From Bishop Licinianus, on the Book of Rules

To the most blessed lord, Pope Gregory, Licinianus, bishop. [a]

We have read the Book of Rules that your holiness issued, and that by the help of divine grace has reached us, with all the more pleasure for the spiritual rules we find in it. Who could fail to read with pleasure a book in which, by constant meditation, he may find medicine for his soul; in which, despising the fleeting things of this world that shift in their changeableness, he may open the eyes of his soul to the settled state of eternal life? This book of yours is a palace of all the virtues. In it prudence fixes the boundary line between good and evil; justice gives each one his own, while it subjects the soul to God and the body to the soul. In it fortitude too is found ever the same in adversity and in prosperity, neither broken by opposition nor lifted up by success. In it temperance subdues the rage of lust and sets a discerning limit on pleasures. In it you take in all the things that belong to sharing in eternal life; and you lay down a rule of life not only for pastors, but also for those who hold no office of government. For pastors may learn in your fourfold division what they should be in coming to this office; what life they should lead once they have come to it; how and what they should teach; and what they should do to avoid being lifted up in so high a position as the priesthood. This excellent teaching of yours is borne witness to by the holy fathers of old, the teachers and defenders of the church: Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory of Nazianzus. These all bear witness to you, as the prophets did to the apostles. Saint Hilary, expounding the words of the apostle who was the teacher of the Gentiles, says, “For so he shows that the things belonging to discipline and morals serve the good desert of the priesthood, if those things also that are needed for the skill of teaching and guarding the faith are not lacking among the rest. For it does not at once make a good and useful priest only to act innocently, or only to preach with knowledge, since, though a man be innocent, he profits only himself unless he is learned; and he who is learned is without the authority of a teacher unless he is innocent.” Saint Ambrose bears witness to this book of yours in the books he wrote On Duties. Saint Augustine bears witness, saying, “In action, honor in this life is not to be loved, nor power, since all things under the sun are vanity.” But the work itself that is done by means of this honor or power, if it is done rightly and profitably, is what avails for that welfare of those under us which is according to God. That is why the apostle says, “He who desires the office of a bishop desires a good work.” He wished to explain what episcopus means: that it is a name of work, not of honor. For it is a Greek word, derived from this: that the one who is set over others oversees those he is set over, that is, by taking care of them; for episcopacy is oversight. So, if we choose, we may say in Latin that to be a bishop is to oversee; so that one who delights to be over others, and not to profit them, may understand that he is no bishop. For so it is that no one is forbidden to long to come to know the truth, for which purpose leisure is to be commended; but as for a position of superiority, without which the people cannot be governed, even though it be held and administered fittingly, it is unfitting to covet it. That is why love seeks holy leisure, so as to have time for perceiving and defending the truth. But if the burden of government is laid on one, it is to be taken up because of the obligation of love. Yet not even then should delight in the truth be wholly forsaken, lest that former sweetness be withdrawn and the present obligation become oppressive. [b]

Saint Gregory bears witness, whose style you follow, and after whose example you wished to hide yourself to escape the weight of the priesthood. What kind of weight that is your whole book plainly declares; and yet you carry what you were afraid of. For your burden is carried upward, not downward: not so as to sink you to the depths, but to lift you to the stars, while, by the grace of God, the merit of obedience and the effectiveness of good work, that is made sweet which seemed heavy through human weakness. For you say the things that agree with the apostles and with apostolic men. Being fair, you have said fair things, and in them have shown yourself fair. I would not have you liken yourself to an ugly painter painting fair things, since spiritual teaching comes from a spiritual soul. Most people value the human painter more highly than the lifeless picture. But do not put this down to flattery or fawning, but to truth; for it is not fitting for me to lie, nor for you to commend what is false. I, then, though plainly sincere, have seen you and all that is yours to be fair, and have seen myself as ugly enough beside you. So I beg you, by the grace of God that abounds in you, not to reject my request, but willingly to teach me what I confess I do not know. For we are compelled by necessity to do what you teach. [g]

For when no skilled person is found for the priestly office, what is to be done except that an unskilled one, such as I am, be ordained? You order that no unskilled person be ordained. But let your prudence consider whether it may not be skill enough for him to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. For if this is not enough, there will, according to this book, be no one who can be called skilled; and so no one will be a priest, if no one should be one unless he is skilled. For we openly resist bigamists, so that the sacrament may not be corrupted in this way. What if the husband of one wife had touched a woman before his wife? What if he had never had a wife, and yet had not been without touching a woman? Comfort us with your pen, so that we may not be punished either for our own sin or for that of others. For we are greatly afraid that we may be forced to do what we ought not to do. See, obedience must be paid to your commands, so that such a one may be made a priest as apostolic authority approves; and such a one as is sought is not found. So faith, which comes from hearing, will cease; baptism will cease, if there is no one to baptize; those most holy mysteries will cease which are carried out through priests and ministers. Either way the danger remains: either one must be ordained who ought not to be, or there must be no one to celebrate or administer the sacred mysteries. [i]

A few years ago Leander, bishop of Seville, on his way back from the royal city, saw us in passing and told us that he had some homilies your blessedness had issued on the book of Job. But since he was passing through in haste, he did not show them to us as we asked. Afterward, though, you wrote to him about triple immersion, and said in your letter, so I am told, that you were not satisfied with that work and had decided, on riper reflection, to turn those homilies into the form of a treatise. [k]

We do indeed have six books of Saint Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, which he turned into Latin from the Greek of Origen; but he has not expounded the whole of the book of holy Job in order. And I am more than a little surprised that so very learned and so holy a man should translate Origen’s foolish tales about the stars. I, most holy father, can in no way be persuaded to believe that the heavenly lights are rational spirits, since Holy Scripture does not declare that they were made either along with the angels or along with men. So let your blessedness be pleased to send to my littleness not only this work, but also the other books on morals which, in this Book of Rules, you speak of having written. For we are yours, and we delight to read what is yours. For to me it is a thing to be desired, and a glorious one, as your Gregory says, to go on learning even into extreme old age. May God the Holy Trinity be pleased to keep your crown unharmed for the instruction of his church, as we hope, most blessed father. [l]