To Domitian, Metropolitan of Armenia

Gregory to Domitian, and so on. [a]

When I received the letters of your most sweet blessedness I rejoiced greatly, since they spoke to me at length about sacred Scripture. And finding in them the delicacies I love, I devoured them greedily. Many things about outward and necessary business were mixed in with them as well. You acted like someone preparing a banquet for the mind, so that the dishes offered would please all the more for their variety. And if outward business, like lower and ordinary kinds of food, has less flavor, you have still handled it so skillfully that it is taken gladly; for even contemptible kinds of food are usually made sweet by the sauce of a good cook. Now, while the truth of the historical account is held to, what I said some time ago about its divine meaning ought not to be rejected. For even if, as you insist, its meaning may not fit my case, still, from the very context, what was said as being drawn from it may be held without hesitation. For Dinah’s violator is called the prince of the country, and by him the devil is plainly meant, since our Redeemer says, “Now the prince of this world will be cast out.” He also seeks her as his wife, because the evil spirit hurries to possess lawfully the soul he has first corrupted by hidden seduction. That is why the sons of Jacob, in great anger, take their swords against the whole house of Shechem and his country: because all who have zeal must attack those as well who become accomplices of the evil spirit. And they first require circumcision of them, and afterward, while the men are in pain, they kill them. For stern teachers, if they do not know how to moderate their zeal, cut away the tendency to corruption by their preaching; but even when offenders are already mourning the evil they have done, these teachers are often still savage in the harshness of their discipline, and harder than they should be. For those who had already cut off their foreskins ought not to have died, since those who lament the sin of lust, and turn the pleasure of the flesh into sorrow, ought not to suffer harsh discipline from their teachers. Otherwise the Redeemer of the human race himself may be loved less, if the soul is afflicted on his account more than it should be. That is why Jacob also says to these sons of his, “You have troubled me and made me hateful to the Canaanites.” For when teachers still cruelly attack what the offenders are already mourning, the weak mind’s very love for its Redeemer grows cold, because it feels itself afflicted in the very thing in which, of its own accord, it does not spare itself. [b]

I would say this much, then, to show that the sense I set out is not unlikely when the context is considered. But what your holiness has drawn from the same passage for my comfort I gladly accept, since in understanding sacred Scripture nothing that is not contrary to sound faith ought to be rejected. For just as from the same gold some make necklaces, some rings, and some bracelets for ornament, so from the same knowledge of sacred Scripture different interpreters, through countless ways of understanding it, make, as it were, various ornaments, all of which nevertheless serve to adorn the heavenly bride. Further, I rejoice exceedingly that your most sweet blessedness, though busy with worldly affairs, still keeps watchfully turning its mind back to the understanding of Holy Scripture. For this is indeed what is needed: if the former cannot be avoided altogether, the latter should not be put aside altogether. But I beg you by Almighty God, stretch out the hand of prayer to me, laboring as I am in such great waves of trouble, so that by your intercession I may be lifted up to the heights, I who am pressed down to the depths by the weight of my sins. Moreover, though I grieve that the emperor of the Persians has not been converted, I still rejoice wholeheartedly that you preached the Christian faith to him. For though he has not been found worthy to come to the light, your holiness will have the reward of your preaching. For the Ethiopian, too, goes into the bath black and comes out black; but the keeper of the bath still receives his pay. [e]

Further, you say well of Mauricius that I may know the statue from its shadow; that is, that in small things I may weigh greater things. In this matter, however, we trust him, since oaths and hostages bind his soul to us. [f]