Book
IV.
Epistle I.
To Constantius, Bishop.
Gregory to Constantius, Bishop of Mediolanum
(
Milan
).
On receiving the letters of your Fraternity I
returned great thanks to Almighty
God
, that I
was counted worthy to be refreshed by the celebration of your
ordination. Truly that all, by the gift of
God
, with one accord concurred in your election, is a fact
which thy Fraternity ought with the utmost consideration to estimate,
since, after
God
, you are greatly indebted to
those who with so submissive a disposition desired you to be preferred
before themselves.
It becomes you, therefore, with priestly benignity to
respond to their behaviour, and with kind sympathy to attend to their
needs. If perchance there are any faults in any of them, rebuke
these with well-considered reproofs, so that your very priestly
indignation be mingled with a savour of sweetness, and that so you may
be loved by your subjects even when you are greatly feared. Such
conduct will also induce great reverence for your person in their
judgment; since, as hasty and habitual rage is despised, so
discriminate indignation against faults for the most part becomes the
formidable in proportion as it has been slow.
Further, John our subdeacon, who has returned, has
reported many good things of you as to which we beseech Almighty
God
Himself to fulfil what He has begun; to
the end that He may shew thee to have advanced in good inwardly and
outwardly both now among men and hereafter among the angels.
Moreover, we have sent thee, according to custom, a
pallium to be used in the sacred solemnities of mass. But I beg
you, when you receive it, to vindicate its dignity and its meaning by
humility.