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| To the Nobles and Proprietors in Sardinia.
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Epistle XXV.
To the Nobles and Proprietors in Sardinia.
Gregory to the Nobles, &c.
I have learnt from the report of my brother and
fellow-bishop Felix, and my son the servant of God, Cyriacus1546
, that nearly all
of you have peasants (rusticos1547
| 1547 As to
rustici, or coloni, see I. 44, note 1. | ) on your estates given to idolatry.
And this has made me very sorry, since I know that the guilt of
subjects weighs down the life of their superiors, and that, when sin in
a subject is not corrected, sentence is flung back on those who are
over them. Wherefore, magnificent sons, I exhort that with all
care and all solicitude ye be zealous for your souls, and see what
account you will render to Almighty God for
your subjects. For indeed they have been committed to you for
this end, that both they may serve for your advantage in earthly
things, and you, through your care for them, may provide for their
souls in the things that are eternal. If, then, they pay what
they owe you, why pay you not them what you owe them? That is to
say, your Greatness should assiduously admonish them, and restrain them
from the error of idolatry, to the end that by their being drawn to the
faith you may make Almighty God propitious to
yourselves. For, lo, you observe how the end of this world is
close at hand; you see that now a human, now a divine, sword rages
against us: and yet you, the worshippers of the true God, behold stones adored by those who are committed to
you, and are silent1548
. What, I
pray you, will you say in the tremendous judgment, when you have
received God’s enemies into your power,
and yet disdain to subdue them to God and
recall them to Him? Wherefore, addressing you with due greeting,
I beg that your Greatness would be earnestly on the watch to give
yourselves to zeal for God, and hasten to
inform me in your letters which of you has brought how many to
Christ. If, then, haply from any cause you are unable to do this,
enjoin it on our aforesaid brother and fellow-bishop Felix, or my son
Cyriacus, and afford them succour for the work of God, that so in the retribution to come you may be in a
state to partake of life by so much the more as you now afford succour
to a good work.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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