Letter 13079: **From:** Gregory I, Bishop of Rome

To Eusebia the Patrician. He exhorts her to think more on the things of the soul than on the things of the body. Gregory to Eusebia the Patrician. Even if your mind is occupied with riches, or perhaps [...] is entangled in the tumultuous affairs of the royal city, and so puts off visiting us through your letters, it is nevertheless our part to attend even the averted hearts of our children with sweet charity, and to call them back, both by admonishing and by praying, to a kindly disposition. Therefore now, discharging the duty of a greeting in this address, we exhort that your Excellency turn your mind away from the superfluous tumults of that city, and think more on the things that are of the soul than on those that are of the body. Let her ponder that all things are transitory. Let her consider daily, without ceasing, with fear and tears the dread examination of the Judge who is to come, and let her bring back to mind with dread that day on which all things are to be thrown into confusion, so that on that very day she may not fear the wrath of the Judge. And may Almighty God pour these things into your thoughts by the breathing of His Spirit, and grant that you may live here with your most noble spouse both peacefully and tranquilly, and may He make you rejoice in the well-being of the house of Strategius, and after long times grant that you attain to eternal rewards. [The source as transmitted then runs on into editorial commentary and the text of a different letter; the legible content of that further passage follows.] [...] he first began, if he could, to turn [him] back from a good purpose by persuasions. And since he was utterly unable to accomplish this, with God as the author [of his resistance], he did not fear to stir up against him a sedition of his own fellow citizens. But how much our aforesaid brother and fellow bishop Firminus has endured from that same assault, you will be able to learn there more fully and more truthfully, since you are nearby. Therefore, directing the orders of your Excellency to those who, with God as author, are known to act in your place in the parts of Istria, command more strictly that they ought to defend our oft-mentioned brother from the troubles brought upon him, and by all means procure that quiet of his which will profit many as an example to imitate; so that this provision of yours may be both the longed-for security of the converted and a fitting occasion for those who follow. Wherefore, greeting your Excellency with fatherly affection, we ask that [...] of your zeal [...].

AD EUSEBIAM PATRICIAM. Hortalur ut plus ea que anime quam qua aunt cof- poris cogitet. = Gregorius * Eusebiz patricie. Et si occupata mens vestra Þ divitiis , aut ſortasse 8us Langobardos tularentur, miss0s per impolentiam et avaritiam majora quam hostes ipsi damna Italis attulisse. Adjacenies quoque Italia insulas. exaciio- nibus nimiis oppressas queritur Gregorius lib. yv, epist. 41. Igitur wagis qua sperans tempora, hic ad Phocam scribit : Releventur restra migsericordia con- lriti ac depressi animi subjectorum. Epist. vero 38 : Domino laudes debemus , quod, remoto j [risliti@, ad libertatis tempora 8ub imperiali benignitatis vesire pieiate pervenimus. Denique, epist. 39 : Deo gratias debemus quod tam dura longi temporis pondera cervi- cibus nostris amota zunl, et i "ali culminis lene rediit jugum. Quippe in ipsis imnperii primordiis cle- mentiam in Subditos ac liberalitatem Summam osten- - debal Phocas ; licte quidem, pimirum ut exacerbatos ex decessoris Sui Lum avaritia lum immanitate $ibi conciliaret animos. At non divinabat sanctus Grego- rius mores ejus brevi mutatos iri in pejus, et Phocam postlmodum «vþbscenis $e libidinibus mancipaturum Ac optimorum virorum cruore $Saliaturum. limo etiamsi ſuturum id previderet, de presenti rerum slatu, non de futuro, suis in epistolis loqui debuit. Mss., hac in epi>tula mutavimus; at cum leviora sint, de his monere oper pretium non duximus. © jdipsum $supra notavimus , lib. vu, epist. 51, nunc lib. x. Gussanv. ; 4 Ita Norm., pra>ertim et Turon. In Vulgaiis legi- tur, ut de temporali regno vesira clementia pot mul- lorum annorim curricula, etc. © Nullibi id legiiuus preterquam in duobus Col- bert., ubi tamen pertinere videtur ad epist. Sequen- tem. SANCTI GREGORU MAGNI regiz civitalis tumultuosis implicationibus 1240 A prinum ccopit, si posset, 8uasionibus a bono reve. nos per epistolas $vas visitare posiponit, nostrum est | tamenetiam aversa filiorum corda dulci charitate pro- sequi, eaque ad bevignum animum et admonendo et orando revocore, Unde nunc debitum salutationis | alloquium solvens, hbortor ut excellentia vestra a civitalis illius superſluis tumultibus animum averta', plusque ea quz anim# quam quz $unt corporis C0- gitet. Transitoria esse omnia perpengat. Venturi ju- dicis examen tremendum cum metu et lacrymis quotidie sine ces8atione consideret, illumque diem, in quo perturbanda sunt omnia, cum timore ad ani- mum reducat, ut jiram judicis in ips0 jam die non timeat. Ownipotens autem Deus hc vestris cogita- tionibus aspiratione Sui spiritus infundat , vosque et care proposito. Quod dum perlicere Deo auciore minime valuisset, $editiovem illi svorum civium excitare non timuit. Quanta vero prediclus: frater el coepiscopus noster Firminus ex eadem immis- Sione pertulerit, plenius illic ac veracius e vicino poteritis agnoscere. Directis itaque excellentize ve- $Ire jusSionibus his qui in Iswie partibus } Q41 locum vestirum agere, Deo auctore, noscuntur, di- $trictius jubetole, quatenus el sxpedictum ſrairem nostrum ah illatis debeant defſensare molesliis, et quietem illius multis ad imitandum profuturam mo- dis omnibus procurare; ut be vesira provisio et conversorum £&it optata Securitas, et occasio apla Sequentium. Excellentiam quapropter vestram pa- hic cum nobilissimo conjuge el tranquille vivere, et B terno salutantes affectu, petimus ut zeli vextri in de downi © Stralegii salute gaudere facial, alque post longa lempora ad #terna premia pervenire con- cedat 4, I