1. When I heard that your
excellency had again been compelled to take part in public affairs, I
was straightway distressed (for the truth must be told) at the thought
of how contrary to your mind it must be that you after once giving up
the anxieties of official life, and allowing yourself leisure for the
care of your soul, should again be forced back into your old
career. But then I bethought me that peradventure the Lord has
ordained that your lordship should again appear in public from this
wish to grant the boon of one alleviation for the countless pains which
now beset the Church in our part of the world. I am, moreover,
cheered by the thought that I am about to meet your excellency once
again before I depart this life.