To Natalis, Bishop of Salona, on Feasts and Reading

Gregory to Natalis, bishop of Salona. As though forgetting what my former letters said, I had made up my mind to say nothing to your blessedness but what would taste of sweetness. But now that in your letter you have gone back over the earlier letters by way of argument, I am forced once more to say, perhaps, some things that I would rather not have said. [a]

For in defense of feasts your fraternity mentions the feast of Abraham, at which, by the witness of Holy Scripture, he is said to have entertained three angels. In view of this example, we will not blame your blessedness for feasting either, if we come to know that you entertain angels. Again, you say that Isaac blessed his son after he had eaten his fill. Now, both these things in the Old Testament were done as history in such a way that they still carry a meaning as allegory; and I wish we could so read through the accounts of what was done as to see in them, and take thought for, what is to be done. For the one, by greeting only one of the three angels, declared the Persons of the Trinity to be of one substance. The other blessed his son after he had eaten his fill, because one who is filled with divine banquets has his senses widened into the power of prophecy. But the words of Holy Scripture are divine banquets. If, then, you read diligently, and if, taking an example from what is outward, you get through to what is inward, you will be filled, as it were, from hunting in the field, and you will fill the stomach of the soul, so as to be able to announce things to come to your son set before you, that is, to the people you have taken into your charge. But one who prophesies anything of God is already in the dark toward this world; for it is surely right and fitting that one whose senses are bright within through understanding should see less here below through craving. [c]

So take these things to yourselves; and if you know yourselves to be such as I have described, you need not doubt our esteem at all. I also find your blessedness rejoicing that you bear the name of “a gluttonous man” along with the world’s Creator. On this I comment briefly: if you are called so falsely, you truly do bear this name along with the world’s Creator; but if it is true of you, who can doubt that it was false of him? A like name does not avail to clear you if the cause of it is unlike. For the thief too who was condemned to die endured the cross with him; but a like crucifixion did not clear the man whom his own guilt held bound. But now I pray God with all the prayers I can offer that not the name only, but the cause of it as well, may join your most holy fraternity to our Creator. [e]

Further, your holiness in your letters rightly praises feasts that are given with the intention of showing love. But you should know that they truly come from love only when, at them, the lives of those who are absent are not backbitten, no one is mocked and censured, and no idle tales about worldly affairs are heard, but the words of sacred reading; when the body is not pampered more than it needs, but only its weakness refreshed, so that it may be kept healthy for the practice of virtue. If, then, you conduct yourselves this way at your feasts, I grant that you are masters of abstinence.

As for your citing against me the witness of the apostle Paul, where he says, “Let the one who does not eat not judge the one who eats,” I think it was altogether out of place. For I am not one who does not eat; and Paul did not mean here that the members of Christ, who are bound to one another in his body, that is, in his church, by the bond of love, should have no care at all for one another. If, indeed, I had nothing to do with you, nor you with me, I would rightly be compelled to hold my peace, so as not to blame one whom I could not correct. This command, then, was given only about people who set about judging those who have not been entrusted to their care. But now that we, by God’s ordering, are one, we would be much at fault if we passed over in silence what calls for our correction. See, your fraternity has taken it badly to have been blamed by me about feasts, while I, who surpass you in my position, though not in my life, am ready to be found fault with by all and corrected by all. And I count him alone my friend through whose tongue I wipe away the stains of my soul before the coming of the strict Judge. [f]

But as to what you say, most sweet brother, that you are unable to read because of the pressure of troubles upon you, I think this does little to excuse you, since Paul says, “Whatever things are written are written for our instruction, that through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.” If, then, Holy Scripture has been prepared for our comfort, we ought to read it all the more, the more worn out we find ourselves under the burden of troubles. But if we are to rely only on the saying you quote in your letter, where the Lord says, “When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you will speak, for what you are to speak will be given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you,” then I say that the Holy Scriptures have been given us in vain, if, being filled with the Spirit, we have no need of words from outside. But, dearest brother, to trust in God without doubting when we are hard pressed in a time of persecution is one thing; what we ought to do when the church is at peace is another. For it is our duty, through this same Spirit, to learn by reading now what we may also be able to show forth in suffering, should the occasion arise. [g]

Now, I rejoice greatly that you declare in your letter that you are giving your attention to exhortation. For so I know that you are wisely fulfilling the duties of your position, if you take pains to draw others also to your Maker. But your saying in the same sentence that you are not like me saddens me at once, just after I had begun to rejoice, since I think it is in mockery that you give me praises I do not truly recognize as my due. However, I give thanks to Almighty God that through you heretics are being called back to holy church. But you must take care that those too who are held in the bosom of holy church live in such a way that they are not her enemies through their evil lives. For if they give themselves not to heavenly desires but to earthly lusts and pleasures, sons of strangers are being nourished in her bosom. [h]

Now as to your declaring that you cannot possibly be ignorant of the grades of church rank: I too know them fully where you are concerned; and so I am greatly distressed that, if you knew the order of things, you failed, to your greater blame, to know it where I am concerned. For after letters had been sent to your blessedness by my predecessor and by me in the case of the archdeacon Honoratus, the sentence of both of us was set at nothing, and Honoratus was deprived of the rank that belonged to him. If any one of the four patriarchs had done this, such great defiance could by no means have been let pass without the most grievous offense. Nevertheless, now that your fraternity has returned to your proper position, I do not keep in mind the wrong done either to me or to my predecessor. [i] But as to your saying that what has been handed down and kept by my predecessors ought to be observed in our times as well: far be it from me to break, in any church, the statutes of our forefathers concerning my fellow priests, since I injure myself if I disturb the rights of my brothers. But when your authorized messengers arrive, I will learn the rights of the case between you and the archdeacon Honoratus I have mentioned; and my own personal examination of it will show you that, if justice is on your side, you will suffer no injury from me, as indeed you never have. But if justice supports the plea of Honoratus, whom I have named so often before, I will show by acquitting him that when I judge, I do not know even the persons I knew.

As for the clause about excommunication, which, if I may say so, had of necessity to be added to our letters (though even the second and the third time with a condition attached), your blessedness complains without reason, since the apostle Paul says, “Being ready to punish all disobedience.” But let these things pass; let us return to what concerns us now. For if the lord Natalis acts as he should, I cannot help being his friend, knowing how much I owe to his affection. [j]