To Sabinianus, Bishop of Jadera, on Standing Firm Against Maximus

Gregory to Sabinianus, and so on. I am greatly delighted by your sincerity, dearest brother, for I know how, with the discernment of careful judgment, it obeys where obedience is due and resists with priestly zeal where resistance is due. The letters you have sent us by the bearer of this letter show us how readily and devoutly you have submitted to what we laid on you for the fault of your past transgression. And indeed my beloved brother could not take it in any other way than as something laid on him by one who loves him. So I trust in the compassion of Almighty God that his grace will so protect you that, absolved in this way from other sins too, you may rejoice that you obeyed, and that it did you good. As for what your love has told us about being troubled by the jealousy of the excommunicated transgressor Maximus, you should not be disturbed. It is fitting for you to endure patiently and so bear up against the waves, which swell up to no purpose and only a little way, and by the strength of perseverance to subdue their foam. For patience knows how to make smooth what is rough, and steadiness how to overcome what is fierce. So do not let adversity cast down your spirits; let it set them on fire. Let priestly vigor show you all the bolder in everything. For this is a true proof of the truth: that a man shows himself all the readier in hard times and all the braver when things go against him. So that no blow may be able to shake the firmness of your uprightness from its good resolve, plant the steps of your soul, as you have begun to do, on the solid rock on which, as you know, our Redeemer founded the church throughout the world, so that the straight steps of a sincere heart may not stumble onto a crooked path. [b]

As for the matters you wrote about, or that the bearer of this letter explained in our presence, do not suppose that we are neglecting them. We are considering them very carefully. Moreover, both before and now, we have given an exact account of everything to our most beloved son the deacon Anatolius, urging him to lose no time, with the help of our Creator, in acting strictly and zealously in whatever concerns the advantage and the peace of your love and of your sons. So do not let sorrow weigh on your fraternity, and do not let anyone’s hostility at all distress you. For with the help of divine grace we trust that before long the presumption of this excommunicated transgressor will be more strictly held in check, and the peace you long for will come. We have also by no means failed to write about his perverseness to our most excellent son the exarch, who is eager to commend him to us. [d]

As for the presbyter about whom your fraternity consulted us through the report of the bearer of this letter: know that after his fall he can in no way remain in his sacred order or be restored to it. Still, he ought to be treated somewhat mildly, since he is said to have confessed his fault readily. The same bearer also spoke at the same time of certain privileges granted to your church by our predecessors. We want to be more exactly informed about the documents your love refers to. Or, if any of them are lying in the record office of your church, copies of them must be sent here, so that we may gladly renew whatever concerns the respect due to your rank or the standing of that church.

If our common son, the glorious lord Marcellus, should be minded to come here, urge him strongly to do so, for I wish very much to see him on every account. But if he chooses to stay where he is, show yourselves to him with such fitting love that you may answer, as is right, the affection he has for you. May Almighty God keep and protect you with the gift of his grace, and set your heart on fire to do the things that are pleasing to him. [e]