To the Clergy and Nobles of Salona, on Maximus

Gregory to his most beloved sons, the clergy and nobles living at Salona. [a] It has come to my ears that certain men of a perverse turn of mind, in order to poison your minds, beloved, have tried to hint to you that I am moved by some grudge against Maximus, and that what I want to carry out is not so much what the canons require as what anger dictates. But far, far be it from the mind of a priest to be moved in any cause by private feeling. On the contrary, it is because I am taking thought for you, beloved, and because I fear the judgment of Almighty God on my own soul, that I want the case of this same Maximus to be thoroughly investigated: whether he is weighed down by any such crimes as bar a man from ordination, and whether he is trying to reach the office of priest through the simoniac heresy, that is, by giving bribes to some of those who elect him. He will then be free to plead for you before the Lord, if he comes to the place of pleading bound by no sins of his own. [b]

And yet his sin of pride is already plainly shown, in that, when he was summoned to come to us, he resists with one excuse after another, he avoids coming, he is afraid to come. What is he afraid of, then, if his conscience does not accuse him of the things he is charged with? See, beloved, you have now been a long time without a pastor, and may Almighty God make known to you how earnestly and from the bottom of my heart I feel for you in your loss. For I hear what ravages are being made in the Lord’s flock. But when there is no shepherd, who is to keep watch against the wolves? So urge this Maximus to come here to us, so that we may confirm him if we are able to find him innocent; but if the things said of him should turn out to be true, so that you, beloved, may no longer be left without a shepherd because he stands in the way. For my part, be assured that I am not moved against him by any grudge or any animosity of private feeling; but whatever is according to the canons and just, that, with the help of God, I will decide.

But I have been greatly astonished that among so many clergy and people of the church of Salona hardly two in sacred orders have been found who refused to communicate with Maximus when he seized the priesthood, and who remembered that they were Christians: namely our brother and fellow bishop Paulinus, and my most beloved son Honoratus, archdeacon of that same church. [c] For you ought, dearest sons, to have considered your own orders, and to have recognized as rejected the man whom the Apostolic See rejected, so that he might first be cleared, if he could be, of the charges brought against him, and then your love might communicate with him without sharing in his guilt. We, however, are bound to your love with heartfelt loving-kindness. And since we have learned that some of you were pressed by force to accept him and communicate with him, we implore Almighty God to absolve you from all guilt of your own sins and from all share in the guilt of others, to give you the grace of his protection in the present life, and to grant us to rejoice over you in the eternal homeland. [d]