Letter 8024: I am well delighted in your sincerity, dearest brother, knowing how, with the discrimination of a careful judgment, it both obeys where obedience is due and resists where resistance is due with priestly zeal. For with what alacrity of devotion you have submitted to what we enjoined for the fault of your past transgression is disclosed to us by t...

Gregory to Sabinianus, Bishop of Jadera [Zadar]. Dearest brother, I am well pleased with your sincerity. You show careful judgment -- obedient where obedience is owed, and resistant with priestly courage where resistance is called for. The devotion with which you accepted the penance I imposed for your past transgression is clear from the letter you sent me. A beloved brother could not have taken it any other way, knowing it came from one who loves him. I trust in Almighty God's compassion that his grace so protects you that, having been absolved of your sins through this wholesome obedience, you may truly rejoice. As for the harassment you report from the excommunicated Maximus -- do not be troubled. Bear up patiently against these empty waves. Patience smooths what is rough; perseverance overcomes hostility. Do not let adversity break your spirit; let it sharpen it. Show priestly strength in every circumstance. The true proof of conviction is standing all the more resolute when things are hardest. Plant the steps of your soul, as you have begun to do, on the solid rock on which our Redeemer founded the Church throughout the world. Then the sincere steps of your heart will not stumble on a crooked path. As for the other matters you raised, and what the bearer of this letter explained to me in person -- do not think I am neglecting them. I am attending to everything.

Book VIII, Letter 24 To Sabinianus, Bishop of Jadera. Gregory to Sabinianus, etc. I am well delighted in your sincerity, dearest brother, knowing how, with the discrimination of a careful judgment, it both obeys where obedience is due and resists where resistance is due with priestly zeal. For with what alacrity of devotion you have submitted to what we enjoined for the fault of your past transgression is disclosed to us by the contents of the letters which you have sent to us by the bearer of these presents. For indeed my beloved brother could not take it otherwise than as it was enjoined by one who loves him. Hence I trust in the compassion of Almighty God that His grace so protects you that, having been thus absolved also from other sins, you may rejoice in having wholesomely obeyed. But as to what your Charity has signified about being distressed by the jealousy of the excommunicated prevaricator Maximus, you ought not to be disturbed; but it becomes you by patiently enduring to bear up against the billows that swell vainly to some small degree, and by the virtue of perseverence to subdue the foaming of the waves. For patience knows how to smooth what is rough, and constancy to overcome fierceness. Let not, then, adversity deject your spirits, but inflame them. Let priestly vigour show you in all things the more bold. For this is a true evidence of truth, for one to exhibit himself as all the readier in hard circumstances, and all the braver in such as are adverse. Wherefore, that no blow may avail to upset the firmness of your rectitude from its good determination, plant, as you have begun to do, the steps of your soul on the solidity of that rock on which you know that our Redeemer has founded the Church throughout the world, that so the right footsteps of a sincere heart may not stumble on a devious way. As to the things about which you have written, or which the bearer of these presents has explained in our presence, do not suppose that we are neglecting them: we are very carefully considering them. Further, we have already, both before and now, given accurate information about everything to our most beloved son the deacon Anatolius ; exhorting him to lose no time, with the aid of our Creator, in acting strictly and zealously in whatever pertains to the advantage and quiet of your Charity and of your sons. And so let not sorrow affect your Fraternity, nor the enmity of any one whatever afflict you. For, with the assistance of Divine Grace, we trust that it will not be long before the presumption of the aforesaid excommunicated prevaricator will be more strictly repressed, and your quiet, as you desire, arrive. We have also by no means omitted to write about his perverseness to our most excellent son the Exarch , who is anxious to commend him to us. As to the presbyter about whom your Fraternity has consulted us through the representation of the bearer of these presents, know that after his lapse he cannot by any means remain in, or be restored to, his sacred order. Still be ought to be somewhat mildly dealt with, inasmuch as he is said to have readily confessed his fault. Furthermore, this same bearer spoke at the same time of certain privileges of your Church granted by our predecessors. About the writings thus referred to by your Charity we wish to be more accurately informed. Or, if any of them are lying in the registry of your Church, it is necessary that copies of them be transmitted hither; that we may be able with willing mind to renew whatever concerns reverence for your dignity or the genius of the aforesaid Church. If our common son, the glorious lord Marcellus , should be minded to come hither, urgently persuade him to do so; for on all accounts I desire to see him. But, if he should choose to remain where he is, do you so exhibit yourselves to him in beseeming charity that you may be able to respond, as becomes you, to the affection which he has towards you. May Almighty God keep and protect you with the gift of His grace, and enflame your heart to do the things that are well pleasing to Him.

SABINIANUM JADERE EPISCOPUM. Gratulatur quod ubi obediendum est, obediat; ubi re- sis{endum, resislal. Ipsius animum firmat adversus Marimi odium. Presbyterum nulla ratione in 8acro ordine post lapsum aut permanere aut revocari posse declarat, Gregorius * Sabiniano episcopo Jadertino. Satis, ſrater eharissime, de sinceritate tua letifi- | cor, quod eam 8olliciti discretione judicii, et ubi obediendum est obedire, et ubi resistendum ext re- | sistere, studio 83cerdotali cognosco, Cum quanta namque le devotionis alacritate Submiseris bis que ob culpam preleriti excessus indiximus, literarum tvarym quas per latorem presentium direxisti, pa- gina reseravit. Nee enim poterat aliter a dilecto fra- B ire sSusCipi, quam a diligente mandalum est. Unde in omnipotentis Dei miseratione conſido quia ita ejus te gratia prolegit, ut per hoe etiam ab aliis absolutus, Salubriter parvisse te gauideas. De hoe vero quod se contristari charitas tua Maximi prevaricatoris et ex- communicati zmulatione signavit, turbari non debet, sed decet ut ad modicum tumentes inaniter fluctus palienter (olerando sustineas, et undarum gpumas perseverantiz viriute subsiernas. Novit enim patien- tia levigare quod grave est, et conslantia saperare quod s#vit. Animos ergo tuos ad versitas nondejiciat, sed accendat. Audentiorem te in omnibus vigor sacer- dolalis ostendat. Nam vera documenta veritatis sunt, promptiorem in duris, et fortiorem se quemquam in _ contrariis exhibere. Ut igitur rectitudinis robur a actum fuerit, nobis subliliter indicare festina. GC bovo deliberationis suz nulla valeat impulsione con- « Mense Junio. indictione prima, (Cf. Joan. Diac., l. I, n. 49.) 4 In s8olemnitat. Epiph., Pasch. et Pentec., bapti- sm21 apud Grzcos conſerri solitum docent Gregorins Nazianz., orat. 39et 40; Chrysostomus, orat. de Bapt. Christi, etc. Apud Latinos ets} id siÞi sumpssere non panci, quos ideo carpit Siricius Pont. , epis!. ad Hi- merinum Tarracon., cap. 2, ut in Nitali:iis Chrisli, Epiph. et apost. festivitatibus baptismum conſerrent ; e:si- quoque, quod ad Epiph. attinet, id etiam prie- Slarent episcopi Sicilie , quos ideo graviter sanctus Leo, epist, 16, reprebendit, etsi alii, adhuc ulira progressi (quibus [deo succenset conc. 1 Matiscon, #1. 85, cap. 5) pene per sing"los martyrum natales lilios su0s baptizarent; etsi denique id etiam viri gravissimi olim in Christi Natali uSurparent ; quo die baplizatum Clodoveum regem perhibet Avitns Vienn. In quadam ad ipsum epistola ; quo etiam die bapti- zalos Anglos legimus, infra , epist. 50. Ea tlamen luit Romanz Ecclesie consuetudo, ul in Pascha, Fentecosteque, et quidem ssolis , baptisinus admini- Siraretur. Hec duo solum tempora notant Tertul- lianus 11h. de Bapt., c. 49 ; Siricius mox laudatus , Leo 1, epist. 16 et 1456; Gelasius, epist. 3, ad epi- Scopos Lucaniz; Gregorivs I] , epist. 5, ad univer- Sum clerum et plebem Thuringie ; Nicol. I, ad Con- Sulta Bulgan,, c. 69. Idem plurima sanxere concilia , Gerund. an. 547; Matiscon. 1, Supra cCitatum ; Mo - gunt. 1 an. s153; Paris. vi an. 829; Worinat. an. ©f'8; et Trizur. an. 895. Eam denique svis tempo- ribus consuetudinem 0b-ervatam perhibent s2cuti Ix auctores qui de divinis offic. scripsere., Aique Intra tempns islud et Ruperti ztatem, qui an. 1155 decessit, desiit paulatim hac consuetudo. * Nefas est baplizalo penitentiam imponere. In- | fr velli, mentis gressus in ejus peirz s0liditate, ssient cepistis, dirigite, in qua Redemptorem nostrum per dicebatur bapltizando, ut vel sic desaesceret peccare, Christianis moribus assuesceret. Vide Tertullianum , lib. de Baptismo, cap. 20 : Ingressuros baptismum oratiombus crebris, jejuniis, et geniculation/bus , et pervigiliis orare oporlet, elc. Rationem statim addit : Simul enim et de- prislinis satisſacimus conſlictatione ' carnis et spiritns, et subsecuturis tenlationibns muni- menia presruimus. Idem auctor, lib. de Panitentia, cap. 6, notat pendente adhuc veni: penam prospici. Peccator, inquit, ante veniam deflere se debet, quia lempus penitentie idem quod periculi e timoris; ne-+ que ego renno divinum bene ficium, id est abolitionem delictorum inituris aquam omni modo salvum esse, sed ut eo perrenire conlingat elauborandum es, etc. Istum , quxs0, locum consulant presbyteri in absolutionibus concedendis faciles. Ceterum de Quadragesima pr:e- via baptismo , vide Laodicenum, canonem 45, qug cavetur ne quis ad baptismum admiltatur, si jam duc hebdomades Quadragesimzx eſſluxerint. Gussaxv. Cyrillus Jerosol., praefal. in Catecheses myslagog. , calech, 1 : Tempus, inquit, prescriptum tibi multum, | quadraginta dierum penitentiam habens. Id vero ca- techesi 5 cursum jejuni vocal. Sanctus Angu<tinus, serm. 15, ad Neophytos : Per omnem- Quadragesiman vacaverunt ( Compeltentes seu catechnimeni in tertia jam slatione posili) oralionibus et jejuniis, etc. Ia quoque Siricius, epist. 1, ad Ilimenum Tarracon. , cap. 2. Vide plura in notis ad Libr. Sacram., col 379 580 et 581.