To Maximus, Bishop of Salona, Sending the Pallium

Gregory to Maximus, and so on. [a]

We have received the letters of our brother and fellow bishop Marinianus, and Castorius, our chartulary, has also returned, and we learn that your fraternity has given the fullest satisfaction about the matters on which there had been doubt. We give great thanks to Almighty God that all bitterness of dark suspicion has been rooted out of our inmost heart. For this reason I wanted to send back our common son, your deacon Stephen, with all speed. But the frequent pains of my illnesses forced me to keep him with me for a few days. As soon, however, as I began to be even a little better, I arranged to send him straight back to you with joy.

So we send you, according to custom, the pallium for the sacred solemnities of mass, and we wish you to live up to its meaning in every respect. For the dignity of this vestment is humility and justice. Let your fraternity, then, make haste with all your heart to show yourself humble in prosperity, and in adversity too, if it should ever come; upright in justice; friendly to the good and set against the perverse; never frowning on anyone who speaks up for the truth; earnest in works of mercy according to your means, and yet longing to be earnest beyond your means; sympathizing with the weak; rejoicing with men of good will; counting the sorrows of others as your own; exulting in the joys of others as if in your own; severe in correcting vices; soothing the minds of your hearers in cherishing virtues; in anger, keeping your judgment without anger, but in calm not giving up the strictness of your severity. This, dearest brother, is the meaning of the pallium you will receive. If you live up to it, you will have inwardly what you are seen to have received outwardly.

Further, I commend to your fraternity in every respect our brother and fellow bishop Sabinianus; and if there are any matters in dispute between you, let them be laid aside for now. Let love stay firmly fixed between you, so that if any quarrel about outward things should ever arise, it may be examined without love leaving the heart. We also commend our common son Honoratus. If it is true, as we have learned through Castorius our chartulary, that through him three earlier archdeacons were made to keep the church’s custom by retiring at the end of five years, we do indeed wish him to experience the love of your holiness. For a judgment ought not to be sought in a case that he himself has judged. If, however, it is not so, then, with all swelling of heart held down and all grudges set aside, he ought to be received, and by no means removed from the place he now holds. Messianus too, the cleric who had taken refuge with us, we have confidently entrusted to the care of our common son Stephen the deacon, being sure that in the case of a man whom we ourselves send to your fraternity, you will show no grudge, but will lend him the support of your authority. May Almighty God keep you in his protection, and grant us so to act that after the billows of this present time we may be able to reach eternal things with joy. [d]