Epistle
LVIII.
To Divers Bishops of Gaul.
Gregory to Mennas of Telona (
Toulon
),
Serenus of Massilia (
Marseilles
), Lupus of Cabillonum
(
Châlons-sur-Saône
), Aigulfus of Mettæ
(
Metz
), Simplicius of Parisii (
Paris
), Melantius of
Rotonius (
Rouen
), and Licinius
169
, bishops of
the Franks.
A paribus.
Though the care of the office you have undertaken
reminds your Fraternity how you ought to assist with all your
endeavours religious men, and especially those who labour in behalf of
souls, yet it is not beside the purpose that an address by letter from
us should stimulate your assiduity, since, as a fire becomes larger
from a blast of air, so the purposes of a good disposition are advanced
by commendation. Inasmuch, then, as through
the co-operating, grace of our Redeemer so
great a multitude of the nation of the Angli is being converted to the
grace of Christian faith that our most reverend common brother and
fellow-bishop Augustine asserts that those who are with him cannot
suffice for carrying out this work in divers places, we have made
provision by sending to him a few monks with our most beloved common
sons Laurentius the presbyter and Mellitus the abbot. And so let
your Fraternity shew them the charity that becomes you, and so make
haste to aid them wherever there may be need, that through your
assistance they may have no cause for delay in your parts, and that
both they themselves may rejoice with you in being relieved by your
consolation, and you, by affording them your succour, may be found
partakers in the cause in furtherance of which they have been
sent.
169
Licinius
(afterwards canonized) was bishop of Andegavum
(
Angers
).