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 Licinius47 Licinius (afterwards canonized) was bishop of Andegavum (Angers). , 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.