To Paul the Scholasticus, on the Chains of High Office

Gregory to Paul, and so on. [a]

However much strangers may smile on me because of the dignity of my priestly office, I take little account of it. But I grieve not a little that you smile on me for this reason, since you know what I long for, and yet you suppose that I have received advancement. For to me it would have been the highest advancement if what I wished could have been fulfilled; if I could have attained my desire, which you have long known, in the enjoyment of the rest I longed for. Yet since I am now held in the city of Rome, tied by the chains of this dignity, I have something at which I may even rejoice in writing to your glory: when the most eminent lord Leo, the former consul, arrives, I suspect that you will not remain in Sicily. And when you too, tied by your own dignity, come to be held in Rome, you will learn what sorrow and what bitterness I suffer. But when the magnificent lord Maurentius, the chartularius, comes to you, I beg you to work together with him in regard to the present distress of the city of Rome. For outside we are stabbed without pause by enemy swords, but within we are pressed still more heavily by the danger of a mutiny among the soldiers. Further, we commend to your glory in every respect Peter, our subdeacon, whom we have sent to govern the estates of the church. [b]