Gregory the Dialogist : We have innocence of life for ourselves, but we ascend the height of prelacy for others, not for ourselves. Through the good of innocence we press toward the eternal homeland; through the height of prelacy we keep watch in the guardianship of others. In that virtue we are secure, but this eminence we hold with great fear: because we who greatly tremble to render an account of our own works must render an account to God for that over which we preside over others. If therefore chosen men, by God's will, ascend even the height of prelacy unwillingly, by God's will they also leave that same height with devotion. The holy man therefore says: 'Behold, I have heard your voice, and I have set a king over you; and now the king walks before you. But I have grown old and gray-haired. Moreover, my sons are with you.' As if he were saying in other words: Because I presided not for myself but for you, the dignity which I held I gladly gave to another. I have already grown old in that same dignity, and yet the long habit of preeminence which I held did not keep me bound in ambition for it. What then does it mean that he says: 'My sons are with you', except that in holy men there is a great power of spiritual love, by which, when sons are born to the height of office, they take away from them the right of succession? — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 5, Chapter 2