To Theodore the Physician, on the Same Law

Gregory to Theodore, and so on. [a]

My tongue cannot fully express the benefits I enjoy from Almighty God and from my most serene lord the emperor. What return can I make for these benefits, except to love their footsteps sincerely? But because of my sins, at whose prompting or advice I do not know, last year he issued such a law for his state that anyone who loves him sincerely must grieve over it deeply. I could not reply to this law at the time, because I was sick. But I have just now offered some suggestions to my lord. For he orders that no one who has been engaged in any public employment may become a monk; nor anyone who is a paymaster, or who has been marked on the hand, or enrolled among the soldiers, unless perhaps his military service has been completed. Those who know the old laws say that Julian was the first to issue this law, and we all know how opposed he was to God. Now if our most serene lord has done this because perhaps many soldiers were becoming monks and the army was shrinking, was it by the courage of soldiers that Almighty God brought the empire of the Persians under him? Was it not only that his tears were heard, and that God, by an ordering of events he knew nothing of, made the empire of the Persians subject to his empire? [b]

Now it seems to me exceedingly hard that he should bar his soldiers from the service of the One who both gave him everything and granted him to rule not only over soldiers but even over priests. If his purpose is to keep property from being lost, why could not the very monasteries that have received soldiers pay their debts, keeping the men only for the monastic profession? Since these things grieve me greatly, I have put the matter before my lord. But let your glory choose a good moment to hand him my petition privately. For I do not want it presented publicly by my representative, since you, who serve him closely, can speak more freely and openly about what is good for his soul. For he is busy with many things, and it is not easy to find his mind free of greater cares. So you, glorious son, speak for Christ. If you are heard, it will profit the soul of your lord of whom I have spoken, and your own. But if you are not heard, you have profited your own soul only.