referente pervenit, quod gloriae vestrae a quibusdam sit maledicis nuntiatum, quia aliquem contra vos, quod absit, stimulum habeamus. Quod si ita est, quicumque hoc fallaciter confinxerunt, sub puritatis vobis specie duplices cxtiterunt, ut et se quasi fideles ostenderent et nos de vobis prave facerent dubitare. Ego autem, gloriosa filia, bona tua olim cognoscens et praecipue castitatem, quae tibi ab adulescentia comes fuit, in magna semper veneratione et dilectione te habui. Sed ne vel nunc aliud cor meum esse gloria vestra suspecta sit, nullum mihi odii vel iracundiae circa vos scripulum inesse significo, sed paternam me vobis dilectionem exhibere cognoscite. Unum tamen quod ad me perlatum est reticere non debeo, ne minus esse caritatis incipiat, si silentio prematur quod ad emendationem dicendum est. Nuntiatum siquidem mihi est, quia, si quando vos quisquam offenderit, dolorem inremissibiliter retinetis. Quod si verum est, quia, quanto diligo, tanto contristor, peto, ut hoc a vobis vitium nobiliter excludatis et secundum boni operis segetem inimici semen crescere non sinatis. Dominicae orationis verba reducantur ad animum, et non apud vos plus valeat culpa quam venia. Excessus gloriae vestrae bonitas superet et magis salubriter ignoscendo reum faciat, quem potest persistens facere asperitas indevotum. Relinquatur illi, unde verecundiam habeat, et non servetur, quod doleat. Nam plerumque plus virium habet discreta in coercitione remissio, quam in exequenda ultione districtio, adeo ut nonnumquam haec fideliorem atque subiectum. illa vero obstinatum faciat et aemulum. Et haec quidem non ad hoc dicimus, ut a zelo vos rectitudinis …, sed ne tales sitis in minimis, quales esse debeatis in maximis. Nam si quando severitatem excessus qualitas exigit, agendum est, ut et culpam ultio corrigat et correctis post gratia non negetur. Haec igitur quia paterna suadente dilectione pro vestra vos anima commonemus, cum ea qua dicuntur caritate suscipite atque ea ad gloriae vestrae utilitatem adsumite, ut bona vestra et apud homines clariora et apud omnipotentem Deum possint esse purissima. De nobis autem, sicut re vera carissima et filia, fiducialiter in cunctis praesumite et, quia de vestra cupimus prosperitate semper audire, discurrentibus nos saepius epistolis relevate.

Historical context:

Gregory writes to assure her that any reports of his hostility are false, and also to suggest she should not bear grudges, but correct where necessary and forgive.

Scholarly notes:

1. Ashleigh Imus provided this translation.

Printed source:

Gregorii Papae Registrum Epistolarum, ed. P. Ewald and L. M. Hartman, MGH, (Berlin: Weidmann 1887-91, repr. Munich, 1978), ep.9.85.

Date:

598 December to 599, January