Letter 11129: The bishop Firminus has returned from the Istrian schism to the unity of the Catholic church.

To Smaragdus the Exarch. [Argument: He urges him to defend Firminus the bishop, now returned to the unity of the Church, against the harassments of Severus. Cillanes will observe the thirty-day truce, but the Pisans have refused to come to terms.] Gregory to Smaragdus, patrician and exarch. We have long known, most excellent son, with what longing and with what conversion of mind, for the gathering together of the Church of God in the regions of Istria, the fervor of your zeal once displayed in this cause out of zeal for our Redeemer and love of the eternal reward now blazes up with greater vehemence; and the avengers and defenders of God find you set against the enemies of God in proportion as the soul is more precious before God than the defense of the body. Let the very rectitude of faith that thrives in you arm you against those who have gone astray, and let the body of the Church, which is torn apart in those regions, be made whole again in your times. In this cause you have one who will repay your work, the author of rectitude and integrity. For we trust in the divine mercy that our outward enemies, however strong, will find you the more powerful against them, in proportion as the enemies of the right faith feel you to be terrible against them through the divine love within you. Moreover, we have sent two letters to Cillanes, that he should keep the peace which your excellence established for thirty days; and he wrote back that he would observe it, provided that it be observed toward him on the part of the commonwealth. As for the men whom he had held, he has released them all together with their goods. But he grieves greatly over his own men who were killed, and he is exceedingly suspicious of you, because if, which God forbid, he should find an opening, there is no doubt that even in time of peace he will break out [in hostility]. Since this is so, the things that have been reported to us concerning those regions we have not ceased to convey to your notice. For Firminus, our brother and fellow bishop, the prelate of the Church of Trieste, before the arrival of your excellence, coming to his senses by salutary counsel out of the schism to which he had clung, and returning to the unity of his mother the Church, was strengthened by our letters, so that, fixed and steadfast in firmness of mind, he might remain in the true bosom of his mother the Church which he had come to know. When this was heard, Severus, the bishop of Grado, the head of that same schism, [is harassing] him with various [vexations]. To the Pisans, however, we some time ago sent our man, of the sort we ought and in the manner we ought; but he was able to obtain nothing. Hence it has been reported that their warships [dromones] are already prepared to set out.

AD. SMARAGDUM EXARCHOM. Ut Firminum episcopum ad Ecclesice unitatem rever- gum, a Severs molestiis deſendat hortatur. Serva- lurum triginta dierum inducias Cillanem, at Pisa- nos pacisci noluis8e. Gregorius Smaragdo patricio et exarcho. Olim novimus, excellentissime fili, quo desiderio, __ quave conversione animi, pro * adunanda Dei Eccle- ia in lstriz videlicet partibus, zelo Redemptoris 'nostri, amore #lernz mercedis, studii vestri fervor hac causa olim exhibiti nunc vehemertius ſervor incandeat ; tantoque yos conira hostes Dei vindices deſensoresque reperiant, quanto apud Deum pretio- sior est anime quam defensio corporis. Armet vos contra devios ipsa que in vobis fidei viget rectitudo, redintegretur vestris temporibus quod in illis est partibus scissum corpus Ecclesiz. Habetis in hae causa retributorem vestri operis, rectitudinis ac in- tegritatis auctorem. De divina namque miseratione confidimus quod tanto exteriores hostes nostri va- lentiores voz contra se reperient, quanlo vos inimici rectz fidei divino in se $enserint amore terribiles. Przterea duas * ad Cillanem epistolas misimus, $i pacem quz ab excellentia vesira in triginta diebus exstiterit. Quod cum ita it, ea quz nobis de illis nu- G facta est custodiret ; et rescripsit eam se servaturum, per sunt partibus nuntiata, ad vesiram- non deslili- ' mus perferre notitiam. Firminus siquidem ſrater et coepiscopus nosler, > Tregeslinz antites Ecclesiz, ante adventum vestrz excellentiz satubri consilio ab schismate, quo inhx'serat, resipiscens, alque ad uni- tatem malris Ecclesiz rediens, nostris est epistolis conſirmatus, qualenus in vero quem cognoveral sinu mairis Ecclesiz, fortitudine animi fixus ac stabilis permaneret. uo- audito Severus, 5 Gradensis epi- $eopus , ejusdem caput schismaiis, 4 eum diversis si tamen ipsi a reipublicz partibus ſuerit custodita. Homines auiem illos quos tenuerat omnes cum rebus Suis relazavit. Sed de occisis hominibus suis vaide dolet, atque de vobis vehementer suspectus est, quia si, quod Deus avertat, locum jnvenerit, etiam in pa- - ce cum non es dubium excessurum. ' Ad Pisancs autem hominem nos(rum dudum qualem debuimus, el quomodo debuimus, transmisimus ; s8ed oblinere nil potuit. Unde et * dromones eorun jam parati ad egredieadum nuntiati sunt. * Patriarcha Aquileiensis post Heliam, ad quem Pelagius Il scripsit. lacensa aulem a Langobardis diet. 10; epist. 44 lib. 11, nunc 46 lib. 1v. Gos8anv. D Aquileia, 8edem transtulit ad Gradensem Ecclesiam, »d Rhemensis et Vatic. D, divinis actionibus , aut ſortazse, quod etiam legimus in vel. Ed. | © Puto filium faisse supradicte Eusebize, sicque nepotem Rusticianz ; quod coliigo ex epist. 25 lib. vii, nune 22 lib. vin, indict. 41; eptst. 38 lib. 1x, nune 44 lib. x1; epist. 26 lib. x1, nune 22 lib. xm. Gus8anv. 4 Pogset addi mense Junio , indict. 6, siquidem ita legitur initio epixtolz hujus in tribus Mss. Vatic. Eersr, LXNXNIH Af. 40]. — * ha melivs Vatic., Norm,, Colbert., Rhem., elc., quam Excusi, ubi legitur pro adjuvanda. Colſo di Trieste ab ea dicti. Portum habet capacem, es1que episeopalis 8ub patriarcha Aquileiensi , sive Viinensi archiepiscope. Gussany. Legimus Trege- zum in quinque Vatic., et in omuibus Norm., imo el in vet. Ed.. quos sequi cogimur, sChismaticorum in illis partibus princeps. Vide que diximus ad epist. 16 lib. 1, Gussany. 4 In Excusis, cum diversis pramiorum, etc., cerie dissentientibus saliem plerisque Mss. p © Ita in omnibus Norm., Turon., Colbert. et in duobus Vatic. In aliis legitur Varacinallem vel Va- 8accillonem ; nullis autem in Mss, reperimwus Tilqui- num, ul e>t in Excusis. | Ibis Liburn's inter alla naviam, Amice, propugnacula. | Dromonariorum remigum'meminit Cassiodorus, Va- riar, lib, 1y, epist. 13. 4:85