To Maximianus, Bishop of Syracuse, on the Abbot Eusebius

Gregory to Maximianus, and so on.

I remember having often warned you never to be hasty in passing sentence. And now I have learned that your fraternity, in a fit of anger, has excommunicated the most reverend abbot Eusebius. I am greatly astonished that neither his past way of life, nor his great age, nor his long sickness could turn your mind from wrath. For whatever his offense may have been, the very affliction of sickness ought to have been scourge enough for him. When a man is crushed by God’s discipline, there was no need to add human scourges. But perhaps you have been allowed to go too far in the case of such a man so that you may become more careful in the case of others of less account, and think long when you are inclined to strike anyone with a sentence. Even so, comfort this same man with a sweetness as great as the fury with which you provoked him. For it is very unjust that the very people who have loved you most should find you, without cause, most bitter toward them.