Letter 1090: My dear Leander — you of all people will understand what I am about to say: this office is a burden beyond what any...

To Leander, bishop of Seville. Gregory to Leander, bishop of Seville. I would have replied to your letters with my whole attention, had not the labor of pastoral care so wear me down that it pleases me more to weep than to say anything. Your reverence too perceives this attentively from the very text of my letter, when I speak negligently to him whom I vehemently love. For I am shaken by such great waves in this place of this world, that I am in no way able to steer to harbor the old and rotting ship which, by God's hidden dispensation, I have undertaken to govern. Now the waves rush in from the front, now the foaming heaps of the swelling sea rise up from the side, now the storm pursues from behind. And amid all these things, being troubled, I am compelled now to steer the very helm against the adversity; now, the ship's side being bent, to ward off from aslant the threats of the waves. I groan, because I feel that, while I am negligent, the bilge of vices grows; and, as the storm strongly opposes, the planks, now rotted, already sound out shipwreck. Weeping, I recall that I have lost the calm shore of my repose, and, sighing, I behold the land which nevertheless, the winds blowing against me, I cannot reach. If therefore, dearest brother, you love me, stretch out to me amid these waves the hand of your prayer; so that, in that you help me as I labor, you may by this very return of reward come forth stronger also in your own labors. By speaking, however, I am in no way able to express fully my joy, that I have learned that our common son, Reccared, the most glorious king, has been converted to the catholic faith with most upright devotion. While by your writings you set forth to me his character, you have made me love also him whom I do not know. But since you know the snares of the ancient enemy, that he proposes a harsher war against victors, now let your holiness keep watch more skillfully over that same man, so that he may carry through to the end what he has well begun; that he may not exalt himself over good works once perfected, that he may hold the faith he has come to know also by the merits of his life, and that he may show by his works that he is a citizen of the eternal kingdom, so that after many courses of years he may pass from the kingdom to the kingdom. [concerning the question of immersion in baptism:] Nothing truer can be answered than what you yourselves have perceived, namely that in one faith a differing custom of the holy Church does no harm. As for us, in that we immerse three times, we signify the sacraments of the three-day burial, so that, while the infant is brought up from the waters a third time, the resurrection of a three-day span may be expressed. But if anyone should perhaps think it is done rather for veneration of the supreme Trinity, neither does anything stand against this, that the one to be baptized be immersed once in the waters; for, since in three subsistences there is one substance, it can in no way be reprehensible to immerse the infant in baptism either three times or once, since both in the three immersions the trinity of persons, and in the one the singularity of the divinity, can be designated. But since up to now the infant was immersed three times in baptism by the heretics, I judge that it ought not to be done among you; lest, while they number the immersions, they divide the divinity, and, while they do what they were doing, they boast that they have overcome our custom. Most sweet to me, moreover, I have sent to your fraternity the books, of which I have appended the list below. But as for those things which had been said in the exposition of blessed Job, and which you write are to be sent to you, since I had spoken these with lukewarm words and senses through homilies, I have somehow striven to change them into the conduct of books, which are even now still being copied out by the copyists. And had not the haste of the bearer of the present letter constrained me, I would have wished to transmit all things to you without any diminution, especially because I wrote this very work also for your reverence, so that I might be seen to have toiled in my labor for him whom I love above the rest. Besides, if you recognize that times are granted to you free from ecclesiastical occupation, you already know what to do; for, although absent in body, I always behold you present to me, since I carry the image of your countenance impressed within the depths of my heart. Given in the month of May.

AD LEANDRUM EPISCOPUM HISPALENSEM. De onere episcopali gemit. Letatur de Recharedi regis conversione. Inductum ab Hlispanis ex Arianorum occasione unice in baplismo mersionis ritum probat. Nonnullos miltit Codices. Gregorius » Leandro episcopo © Hispolens1. Respondere epistolis vestris tola inlentione vo- ubique discurrit; et qui anle pedibus aut asello ire consueverat, spumante equo snperbus invehitur. Parra prius ac vili cellula contentus habitare, erigit celsa laquearia, cons'ruit multa conclavia, sculpit ostia, pingit armaria ; veslem respuil grossiorem, indumentum molly desiderat. Alque hec charis viduis ac ſamiliari- bus mandut tributa virginibus, illa ut birrum rigentem, hec ut fluentem texat lacernam. Tanke depravation 8 arguinentum deprehenderat Severus Sulpicius in Bri-cio monacho et p'stea clerico, qui tamen post- modum mores emendavit. Syracusanus Patricius, a4 quem supra, epist. 54. Nec dubilare licet tyntze anctoritatis virum $ui Simi- libus patrocinium impendi>se. ; Eeisr. XL (Al. 41). — © fujus epistole meminit Sanctus Isidorus Hispal,, lib. de Scriptor. Eccles. Scripsil, inquit, e!iam et quasdam epistolas ad pradi- clum Leandrum, e quibus unam in eisdem libris Job titulo preſationis adnectit. Alt-ra loquitur de mersione baptusmatis, eic. De eadem loquitur concil, Toleta- num 1v, cui praſuit sanctus Isidorus, can. 4. Unde patet Alcuinun immerito de hac epistola dubilasse, epist. 10 dicens : Epis!olam vero quam a beato Gre- gorio de simpla mersione dicunt esse conscriptam, in . epistolart suo 1bro qui de Roma nobis allatus est non Invenimus ... Ideo dubii sumus an illius it, an ab ali- quo hujus secle auctore 8ub illius nomine conscripla quorum additione graviter Stomachatur Thomas Ja- mesius in Vindiciis Greg. : Verla hec, qualib-t occa- sione, ad amplificandum monachorum ordinem 8pe- ctant, inquit ; adjecta sunt atque assuta textui ab aliquo tenebrione ; in membranis nv comparent. Quis efſusam pro tantilla re hominis beterodoxi bilem non rideat? Ibidem monellegiin Mss. Anglic. conversationem, pro conversionem. Cerie in Mss. Norm., in Vatic. et in plerisque leginius conrersonem. Severus Sulpicius, dial. 1, cap, 14 : Si quis clericus ſuerit efſectus , dilatat cont:nuo fimbrias 8u8, gaudet salutationibus, inflalur occursionibus ; ipse etiam episcopus ad sanclum Gregorium scribens. Vide ind. 10 epist. ultimam. © Hispalis, bodie Sevilla, Hispaniz urbs amplissi- ma, el emporium celebre ad fluvium Bcotim, vulgo Guadalquirir, olim Bot cx, nunc autem Yandalie Sen Audalusiz metrop»lis, archiepi>copali titulo in- Signita, Gus>axv. Nou legitur Hisp«l. in Vatic., Reg., Corb., Norm. et plerisque Mss. In nonnullis tantum Scriptum, epi:copo de Hispaniis, Ii; Colb., episcopo de Spaniis. In Cod. Rev. PP. Capucin. Rothom. :; Ad Leandrum Spalensem ep. | 497 EPISTULAKUM LIB. 1. — INDICT. IX. — EPIST. XLIV. 498 luissem, nisi pastoralis curz ita me labor allereret, A tem quod 1ertio mergimus, triduanze Sepulturn $4- ut mihi magis flere libeat, quam aliquid dicere. Quod veslra quoque reverentia it ips0 litlerarum mearum textu vigilanter intelligit, quar:do ei negligenter lo- quor, quem vehementer diligo. Tantis quippe in hoc loco hujus mundi Nuctibus quatior, ut vetuslam ac putreScentem navew, quam regendam. occulta Dei dispensalione SuScepi, ad porium dirigere nullatenus possim. Nunc ex adverso fluctus irruunt, nunc ex latere cumuli spumosi maris intumescunt, nunc a ergo tempeslas insequitur. Interque hc omnia tur- batus cogor modo in ipsam clavum adversilatem «di- rigere ; modo, curvalonavis latere, minas fluctuum ex obliquo declinare. Ingemisco, quia sSentio quod negli- gente me creccit Sentina vitiorum, et lempestale ſorti- ter obviante, jamjamque-putridez naufragium tabulz Sonant. Flens reminiscor quod perdidi mea placidum litus quietis, et $uspirando terram conspicio, quam tamenrerum ventis adversantibus tenere non possum. Si ergo me, ſrater charissime, diligis, luz mihi ora- tionis in his Nluctibus manum tende; ut quo laboran- tem me adjuvas, ex ipsa vice mercedis in tuis quoque laboribus valentior exislas. Explere aultem loquendo nullatenus valeo gaudium meum, quod communein filium 4 Rechareium glo= riosissimum regem ad catholicam fidem integerrima agnovi devotione conversum. $32 liujus dum miki per scripla veslra mores exprimilis, amare me etiam quem nescio ſecistis. Sed quia antiqui hostis insidias Scitis, quoriam bellum durius contra victores propo- nit, nunc-erga eumdem solertius ® $sanctilas vestra evigilel, ut bene ccepla perbiciat, nec se de perfectis bonjs operibus extollat, ut ſidem cognitam vitae quo- que meritlis leueat, et quia eterni regni Civis Sit ope- ribus os{endal, quatenus post multa annorum curri- cula de regno 2d reguum transeat. Conzecr. dist. 4, can. 89), nil responderi verius po- lest quam ipsi $ensiStis, quia in una fide nihil oflicit sanctz Ecclesiz consuetudo diversa. Nos au- 4 De ejus et Visigothorum conversione, vide $an- ctum Gregorium, lib. 1 Dialog., cap. 51, et fusius S$criptores Hispanie, et maxiwme Rodericum Toleta- hum, lib. 1, cap. fo. Gussaxv. Olim communis erat non $solum episcopis, Sed eliam cramenta signamus, ut dum tertio infans ab aquis educitur, resurrectio triduani temporis exprimatnry. Quod si quis ſorte etiam pro gumma Trinitatis vene- ratione T$SLimet fieri, neque ad hoc aliquid obsisiit, baptizandum semel in aquis mergere, quia dum in lribus s$ubsislentiis una Subslautia est, 5 reprehensi- bile esse nullatenus polest infantem in baplismate vel ter vel semel mergere, quando et in. tribus mer- Sionibus personarum trinitas, et in una potest divi- nitatis singularitas designari. Sed quia nunc usque ab hzrelicis inſans in baplismate terlio mergebatur, ſiendum apud vos es$8e non censeo; ne dum mersio- nes numerant, diviuitatem dividant, dumque qued ſaciebaut ſaciunt, Þ s& morem nostrum vicisse glo- B rientur. Dulcissime aulem mihi fraternitati vestrze Codices direxi, quorum notitiam $subter juservi. Ea avtem que in beati Job expositione dicta fuerant, et vobis dirigenda scribi:is, quia haze verbis, i $ensibusque tepentibus per homilias dixeram, ulcunque $tndut in Iibrorum ductum permutare, qua nunc adhue Aa li- brariis conscribuntur. Et nisi portitoris prazsentium me ſestinaliv coangu-tasset, cuncla vobis transmit- tere sine aliqua imminutione voluissem, maxime quia et hoc jipsum opus ad vesiram reverentiam $cri- pSi, ut ei quem prez c2teris diligo, in weo videar la- bore desudasse. Preterea si vobis indulgeri tempora al ecclesiaslica oc: upatione cognoscitis, quid it jam SCilis; quamvis etiam absentem corpore,. preSentem C mihi-te semper intneor, quia vullus tui imaginem intra cordis viscera impressam porto. Data * men- 8e Maii. (Cf. Joan. Diac, 1. 1:, c. 32.)