To Dominicus, Bishop of Carthage, on the Plague

Gregory to Dominicus, and so on. [a]

We have already learned what a great plague has broken out in the regions of Africa. And since Italy is not free of this affliction either, the groans of our sorrow are doubled. Amid these evils and countless other disasters, dearest brother, our heart would fail in hopeless distress, had not the Lord’s voice strengthened our weakness beforehand. For long ago the trumpet of the Gospel reading sounded to the faithful, warning them that as the end of the world drew near there would be wars and many other things which, as you know, are now feared. So we ought not to be too much afflicted when we suffer things we knew of beforehand, as though they had come upon us unknown. Often, too, when we consider the death of another, the kind of death may itself be some relief. For what mutilations, what cruelties we have seen, where death was the only remedy and life was a torment! When David was offered a choice of deaths, did he not refuse famine or the sword, and choose that his people should fall under the hand of God? From this you may gather how great a favor is granted to those who perish under God’s stroke, since they die in the very way that was offered to the holy prophet as a gift. So let us give thanks to our Creator in all adversity, and, trusting in his mercy, bear all things patiently, since we suffer far less than we deserve. Yet we are scourged in this present life so that we may not be left without the comfort of eternal life. And through the announcement of these signs we are not unaware that the Judge who is to come is at hand. So it is all the more needful that, by zeal for good works and by the lamentation of penitence, we make secure the accounts we will have to submit to his scrutiny. Then, by the favor of his grace, these great blows may be for us not the beginning of damnation but a cleansing for our good. [b]

But since our weak nature is such that we cannot help grieving for those who pass away, let your fraternity’s teaching be a comfort to the afflicted. Impress on them that the good things promised will remain theirs, so that, strengthened by a most certain hope, they may learn not to grieve over the loss of temporal things, compared with the gift that is to come. Let your tongue, as indeed we believe it does, hold them back more and more from doing evil. Let it proclaim the rewards of the good and the punishments of the wicked, so that those who have little love for good things may at least be greatly afraid of bad things, and keep themselves from what must be punished. For to do things that deserve the scourge while you stand in the midst of scourges is a special kind of pride against the one who strikes, and it provokes him in his anger to fiercer wrath. And it is the height of madness for anyone to be unwilling to give up his own evil, as would be just, and to wish God to give up his vengeance, which would be unjust. But since in all this we need God’s help, let us, beloved brother, join our prayers and beg the mercy of Almighty God. May he grant us to acquit ourselves worthily in this way, and in his mercy stir the hearts of the people to do these things. Then, while we order our actions rightly in his fear, we may be counted worthy both to be delivered from the evils that hang over us and, led by his grace, without which we can do nothing, to come to the joys above. [d]

In the month of August, in the third indiction. [e]