A letter from Gregory I, pope (597, July)

Translated letter:

Your letters have rendered us exceedingly happy because we learned that with God protecting you have joined the unity of the church. And to be sure, as you yourself also write, you had to do this first, because it was not fitting that the wife of such a man be separated even briefly from the unity of communion. For you had to consider, glorious daughter, how great a multitude of faithful dwells in the bosom of mother church and with what awesome powers the priests, who died for this faith, flash forth and how many miracles they perform with their bodies, and you had not to judge them but to believe more in such men and priests than in yourself. Nonetheless among these things we give thanks to almighty God because thus he infused the light of his truth into your heart so that, with the darkness of error driven out, he showed you the right way that you should follow and secure. However, as long as we live we do not want your glorious spouse to depart from us; and for that reason do not trust that at some time he will return to you. And certainly he himself wants, desires to come to you, but once he is in the city of Rome, he cannot, he is not permitted because he will be utterly held fast by the bonds of our love. Therefore it is better that you rush in all ways to come to him because the members, rather, should both follow and accompany their head wherever it may be.1

Original letter:

GREGORIUS DOMNICAE UXORI IOHANNIS. Laetos nos vestrae nimis epistolae reddiderunt, quod vos unitati ecclesiae sociatem Deo protegente cognovimus. Et quidem, sicut et ipsae scribitis, ante hoc facere debuistis, quia talis viri coniugem nec ad modicum esse docuit a communionis imitate disiunctam. Considerare enim debuisti, gloriosa filia, quanta multitudo fidelium in matris ecclesiae sinu consistat quantisque virtutibus sacerdotes, qui in ista fide defuncti sunt, coruscarunt vel quanta ad corpora sua miracula faciant, atque eos non diiudicare, sed plus tantis viris ac sacerdotibus quam tibi credere debuisti. Inter haec tamen omnipotenti Deo gratias agimus, quia ita cordi vestro lumen suae veritatis infudit, ut erroris sui pulsa caligine rectam vobis viam, quam sequi et tenere debeatis, ostenderet. Gloriosum autem coniugem vestrum, quousque vivimus, a nobis dimittere nolumus; et ideo eum ad vos reverti aliquatenus non confidatis. Et quidem ipse ad vos venire vult, desiderat, sed postquam in civitate Romana est, non potest, non ei licet, quia amoris nostri omnino tenetur vinculis adligatus. Melius est ergo, ut vos ad eum venire modis omnibus festinetis, quia caput suum potius membra et sequi debent. et, quocumque fuerit, comitari.

Historical context:

The pope rejoices in her return to the unity of the faith and encourages her to join her husband, John, in Rome, since he will not permit John to leave.

Scholarly notes:

1 Ashleigh Imus provided this translation.

Printed source:

Gregorii I Papae Registum Epistolarum, ed. Paulus Ewald and Ludovicus Hartmann (Berlin: Weidmann, 1887-91, repr. 1978), 7.34

Date:

597, July