To the Emperor Maurice, on Soldiers Becoming Monks

Gregory to Maurice, and so on. [a]

Anyone who is not free of offense toward our most serene lords in all he does and says is guilty before Almighty God. I, however, the unworthy servant of your piety, speak in this petition of mine neither as a bishop, nor as your servant by right of the state, but in my own private right. For, most serene lord, you have been mine ever since the time when you were not yet lord of all. [d]

When the most illustrious Longinus, the equerry, arrived here, I received my lords’ law. At the time I was worn out by bodily sickness and could make no reply to it. In it the piety of my lords has ordained that no one engaged in any public office may enter an office of the church. This I greatly commended, for I know by the plainest proof that one who hurries to leave a secular position and enter an office of the church does not wish to give up worldly affairs, but only to change them. But when the same law said that such a man may not become a monk either, I was altogether surprised. For his accounts can be rendered through a monastery, and it can be arranged for his debts also to be recovered from the house that receives him. For whatever devout intention a person may have in wishing to become a monk, he ought first to give back what he has wrongly gotten, and so take thought for his soul all the more truly as he is the less weighed down. The same law adds that no one who has been marked on the hand may become a monk. This ordinance, I confess to my lords, has alarmed me greatly, since it closes the way to heaven against many, and makes unlawful what has been lawful until now. For there are many who are able to live a devout life while remaining in the world; but there are very many who cannot in any way be saved with God unless they give up all things. But what am I, speaking this way to my lords, but dust and a worm? Still, since I feel that this ordinance goes against God, who is the Author of all, I cannot keep silent before my lords. For power over all people has been given from heaven to the piety of my lords for this purpose: that those who aspire to what is good may be helped, and that the way to heaven may be opened more widely, so that the earthly kingdom may serve the heavenly kingdom. And yet, see, it is said in plain words that one who has once been marked to serve as an earthly soldier may not serve as a soldier of our Lord Jesus Christ, unless he has either completed his service or been discharged for weakness of body. [e]

To this, see, Christ will answer through me, the least of his servants and of yours, saying: “From a notary I made you count of the bodyguard; from count of the bodyguard I made you a Caesar; from a Caesar I made you emperor; and not only that, but also a father of emperors. I have entrusted my priests to your hand; and do you withdraw your soldiers from my service?” Answer your servant, most pious lord, I beg you: what will you answer your Lord when he comes and speaks to you this way? [g]

But perhaps it is believed that none of these men turns monk with a pure motive. I, your unworthy servant, know how many soldiers who have become monks in my own days have done miracles, and have worked signs and mighty deeds. Yet by this law even one such man is forbidden to become a monk.

I beg my lord to inquire what former emperor ever made such a law, and to consider more carefully whether it ought to have been made. And it is indeed a very serious thing that anyone should be forbidden to leave the world now, at this time, when the end of the world is drawing near. For see, there will be no delay: with the heavens on fire, the earth on fire, the elements blazing, the awesome Judge will appear with angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers. If he should forgive all sins, and say only that this law was issued against himself, what excuse, I ask, will there be? So by that same awesome Judge I beg you: do not let all those tears, all those prayers, all those fasts, all those alms of my lord lose their luster on any account before the eyes of Almighty God. Rather, let your piety modify the force of this law, either by interpreting it or by changing it. For the army of my lords against their enemies grows all the more when the army of God has grown for prayer.

I, for my part, being subject to your command, have had this law sent out through various parts of the world. And since the law itself is by no means pleasing to Almighty God, see, I have told this to my most serene lords in this petition of mine. So I have done my duty on both sides: I have obeyed the emperor, and I have not kept silent about what I feel on God’s behalf.