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| To Sebastian, Bishop.
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Epistle
XLII.
To Sebastian, Bishop.
Gregory to Sebastian, Bishop of Sirmium.
I have received the most sweet and pleasant letter
of thy Fraternity, which, though you are never absent from my heart,
has nevertheless made your Holiness as it were present with me
bodily. But I beseech Almighty God to
protect you with His right hand, and to grant you a tranquil life here,
and, when it shall please Him, eternal rewards. But I beg you, if
you love me with that love wherewith you always loved me when we were
together, to pray for me more earnestly, that so Almighty God may loose me from the bands of my sins, and make me to
stand free in His sight, released from the burden of this
corruption. For, however inestimable be the sweetness of the
heavenly country for drawing one towards it, yet there are many sorrows
in this life to impel us daily to the love of heavenly things.
And these only please me exceedingly from the very fact that they do
not allow anything to please me in this world.
For we can by no means describe, most holy
brother, what we suffer in this land at the hands of your friend, the
lord Romanus1610
| 1610 Romanus Patricius, the
Exarch. | . Yet I may
briefly say that his malice towards us has surpassed the swords of the
Lombards; so that the enemies who kill us seem kinder than the judges
of the republic, who by their malice, rapines, and deceits wear us out
with anxiety. And to bear at the same time the charge of bishops
and clergy, and also of monasteries and people, and to watch anxiously
against the plots of the enemy, and to be ever suspicious of the
deceitfulness and malice of the dukes; what labours and what sorrows
all this involves, your Fraternity may the more truly estimate as you
more purely love me who suffer these things
Furthermore, while addressing you with the
greeting that I owe you, I inform you that it has come to my knowledge
from the report of Boniface the defensor, that our brother the
most holy lord Anastasius the patriarch1611
has wished to commit to you the government of the Church in one of his
cities, and that you have refused your assent. This your feeling
and your wisdom I most gladly approve of, and strongly commend; and I
account you happy, and myself unhappy in having consented at such a
time as this to undertake the government of the Church. If,
however, by any chance, in condescension to your brethren, and as being
intent on works of mercy, you should ever decide to consent to such a
proposal, I beg you by no means to prefer any one else’s love to
mine. For there are in the island of Sicily Churches without
bishops, and, if by the guidance of God you
are pleased to take the government of a Church, you will be able to do
this better near the threshold of the blessed apostle Peter, with his
aid. But if you are not so pleased, remain happily as you are,
that this resolution may continue in you; and pray for us unhappy
ones. Now may Almighty God keep you
under His protection, in whatever place it be His will that you should
be, and bring you to heavenly rewards.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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