To Maximus, Bishop of Salona, on His Restoration to Communion

Gregory to Maximus, and so on. [a]

To what was faulty in your ordination at the start, you added serious wrong through the fault of disobedience. Yet we, tempering the authority of the Apostolic See with fitting moderation, were never as angry with you as the case required. But the displeasure you had stirred up against yourself lasted all the longer because the sense of the responsibility entrusted to us tormented us greatly, for fear we might seem to pass over without attention certain unlawful acts of yours that we had heard of. And if you think it over well, you will see that by putting off giving us satisfaction you yourself confirmed those reports, and so provoked us against you all the more. But now you have followed sound advice and humbly submitted yourself to the yoke of obedience, and your love, in doing penance, has cleansed itself by fitting satisfaction, as we directed. So understand that the favor of brotherly love is restored to you, and give thanks that you are received into our fellowship. For just as it is right for us to be strict with those who persist in a fault, so it is right to be kind in pardoning those who come back to a better mind. Now, therefore, since your fraternity knows that you have recovered the communion of the Apostolic See, send someone to us, as the custom is, to receive the pallium and bring it to you. For while we do not allow unlawful things to be done, neither do we refuse what is customary. Further, although the duty of our position might itself have called on us to grant this, we are also strongly pressed to it by the request of our most sweet and excellent son, the lord exarch Callinicus, that we should treat you with moderation. We cannot resist his very dear wish, nor can we cause him sorrow. [b]