To the Emperor Phocas, Sending a Deacon to His Court

Gregory to Phocas Augustus.

It pleases us to consider, with rejoicing and great thanksgiving, what praise we owe to Almighty God that the yoke of sadness has been removed, and that we have come to times of freedom under the imperial piety of your kindness. For the fact that your serenity has not found a deacon of the Apostolic See living at the court, as ancient custom has it, is due not to my negligence but to the gravest necessity. For while all the ministers of this church of ours shrank back and fled in fear from times of such oppression and hardship, it was not possible to lay on any of them the duty of going to the royal city to stay at the court. But now that they have learned that your clemency, by the ordering of God’s grace, has reached the summit of empire, those who before were greatly afraid to go there hurry of their own accord to your feet, moved by joy. But some of them are so weak with old age that they can hardly bear the toil, and some are deeply engaged in the cares of the church; and the bearer of this letter, who was the first of all our defensors, has long been well known to me for his diligence, and proven in life, faith and character. So I have judged him fit to be sent to the feet of your piety. I have accordingly, by God’s leave, made him a deacon, and have taken pains to send him to you with all speed, so that when a convenient time is found he may be able to inform your clemency of all that is being done in these parts. [b]

I beg your serenity to be pleased to incline your devout ears to him, so that you may be moved to have pity on us all the more quickly as you learn more truly from his account what our affliction is. For how we have been oppressed by the daily swords of the Lombards, and by how many invasions of theirs, for thirty-five years now, no words of description can fully express. But we trust in the Almighty Lord that he will complete for us the good things of his comfort that he has begun, and that, having raised up devout lords in the state, he will also put an end to cruel enemies. And so may the Holy Trinity guard your life for many years, so that we may the longer rejoice in the good of your piety, which we have received after long waiting.