To the Bishops of Arles and Marseilles, on Jews Baptized by Force

Gregory to Virgilius, bishop of Arles, and Theodore, bishop of Marseilles, in Gaul. [a]

Until now I have lacked a suitable occasion and suitable messengers for writing to your fraternity and duly returning your greeting. The result is that I can now, at one and the same time, pay what I owe to love and to our brotherly bond, and also take up a complaint from certain people that has reached us, about the way the souls of those in error should be saved. A great many people who, though Jews by religion, live in this province and travel from time to time on various business to the region of Marseilles, have informed us that many of the Jews settled in those parts have been brought to the font of baptism more by force than by preaching. Now I consider the intention in such cases worthy of praise, and I grant that it comes from love of our Lord. But I fear that unless this intention is accompanied by fitting support from Holy Scripture, it will either have no good result, or even (God forbid) the loss of the very souls we wish to save will follow.

For when anyone is brought to the font of baptism, not by the sweetness of preaching but by compulsion, he returns to his former superstition, and dies the worse for having been born again. So let your fraternity stir up such people by frequent preaching, so that through the sweetness of their teacher they may want all the more to change their old life. In this way our purpose is rightly achieved, and the mind of the convert does not return again to his former vomit. So they must be addressed with such teaching as may burn up the thorns of error in them and light up by preaching what is dark in them, so that through your frequent admonition your fraternity may receive a reward for them, and lead them, as far as God grants, to the rebirth of a new life.