Epistle V.
To Marcellus, Pro-Consul of Dalmatia
7
.
Gregory to Marcellus, &c.
We have received the letter of your Greatness, in which
you speak of having incurred our displeasure, and of your wish to be in
favour with us through direct satisfaction. And indeed we have
heard such things of your Greatness as ought never to have been
committed by a faithful man. For all assert that you are the
author of all that great mischief in the case of Maximus, and that the
spoiling of that Church, and the perdition of so many souls, and the
audacity of that unheard-of presumption, had their beginning through
you. And indeed, with regard to your seeking to be in favour with
us, it is fitting that with your whole heart and soul, and with tears,
as becomes you, you should satisfy our Redeemer for such things as
these: for, unless satisfaction is made to Him, what certain good
can our forgiveness or favour do thee? But while we observe thee
to be still implicated in the ruinous conduct of pretenders, or in the
advocacy of those who have gone astray, we see not of what sort your
satisfaction is either to God or men. For then your Greatness may
know that you openly and evidently satisfy God and men, when you bring
back both what is devious to rectitude and what is presumptuous to the
rule of humility. If this is done, you may know that you will
thus be in favour both with God and men.
7
See III. 47, note 2.