Letter 8013: How we may presume on your Charity we gather from the disposition of our own mind with regard to you. Nor do we think that you love the Apostolic See otherwise than as it loves you. Whence it must needs be that we should more peculiarly commend those whom we know to be, as they should be, devoted in the Church of the blessed Peter, Prince of the...
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Gregory to Columbus, Bishop of Numidia.
How confident I feel in your Charity I can tell from the disposition of my own heart toward you. I have no doubt that you love the Apostolic See as it loves you. This gives me every reason to commend to you those who have proven themselves devoted servants of the church of the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles -- especially to someone like you, whose life is an ornament to both the priesthood and its dignity, and whose reliability I know from experience.
Our brother and fellow bishop Paul, who carries this letter, has been tossed by waves of adversity in your region -- as your Holiness well knows. He insists that the complaints you have heard against him are untrue, fabricated at the instigation of his enemies, and that with truth on his side and you as judge, he trusts he can overcome them all with the Lord's help.
I urge you, most beloved brother: wherever justice clearly supports his case, extend your hand to help him and stand by him with priestly compassion. Let no circumstance, no pressure from any party, deflect you from doing what is right. Lean on the Lord's commands and set aside whatever opposes justice. In defending either party, insist always on what is fair. Do not shrink from making enemies, if that is what truth requires. When our Redeemer comes, your reward will be all the greater for having devoted yourself to the cause of justice without flinching from his commands.
Book VIII, Letter 13
To Columbus.
Gregory to Columbus, Bishop of Numidia.
How we may presume on your Charity we gather from the disposition of our own mind with regard to you. Nor do we think that you love the Apostolic See otherwise than as it loves you. Whence it must needs be that we should more peculiarly commend those whom we know to be, as they should be, devoted in the Church of the blessed Peter, Prince of the apostles, to you whose life the action as well as the dignity of a priest adorns, and of whose sincerity we already hold proof from past experience.
As to our brother, therefore, and fellow bishop Paul , the bearer of these presents, with what billows and adversities he is tossed in your parts he tells us is not unknown to your Holiness. And seeing that he asserts that the complaints against him which you have told us have come to your ears are not true, but raised against him at the instigation of his adversaries, and that he trusts to be able by the help of the Lord to surmount them all, with the truth to support him and with you to take cognizance, we exhort you, most beloved brother, that, in whatever points considerations of justice are clearly on his side, you afford him becomingly the hand of succour, and aid him with priestly sympathy. Let, then, no circumstance, no influence of any persons, deflect you from studious regard to equity. But, leaning on the Lord's precepts, set at naught whatever is opposed to rectitude. In defending one party or the other insist constantly on justice. Shrink not from incurring ill-will, if such there be, in behalf of truth; that you may find in the advent of our Redeemer so much the greater fruit of reward as, not neglecting His commands, you shall have devoted yourself to the countenance and defense of justice. In the month of March, first Indiction.
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Source. Translated by James Barmby. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360208013.htm>.
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Gregory to Columbus, Bishop of Numidia.
How confident I feel in your Charity I can tell from the disposition of my own heart toward you. I have no doubt that you love the Apostolic See as it loves you. This gives me every reason to commend to you those who have proven themselves devoted servants of the church of the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles -- especially to someone like you, whose life is an ornament to both the priesthood and its dignity, and whose reliability I know from experience.
Our brother and fellow bishop Paul, who carries this letter, has been tossed by waves of adversity in your region -- as your Holiness well knows. He insists that the complaints you have heard against him are untrue, fabricated at the instigation of his enemies, and that with truth on his side and you as judge, he trusts he can overcome them all with the Lord's help.
I urge you, most beloved brother: wherever justice clearly supports his case, extend your hand to help him and stand by him with priestly compassion. Let no circumstance, no pressure from any party, deflect you from doing what is right. Lean on the Lord's commands and set aside whatever opposes justice. In defending either party, insist always on what is fair. Do not shrink from making enemies, if that is what truth requires. When our Redeemer comes, your reward will be all the greater for having devoted yourself to the cause of justice without flinching from his commands.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.