To Eusebius the Abbot

Gregory to Eusebius, and so on.

Let your love believe me: I was deeply saddened by your sadness, as though I had been wronged myself in you. But afterward I learned that, even when the most reverend Maximianus, our brother and fellow bishop, had restored you to his favor and communion, your love would not accept communion from him. Then I knew that what had been done before was just. The humility of God’s servants ought to show itself in a time of affliction; but those who lift themselves up against their superiors show that they scorn to be God’s servants. It is true that what he once did ought not to have been done; but even so, you ought to have taken it with all humility. And again, when he restored you to his favor, he ought to have been met with thanks. Because you did not do this, I feel that we have cause for tears in every way. For it is no great thing for us to be humble toward those who honor us; any worldly man would do as much. But we ought to be humble above all toward those at whose hands we suffer. For the psalmist says, “See my humility before my enemies.” What kind of life are we leading if we will not be humble even toward our fathers? So, most beloved son, I beg you to let all bitterness pass from your heart, in case the end should be near, and the ancient enemy, through the wickedness of discord, should bar against us the way to the eternal kingdom. Further, we have had a hundred solidi given to your love through Peter the subdeacon, and I beg you to accept them without taking offense. [b]